College Testing Information

• SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) (Visit https://www.calallen.org/Page/298 for CHS testing dates)

  The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. The SAT has four sections: Reading, Writing and Language, Math and an optional Essay.  The total time for the scored portion of the SAT is three hours (or three hours and fifty minutes if the optional essay section is taken). 

  The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors.  The College Board states that the SAT measures literacy, numeracy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. They state that the SAT assesses how well the test takers analyze and solve problems—skills they learned in school that they will need in college. However, the test is administered under a tight time limit (speeded) to help produce a range of scores.

  The College Board also states that use of the SAT in combination with high school grade point average (GPA) provides a better indicator of success in college than high school grades alone, as measured by college freshman GPA. Visit: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat for more information and sign up.

   

  Visit this link to sign up for SAT Practice: KHAN Academy 

  https://learn.khanacademy.org/sat-kickoff-week/?utm_source=cbemail-01763-084-edu-signup&utm_medium=cb418-email&utm_campaign=educator&SFMC_cid=EM262342-&rid=46428893 

   

  To Understand your SAT scores

  Visit: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/understanding-sat-scores.pdf

  The SAT score range is between 400 and 1600 for your total score, and 200-800 for each of your two subscores. One subscore is for Math, and one subscore is your combined Reading and Writing scores to make one “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing” score.

  As you would expect, the higher your score, the better you did compared to all the other test-takers. But is there a certain SAT score cutoff that marks a “good” score?

  To determine what makes for good SAT scores relative to everyone else, it’s important to understand how SAT scoring works. Your total score out of 1600 (as well as your two sections subscores out of 800) corresponds to a percentile ranking. Your percentile tells you what percent of students you scored better than. So if you got a 60th-percentile score, you’ve scored better than 60% of all test-takers!

  The 50th-percentile SAT composite score—the average SAT score—is between 1050 and 1060. (The test is deliberately designed so that the average score hovers around 1000 on the 1600-point scale—about 500 per subsection). The average score for math is between 520 and 530 (520 is 49th-percentile and 530 is the 54th). The average SAT score for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing is between 530 (49th percentile) and 540 (53rd percentile).

  SAT test scores follow a normal distribution. This means that student performance tends to cluster around the middle of the scale. Far fewer test-takers score towards the higher and lower end of the scale.

  Here’s an abbreviated SAT score chart with percentiles for 2022 SAT composite scores so you can check out the score distribution for yourself:

  Composite Score (Out of 1600)	Percentile
  1600	99+
  1550	99+
  1510	99
  1450	98
  1400	95
  1330	90
  1230	80
  1170	71
  1110	61
  1060	51
  1000	40
  950	31
  890	21
  810	11
  750	5
  680	1
  630	1-
  400	1-

  Information was taken from: https://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-a-good-sat-score-a-bad-sat-score-an-excellent-sat-score

   

  What Is a Good SAT Score for 2023 Overall?

  On an individual level, a good SAT score is any score that gets you into at least one of the schools you want to go to. To figure out what a good 2023 SAT score is for all students, however, we'll need to take a broader view of SAT score data. The best way to do this is to take a look at the most recent data for the average SAT score and SAT score percentiles and see how your scores and percentiles compare.

  As a general rule, good SAT scores are ones that place you in the top half of test-takers; the farther above average your score is, the better. Similarly, a not-so-good SAT score is one that lands you in the bottom half of test-takers (and the further below average your score is, the worse).

  The latest College Board data indicates that the average SAT score for graduating seniors was 1060 (533 Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW), 527 Math), which means that good SAT scores for 2023 are those above the average SAT score of 1060/1600.

  To take a closer look at the different levels of performance on the SAT, we've created a chart with SAT percentiles and scores using data from students who took the new SAT and graduated in 2022. Remember that a percentile score tells you what proportion of students performed at or below your level (e.g., a 50th percentile score means 50% of students performed as well as or worse than you).

  Percentile	EBRW	Math	TOTAL
  90th percentile (excellent)	670-680	690	1350
  75rd percentile (good)	600-610	600	1200-1210
  50th percentile (average)	530**	520**	1050**
  25th percentile (poor)	450	440	890-900
  10th percentile (very poor)	330	310	670

  Source: SAT Understanding Scores 2017  https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/understanding-sat-scores.pdf

  *Score is one percentile higher than percentile listed (e.g. 91st or 24th percentiles).
  **Score is one percentile lower than percentile listed (e.g. 49th percentile).

   

  Students with disabilities

  • If you have a documented disability, you may be eligible for accommodations when you take the SAT and other College Board tests. Some available accommodations are extended time, extra and extended breaks, and reading and seeing accommodations (for example, large-type test books or Braille test books). Students who need to take the SAT using accommodated materials or other accommodations must be approved to do so by Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). Visit: https://www.collegeboard.org/students-with-disabilities/calendar for accommodation request deadline/s and standards.

  Visit your CHS Counselor for information and requirements.

• ACT (American College Testing Program) (Visit https://www.calallen.org/Page/298 for CHS testing dates)

  The ACT is an entrance exam used by most colleges and universities to make admissions decisions. It is a multiple-choice, pencil-and-paper test administered by ACT, Inc.

  The purpose of the ACT test is to measure a high school student's readiness for college, and provide colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants.

  ACT Basics

  ACT Length	2 hrs, 55 minutes (plus 40 minutes if taking ACT with writing)
  ACT Sections	English Math Reading Science Writing (optional)
  Cost	$46 ($62.50 if taking ACT with Writing)
  Max. Score	36
  Avg. Score	21

  For more information and sign up for ACT testing visit: https://www.act.org/ https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act.html

   

   

  What Is a Good ACT Score Overall? https://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-a-good-act-score-a-bad-act-score-an-excellent-act-score

  The ACT score range is from 1-36. As you might imagine, the higher your score, the better you did. But is there a certain cutoff that delineates a “good” ACT score?

  To answer this question, it’s important to understand how ACT scores work. Your composite score from 1-36 corresponds to a percentile that compares how you did to the general population of ACT test-takers. A higher percentile means you scored higher than that percent of students. (So, a 55th percentile score means your score was higher than 55% of students).

  ACT test scores are set up to follow a normal distribution. This means that student performance tends to cluster around the middle of the scale—most test-takers score a somewhere between a little below and a little above the average score. Far fewer test-takers score towards the higher and lower end of the scale.

  The average ACT score is 20. If you’ve scored 20, then you’ve scored higher than 50% of test-takers. That’s pretty good, depending on your frame of reference. A 24 places you at the 74th percentile—better than ¾ of test-takers!

  Here’s an abbreviated chart with ACT score percentiles for 2017-2018 to help you figure out how your scores position you among the overall student test-taker population:

  Your ACT Score	ACT English Percentile	ACT Math Percentile	ACT Reading Percentile	ACT Science Percentile	Composite Percentile
  1	1	1	1	1	1
  5	1	1	1	1	1
  10	7	1	2	2	1
  13	17	3	12	9	8
  16	34	29	26	22	25
  18	42	45	37	34	38
  20	52	55	48	49	51
  22	64	63	60	63	63
  24	74	74	71	77	74
  26	82	83	77	86	82
  28	87	91	83	91	89
  30	91	95	88	94	94
  34	98	99	98	99	99
  36	99	99	99	99	99

  In terms of benchmarks for ACT score percentiles, a score of 16 places you at the 25th percentile, meaning you’ve scored better than a quarter of test-takers. This isn’t a very strong score.

  We’ve already noted that a 20 is an average ACT score, at the 50th percentile. A score of 24 means you’ve scored better than about 74% of students. A 28 means you’ve scored better than 89% of students, and a 31 means you’ve scored better than 96% of them! Anything 34 or above is in the 99th percentile—a truly phenomenal score.

  You can also see that not many people score near the bottom and the top of the scale, because there’s so little percentile change between scores here. Composite scores in the 1-10 range are all in the 1st percentile, and composite scores from 34-36 are all in the 99th percentile!

  By contrast, around the middle of the scale at 20, where most test-takers are clustered, a bump of a few points makes a big difference: going from 18 to 22 moves you from the 38th to the 63rd percentile—a whopping 25 percentile points! But a similar 4-point bump from 24 to 28 only takes you from the 74th to the 89th percentile. That’s just a 15-percentile bump. And from 30 to 34 is only a 5-percentile increase.

  You may notice that section percentiles are a little different than the composite scale. However, the same general score distribution holds.

   

  So, to recap, compared to all test-takers:

  ACT score < 16 = bottom 25%

  ACT score of 20 = right in the middle! (average score)

  ACT score of 24+ = top 25%

  ACT score of 28+ = top 10%

  ACT of 31+ = top 5%

  ACT score of 34+ = top 1% of test-takers

  Information taken from: https://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-a-good-act-score-a-bad-act-score-an-excellent-act-score

  Also visit the ACT website “Understanding Your Scores” for more information: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/scores/understanding-your-scores.html

   

  Students with Disabilities and English Learner Support/Accommodations for ACT

  ACT is committed to serving examinees with documented disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations appropriate to the examinee's diagnosis and needs. ACT has established policies regarding documentation of an examinee’s disability.

  If you currently receive accommodations in school due to a professionally diagnosed and documented disability, see the ACT Policy for Accommodations Documentation (PDF), which will prepare you and guide you through the process of requesting test accommodations on the ACT test. 

  ACT recognizes the need to expand access to English learners. Beginning in the fall of 2017, ACT will provide supports on the ACT test to U.S. students who are English learners. These supports are designed to improve access and equity for those students whose proficiency in English might prevent them from fully demonstrating the skills and knowledge they have learned in school. The number of English learners is growing in our country and ACT is committed to improve access and opportunity for them and all underserved learners.

  If you currently receive supports in school due to limited English proficiency, see the ACT Policy for English Learner Supports Documentation, which will prepare you and guide you through the process of requesting English learner supports on the ACT test.

  Visit for more information and request deadlines: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration/accommodations.html

• PSAT (all registration and sign up is done in CHS College and Career Center) PSAT test date: Wednesday, October 12, 2022

  • The 8-10^th grade PSAT and PSAT/NMSQT are highly relevant to your future success because they focus on the skills and knowledge at the heart of education. They’ll measure:
    • What you learn in high school
    • What you need to succeed in college

  If you think the key to a high score is memorizing words and facts you’ll never use in the real world, think again. You don’t have to discover secret tricks or cram the night before.

  The best way to prepare for the test is to:

  • Take challenging courses
  • Do your homework
  • Prepare for tests and quizzes
  • Ask and answer lots of questions

  In short, take charge of your education and learn as much as you can.

  Visit: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/inside-the-test

 Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA2) (all registration and sign up is done at CHS College and Career Center) (Visit https://www.calallen.org/Page/298 for CHS testing dates)

How to SEND and RETRIEVE your TSI scores (see instructions)

TSI score instructions

2024/2025 TSI Testing Dates

Saturday, Feb. 1st

Saturday, Feb. 22nd

Saturday, March 22nd

Saturday, April 26th

Saturday, May 3rd

Del Mar College Testing Center also offers the TSI test at their Testing Center and remotely.

• Visit www.delmar.edu/tsi
• Register online

• ASVAB (all registration and sign up is done in CHS College and Career Center) 

  Test dates at CHS Library:

          Test Date:  Oct. 17, 2024                                                      Test Time:  8:30 AM

          Test Date:  Feb. 13, 2025                                                      Test Time:  8:30 AM

  • The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a multiple choice test, administered by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command, used to determine qualification for enlistment in the United States Armed Forces. A vocational assessment is the process of determining an individual's interests, abilities and aptitudes and skills to identify vocational strengths, needs and career potential. It is administered annually to more than one million military applicants, high school, and post-secondary students. It is often offered to American high school students when they are in the 10th, 11th and 12th grade.  For more information visit: https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/asvab