Tests for the American Colleges and Universities Enrollment
US colleges and universities require that all their applicants take one or more standardized tests. The purpose of the most standardized tests consists in measuring a student's skills, rather than a student's amount of knowledge. Moreover, the function of the tests is to give colleges a way to evaluate all their applicants on an equal level. They embrace the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), ACT test, GRE (Graduate Record Examination), and GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). Additionally, applicants who are not Americans are required to also take the TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language).
Generally, international students applying for an undergraduate program will be demanded to take the TOEFL and the SAT I tests as well as the SAT II. Moreover, there exist many schools that accept the ACT instead of the SAT I. Furthermore, graduate students applying to an arts or science program will be required to take either the TOEFL or the GRE. Graduate students applying to a business program are demanded to take the TOEFL and the GMAT. Some details and peculiarities may be seen below.
TOEFL
This test may be of two types: paper-based (administered on predetermined dates) and computer-based (taken on an appointment basis). Usually, it consists of mostly multiple-choice questions and comprises four sections: listening (designed to test learners understanding of English as it is spoken in America; the task consists in listening to dialogues, conversations and speeches using headphones); structure (for testing the ability to understand written English); reading (dedicated to test learners understanding of written passages); writing (asks students to write an essay in English).
SAT
There exists two versions of the SAT test: SAT I or Reasoning Test (designed to evaluate students mathematical and verbal skills; consists mostly of multiple-choice questions in the math and verbal sections; the verbal part falls into such categories as analogies (tests knowledge of the meanings of words and ability to see relationships in pairs of words), sentence completions (checks knowledge of the meanings of words and ability to understand how different elements in a sentence fit together logically), and critical reading (measures the ability to read a passage and think about it)) and SAT II (contains 22 separate tests called Subject Tests where each one covers a specific area such as world history, Spanish, or chemistry).
ACT
This type of test consists of multiple-choice questions covering four areas: English; mathematics; reading; and scientific reasoning.
GRE
The GRE General Test, being similar to SAT I, is designed to measure the reasoning skills, rather than the knowledge of any specific subject matter. It includes eight different subject areas: biochemistry, cell and molecular biology; biology; chemistry; computer science; literature in English; mathematics; physics; and psychology. Moreover, it offers a Writing Assessment test that asks more challenging questions than the General Test.
GMAT
Such test checks learners mathematical, verbal and analytical writing skills. Being a computer-based test, GMAT consists of both multiple-choice and essay questions.