Photo Credit: CHEYENNE PINO
BY SABRINA VICTOR
As of spring 2016, the College Board has announced the complete redesigning of the SAT in order to reflect high school achievement instead of an “intelligent quotient”. This update was prompted by the College Board losing market share to their rival ACT. The test will return to the 1600 scale and will include changes in the math, reading, and writing sections. But, will these improvements make the SAT a better indicator of college success?
According to Nick Anderson of The Washington Post, the College Board has announced plans to make the SAT a more straight forward test. One of the first major changes is that the essay will become optional and last 50 minutes, instead of 25. The essay will ask students to analyze a given argument rather than take a stance on a question. Students may even be asked to respond to passages written by other authors. This essay better reflects what students will be asked to write in college. The multiple-choice format of the SAT will also undergo a change as well, listing four possible answers to each question instead of five. This will increase the likelihood of students choosing the correct answer which will provide a boost to scores. Like its competitor the ACT, the SAT will no longer deduct points for incorrect answers and will encourage students “to give the best answer they have for every question without fear of being penalized for making their best effort.”
Another change will be to the reading section, which will now take 65 minutes for 52 multiple-choice questions based on several passages. Forty percent of the passages will be in science, 40 percent in history/social studies and 20 percent in literature. The SAT will also incorporate problems that deal with extended thinking, comprehension of graphs and charts, and the ability to respond to texts from the humanities, social studies and sciences. In the writing and language section, students will be given 44 multiple-choice questions based off of four selected passages about careers, history/social studies, humanities and science. Questions based on these topics will better reflect high school curriculum and test the knowledge students have acquired over the course of four years.
The SAT will even use a different method of assessing vocabulary. The College Board has announced plans to remove vocabulary words that Americans rarely use and replace them with words more common in college curriculum. Vocabulary questions will focus more on how these words are used in context and how word choice shapes meaning, tone, and impact. Probably the biggest default in the redesigning of the SAT, the new method of assessing vocabulary will definitely dumb down the test and test for “common words”. SAT vocabulary should demand of students to build their vocabulary, not sway them away from learning new words.
Finally, in the math section, students will have 80 minutes to answer 57 questions. The math section will require students to put away their calculators for 25 of the 80 minutes and will focus more on algebra, problem solving, data analysis, and “passport to advanced math”, which encompasses analyzing and solving quadratic and higher-order equations. Geometry and trigonometry will also be components of the math sections. The SAT will move away from trick questions and instead will assess a higher difficulty of math. This will be effective in actually testing student’s math skills, instead of testing their ability to overcome tricks.
The reconstruction of the SAT to better reflect high school curriculum will definitely be an accurate predictor of the success students will be able to attain in college. Socioeconomic barriers that affect test scores will be hindered since the test will aim to reflect high school curriculum, which will allow everyone to have an equal opportunity to succeed on this achievement test. Therefore, the focus on high school grades as a measure of academic potential will be raised and decrease the stress students accumulate due to test preparation. The SAT will no longer be about “IQ” or “aptitude” and will throw out the tricky questions that are unrelated to what schools teach. The new SAT will be competition for the rival ACT and will definitely lead students closer to the path of success.
