Scholastic
Aptitude
Test. This is a standardized test designed to determine the rough educational level of students entering college. The exam consists of a verbal and a mathematics section, with a maximum score of 800 on each. IIRC, there is about a 70% correlation between the S.A.T. score and college performance (That's what I seem to recall from a statistics class.) There has been a great deal of discussion regarding cultural bias in this and other
standardized tests, as some students, particularly those from poor backgrounds with poor schools, will not do well on this test, yet, through hard work, will still be successful in college.
High scores on this exam are highly prized by students, and especially, the parents of students. I once knew a kid as a freshman in college who allegedly introduced himself as "Joe (not his real name, can't remember), I scored 1500 on my SAT." Needless to say, he was not mister popularity. A test which was popular in the South back in the day was the ACT which served a similar function as the S.A.T., but the maximum score was 32, and there were four sections instead of two. At one point, the southeastern colleges only accepted the A.C.T., but now I think the S.A.T. is accepted pretty much everywhere, whereas the A.C.T is still mostly a southern thing.