Last month, the College Board announced that the SAT will be undergoing many major changes in the near future. Why the changes? Some are speculating that the SAT’s competition forced the College Board to revise the test. Over the past few years, the ACT has become an increasingly popular test among high school students who are preparing for college. In 2011, the number of students taking the ACT surpassed those taking the SAT for the first time ever.

The ACT is a test compromised of four longer sections: math, reading comprehension, writing, and science, as well as an optional essay. Unlike the SAT, the ACT is known to be less conceptual and more subject-based; however, the time limits are notoriously demanding.

David Coleman, President of the College Board  Credit: Flickr Creative Commons
David Coleman, President of the College Board
Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

On the other hand, the SAT is split up into nine shorter sections: three math sections, three critical reading sections, and three writing sections, one of which is a mandatory essay. Upon reevaluating the SAT in its current form, the College Board noted a flaw in how the test shifts away from what students learn in high school. College Board president David Coleman announced,“The test will include three sections — evidence-based reading and writing, math, and an optional essay — each retooled to stop students from simply filling a bubble on the test sheet.”

Vocabulary tested on the new version of the test will focus more on usage of familiar words and less on definitions of extremely specialized and distant words. The test is also going back to its original grading scale of a score out of 1600 points rather than 2400. The new evidence-based reading section will cover themes commonly taught in schools under categories of science, history, social studies, and literature. Changes in SAT math are also on the horizon: whereas the current SAT allows calculators for every math question, the new SAT will prohibit calculator use on part of the math section and will narrow its focus to include fewer concepts.

Additionally, the essay is changing from a mandatory component to an optional one. Some believe that the current essay topics are unreasonably broad and seemingly irrelevant to students’ daily lives. Students don’t get the opportunity to fully express their opinions because they are limiting what they right to fit a sort of formulaic structure. In the new essay, students will be asked to analyze a passage and respond to the author’s tones and intentions.

Students will also be granted the opportunity to take the new SAT on the computer; currently,  it’s offered only on paper.

Student takes his SAT test  Credit: Wikimedia Comons
Credit: Wikimedia Common

 


I interviewed Hewitt students across grade levels of the Upper School to survey different responses of the upcoming SAT changes.

Hewitt Times: Are you aware of the new changes to the SAT? If so, how do you think you’ll be affected by them since you’ll be the first grade to take them?

Olivia Frejka ’17: I am aware of the changes, and I think that they will benefit us, but [they] will also pose some challenges because nobody can assume what will be on the test because of the sudden change. Personally, these changes will benefit me because hopefully there will be a little less stress than what they say people are getting from the current test.


HT: As a junior dealing with the SATs and ACTs, which one do you prefer and why?

Nicki Feldbaum ’15: Even though I like the idea of the ACT better (with it being based on what you learn in school, hence testing what you actually know without requiring rote memorization), I find that I actually prefer the SAT. It’s a bit heretical to say, as I don’t really approve of the way it’s run because if you learn how to take it (not learn the material, just the strategies for taking it), you can do quite well.  My problem with the ACT, though, is that it’s mind-numbingly boring to take. The math section requires no thought, the science section makes for drier reading than the dictionary, and the two English sections simply aren’t interesting.


HT:  I hear you took both the ACT and SAT. As a senior who is nearly done with the college process, which one did you prefer and why?

Becky Aydin ’14: When it was all said and done, I think I preferred the SAT ever so slightly. I started out with the intention of taking both, so I studied for the February ACT and then shifted gears to study for the June SAT afterwards. Ultimately, I chose to retake only one of the two tests and that was the SAT this past October. I found that the SAT bore more resemblance to the ERBs and WRAPs we took throughout middle school, and I liked that familiarity. The ACT was more of a time crunch and personally I wasn’t a fan of the science section (I felt it was rushed and that the passages were often unclear), but overall the test was manageable. I think the ACT’s structure of completing all questions of a section type (English, math, reading, science) at one time was more satisfying than the SAT’s structure of jumping between types of sections.


Many people have different views on the test rennovations; some argue that the new SAT will be more straightforward and easier overall, while others disagree completely. The new test has intentions of moving away from the learning how to take the test through familiarity of predictable “tricks.” The SAT has lost thousands of students over the past years to the ACT, and ultimately the College Board hopes that the updates will lure those students back to help the SAT regain the title of the most popular standardized test when it comes to college entrance.

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