Excerpt
INTRODUCTION Passing the SAT United States History Subject Test About This Book If youre planning to take the SAT United States History Subject Test, this is the book for you. REA provides an accurate and complete representation of the test in six full-length practice exams based on official exam questions released by the College Entrance Examination Board. Our practice tests present every type of question that you can expect to encounter on the actual exam. Beyond just giving you good practice, however, we also provide context. All of our answers are followed by detailed explanations that will enable you to zero in on your strengths and weaknessesa sure fire confidence booster! But we dont stop there. This book also contains an extensive topical review that will help you make better use of your study time by reinforcing your command of the subject matter.
About the Test Developed by the College Board and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the SAT United States History Subject Test is a one-hour examination that features 90 to 95 multiple-choice questions. To do well on the test, you need to be familiar with United States history from pre-Columbian times to the present. The majority of the history questions fall in the post-1763 period and cover all major facets of United States history: political, economic, social, diplomatic, intellectual, and cultural. The test is offered throughout the year, usually in January, May, June, October, November, and December. You can obtain registration forms and specific test date information at your schools guidance or counseling office, or by contacting the College Board as follows: College Board SAT Program PO Box 6200 Princeton, NJ 08541-6200 Phone: (609) 771-7600 Website: www.collegeboard.com The tests proportional coverage can and does vary from one edition of the exam to another, but this breakdown gives you a good idea of what to expect: Political History (including Political Science and Law) 3236% Economic History (including Geography) 1820% Social History (including Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Psychology) 1822% Foreign Policy (including International Relations) 1317% Intellectual and Cultural History 1012% The periods covered are as follows: Pre-Columbian History to 1789 20% 1790 to 1898 40% 1899 to present 40% Theoretically, the only necessary preparation for the test is a thorough course in American history at the college-preparatory level, although information tested on the exam may be found in courses such as American government, economics, and problems of democracy. Keeping up with national news by regularly reading a major daily newspaper (e.g., the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, or New York Times) or, at the very least, one of the newsweekly magazines, can only help you. The test seeks to measure many types of abilities. Sometimes theres overlap; in other words, an individual question may test more than one type of ability within its scope. The types of abilities measured include the following:
Knowledge of facts, terms, concepts, and generalizations; recall of basic information. Analyzing and interpreting presented materials. Selecting or relating hypotheses, concepts, principles, or generalizations to given data. Judging the value of data for a given purpose, either by assessing internal evidence (proof and logical consistency) or external evidence (comparison with other works, established standards, and theories). About the Review Section This book begins with a thorough yet concise review of U.S. history designed expressly to prepare you for the SAT Subject Test. Our review covers the following historical time periods and events: 1. Pre-Columbian History of the Americas 2. European Exploration and the Colonial Period (14921763) 3. The American Revolution (17631787) 4. The United States Constitution (17851789) 5. The New Nation (17891824) 6. Jacksonian Democracy and Westward Expansion (18241850) 7. Sectional Conflict and the Causes of the Civil War (18501860) 8. The Civil War and Reconstruction (18601877) 9. Industrialism, War, and the Progressive Era (18771912) 10. Wilson and World War I (19121920) 11. The Roaring Twenties and Economic Collapse (19201929) 12. The Great Depression and the New Deal (19291941) 13. World War II and the Postwar Era (19411960) 14. The New Frontier, Vietnam, and Social Upheaval (19601972) 15. Watergate, Conservatisms Rise, and PostCold War Challenges (19722005) Scoring the Practice Tests The SAT Subject Test is scored by crediting each correct answer with one point and deducting only partial credit (one-fourth of a point) for each incorrect answer. You will neither gain nor lose credit for questions you skip. The resulting value is the raw score.” The accompanying practice-test scoring conversion table on the following page enables you to convert your raw score on each of our full-length practice tests into a total scaled score, which allows you to simulate where your performance places you on the College Boards 200800 scale. To get your raw score, add up all your correct responses. Then add up all the incorrect answers and divide this number by four. Subtract this number from the first number and round the result to the nearest whole number (0.5 is rounded up to the next-highest whole number; 0.4 is rounded down to the next-lowest whole number). Now find this number on the scoring table to determine your scaled score. Heres a worksheet for figuring your practice-test scores:
____________ ( ________x 0.25) = _________ number right* number wrong* raw score† * Do not count answers that you left blank. † Round to the nearest whole number.
SAT United States History Practice-Test Scaled Score Conversion Table‡
Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Score Score Score Score Score Score 95 800 55 630 15 430 94 800 54 630 14 430 93 800 53 620 13 420 92 800 52 610 12 420 91 800 51 610 11 410 90 800 50 600 10 410 89 800 49 600 9 400 88 800 48 590 8 390 87 800 47 590 7 380 86 800 46 580 6 380 85 800 45 570 5 370 84 790 44 570 4 360 83 790 43 560 3 360 82 790 42 560 2 350 81 780 41 550 1 350 80 770 40 550 0 340 79 770 39 540 1 330 78 760 38 540 2 320 77 750 37 530 3 310 76 740 36 530 4 310 75 740 35 520 5 300 74 730 34 510 6 290 73 720 33 510 7 280 72 720 32 510 8 270 71 710 31 500 9 260 70 710 30 500 10 250 69 700 29 490 11 250 68 700 28 490 12 240 67 690 27 490 13 230 66 690 26 480 14 220 65 680 25 480 15 210 64 680 24 470 16 200 63 670 23 470 17 200 62 670 22 460 18 200 61 660 21 460 19 20060 660 20 450 20 200 59 650 19 450 21 20058 650 18 450 22 200 57 640 17 440 23 200 56 640 16 440 24 200 ‡ Some points to bear in mind: (1) This conversion table does not necessarily reflect the scale that will be used by ETS to score the actual test. (2) Your score on REAs practice tests may be higher or lower than your score on the actual test. (3) Scoring formulations for standardized tests typically vary slightly from one edition of a test to another.