The college entrance examination system in the United States is completely different from that in China.
How China students should apply for the American College Entrance Examination is a concern of many parents.
Recently, some media reported that the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education will introduce the American College Entrance Examination (ACT) to China from next year. A few days ago, the Ministry of Education issued a statement in official website, pointing out that this report was seriously inaccurate. The statement pointed out that the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education has never contacted or discussed with any institution about holding the American College Entrance Examination (ACT) in Chinese mainland, and has never signed a cooperation agreement with any institution about holding the exam.
Although ACT has not been officially approved by the Ministry of Education to enter the mainland, the United States, as a popular country for studying abroad, has always attracted everyone's attention, as has its college entrance examination form. What are the characteristics of American college entrance examination compared with China? How should China students apply for the American College Entrance Examination? Recently, the reporter interviewed Liu, director of the Foreign Studies Department of Guangzhou New Oriental, and answered questions that students and parents care about one by one.
It is reported that the college entrance examination system in the United States is completely different from that in China. The national college entrance examination is based on universities, and students choose from thousands of universities at one time; However, there is no household registration restriction in the American college entrance examination. Students can apply to multiple universities at the same time, and make a choice after receiving the admission notices from multiple universities and considering factors such as scholarships. There are two forms of American college entrance examination, ACT (American College Examination) and SAT (Academic Assessment Examination), which can be taken many times every year. Students can choose the best one to apply for a university.
When American colleges and universities enroll new students, they usually ask applicants to provide SAT or ACT test scores. It is understood that the SAT and ACT exams are organized by the Education Measurement Service Center and the American College Testing Society respectively. These two types of tests are configuration tests that focus on students' learning ability, personality orientation and adaptability.
More than 3,500 universities in the United States accept SAT scores and more than 3,300 universities accept ACT scores. Famous schools generally only recognize SAT, and the scope of ACT is only recognized by most ordinary universities. Generally speaking, SAT is highly recognized in universities in the eastern United States, and ACT is highly recognized in universities in the western United States.
In addition, applying for a prestigious American school generally requires SAT and TOEFL scores. However, it is worth noting that for some American universities, international students can be exempted from TOEFL if they get more than 650 points in the oral part of the SAT.
Comparison between SAT and ACT
In the United States, universities advise applicants to take the SAT or ACT. Both SAT and ACT are mainly suitable for high school students who want to study in the United States.
Generally speaking, SAT focuses on the test of students' intelligence level, and the results can better reflect students' intelligence level and potential learning ability. Different from SAT, ACT test has a slightly higher correlation with middle school teaching, which is more like a subject test, emphasizing candidates' mastery of course knowledge and taking into account the test of candidates' independent thinking and judgment ability.
From the difficulty point of view, ACT is easier than SAT, especially for China candidates, it may be easier to get relatively satisfactory results in a short time by choosing ACT.
According to relevant sources, the SAT has seven exams every year, which are held in early May, early June, early July, early June, early June, early June, early June and early February. The form of the examination is multiple choice, and the examination time is 180 minutes.
The ACT exam is held five times a year, specifically in mid-February, mid-April, early June, the end of 10 and the beginning of 12.
SATI and II exams * * * include 10: reading, mathematics, writing and examination questions; The test questions are graded in the same way as other parts. The ACT test consists of English, mathematics, reading and scientific reasoning.
In terms of examination content, the mathematics of SAT includes basic geometry and algebra; ACT includes trigonometry. In reading, SAT reading includes short sentence filling, one short comment and one long comment, and reading comprehension. ACT reading includes four articles. In English proficiency test, SAT writing mainly includes a composition and answers. ACT is mainly a grammar exam.
In the SAT, if students fill in the answers at will, they will be deducted, but ACT will not. Moreover, the test center will send all the SAT scores that students have passed to the university, and students can selectively send only the best scores that have passed the ACT to the university.
Mainland China is temporarily unable to apply.
It is understood that the American "College Entrance Examination" that most China students are familiar with is also the SAT. The vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States that recognize ACT scores are almost allowed to use SAT scores instead.
According to reports, both SAT and ACT have test sites in Chinese mainland, including 7 ACT and more than a dozen SAT, and there is another SAT test site in Guangzhou.
However, in order to take the exam in the mainland, certain conditions need to be met: only students studying in international schools can apply for ACT；; The SAT only allows students with foreign passports to apply. If students do not have the above conditions, they can go to SAT and ACT in Hong Kong for an international bath! ?
Earlier, some media said that China students can also sign up for the American college entrance examination ACT in China, or they can sign up in the society like the TOEFL test.
In this regard, Ms. Sun Ying, an academic member of ACT China Headquarters, said that they are negotiating with relevant domestic departments, and it is not certain that students will be able to register for the ACT exam locally next year.
Conversion of GPA score
In the United States, universities generally look at the usual grades of middle school students, that is, GPA scores.
According to reports, the GPA of the United States is 4 points, that is, A=4, B=3, C=2, D= 1. The accuracy of GPA often reaches 1 to 2 digits after the decimal point, such as 3.0 and 3.45. The calculation of GPA is generally that the credits of each course are multiplied by the class hours, and then divided by the total class hours to get the average score. The scores of domestic schools are generally set at 100 or 5 points. Generally speaking, on the scale of 100, 90 points or more can be regarded as 3 for 4, 80 points or more, 2 for 70 points or more, 1 for 60 points or more, 4 for 4, 3 for 4, 2 for 3 and 2 for 1 for 5 points. There are no class hours on the transcripts of many universities in China, so GPA can only be estimated, and the scores of all courses can be divided by the number of courses. Generally, American universities require a GPA of 3.0 or above for scholarship applicants, and elite universities require a GPA of 3.8 or above.
Therefore, China students who apply for American universities should provide their own grades according to the GPA system adopted by the original school, and indicate which GPA system is adopted. However, to the disadvantage of China students, most schools in China have very strict grades. Many students with excellent actual grades are not 3.0 after converting their grades into GPA. In some universities, the total average score of the top five students in a class/level may be lower than 82. When applying for an American university, when such grades are converted into GPA scores, they must all become 3.0 or lower.
In order to eliminate the unfavorable factors of China students, two methods can be adopted: one is to explain in the report card or recommendation letter and reading plan that the low GPA score is actually caused by strict grading standards; Secondly, when providing transcripts, list the ranking and percentage of such achievements in the whole class or department.
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SAT registration process, test location and fees
SAT and GRE registration methods, online registration. The registration method is as follows:
You must have an international credit card before you decide to register. If you don't have one, you can apply for a Zhang Changcheng international credit card at the Bank of China, which is very convenient.
Then log on to www.collegeboard.com website, register online, fill in your personal information to get your user name and password, and then log on to Sadie's home page. When logging in for the first time, you need to fill in a series of information, including your school grades and the major you want to apply for. These are mainly information that ETS wants to collect and can be skipped.
After filling in this information, it will not appear when logging in for the second time. Just click "New Registration" to enter. Select the test type, test center and grade (grade 0/2 in the United States is equivalent to grade 3 in China High School) on the registration homepage. Click "Continue" to go to the next page and select the examination time. Go to the next page and choose whether to accept the service of ETS student answering questions (if you do, you need to pay 6 yuan more, and you will get the ETS test report after the exam. )
Go to the next page and fill in the four schools you want to apply for in the future (or leave them blank). After the exam, ETS can send the SAT scores to these four schools for free. Go to the next page, select the examination place (for example, select Hong Kong, click Search, there will be four places, select one of them, click Add, and then select), and then go to the next page, and "Registration Information", "Fees and Payment" and "Credit Card Information" will appear. At this time, fill in the credit card type, card number and expiration date, and you will get a confirmation form, and the registration will be completed.
SAT I SAT II exam registration fee
The SAT I exam fee (including the basic registration fee of $65,438+06) is $28.50.
The registration fee for the SAT II basic examination is $ 16.00.
Writing test (excluding the registration fee for the basic test) $ 16.00
Other subjects SAT II special examination (excluding the basic examination registration fee) $8.00.
The registration fee for international students (exams outside the United States) is $65,438 +07.00.
Change the examination point, the examination time fee is $ 17.00.
The cost of sending SAT scores (per school) is $6.50.
SAT test location
SAT has no test center in Chinese mainland, only in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Therefore, it is best for mainland candidates to go to Hongkong or Taiwan Province Province to take the exam (please choose the place when registering online, see the introduction of registration methods above for details). This is also relatively simple. Just before the examination period, contact a more formal travel agency and travel to Hong Kong by yourself. You can also go sightseeing after the exam, and you can spend a day in Disneyland after the SAT. Most of the SAT test sites in Hong Kong are located in international schools. At present, there are 6 test sites (see www.collegeboard.com, official website for SAT): The six test sites are:
I. International Christian School
Address: 45-47 Grampian Road, Kowloon City, Kowloon
Tel: 852-2338-9606
Fax: 852-2338-95 17
Website: /HongKongChi/
E-mail :inquiry@ycef.com
Verb (abbreviation for verb) American international school
Address: Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 125.
Tel: 852-2336-38 12
Fax: 852-2336-5276
Website: http://www.ais.edu.hk/
E-mail :aisadmin@ais.edu.hk
Sixth, Chinese International School.
Address:No. 1, Houyuan Path, BMW Hill, North Point, Hong Kong.
Tel: 852-25 10-7288
Fax: 852-25 10-7488
Website: http://www.cis.edu.hk/
E-mail :uc@cis.edu.hk
NewSAT06-07 school year exam date determination
The University Committee recently published the SAT test schedule from 2006 to 2007 on the Internet:
Test Date Test Type Remarks
June 2006 10
SAT and subject exams
165438+1October 4th, 2006
SAT and subject exams
Including listening language test.
65438+February 2, 2006
SAT and subject exams
65438+2007127 October
SAT and subject exams
March 2007 10
Academic aptitude test (USA)
Only native American students can participate.
May 5(th), 2007
SAT and subject exams
June 2(nd), 2007
SAT and subject exams
Announcing the test date in advance (nearly one year in advance) is of greater significance to students who are still studying in Grade One, but are preparing to go directly to the United States for undergraduate studies after graduating from high school. For students at this stage, we suggest that parents and students actively prepare and arrange the review plan as soon as possible (it is recommended to take s at classes in the summer vacation or winter vacation between Grade One and Grade Two, and complete SAT and subject exams in Grade Two) and the application plan (complete all application materials before the first semester of Grade Three 10).
Both ACT and SAT are called "American College Entrance Examination". They are not only one of the admission conditions of American universities, but also one of the main bases for universities to grant scholarships, and are the test standards of students' comprehensive ability. Different from SAT, ACT test is more like a subject test, which emphasizes candidates' mastery of course knowledge and also gives consideration to the test of candidates' independent thinking and judgment ability. From the difficulty point of view, ACT is easier than SAT, especially for domestic candidates, it may be easier to get relatively satisfactory results in a short time by choosing ACT.
As there is no open test center in Chinese mainland for the time being, candidates can choose the Hong Kong test center to take the test. The ACT exam is held five times a year, specifically in mid-February, mid-April, early June, the end of 10 and the beginning of 12. According to the organizer of ACT test, in order to promote ACT test in China, ACT has set up teaching test sites in some big cities in China. During the year, relevant examination rooms will be set up in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and other cities across the country to provide greater convenience for candidates to take the ACT exam.