January 4, 2011

FOX Business Network: “How to Stand Out on College Applications”

Graduate Guide.com: “ETS tool to assist business school admissions process”

January 1, 2011

Poets and Quants.com: What’s in Store for B-Schools in 2011

December 27, 2010

Law Crossing.com: “Rankings May Be Deceiving To Prospective Law Students”

Study Places.com: “More number of B-schools across the globe accept GRE Score”

December 24, 2010

Education Adventure.net: “Avoid Overemphasizing Law School Rankings”

December 23, 2010

ABA Journal.com: “US News Warns Wannabe Law Students About ‘Absolutely Incorrect’ Use of Rankings”

December 22, 2010

U.S. News & World Report: “Avoid Overemphasizing Law School Rankings”

December 20, 2010

BusinessWeek.com: “Top B-School Stories of 2010″

SAT®

The SAT is a nationally administered, standardized test used by many U.S. colleges and universities to assess applicants’ readiness for college.  The majority of competitive U.S. colleges and universities require students to submit a score from either the SAT or the ACT (the other nationally administered, standardized college admissions test) as part of their application; all colleges that require a standardized test score will accept either. (About 60% of Kaplan students take both tests, to see which they’ll perform better on.) The exam is comprised of three scored sections (Reading/Writing, Math and an optional essay) and an unscored experimental section. The scoring range is from 400 to 1600.  Generally, students will take the SAT in the spring of their junior year, which allows them enough time to re-take the test during the fall of their senior year if they are not satisfied with their score.

Brief history of the SAT: The modern day SAT has its roots among the American soldiers who headed off the battlefields of France in World War I.  Robert Yerkes, a leading member of the new IQ testing movement, convinced the military to let him give an intelligence test to all recruits. After the war, one of Yerkes’ associates, Carl Brigham, began adapting the test for use in college admissions, as a way of eliminating bias among applicants from different socio-economic backgrounds.  The SAT was first administered experimentally to a several thousand college applicants in 1926.   In 1938 – the year Kaplan was founded, coincidentally – Harvard administrators talked all the member schools of the College Board into using the SAT as a uniform exam, but only for scholarship applicants. By 1948, the SAT was seeing widespread adoption among universities and colleges throughout the country.  Over the years, the test has seen many changes. In 2005, the exam saw the addition of a writing section, the elimination of analogies and the score ceiling being raised from 1600 to 2400. The latest changes to hit the SAT — the most sweeping in the exam’s century-long history — launched on March 5, 2016. Everything from the scoring scale, to the content, to the calculator policy, to the essay changed. Visit Kaplan’s SAT Test Change Resource Center for more details about the new, more challenging test.

Test Facts:

  • Year created: 1901
  • Test’s administrator: The College Board
  • Number of test takers for the class of 2015: Approximately 1.7 million
  • Length of test: 3 hours and 50 minutes (including the optional essay); 3 hours without it
  • Test format: paper-and-pencil
  • Sections on test: Reading/Writing, Math and an optional essay, plus an experimental section (ungraded)
  • Score range: graded on a 1600-point scale; the optional essay receives its own separate score
  • Cost of test: $54.50, with the optional essay; $43 without it
  • How often the test it administered:  7 times through the school year: October, November, December, January, March, May, and June
  • Interesting fact about the test: SAT originally stood for “Scholastic Achievement Test,” but in 1941, the exam’s administrator changed the name to “Scholastic Aptitude Test.”  In 1994, it just became known as “SAT,” so today the letters officially do not stand for anything!

* SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product. ACT is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc. PSAT/NMSQT is a trademark jointly owned by the College Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which were not involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this product. None of the trademark holders are affiliated with Kaplan or this website.

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December 13, 2010

CoolAvenues.com: “B-Schools prefer GMAT scores over GRE: Kaplan survey”

Accepted.com: “Law School Rankings Still All-Powerful”

ACT®

The ACT is a nationally administered, standardized test used by many U.S. colleges and universities to assess applicants’ readiness for college.  The majority of competitive U.S. colleges and universities require students to submit a score from either the ACT or the SAT (the other nationally administered, standardized college admissions test) as part of their application; all colleges that require a standardized test score will accept either.  (About 60% of Kaplan students take both tests, to see which they’ll perform better on.)  Comprised of four scored sections (English, Mathematics, Reading, Science) and an ungraded, optional Writing section, the ACT includes multiple-choice questions plus an optional essay prompt. Scoring range is from 1 to 36; in 2010 only 588 of the ACT’s 1.6 million takers scored a perfect 36.  Generally, students will take the ACT in the spring of their junior year, which allows them enough time to re-take the test during the fall of senior year if they are not satisfied with their score.

Brief history of the ACT: Originally conceived as an alternative to the SAT, the ACT was created by two faculty members at the University of Iowa in 1959 in response to changing patterns in college attendance and what they saw as the need for a test that more accurately evaluated potential student performance.  Earlier versions of the test required specific information about American history and science.  The current ACT focuses on English, math, reading, science and writing.  The name ACT originally stood for American College Testing when the company was founded, but later changed its name to ACT and doesn’t technically stand for anything. For many years, the ACT was a regionally popular exam in Midwestern states, while the SAT remained stronger in more highly populated states like New York and California. As more and more colleges began accepting the ACT, however, more students in states throughout the country began taking the exam.  In 2010, for the first time, more students took the ACT than the SAT.  In 2015, the ACT will move from its current paper-and-pencil format to a computer based format, though the test maker has not said its content will change.

Test Facts:

  • Year created: 1959
  • Number of test takers for class of 2010: 1,568,835
  • Length of test: 2 hours and 55 minutes excluding the optional Writing Test or 3 hours and 25 minutes including the Writing Test.
  • Test format: paper-and-pencil
  • Sections on test: English, Mathematics, Reading, Science and Writing (optional and ungraded)
  • Score range: 1-36
  • Cost of test: $33 (without Writing section) or $48 (with Writing section)
  • How often the test it administered: 6 times per year (September, October, December, February, April, June)
  • Administrator of test: ACT
  • Interesting fact about the test: For many years, not all colleges accepted the ACT for admissions.  The last holdout was Harvey Mudd College, which began accepting the ACT in 2007.

* SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product. ACT is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc. PSAT/NMSQT is a trademark jointly owned by the College Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which were not involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this product. None of the trademark holders are affiliated with Kaplan or this website.

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