International students are required to sit for entrance exams to apply for education institution in US. Exams are offered at different entry level.
Secondary School The SSAT and ISSE are used to assess the abilities of students who want to apply for private schools in USA.
SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test): SSAT is an entrance exam for applying private schools in the US. Students should sit for papers of Quantitative (Math), Reading, Writing, Verbal (Vocabulary) and Experimental at SSAT. Total scores will only count Quantitative, Reading and Verbal papers each with a maximum score of 800 out of 2400. The Writing sample is not scored but schools would use it to assess individual student’s writing skills. ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam): ISSE comprises 4 parts including Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension and Mathematics Achievement. Students are required to write an unscored Essay for sending to the intended schools for assessment. ISEE scaled scores for each section range from 760 to 940. However, the ISEE exam does not indicate a total score.
Higher Education Both SAT and ACT are nationally administered standardized tests that help colleges evaluate students’ applications. Many colleges accept either SAT or ACT, or both or not required. A high SAT or ACT test score can also help students earn merit scholarships. SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test): SAT consists of three tests including Reading Test, Writing & Language Test and Math Test. The highest SAT score is 1600. Some US institutions require students to take minimum 2 SAT Subject Tests out of 20 subjects, the highest score of each subject is 800. ACT (American College Testing): ACT consists of four tests including English Practice Test, Math Practice Test, Reading Practice Test and Science Practice Test whereas the highest score is 36. There is an optional Writing section and only some colleges require ACT with Writing. Comparison of SAT and ACT: SAT
| ACT
| Consist of Reading test, Writing & Language Test and Math Test
| Consist of English, Math, Reading and Science Tests with an optional Writing Test
| No Science section
| Science reasoning section
| Vocabulary emphasized
| Vocabulary less important
| Non multiploe-choice questions included
| Entirely multiple choice
| No English grammar
| English grammar tested
| More time allowed for every section
| Require to move fast through each question
| Questions are evidence and context-based in an effort to focus on real-world situations and multi-step problem-solving
| Straightforward, questions may be long but are usually less difficult to decipher
| All the attempted SAT scores may be required to report to colleges
| Report scores only from the test date student chooses
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English Language Proficiency International students are required to sit for TOEFL or IELTS to test their English language level TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language): Consist of 4 sections, which are Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. Each sections has a score range of 0-30, and all the sections are added together for a total score of 0-120. IELTS (International English Language Testing System): The test covers four sections: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The highest band score of each section is 9, and the overall band score are the averaged of the score for the 4 sections.
Comparison of TOEFL and IELTS: TOEFL
| IELTS
| Majority of the questions are multiple choice
| Questions types are varied including short writing tasks, gap-filling, matching, labelling, sentence completion etc
| Speaking section will involve speaking into a microphone which will record the answers and then submit to the examiners remotely to be assessed
| Speaking will take place face-to-face with a qualified IELTS examiner
| The TOEFL use academic texts, which means its reading passages are often denser with more challenging vocabulary and concepts to understand
| The IELTS uses academic texts as well as passages from newspapers and magazines
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