<p>How much of the SAT did you feel was common sense or easily answerable. I haven’t taken it yet but I am curious.</p>
<p>Most of the answers on the CR section tend to be politically correct.</p>
<p>Not much - I think.</p>
<p>The CR/Writing section require some amount of training if you are going to ace them. </p>
<p>The Math section - if you are doing well in your math classes and have good SAT II scores for Math - with some prep an 800 is easy.</p>
<p>About 46% of the SAT is common sense.
33% is Math (100% of SAT Math is Common sense, provided that you have passed a 9th grade geometry course)
4% is Reading (12.5% of the CR section is easy-to-answer SC questions)
9% is Writing (About 30% of the writing section is stuff that fluent english speakers should be able to answer using common sense)</p>
<p>The SAT is a reasoning-based test. I’ve always said that the SAT involves 1/3 logic/reasoning, 1/3 knowledge, and 1/3 luck.</p>
<p>Loooollll did you just say that the SAT is ONE THIRD luck??? Haha that is the most absurd statement I have heard in a while…</p>
<p>@tehdude1</p>
<p>It may not be 1/3, but a lot of it is luck based: how you feel on test day, the test curve (does it curve in your favor), easiness of the test, your test center, your testing ability on that day (are you 100% focused and ready), etc.</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>It is definitely not one third luck. More like 5% lol.
I will say though, that your score on the real thing may go down as much as 150 points from your expected score due to what you call bad “luck” but I just call bad circumstances.</p>
<p>As for common sense, much more of the SAT is common sense than you think. But you will also be surprised how many people lack common sense, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; common sense can be learned. I would say up to 60% is common sense.</p>
<p>You’re all arguing semantics and one of the most subjective topics possible.</p>
<p>I don’t think much of the test has to do with common sense. For some, I guess it is. For others, I think it requires some practice, concentration, and diligence.</p>
<p>The SAT is ability-based. There is a reason why there is semi-decent a correlation between college success and SAT score. People who get 2400’s aren’t that “lucky.” I agree with prowlings in that the SAT score can be affected by bad circumstances. Consider the example of a sophomore acquaintance of mine, who shall henceforth be referred to as RH. He probably took 2 dozen tests, each of which he scored 2380-2400 on. When he took the real SAT, he got a 2390 (Made a silly mistake in Math which is considered to be the easiest section) and was in agony since he was expecting a 2400. If, as Caeruleum says, the SAT was based 1/3 on luck, then this acquaintance of mine could not have expected a 2400. After receiving his score, RH should have simply blamed his situation on bad luck. Is it because of bad luck? Could I take the SAT and get a 2400 simply because I have good luck on test day? NO.</p>
<p>The maximum deviation in scores between each of my practice tests is about 50 points. I got a 2170 on the actual SAT (I scored between 2150 and 2200 on practice tests) and after some practice I have now been scoring in the 2250 range (I am one of those people that perform better when nervous, and test anxiety didn’t hurt my score). Since improving, I have not scored a 2170 on any practice tests, nor have I scored above 2310. Test scores are generally consistent with ability… OTHERWISE THE COLLEGEBOARD WOULD GO OUT OF BUSINESS!!!</p>