The National Higher Education Entrance Examination here in China, or commonly known as Gaokao, is an academic examination held annually for two to three days across the country. There is a lot of pressure : almost 9.15 million students will take the exam to vie for 6.85 million vacancies in the country’s universities and colleges. There are about 310,000 exam rooms at 7,300 venues nationwide. All of this sounds very similar to my situation in high school in South Africa with the Matriculation Exam I did ! (Once upon a time, a long time ago).
In the USA taking the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is an important part of the admissions process – but just one of many criteria used by colleges and universities to make admissions decisions. The SAT test consists of three parts- Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing. The scores from each section can range from 200 to 800, so the best possible total score is 2400. The average score is about 1500, though.