College Board
Assistive Technology Compatible Test Form
The following directions are representative of what students will encounter on test day.
The essay gives you an opportunity to show how effectively you can read and comprehend a passage and write an essay analyzing the passage. In your essay, you should demonstrate that you have read the passage carefully, present a clear and logical analysis, and use language precisely.
Your essay must be written on the lines provided in your answer booklet; except for the planning page of the answer booklet, you will receive no other paper on which to write. You will have enough space if you write on every line, avoid wide margins, and keep your handwriting to a reasonable size. Remember that people who are not familiar with your handwriting will read what you write. Try to write or print so that what you are writing is legible to those readers.
You have 50 minutes (standard time) to read the passage and write an essay in response to the prompt provided inside this test edition.
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Reminders
1. Do not write your essay in this booklet. Only what you write on the lined pages of your answer booklet will be evaluated.
2. An off-topic essay will not be evaluated.
Follow this link for more information on scoring your practice test: www.s
a t.org/scoring
This test edition must not be taken from the room. Unauthorized reproduction or use of any part of this test book is prohibited.
Copyright 2015 The College Board. College Board and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board.
Ideas contained in the passage for this test, which is excerpted or adapted from published material, do not necessarily represent the opinions of the College Board.
Pages 3 through 5 contain information for users of assistive technology. Pages 6 through 13 provide essay scoring information and an essay scoring rubric.
Do not open the test material until the supervisor tells you to
do so.
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Any documents that accompany these instructions are designed to be accessible to individuals who use screen readers, text readers, or other assistive technology. You may wish to consult the manual or help system of your software to learn how best to take advantage of the following features implemented in this document.
Some questions include passages or other material that you may find it useful to return to or skip past. To assist in this kind of navigation, the test documents use headings as follows.
Heading level 3: section titles
Heading level 4: directions for a group of questions or references to material on which one or more questions will be based (for example,
“Question 3 is based on the following text:”)
Heading level 5: question numbers, which directly precede the associated questions
Heading level 6: indications of skippable content (For example, you may prefer to skip some sections of this script, such as those that provide figure descriptions or possible answers in context for questions that involve revision. This content is identified at the beginning by the phrase “Begin skippable content” and at the end by the phrase
“End skippable content.” These phrases are formatted as level-6 headings.)
This document includes hyperlinked material. There are two ways to follow a link. One is to move the flashing text cursor, or caret, into the
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hyperlinked text and press the Enter key; the other is to place the mouse cursor, or pointer, over the hyperlinked text and press
Ctrl+left-click (that is, press and release the left button on the mouse while holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard). Some software includes commands for listing links in a document. In JAWS, for example, pressing Insert+F5 provides a list of links. After following a link in Microsoft Word®, you can return to your previous location by pressing Alt+left arrow.
Boldfacing and underlining are used in this document for emphasis and in defined heading styles. Italic type is not used as an emphasis indicator in this document but is used in defined heading styles and where standard typographic conventions require them, such as book titles and mathematical variables. Adjust the settings of your screen reader or other software if you wish to be notified of text attribute changes. Except where stated otherwise, this formatting is not critical to the meaning of the test material.
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The styles used in this document result in text that is moderately enlarged. To enlarge text further in Microsoft Word, the following is recommended, in order of preference:
1. Adjust the styles to meet your needs. You can adjust both font size and typeface if desired.
2. Manually adjust the font size or typeface as desired.
3. Use Microsoft Word’s zoom function. This is the easiest way to enlarge any figures, but note that some screen readers will not read text that has moved off screen as a result of zooming.
If you are using the assistive technology compatible (A T C) edition along with another edition of the test, you may notice some slight differences in the wording of some content. Differences in wording between these editions are the result of adaptations made for various test formats.
Some changes to the text have been made to improve the way screen readers pronounce the text where doing so would not inappropriately change test content. For example, we have inserted spaces between the letters of initialisms to ensure that the individual letters are spoken separately. However, please note that pronunciation errors may remain. If unsure of a word, use the spelling or character-by-character navigation function of your software to resolve any uncertainties.
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Every response written for the redesigned S A T Essay will be read by two graders. Each grader will award 1 to 4 points each in reading, analysis, and writing. The graders’ scores will be combined for a total of 2 to 8 points in each of the three categories: reading, analysis, and writing.
To score the essay, graders will use the criteria detailed in the rubric shown here, which describes the characteristics shared by essays earning the same score point in each category.
Reading
Advanced: The response demonstrates thorough comprehension of the source text.
The response shows an understanding of the text’s central idea or ideas and of most important details and how they interrelate, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the text.
The response is free of errors of fact or interpretation with regard to the text.
The response makes skillful use of textual evidence (quotations, paraphrases, or both), demonstrating a complete understanding of the
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source text.
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Analysis
Advanced: The response offers an insightful analysis of the source text and demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the analytical task.
The response offers a thorough, well-considered evaluation of the author’s use of evidence, reasoning, stylistic and persuasive elements, or features of the student’s own choosing.
The response contains relevant, sufficient, and strategically chosen support for claims or points made.
The response focuses consistently on those features of the text that are most relevant to addressing the task.
Writing
Advanced: The response is cohesive and demonstrates a highly effective use and command of language.
The response includes a precise central claim.
The response includes a skillful introduction and conclusion. The response demonstrates a deliberate and highly effective progression of ideas both within paragraphs and throughout the essay.
The response has a wide variety in sentence structures. The response demonstrates a consistent use of precise word choice. The response maintains a formal style and objective tone.
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The response shows a strong command of the conventions of standard written English and is free or virtually free of errors.
Reading
Proficient: The response demonstrates effective comprehension of the source text.
The response shows an understanding of the text’s central idea or ideas and important details.
The response is free of substantive errors of fact and interpretation with regard to the text.
The response makes appropriate use of textual evidence (quotations, paraphrases, or both), demonstrating an understanding of the source text.
Analysis
Proficient: The response offers an effective analysis of the source text and demonstrates an understanding of the analytical task.
The response competently evaluates the author’s use of evidence, reasoning, stylistic and persuasive elements, or features of the student’s own choosing.
The response contains relevant and sufficient support for claims or points made.
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The response focuses primarily on those features of the text that are most relevant to addressing the task.
Writing
Proficient: The response is mostly cohesive and demonstrates effective use and control of language.
The response includes a central claim or implicit controlling idea.
The response includes an effective introduction and conclusion. The response demonstrates a clear progression of ideas both within paragraphs and throughout the essay.
The response has variety in sentence structures. The response demonstrates some precise word choice. The response maintains a formal style and objective tone.
The response shows a good control of the conventions of standard written English and is free of significant errors that detract from the quality of writing.
Reading
Partial: The response demonstrates some comprehension of the source text.
The response shows an understanding of the text’s central idea or ideas but not of important details.
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The response may contain errors of fact or interpretation with regard to the text.
The response makes limited or haphazard use of textual evidence
(quotations, paraphrases, or both), demonstrating some understanding of the source text.
Analysis
Partial: The response offers limited analysis of the source text and demonstrates only partial understanding of the analytical task.
The response identifies and attempts to describe the author’s use of evidence, reasoning, stylistic and persuasive elements, or features of the student’s own choosing, but merely asserts rather than explains their importance, or one or more aspects of the response’s analysis are unwarranted based on the text.
The response contains little or no support for claims or points made.
The response may lack a clear focus on those features of the text that are most relevant to addressing the task.
Writing
Partial: The response demonstrates little or no cohesion and limited skill in the use and control of language.
The response may lack a clear central claim or controlling idea or may deviate from the claim or idea over the course of the response.
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The response may include an ineffective introduction or conclusion.
The response may demonstrate some progression of ideas within paragraphs but not throughout the response.
The response has limited variety in sentence structures; sentence structures may be repetitive.
The response demonstrates general or vague word choice; word choice may be repetitive. The response may deviate noticeably from a formal style and objective tone.
The response shows a limited control of the conventions of standard written English and contains errors that detract from the quality of writing and may impede understanding.
Reading
Inadequate: The response demonstrates little or no comprehension of the source text.
The response fails to show an understanding of the text’s central idea or ideas, and may include only details without reference to any central idea.
The response may contain numerous errors of fact or interpretation with regard to the text.
The response makes little or no use of textual evidence (quotations, paraphrases, or both), demonstrating little or no understanding of the source text.
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Analysis
Inadequate: The response offers little or no analysis or ineffective analysis of the source text and demonstrates little or no understanding of the analytic task.
The response identifies without explanation some aspects of the author’s use of evidence, reasoning, stylistic and persuasive elements, or features of the student’s choosing.
Or numerous aspects of the response’s analysis are unwarranted based on the text.
The response contains little or no support for claims or points made, or support is largely irrelevant.
The response may not focus on features of the text that are relevant to addressing the task.
Or the response offers no discernible analysis (for example, is largely or exclusively summary).
Writing
Inadequate: The response demonstrates little or no cohesion and inadequate skill in the use and control of language.
The response may lack a clear central claim or controlling idea.
The response lacks a recognizable introduction and conclusion. The response does not have a discernible progression of ideas.
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The response lacks variety in sentence structures; sentence structures may be repetitive. The response demonstrates general and vague word choice; word choice may be poor or inaccurate. The response may lack a formal style and objective tone.
The response shows a weak control of the conventions of standard written English and may contain numerous errors that undermine the quality of writing.
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