Ok so I'm going into my senior year in high school, and I've got my SAT coming up.
I'm not too worried about it, but I don't know what to expect, and everyone I've asked acts like it's a big deal.

So what should I expect to see?
Should I be worried about it?
What do you think is the hardest part?

I know you guys have (at least somewhat) similar brains to mine, so I figured this would be the best place to ask.
Any advice/etc. would be greatly appreciated thanks!

Prepare to not do as well as you think you did. I thought I easily got a 700 in math the second time I took it, but I did pretty damn bad in that. Also, be ready to completely bullshit your essay; there's rarely ever going to be a topic that you can honestly relate to. Make something up, and make sure it's persuasive. It is a persuasive essay, after all. I would suggest just doing practice tests over and over so that you can used to the types of questions they'll ask. I still have to do to this, but that's because I'm lazy as hell and don't want to do it. D:

I didn't need to take the SAT, so I didn't. Won't you take the ACT too?

I just used a big prep book with a bunch of sample tests. Did maybe 3 of them for practice and that was all I needed to do. Got a 1400. (That was when things were out of 1600, by the way)

As for your questions:
Practice tests will show you what you need to see.
Your test score will not be influenced by whether or not you are worried. You can also take the SAT two or three times if you have to. I think some college applications let you use your highest scores for each section.
It is hard to sit still and not talk for roughly three hours.

He said he's going to be a senior, that means that he may only have one shot at this if the colleges he's applying to have an application deadline of early November like most colleges. ;o

A lot of the test is endurance, the thing is like 10 sections. By the end of it I was exhausted.

Honestly it wasn't hard. I got over 700 on the math section, I thought I did better though.

Idk you though, just relax and bring a nice snack.

The most difficult part of the SATs is having to write a whole paragraph in cursive. It was the most difficult task of my life.

I got a 2040/2400 on my SATs.

Seriously, that was a big challenge, no joke. I ran out of room and had to BS it.

Nice score inf, i got like 1940/2400 (something like that).

Agreed. You might want to practice cursive or something.

It's a normal test with a couple caveats:

- Essay grading is dumb. Really dumb. It's more important to have all the little "checklist" things and to name-drop then it is to write well.
- The curve on math means you can't mess up. Down 1 questions is like 40 to 60 points, and it just goes on from there. The other sections you can get an 800 missing one question (usually), or at least a 790.
- All scores over 2100 are equal due to variance. Going from 2150 to 2390 actually won't help your application.

Not only that, but it seems like everyone else knows cursive except for you and the proctor will give you like 30 seconds.

I don't remember having to do the written portion in cursive. Then again I can't remember my SAT score either as I never seemed to really care about it.

It's not the essay; it's the affirmation that you're not cheating or something... one full sentence in cursive with a signature.

Jesus, for some reason I don't even remember having to do that. I wish I cared more during my senior year.

Except it's a sentence that runs on for 4-5 lines.

Oh, and the essay topics are usually terrible to write about. Just follow the bullets they give you and you'll be fine. They don't care about the quality of your writing - I even challenged myself to use the phrase "gummy bear tournament" somewhere in it, which I did.

The best trick I ever learned regarding essays for tests is that you really need to only worry about having a good introductory paragraph, and good topic sentences at the beginning of all the remaining paragraphs. A majority of the time, the essay readers just skim through it after reading the intro, and they will assume the rest of essay is great based on the greatness of that opening paragraph.

Shit, I remember thinking it was the other way around -- they cared about the quality and NOT what you talked about lol. I did fine when i took it so no worries though.

That's insane, writing in cursive. Although it sort of makes sense as an anti-cheating thing as DT says, but still.

I've never done SATs, but it sounds similar to the testing stuff we did in high school and uni. For me, the most useful thing when studying for a test is to do older versions of it. Just getting a feel for the 'types' of questions they ask is immensely helpful.

Thanks, you guys are the best!

Do people not get taught to write in cursive in public schools anymore? I find cursive more natural than printing now, due to how much I had to use it in school. 1 paragraph would be nothing, I wrote entire essays in cursive.

Have you seen some peoples handwriting? You can't trust them to write an essay in cursive for a test. they wouldn't be able to understand a thing XD