By: Brian Burnsed

They're the three letters that strike fear into the hearts of nearly every high school student: SAT. The Scholastic Aptitude Test generally takes high school students about four hours to complete on sleepy Saturday mornings, and it plays a significant role in the college application process. To lessen the stress, it's important to get a handle on how this 170-question behemoth is structured.

The test is comprised of three primary components—writing, critical reading, and math. Each component is graded on a 200-to-800-point scale. The writing section consists of a 25-minute essay and 49 multiple-choice questions that are split between one 25-minute section and one 10-minute section. The critical reading component, which measures a student's ability to assimilate and analyze what they read, consists of three separate sections. Sixty-seven total questions are asked over two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section. Like the critical reading component, the math on the test is broken down into two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section. There are 44 total multiple-choice questions and 10 questions in which the student must solve the problem without the aid of multiple choice.

Use these nine tips to help decide if the SAT is the right test for you and to earn the best score you can:

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By: Peter Van Buskirk

As the college application process picks up steam, no credential sparks more consternation among applicants than standardized testing. The following are tips for managing your test results as you apply for admission.

1. Consider your options: Review your testing experience to determine which scores (SAT, ACT, or both) you want to send to each school. Every college in the country now uses the SAT and the ACT interchangeably. Submit the set of results that puts you in the most competitive light.
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Scores on the critical reading portion of the SAT college entrance exam fell three points to their lowest level on record last year, and combined reading and math scores reached their lowest point since 1995.

The College Board, which released the scores Wednesday, said the results reflect the record number of students from the high school class of 2011 who took the exam and the growing diversity of the test-taking pool -- particularly Hispanics. As more students aim for college and take the exam, it tends to drag down average scores.

Still, while the three-point decline to 497 may look small in the context of an 800-point test, it was only the second time in the last two decades reading scores have fallen as much in a single year. And reading scores are now notably lower than scores as recently as 2005, when the average was 508.

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