SAT Preparation and College Admissions Blog

In this post, I would talk about a test which is important for every student who is aiming to study in the best universities in the world. TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language is a standardized test which measures the English speaking ability of non native speakers. ETS (Education Testing Services) is the administrator of this test. TOEFL is usually of two types -  Paper Delivered test (Paper and pencil test) Internet based test (also known as TOEFL iBT) Most of the students prefer to give TOEFL iBT.  TOEFL iBT consists of four sections -  Reading Listening Speaking Writing (A break is also given after the listening section) About the four sections- Reading - This section consists of three passages.You will get 60 minutes to complete this section.You may look back at a passage when answering the questions. You can also skip questions and go back to them later as long as there is time remaining.  The passage are excerpts f...

I am uploading the first test for writing and language section. Once you complete the test, please ask for solutions in the comments section and I will upload the solutions. Please solve the test first and then ask for solutions. I request students to please use College Board OMR sheets for filling the answers because this will help to create a real exam environment. You can download them from college board website. Do the test in the limited time period. After seeing the solutions, share your score in the comments section OR you can also email me your scores at - sharma.nimit@yahoo.in . All the best!! Keep Learning. 

In my last post, I talked about Writing and Language section of SAT. Today, I will talk about an important topic of this section, Punctuations. What are punctuations ? According to Wikipedia, Punctuation is the use of spacing, conventional signs, and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of handwritten and printed text, whether read silently or aloud. Read the following sentence- Oh my God ? Erik met an accident yesterday-He is still in critical condition, When you read this sentence, don't you feel that this sentence is odd ?   Now, read the following sentence- Oh my God! Erik met an accident yesterday. He is still in critical condition. How does the sentence look now? Does it look better ? This sentence looks better because of proper positioning of punctuations. For SAT, students should have a general idea of punctuations and their proper positioning. We will study three types of punctuations - STOP Punctuation - ...

In my last post, I discussed  about the Reading section of SAT. Today, I will talk about the second section section of SAT - Writing and Language Section. As discussed before, this section consists of 4 passages, each of 11 questions, for a total of 44 questions. The time limit for this section is 35 minutes. College Board, in this section, wants students to organize information and ideas in the best way possible to create a logical and smooth progression. Generally, the passages come of following topics - Humanities History Social Studies Science Career related Here is an example - Out of four passages, one will be narrative, at least one will be argumentative, and at least one will be informative or explanatory. some passages would also have charts, tables etc. In the passage, you would see the question number, followed by an underlined word, phrase, or sentence. Most of the questions in a passage would ask the student to change the word/phrase/sentence to ma...

Recently, I discussed the books suggested for SAT preparation. Today I will talk about the first section of SAT - Reading Section. As mentioned in my previous posts, this section consists of 5 passages of 10-11 questions each, for a total of 52 questions. The student needs to complete this section in 65 minutes. Passages ,generally, come about the following topics- US/World Literature History/Social Science Science In one of the 5 passages, there would be two smaller passages.This passage is called as "paired passage". When I prepared for my SAT, I considered these paired passages to be the most time consuming because in limited time, you have to read two passages and solve the related questions. Here is an example- In reading section, questions come of following types- Information and Ideas: Questions that focus on what the passage says, directly or indirectly. Rhetoric: Questions that ask about how the author conveys meaning. Synthesis: Questions...

Hello everyone. This is a post exclusively for US students, who are aiming to study in great universities in 2019. June SAT is done. I know that there are thousands of students who felt that fallacious checking has been done.  Congratulations to all those who performed well and are satisfied with their score. But, those students who are not satisfied and are willing to improve their score, August/October SAT is the best option. Those students who are sure that they know everything and little more practice would help them achieve their dream score, go for August SAT. Just practice as many papers as you can and try to avoid silly mistakes. Those students who are still unsure about their preparation, then don't give August SAT. First, focus on you weak points(like vocabulary, algebra etc.) and try to solve the related exercises. By, August end , finish your weak points. Then, in the month of September, try to solve as many papers as you can(refer to my previous post for inf...

In my last post I discussed about SAT and the pattern of the exam.Today, I would talk about the books recommended for getting 1500+ in SAT. Books suggested for SAT- Official SAT Guide by College Board  9 Practice Tests for SAT by Princeton Review Cracking the SAT by Princeton Review Essential SAT Vocabulary by Princeton Review 10 Practice Tests by Princeton Review Also, students are encouraged to practice on  Khan Academy . NOTE- Students are requested not to buy many books. Buy only limited amount of books. Students should first solve the above books, then they should buy other books like Barron/Kaplan. In my next post, I will talk about the different sections of the SAT test. Also, I request all the students(non US citizens) to start preparing for October SAT. If you have any doubts, you can email me your doubts on - sharma.nimit@yahoo.in Till then, Keep learning :)

Scholastic Aptitude Test (or SAT) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States.It was introduced in 1926 by CollegeBoard (an American non-profit organization).SAT, along with TOEFL, is considered to be one of the most important tests for admissions in US Universities. Pattern of SAT- Before 2016, SAT was composed of following sections- 1) Critical Reading 2) Writing 3) Math 4) Essay Guessing penalty-0.25 Total score-2400 But in 2016, CollegeBoard changed the pattern of SAT. The redesigned SAT is composed of following sections- 1)Evidence based Reading and Writing 2)Math 3)Optional Essay Guessing penalty-  0 Total Score- 1600 Duration of Test- 3 Hours 50 Minutes(including 50 min optional essay) Duration of the test can be divided as follows- Reading test- 65 minutes Break Writing and Language test-35 Minutes Math(No Calculator)-25 Minutes Break Math(Calculator)-55 Minutes Optional Essay-50 Minutes A score above 1...

In 2016, I started preparing for various standardized tests like SAT (I will talk about these tests in later posts). I gave my first SAT in December 2016. In 2017, I gave AP's in May, along with TOEFL and IELTS in August.I gave my second SAT in October, followed by SAT Subject in November.In October, I applied in UK Universities through UCAS. In December, I applied in US Universities through various portals like CommonApp. In March, I received 6 admission offers from NYU(full scholarship)(World rank- 43), University of Wisconsin Madison(World Rank-53), Pennsylvania State University(World Rank-95), University of Manchester(World rank-29), and The University of Warwick(World Rank-54). Finally I decided to join The University of Manchester for Computer Systems Engineering. I will talk about the the admission portals used for applying in my later posts. 

Hello everyone. My name is Nimit Sharma. I am a student at the University of Manchester for BEng (honors) Computer Systems Engineering  (2018-2021). In the recent years, I have witnessed that various students want to pursue their graduation degree in Foreign universities. Most of the children prefer USA, UK, and Canada for graduation. But due to improper guidance, students have various questions in their mind about the admissions process ,the tests to be given, etc. So, I have made this blog, which is about SAT's and other exams required for admissions in prestigious foreign universities. This blog would also help students to know about the deadlines of applications, how to apply, which universities to be chosen etc.