British Student Tackles American SAT Exams, And The Results Are Interesting

"The scores you got put you in the top 97%-99%."

Maryjane

• Published in Interesting
• October 29, 2024

In an attempt to compare the US university entrance exam to the UK A Levels, a smart young lady was taken aback by the results. We have all probably seen a TV show or movie in which a US student discusses taking the SATs.

Characters frequently compare their scores with one another, study excessively, and fret about the outcome. Erin Meryl, a huge fan of 00's Netflix series Gilmore Girls, saw that Rory Gilmore, a character who is renowned for being an exceptionally intelligent adolescent who aspires to attend Harvard University, frequently worries about exams, so she wanted to check if she could improve her score.

Erin, a Cambridge University economics student, posted her research results on her TikTok page, @erinmerylstudy. "Why do Americans get so worked up about the SAT? It's not that hard," said the avid reader and A* student, whose study advice has received over four million likes.

Erin added saying:

"You cannot watch an American television show without them going on and on about how hard the SAT - it's kind of done as a university entrance exam it seems. And so, I thought I have nothing better to do this Friday morning, so let me attempt an SAT practice test to how hard it really is."

Here is the smart young lady with the username @erinmerylstudy

The Princeton Review claims that the majority of colleges and universities use the SAT as an entrance exam for deciding who gets admitted. The US College Board administers the computer-based, multiple-choice test.

Erin found out that there are two reading modules and two math modules after going over a practice test paper. She used a tablet to read the questions, and she kept a notebook to record her answers.

Many of the questions, according to Erin, are basic comprehension questions

Midway through the test she said:

"So I am a couple of questions into the reading section and it is literally like 'which word fills the gap to complete the sentence?'."

When she discovered that the first math question asked students to calculate 10% of 470, she became perplexed. "It gets harder but this first module is literally just GCSE level maths," Erin insisted.

She also mentioned that using a calculator is permitted during the test. "You don't get the hardness that you would get even in A Level maths," she added.

She did not, however, respond to the questions within the allotted time, and she noted that this might make it more difficult in an actual exam situation.

"But they're not objectively hard questions," she added.

Erin's results showed that she received 30 out of 33 in one English section and 31 out of 33 in the second.

She received a score of 26 out of 27 in the second portion of math and 25 out of 27 in the first. She practiced, and her final SAT score was between 1470 and 1520.

The meaning of the scores and which universities you could get into were explained by several Americans. One person made the following comment:

"That score could get you into Harvard." Another added: "The scores you got put you in the top 97%-99%."

A third person had this to say:

"I looked up if 1470 was a good score and it said you scored higher than 97% of people and it said 1520 was enough to safely get into Harvard or Yale."

An American man explained saying:

"The SAT isn’t meant to be difficult in terms of content, it’s designed to assess your problem solving ability in a timed setting, not necessarily if you know the content."

A Brit said, "The fact is that maths is multiple-choice, but in the UK, you can’t get full marks on a maths question if you get the answer right, but the working out is wrong."

Now it's over to you - what do you have to say? Leave your comments down below and share this article as well.

Maryjane