US University【D1】______Exams: A. SAT A combination of high school grades and SAT scores is believed to be【D2】______of freshm

Admissions exams are a requirement to enter almost any US university. In the United States, the two most common university admissions exams are the SAT and the ACT. More than 3 million students take at least one of these tests every year.
    Why do universities require these tests? "The best predictor of success during the first year is a combination of your high school grades and SAT scores, " says one spokesperson for the College Entrance Examination Board, which oversees the SAT. " We’re 95 percent certain that a valid connection exists between ACT scores and freshman grades," agrees a representative for the ACT Program.
    Different regions of the United States seem to prefer one test over the other. For students along the East and West coasts—and applicants to America’s top ranked universities—the SAT seems to be the exam of choice. Throughout the Southeast, Midwest, and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States, more students take the ACT Assessment. However, the majority of America’s 3, 600 colleges and universities—from Harvard and M. I. T. to local community colleges—accept scores from either test.
    The SAT was established in 1926, when 8, 000 students completed the first test: a nine-subject multiple-choice test. The Educational Testing Service designed the SAT as a way for schools with limited space to select the best students. After World War II, many state university systems began admitting greater numbers of students and simply needed a method for testing students to place them in the proper courses. Researchers at the University of Iowa developed the ACT for this purpose in 1959.