<p>New SAT To Bring Back 1600-Point Scale -- With Optional Essay</p>
<p>The most interesting points I thought were that guessing will no longer be penalized and that vocabulary is being deemphasized. I also thought it amusing that they will have passages based on “founding documents” or the like. Pandering much?</p>
<p>Yes well, it was inevitable that the SAT would move closer to the ACT…that has been snail’s pace happening for quite awhile since they started losing market share.</p>
<p>The two tests have been converging for decades. This particular change is going to move the SAT closer to the ACT on an important spectrum, which is coachability. It’s the vocab portion that has historically made the SAT tougher to coach. Khan Academy notwithstanding, from my point of view as a test prep tutor, this will be good for business. (All changes are good for business in the short term, as parents and students feel nervous about the unfamiliar. But this one is good for the long term.)</p>
<p>The elimination of the guessing penalty is probably a slight detriment to those who derive the expected value of guessing themselves, or apply what they learned in AP statistics to the problem. But it may benefit the more risk-averse people who have not done that.</p>
<p>It would not be surprising if some schools asked students to do the “optional” essay.</p>
<p>Lovely. It really doesn’t matter for us anymore. But my DD was caught in the SAT change adding the writing section and revamping the CR. no, the colleges didn’t give two hoots about the writing section when she was applying that first year with the format. BUT it did make the test administration time just that much longer that it went from bad to awful. </p>
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<p>A lot of schools will probably require the optional essay and then give little consideration to the essay score when making admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Already some threads about this in the SAT forum.</p>
<p>"I also thought it amusing that they will have passages based on “founding documents” or the like. " It’s curriculum-based testing that is not aligned with our school’s curriculum. Kids in our school don’t study those documents until sometime in senior year. I’m not one bit amused.</p>
<p>So I guess that means a change in the PSAT as well?</p>
<p>@HarvestMoon1—this year’s 9th graders will sit for the ‘new’ PSAT fall of their Jr year, or their NMSQT. Students who also take PSAT as 10th graders (PPSAT!), will take the old version, confusing them further.</p>
<p>Here is CB’s summary of the differences between the old and new tests.
<a href=“About the SAT Suite – SAT Suite | College Board”>https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/compare</a></p>
<p>I agree that we will see colleges asking for the essay and I bet the SAT + Essay price will be more than the current SAT three-part exam price. The new test strikes me as a dumbing down.</p>
<p>So even though the new SAT will not be released until the Spring of 2016, the new PSAT will come out in the preceding Fall?</p>
<p>Funny thing is, this is going to convince even more students to take the ACT the first few years until everyone gets a grip on the new SAT. And I think this new test was in response to the huge increase in the number of students sitting for the ACT in recent years. </p>
<p>The completion time for the 2 will be almost identical. But it seems SAT will still not be self paced. </p>
<p><a href=“The Story Behind the SAT Overhaul - The New York Times”>The Story Behind the SAT Overhaul - The New York Times;
<p>Thanks for posting the article.</p>
<p>I agree with what Calkins wrote about David Coleman, president of the College Board.</p>
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<p>We don’t see the presence of the colleges and educators in this redesign.</p>
<p>From that article, “It is a problem that it’s opaque to students what’s on the exam.” Come on. Back when I took the SAT, before truth in testing laws, the first actual full length test I ever saw was the one I took. Perhaps that was opaque, but the test prep books weren’t so far off even decades ago. Today’s students can access test questions on the web and can prep with a whole book full of actual administered SAT tests. How is this opaque in any way?</p>
<p>I’ll be personally indifferent to this, but to me the one piece of good news here is the partnership with Khan Academy and a focused attempt to arrest the slide of standardized testing into just another rich kids’ advantage game. I’m not sure that can be done completely, but I applaud the attempt. </p>
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<p>I think schools will continue to ask for the essays. I’ve read that colleges who request the essays (even though they don’t consider the score) use them to gauge how much outside polishing went into the essay submitted with the student’s application. Another stated use is class placement (English 101 or a 091 prereq). I think they could help swing the vote in admissions decisions too, when schools are deciding between students who are otherwise very similar.</p>
<p>Test prep has always been available for the price of a book and the willingness to set time aside to practice. I doubt that the free online services of a test prep company will be much help. The students still have to sit down and focus on the exam and put in some time in order to benefit.
What the best test-prep companies offer is a real live coach who can give individualized prep tailored to the students’ weaknesses and help for kids who just don’t have the interest or ability to study on their own. Test prep will still be something those (parents) who can afford it, and who have kids with academic weaknesses, will seek out. As Hanna says, I don’t think this will reduce the demand for professional test prep or the “rich kids’ advantage” one bit. The driver of expensive test prep is the parents, not the kids, for the most part.</p>
<p>The rich kids’ advantage isn’t primarily about expensive test prep – and I say that as someone who sells expensive test prep. It’s primarily about 16 years of environment and education. Expensive test prep is an additional, secondary advantage.</p>
<p>I agree with moonchild that the single most important thing any test prep program can offer is structure. Most adults do not have the discipline to sit down to frustrating drudgery with an uncertain payoff several hours a week for months on end without a coach making them do it. It goes without saying that most of us don’t have that discipline at 15-16. Unless you have an extraordinarily diligent kid, or a cognitive testing nerd like me (I thought the test itself was fascinating), you won’t see the benefits of test prep without structure.</p>