It is widely known that a majority of people take IELTS (International English Language Testing Exam) in place of TOEFL or PTE to go abroad for further studies after their senior secondary education or for PR (Permanent Residency) but these tests solely check the language proficiency of a person that whether that person or student is able to express himself to others in that language or not as it is required only for entry in English Speaking Country. However, SAT exam is taken for scholarship in Undergraduate courses which is mostly preferred in the USA.
Taking both the tests is one of the requirements of universities and colleges in the USA because IELTS solely checks linguistic skills, while analytical skills are evaluated by taking SAT. Also, SAT exam is of two types that is SAT and SAT subject test. The latter exam tests students’ knowledge in five broad subjects that is English Literature, History (USA or world), Language (Chinese, French, Hebrew, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Spanish or German), Maths (Level 1 or Level 2) and Science (Biology-Ecological, Biology-Molecular, Chemistry or Physics) and the former test assesses how better the student is able to comprehend the text, and knowledge over other grammatical aspects, whilst IELTS (Academic) exam helps student to just become familiar with the English Language on four parameters that is Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing which the student can take anytime during the year but SAT exam is conducted 4 times a year (March, May, October, and December) for the international students, and it is a paper based test.
The benefits of taking SAT exam are:
- Widely accepted in the USA for undergraduate courses
- student shows his readiness for the college
- Student can get scholarship on the basis of scores
- High SAT score can cover up for lower GPA and benefits the overall profile of the applicant.
- SAT gives and edge to the student’s profile
- No negative marking in the SAT exam
Therefore, SAT is a standardized test which is required for entry to the colleges and universities and on the basis of scores which he has obtained, colleges or universities offer scholarships to them, while IELTS is just a language proficiency test judged on four parameters- Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. So there are universities and colleges which demand scores from both the tests as it is one of the admission requirements of the Universities. So, it becomes necessary for the students to go for SAT and IELTS both.