And the SAT with essay.
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Good riddance.
This news has been all over counselor listservs the last few days as some students and counselors were evidently told the news by CB customer service peeps.
Edited to add: CB is also dropping the SAT essay (in the same compass prep announcement)
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I wonder if AP and IB tests will hold more weight in admissions.
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I wonder that too, but many applicants don’t have access to AP tests, or can’t take them until jr year…so many of the AP scores aren’t available at application time. Maybe teachers will be asked to predict the senior year scores ala IB scores?
This greatly affects homeschooled students, who often take SAT2 tests and submit the scores to help with their admission chances (showing how they compare with other applicants in a standardized way). This puts more emphasis on AP test results…and AP tests are difficult for many homeschooled students to take, given that many schools won’t allow homeschooled students to take AP exams (we’ve been fortunate in that we have a great private school nearby that always lets my kids take their AP exams there).
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Yes, true. So I also wonder, will College Board, or even high schools, make AP tests more affordable to those who can’t afford them? Will high schools encourage more kids to take AP classes earlier in high school? I know that at many high schools, kids are prevented from taking AP classes until they are sophomores or even juniors.
I just looked at CB’s website. There is no mention yet of the tests being discontinued. I can only assume that CB must have lost a ton of money over the course of 2020 and will continue to do so. I guess they can’t afford any more losses and not many colleges still want subject test scores.
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Is the writing on the wall for the main SAT test itself?
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Perhaps the writing should be on the wall for David Coleman. From all appearances, he has driven College Board into the ground.
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Sorry- just to clarify, the SAT subject tests will no longer be offered and that information is coming out on the 21st? Wow!
It’s now official. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sat-ending-essay-subject-tests/2021/01/19/ac82cdd8-574a-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html]
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Another revision to the main SAT? For what purpose? To accelerate its obsolescence? What do “more flexible” and “streamlined” mean?
Most say that AOs consider the grade in the AP class, not so much the score on the AP exam so it seems it should not result in an uptick in kids taking the AP exams?
I can see the issue for homeschoolers though and hopefully this can be addressed.
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Just thinking out loud, to the extent APs become more important (grades and/or exam scores), there are issues with access for students at disadvantaged high schools which offer few to no APs.
Meanwhile, when you have a high school student about to make course selections for next year, or a middle schooler about to choose a high school, the demise - or at least reduction in importance - of standardized testing has important foreseeable effects (further pressure to get high grades and at least have the appearance of sufficiently rigorous transcript). Choose the high school, and courses within it, carefully, and mind that GPA.
It will be interesting to see how Georgetown updates its testing recommendations.
If a test is no longer required, the logic dictates that fewer and fewer students will take it. The economics will then decide the fate of the test.
Which test? There are no more Subject Tests, and I don’t think anyone has said that AP Tests will no longer be required?
While I agree with this, at least in the recent past, many people believe AP scores are very important admissions data. This would make that argument stronger, though so few students took Subject Tests and so few schools used them that it probably will have little impact.
Does discontinuing a test that has been used by fewer and fewer schools, and taken by fewer and fewer students every year imply that a test taken by a record breaking number of students every year is doomed?
No, I don’t think so.
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Here is the statement from the College Board. An Update on Reducing and Simplifying Demands on Students – All Access | College Board
- Discontinuing subject tests
- Discontinuing optional essay
- Digital SAT
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If AP scores become more important for college admission (as opposed to getting advanced placement upon entering college), that will increase the pressure to take AP courses and tests in 11th grade or earlier so that scores would be available for college applications. That could increase the tendency to engage in the math race (to get to calculus earlier than 12th grade) or try to collect elective AP courses and scores (human geography, psychology, statistics, environmental science, etc.) early, possibly displacing other core courses (e.g. foreign language level 3 and 4, physics).
Have any AP tests ever been required for admission by US universities?