SAT.

It's such a simple three-letter combination, but those three little characters spell big-time grief each year for more than 1 million college-bound high school students.

The three-hour standardized test, which nearly 80 percent of the nation's colleges and universities now use in admissions decisions, has been a rite of passage since it first gained widespread use in the 1950s.

Today, however, more students than ever before are taking the SAT. The test has taken on near mythic proportions for high school students and their parents, who view a high score on the SAT as a magical Golden Ticket that, if it doesn't guarantee access to the most prestigious colleges, will at least boost a students' application to the top of the pile.

As a result, students are under an increasing amount of pressure to score well on the grueling test, and are pulling out as many stops as they're able to - as one veteran college admissions official put it - ``hit the mark on one brilliant Saturday morning.''

``The SATs are nerve-wracking,'' said Feeda Shamieh, a 16-year-old junior at Mills High School in Millbrae, who took SAT prep classes and spent hours reviewing an SAT workbook before taking the test in March. ``I'm so worried I won't get into a good college.''

Students are doing more than just worrying. SAT tutoring and test preparation businesses are booming, and it's not uncommon for students to begin SAT prep in their freshman year. Some students begin preparing in middle school.

``With anything that could possibly determine your future, there's always the tendency to be nervous,'' said Sudev Sheth, a 17-year-old senior at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont. He took an SAT prep class, but relied mostly on workbooks to help him achieve a 1410 on his SAT. That score, along with his 3.8 grade-point average, helped earn him acceptance letters from University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.

The perfect storm

Last year, nearly half of the nation's 3 million high school students took the SAT, a new record. The average math score - 519 out of a possible 800 - was the highest it is has been in more than 35 years.

The SAT is by far the most popular entrance exam taken in California, taken in 2003 by 48 percent of the state's graduating seniors. By comparison, only 15 percent of California's 2003 graduates took the ACT, the other standardized test also accepted by college admissions offices.

At the same time, a growing number of students are going back for seconds and even thirds, taking the SAT over and over, spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on special classes and private tutors to make their best possible showing.

``This is the one area in which a student can affect the outcome,'' said Marc McGee, director of admissions at University of the Pacific, a private college in Stockton. ``You have no control over how many students are applying to your dream college or how much they've been studying or whether they put more emphasis into school work or extracurricular activities. So much of that is unknown. But the SAT is the one thing you can try and change, so, of course, they're going to try for it.''

The reason behind the growing trend, McGee and others surmise, is the perfect storm brewing around college admissions, both in California and the rest of the nation.

A massive bubble of kids are graduating from high school and pushing at the doors of the nation's colleges and universities. Competition for slots is fierce, and students, aware of the pressures, are sending applications far and wide, thus adding even more competition for already scarce slots.

In deficit-ridden California, the storm is worsened by budget cuts that are, for the first time, forcing the University of California and California State University systems to turn eligible students away. By some estimates, as many as 23,000 California freshmen who in better times would be welcomed at CSU and UC campuses won't find a slot in the fall.

``Parents are very aware of that, and students are, too,'' said Eva Holtz, who founded and runs her SAT tutoring business, PrepPoint, out of her Livermore home. ``Students are freaking out. They're saying I can't get into (CSU) Chico, and it used to be that was a very reasonable goal. But now people aspire to that - they dream of getting into a lot of CSUs.''

Holtz has been tutoring for nearly a decade, but went full-time with PrepPoint at the beginning of the year. PrepPoint's team of tutors offers one-on-one SAT tutoring in students' homes throughout the Bay Area, as well as academic tutoring.

``Within two months of going full-time, my schedule was booked,'' she said. ``... I'm working six days a week. That's just how much demand there is.''

Pressure to perform

Students say the pressure to perform well on the SAT is intense.

``It's always in the back of your head,'' said Amanda Nuechterlein of Fremont, a 17-year-old junior at Mission San Jose High School. ``Colleges look at it so much, and you want to have as many options as you can.''

The truth of the matter, however, is that many colleges don't weigh SAT scores as highly as they once did. In fact, the use of SAT scores in admissions at UC has been a hot topic this year, sparked by a critical report from the chairman of UC's governing Board of Regents that slammed UC Berkeley, the system's flagship campus, for admitting 386 students who scored 1000 or below on the test and turning away 3,200 who scored 1400 or above.

Chairman John Moores' report started a public debate about UC's ``comprehensive review'' admissions policy. The policy evaluates students based on grades and test scores, as well as individual factors such as leadership potential, personal hardships and academic growth.

SAT scores are a factor in UC's admissions decisions, but they don't carry as much weight as other factors, including a student's overall grade point average and his or her scores on the SAT IIs, the subject-specific standardized tests that students must also take in order to be considered for UC admission.

Students, for the most part, aren't aware of the UC controversy, but most of them are still savvy enough to know that SAT scores are only one part of admissions decisions at colleges. They load up on extracurricular activities, honors courses and community service in hopes of presenting a well-rounded high school resume.

But even all those extras don't lessen the importance students place on their SAT scores.

Lakia Davis of San Lorenzo, a 17-year-old senior at Hayward High School, was crushed with her ``terrible'' SAT score - even after she took a 10-week preparation class to try to bring it up. She requested that her score not be published.

``I've always been a good student,'' said Davis, who is much prouder of her scores on the subject-specific SAT IIs. ``I'm in the top 10 percent of my class, I do clubs, I take honors courses, and I felt like the SAT would maybe be a little factor. But when it came down to it and I got that score, I thought everything I did wouldn't matter.''

In the end, it's hard to say how much the score did matter. Davis, who carries a 3.6 GPA, was accepted into UC Irvine, but denied at her top choice, UC Davis.

``I'm blessed that I got that (Irvine acceptance),'' she said. ``With the economy and the budget, I'm sure my SAT score had a lot bigger effect than I thought it would.''

Mission San Jose junior Kim Chiang, 16, of Fremont started preparing for the SAT in the seventh grade, memorizing list upon list of vocabulary words.

A native of Taiwan, Chiang - who maintains a straight-A average - worried that her score would suffer because she isn't a native English speaker. Once she got to high school, Chiang also took a course at Mill Creek Academy, an after-school SAT prep program in Fremont.

The work, it seems, paid off. The first time Chiang took the SAT, she scored in the 99th percentile. She took it a second time and added 50 points to her score. She requested that her exact scores not be published.

Chiang, who hopes to go to Stanford University, won't take the test again. ``I've heard that Stanford doesn't care as much about test scores,'' Chiang said, ``so that's why I'm not going back for the 1600. But I've known friends who got like a 1570 or a 1580, and they're going back to try to get the 1600. I don't understand that.''

The 1600, of course, is the Holy Grail. The perfect score. (The College Board, which administers the SAT, cautions against describing the 1600 in such laudatory terms.

``Since it is possible to get a 1600 score without answering all questions, these should be called top scores, not perfect scores,'' reads a College Board fact sheet. To students, though, that's a quibble.)

Only 944 of the 1.4 million students who took the SAT in 2003 received a 1600.

To tutor or not to tutor?

Officially, the College Board says the SAT is not the type of test one can study for. College Board spokeswoman Kristin Carnahan said the best preparation for the SAT is taking rigorous classes in high school and keeping up with reading skills.

Students should also familiarize themselves with the test format by completing the free sample questions on the College Board Web site and by using workbooks.

Students should also take the Preliminary SAT, a practice test administered like the real thing that comes back with a score card telling students what they should study before taking the actual SAT.

A 1998 study by the College Board also seeks to debunk the effectiveness of tutors and other test preparation services. Coached students, according to the study, are only slightly more likely to have large score gains than uncoached students, and about one-third of them show no gains at all, or actually receive lower scores.

Still, others say test prep can give students an edge, if for no other reason than it can familiarize students with the test format and question style, and can even offer strategy for selecting the right answer.

Mayra Canizales, a 17-year-old senior at Hayward High School, said an SAT preparation class definitely helped raise her score.

She took the SAT three times, eventually raising her score to a 1060 through the help of a 10-week Princeton Review course offered through a UC outreach program.

``There's no way they can teach me in 10 weeks everything you're supposed to know on the SAT,'' Canizales said. ``So it was more strategies on how to take the test, on how to break it down.''

Canizales said the class taught her how to tackle the easiest questions first and save the hardest ones for the end - time allowing. She also found out that a small number of unanswered questions don't count against her score, so she didn't guess on questions she didn't know.

PrepPoint's Holtz said she offers her students strategies for getting the most out of the test, as well as overall academic tutoring. She preaches ``pacing'' - spending the most time on easy and medium-skill questions, and either skipping the hardest questions or saving them until last.

She also focuses on helping students decipher the questions, figuring out what the test is asking for and how to get to the correct answer, as well as helping them bone up on basic skills.

Foothill High School junior Rachelle Vogt, 16, of Pleasanton said her tutoring sessions with Holtz have helped. Vogt, who will take the SAT for the second time on May 1, is hoping the sessions will help her raise her score to her personal goal: a 1200.

``The SAT is tricky,'' Vogt said. ``They try to trick you, and you've got to know what they're asking for.''

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Holtz helped guide Vogt through a two-inch thick SAT workbook of algebra and geometry equations.

Vogt got stuck on a word problem. ``I don't understand,'' she said, ``what's this four tablespoons?''

``Four tablespoons has nothing to do with the problem,'' Holtz answered. ``They just throw it in there to confuse you.''

``Well, I am confused,'' Vogt replied, before going back and re-reading the question.

Vogt said sessions with Holtz are helping her navigate the questions, as well as boosting her confidence.

Johnny Lorigo, head counselor at Castlemont High School in Oakland, has seen first-hand how test prep classes and tutoring can help students. He said students who took an eight-week SAT course, offered free for students until budget cuts strained district finances, consistently raised their scores between 200 and 300 points - that's the difference between a not-so-stellar 900 and a respectable 1100.

``In terms of whether it helps, there's no question in my mind that it does,'' Lorigo said. ``The least thing it does is it provides the student with a constant focus on the SAT. They don't lose track of it during this intensive period of time.''

Pricey options

For the most part, SAT preparation doesn't come cheap, although many companies offer scholarships and assistance for needy students.

Prices vary by business and service. PrepPoint charges between $55 to $65 an hour for its tutoring services, and Kaplan, a national test prep company, offers an in-classroom 14-week SAT preparation class for $799, among other services.

SAT prep sessions in math and English at Mill Creek Academy in Fremont run $550 each - $1,100 for both - although scholarships are available.

Mill Creek Director Cheri Block Sabraw opened the center in 1998 to teach writing seminars, but the business expanded about a year and a half later to offer SAT preparation.

Today, about 250 students each year take test prep at Mill Creek, Sabraw said.

``The competition, for the UCs in particular, has become so fierce in the last five years that preparation, which was once probably just an extra for some families, now they consider it a necessity,'' Sabraw said.

In some circles, test prep has become such a given that it's starting to concern those who study equity issues in education. They worry it's a service available mostly to children in wealthy and middle-class homes.

That concern led Christopher Roe to phase out a for-profit tutoring and test prep company he started 10 years ago in Palo Alto and help found a non-profit organization that helps low-income and minority students get into and succeed in college. The Foundation for a College Education, based in East Palo Alto, serves 80 students at both the high school and college level.

A body of data has shown a correlation between family income levels and SAT scores, with children from wealthier families consistently scoring higher.

Roe, who is completing his master's degree at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, reluctantly recommends test preparation courses for students gearing up for the SAT. If nothing else, he said, they learn the ``SAT formula.''

``I hate to recommend that because from an educational and pedagogical standpoint, I just can't support it,'' he said. ``But we're talking about life chances for a student and his family, and I have to recommend they do it, that they buy into the system.''

Mindful of the potential strain on families' pocketbooks, Hayward High counselor Wayne Robinson said he only directs students to free SAT preparation options, such as online services and a free preparation class the school's Parent Teacher Student Association offers in the weeks leading up to the test.

The class, which meets at 7 a.m., before the first class bell, requires a level of commitment from students, Robinson said.

College dreams

As much as students worry about their score, McGee of University of the Pacific said a low score isn't necessarily ``a kiss of death'' on college aspirations because universities want a broad range of students in order to create a diverse and interesting student body.

``Students don't really know their value beyond their test scores and GPAs,'' McGee said. ``I think everybody should think in those terms, not just the value based on their scores and cumulative grades, but also how their other talents become part of the mosaic the university wants to create.''

Consider Kristopher Howard, an 18-year-old senior at Hayward High, who was nervous about the SAT, especially after he scored a 930 on his first effort.

``The SAT - if you score high, pretty much all the colleges will want you,'' Howard said. ``But I'm not much of a test taker.''

SAT prep classes are expensive, so he pored over workbooks checked out from the library, took free online tests, and used a CD-ROM to prepare before taking the test for a second time. That time, he scored lower.

When it came time to send out college applications, Howard was a little uneasy.

``I thought I might at least get into one,'' he said. ``I figured that the work I've done to try to (better) myself would help.''

In the end, Howard, an athlete who took honors courses and holds a 3.4 GPA, got into three of the nine colleges he applied to, including Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island and Notre Dame College in Ohio.

But it all paled next to this: On April 7, he received an acceptance letter from Morehouse College in Georgia, which counts Martin Luther King Jr. and film director Spike Lee among its alumni.

Howard's mother and grandmother wept, his 11-year-old brother jumped up and down, relatives called with congratulatory messages.

``I'll be the first one in my immediate family,'' he said, ``to go on to university.''