<p>Washington Post:</p>
<p>"The SAT college admission test will no longer require a timed essay, will dwell less on fancy vocabulary and will return to the familiar 1600-point scoring scale in a major overhaul intended to open doors to higher education for students who are now shut out."</p>
<p>The change is two years away.</p>
<p>There will be an optional 50 minute essay.</p>
<p>So, will colleges start requiring “SAT plus essay”? </p>
<p>^^^^
Probably most colleges will require “SAT plus essay”. Most of the competitive schools want as much as possible with which to evaluate a candidate. Wondering when they will release practice tests and this sort of thing. I mean they cannot expect this first round of kids to go in blind. This seems to be a major overhaul. And what is with the documents from the founding fathers thing? So the kids analyze them or what?</p>
<p>also, no more penalizing guesses!</p>
<p>I like the “no extra penalty” for wrong answers. Too many kids were afraid to guess after eliminating a wrong answer or two.</p>
<p>Just read this as well. Fascinating. </p>
<p>I have heard people say that the writing section is not taken seriously by colleges, anyway: does anyone know if that is true?
And I think there is a big difference between a 25-minute and a 50-minute essay, in terms of showing writing skill.
I like the approach taken by Middlebury, options of submitting ACT, SAT, or three SAT2s. Choose what showcases you best.</p>
<p>They all sound like welcome changes. Too late for my HS junior daughter…but sounds positive for future test takers!</p>
<p>“No penalty for guessing”, “optional essay”, and “grounded in what is taught in high school”… It sounds like the SAT is becoming more like the ACT.</p>
<p>“We’re not just chasing market share here, I can assure you that,” said Shirley Ort, a top financial aid official at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who is vice chair of the College Board’s governing board.”</p>
<p>Ha!</p>
<p>And oh, my goodness, have I mentioned how glad I will be to be done with all of this nonsense before the changes take place? </p>
<p>^^^ <em>cough</em></p>
<p>I wonder if more will take the ACT given this?</p>
<p>It seemed as if the essay section was never well received. Many colleges do not use the essay section in evaluating applicants.</p>
<p>These sound pretty great, and I think I’d probably do better with such changes in place (alas, it’s too late). However, it does sound like these tests will, overall, be losing what exactly makes them hard (weird vocab in CR and width in math). I’m curious as to what kind of changes they’ll put in place so that a 1600 on the new scale will be worth similar to what it is now, and ensure that a 1580 isn’t in the 98th percentile.</p>
<p>This just made my day 
:D</p>
<p>My daughter already jumped to the ACT. She took both exams and chose to focus on the ACT. She felt the ACT was more straightforward, didn’t try to trip you up on question format. The SAT felt like a test that tested how well you took tests (I hope that made sense). The ACT felt like a test that tested what you learned. No tricks. </p>
<p>Slackermom-exactly. I suspect the College Board made these changes precisely because for the first time last year, the number of students who took the ACT outnumbered those who took the SAT’s for exactly that reason.</p>
<p>@Slackermom - my boys focused on the ACT for the same reasons. </p>
<p>Is it true though that there is a time issue with the ACT? Meaning that it is very difficult to get through the whole test in the time allotted?</p>
<p>If colleges wanted to read essays, they are better off reading a kid’s timed essay than those attached to the applications which have gone through repeated editing and polished beyond recognition since people have so much time to concentrate on the topic.</p>
<p>They should ignore the score on the essay though.</p>