SAT is a standardised test, basically an entrance test designed to test high school students their aptitude for college admissions abroad. International students applying for universities abroad to study in USA, Canada, UK, Italy and others have to submit SAT scores for undergraduate admissions. SAT is an MCQ based exam which is tested online or digitally for Indian students. There are two major sections on SAT – Reading & Writing and the Math section, each have a set of MCQ questions. Both sections are marked out of 800 and the total score is 1600. Students have to register for SAT well in advance and choose to appear at the chosen SAT exam centre. 

SAT exam is an essential parameter to assess high school students for college admissions, along with their previous academic scores and supporting documents. SAT scores importance can vary from college to college. In order to fix a spot at college where SAT scores are essential, students must check previous year’s cut-off to understand how well they need to score on SAT.

The full form of SAT is Scholastic Assessment Test. This exam is designed and conducted by the College Board for international applicants aiming to apply to universities abroad for various bachelor’s level courses. The SAT exam is digitalised and is conducted only seven months in a year. The SAT exam is sometimes taken even if the score submission is optional just to prove that applicants have a certain level of aptitude while submitting college applications. 

Students looking to enrol in undergraduate programs in the US appear for their SAT. Most of the colleges in the US require the SAT for admission to undergraduate courses, while there are a few which have either become test-optional or have completely scrapped the SAT score submission for undergrad admissions. But those universities still accepting SAT scores from international students, can look at the pros of appearing for SAT exam 2024 and submitting its scores for admission:

• SAT is an MCQ-based exam which tests students’ knowledge of English and Math subjects. There are some questions in the Math section which may require students to produce an answer without having MCQ-type options as well.
• The duration of the SAT exam 2024 has been reduced and is now only 2 hours and 14 minutes long.
• Apart from this, many schools also offer SAT scholarship money to students based on their SAT results and scores. 
• SAT helps to strengthen the application with its scores and helps the admission committee evaluate students based on their skills.
• Plus, students can appear for the SAT around the year as many times as they wish, to improve their scores and even perform better each time.
• In comparison to the ACT, questions tested on the SAT have 43% more time for answering and there is no negative marking for unanswered or wrong answers. 

There are many other advantages of taking the SAT and the fact that the SAT exam 2024 is now Digital, unlike the ACT which is still a pencil-paper-based test and slightly longer in duration in comparison to SAT. Also, there is no separate Science section SAT to test key concepts. Science is tested only through reading passages on the SAT Digital exam.