ACT & SAT

Preparing for the PSAT

Unit 2: PSAT

September 20 - October 25

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING

Students can understand the importance of the PSAT/SAT and learn strategies to prepare for the actual SAT test by making meaningful connections between various contexts and evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses as it relates to their practice and competency.

KEY CONCEPT

CONNECTIONS: 

Connections are links, bonds, and relationships among people, objects, organisms, or ideas.

Students will make CONNECTIONS as they prepare for the PSAT through reading comprehension, interpreting charts, and applying skills through mathematical concepts. 


RELATED CONCEPTS

EVALUATION: Evaluation involves the gathering and processing of data to determine an action. Evaluation involves feedback, which can be used to control, revise, or modify. 


Students will  develop their  ability to EVALUATE their strengths and areas of improvement through practice. 


SUBJECT-SPECIFIC CONCEPTS

PSAT and SAT format and practice, PSAT testing at school


GLOBAL CONTEXT 

PERSONAL AND CULTURAL EXPRESSION: 

This Global Context explores the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of aesthetics. It asks students to think about the nature and purpose of creative expression. 

Students will explore the Global Context of Personal and Cultural Expression as it relates to practice and competency.  


EXPLORATION

Students can understand the importance of the PSAT/SAT and learn strategies to prepare for the actual test.

STATEMENT OF INQUIRY

Connections between different ideas can best be understood by analyzing their form, content, and purpose in order to evaluate what action needs to be taken for practice and competency.

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

Factual

 How does practicing the SAT better prepare you for the actual test? What are the various components of the test?


Debatable 

 How important is the SAT for your post-secondary plans?


Helpful Links

What is the SAT exactly? A presentation that gives an overview of the SAT

Should you take the SAT or ACT? Fill out this survey from Kaplan.

College Board's Free Preparation Links for PSAT 

What is the reading section?

What is the language and writing section?

What is the math section?

What is the SAT essay?

How is it scored: https://blog.prepscholar.com/how-is-the-sat-scored-scoring-charts 

Question of the Day:

https://magoosh.com/hs/sat/sat-question-of-the-day/ 

https://www.varsitytutors.com/sat-questions-of-the-day 

http://www.kaplanquizzes.com/new-sat/ 

Free Practice for the SAT:

Review math concepts



National Merit Scholarship Program

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships based on PSAT scores. 


The top 50,000 scorers are identified for the PSAT.  National Merit semifinalists are the top 16,000 in that group, and are chosen on a state-representative basis so there is no single score for qualifying.  The other 34,000 are named as Commended Students.  These numbers change each year depending on student performance nationwide.


Here's a good synopsis of the National Merit program:

https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=424


Preparing for the ACT

Free Practice Tests

https://testprep.act-et.org/


Unit 6: ACT Prep

February 7 - March 1


CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING

Students can understand the importance of the ACT and learn strategies to prepare for the actual ACT test by making meaningful connections between various contexts and evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses as it relates to their practice and competency.

KEY CONCEPT

CONNECTIONS: 

Connections are links, bonds, and relationships among people, objects, organisms, or ideas.

Students will make CONNECTIONS as they prepare for the PSAT through reading comprehension, interpreting charts, and applying skills through mathematical concepts. 


RELATED CONCEPTS

EVALUATION: Evaluation involves the gathering and processing of data to determine an action. Evaluation involves feedback, which can be used to control, revise, or modify. 


Students will  develop their  ability to EVALUATE their strengths and areas of improvement through practice. 


SUBJECT-SPECIFIC CONCEPTS

ACT format and practice, test strategies

GLOBAL CONTEXT

PERSONAL AND CULTURAL EXPRESSION: 

This Global Context explores the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of aesthetics. It asks students to think about the nature and purpose of creative expression. 

Students will explore the Global Context of Personal and Cultural Expression as it relates to practice and competency.  


EXPLORATION

Students can understand the importance of the ACT and learn strategies to prepare for the actual test.

STATEMENT OF INQUIRY

CONNECTIONS between different ideas can best be understood by analyzing their  CONTEXT --form, content, and purpose --in order to EVALUATE what action needs to be taken for practice and competency.

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

Factual

 How does practicing the SAT better prepare you for the actual test? What are the various components of the test?


Debatable 

 How important is the SAT for your post-secondary plans?


See this link to see the difference.

What is the ACT exactly? A presentation that gives an overview of the ACT

Free prep: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation/free-act-test-prep.html 

What is the English ACT?

What is the Math ACT? 

What is the Science ACT?

What is the Reading ACT?

What is the Writing ACT?

https://www.princetonreview.com/college/act-information 

Free Practice for the ACT:


Review math concepts




For All Units

For a list of the units, please visit https://www.mrsmacfarland.com/curriculum 

Registering for the SAT

Where to Register for the SAT: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register 


Registering for the ACT

Where to Register for the ACT:

https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration.html 

What is the difference between the SAT vs the ACT?

https://www.testive.com/sat-versus-act-comparison-chart/ 

Recommended College Admission Testing Timeline



 

Fall – PSAT (one national test date in October): See Meridianś website for details

       Spring - ACT Practice test (in College Readiness)

What is the difference between PSAT and SAT you may ask? They are almost identical except that the PSAT is 15 minutes shorter than the SAT and does not include an essay.  Check out https://blog.collegeboard.org/difference-between-sat-and-psat for more information. 

Fall – PSAT (one national test date in October)

Spring – ACT and SAT (multiple national test dates; students must register)

Meridian offers all 11th graders either the ACT or the SAT in the spring. Meridian usually rotates--one year, SAT, another year ACT.

 

 

Fall – ACT and/or SAT (repeat as needed)

 

 

What are these tests?

ACT - (registration information at: https://my.act.org/account/signin?location=https)

College admissions exam, offered 7 times yearly, September through July, at ACT testing centers

Content includes English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing (Writing may be “optional" on test day, but is required by many colleges)

SAT - (registration information at: http://sat.collegeboard.org/register)

College admissions exam, offered 7 times yearly, August through June, at SAT testing centers

Content includes Reading, Language, Math, and Writing (Writing may be “optional" on test day, but is required by many colleges)

 

ACT Practice test

Practice test for the ACT is administered in the College Readiness class.

 

PSAT

Practice test for SAT

Offered once each fall, on a single date determined by College Board.

The score earned in the fall of the Junior year is used to determine qualification for the National Merit Scholarship Program.

 

SAT Subject Tests

These are hour-long, content-based tests in specific subjects. There are 20 tests available in five general areas: English, history, languages, math, and science. Subject Tests are used in several different ways:

 

 

 

Note: Since all colleges do not use these tests, it is important for students to research their potential colleges to determine whether these are needed. Subject Tests are administered on all SAT testing dates, and are generally taken whenever a student completes the curriculum being tested.



Test-Taking Strategies

How to Prepare

Test Prep Services (Outside of Meridian for a fee)

https://www.varsitytutors.com/sat-tutors-austin 

https://www.kaptest.com/study/locations/mcat/austin/tx/ 

https://www.princetonreview.com/locations/us/texas/austin-tx 

https://www.berkeley2academy.com/ 


Free Practice for the SAT:

Review math concepts