<p>Just read about this. Back to the 1600 format. Goodbye essay. </p>
<p>How long until colleges do not accept scores out of 2400?</p>
<p>The test changes in spring of 2016</p>
<p>Guys dont you notice that the new test is much easier. I mean there is no Hard vocab words and the essay is optional. Srsly, I feel like ripped off</p>
<p>I personally feel the points off for guessing should be kept.</p>
<p>Will subject tests stay the same? Never understood why a Math 1 subject test if you already have a math grade on the SAT. </p>
<p>The writing section was added partially in response to complaints that the old 1600 SAT format favored men. I wonder how long it will be before the college board is sued for removing it.</p>
<p>“As expected, the addition of a “Writing” test narrowed the SAT’s historic gender bias. The male-female score margin fell to 34 points on the combined 600 - 2400 scale. A similar drop occurred when a multiple-choice “writing” section was added to the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) to settle a FairTest civil rights complaint about that exam’s use in awarding National Merit Scholarships (see Examiner, June 1999). Nonetheless, the “new” SAT remains profoundly skewed against females who continue to earn better college grades, the outcome the test supposedly predicts, than their male counterparts with higher test scores.”
<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/sat-score-decline-damages-college-board-credibility-helps-rival-act”>http://www.fairtest.org/sat-score-decline-damages-college-board-credibility-helps-rival-act</a></p>
<p>I am also concerned about the new test being easier. This test is already much too much about working fast and not making careless errors. Dumbing down the content will just make those factors all the more important. I also find it interesting that there will be some no calculator math sections. Personally I think that’s a good idea, but it goes completely against current education fashion in which every textbook and every math course is heavily dependent on the 25-year-old technology of the graphing calculator. </p>
<p>Anybody know if the PSAT will be changing as well?
My D is currently a Freshman and will likely be part of the first group to take the new test in the Spring of 2016.</p>
<p>@cluelessbass—I have not read anything connected to today’s new release, but an article issued last fall said that the current HS freshmen would take a new PSAT fall of their Jr year and a new SAT second semester Jr year. That led me to think that fall of their Jr year would be a good time to take an old format SAT. I do not know if this timetable has been revised.</p>
<p>That timetable agrees with what I have seen. Current freshmen will be the first to take the new PSAT. Glad that my daughter is in 8th grade and will have a look at it before it counts for her. On the other hand, she will have to complete her SAT testing in the fall of the sophomore year if she wants to avoid this new SAT test, which I feel won’t play to her strengths. That is early to complete testing, but for a girl with a large vocabulary whose particular strength is writing, I don’t think the new test format will be as favorable.</p>
<p>@mathyone—I agree that fall of soph year is too early. I plan to have my class of '17 take spring of soph year and then retake fall of Jr year…hopefully. Best laid plans and whatnot. He will take one AP and one subject test this spring so we shall see how self-studying goes. Older son never took a subject test until spring of Jr year but I had him start SAT fall of Jr year. He saw improvement in subsequent sittings so the timing of this seems impossible for a current 8th grader. Hopefully there will be a year of QAS in circulation before she has to take the exam for real.</p>
<p>@jym626—I am guessing that selective schools will still require the essay, and then taking it a step further, I bet the CB will announce a reduced price for the two-part SAT but a higher net price for the SAT + writing. Total speculation on my part!</p>
<p>I think the one is going be easier. </p>
<p>Essay is not completely off the top of your head.
No point deductions for guesses.
Easier and more common vocabulary words. </p>
<p>The grading curve will have to be stricter to keep the new SAT scores relative to the SAT scores now or else we’ll be having too many 1600s.</p>
<p>How can you have a stricter grading curve if the questions are easier? You already need a perfect paper to get an 800 in many cases.</p>
<p>I see also that on the new SAT "Every exam will include a reading passage from either one of the nation’s “founding documents,” such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, or from one of the important discussions of such texts, such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”</p>
<p>With a statement like that, I’d be willing to bet that most high school gov teachers will be going over those documents with a fine tooth comb with their classes. But what happens to kids who don’t encounter these documents until senior year, because that’s when their school teaches US government? Just tough luck? Seems like content shouldn’t be targeted to things that some kids haven’t done in school yet. What would the outcry be if they tested math that was more advanced than many students had yet encountered? </p>
<p>@mathyone—ah, more business for the private tutors that the CB president claims he is trying to discourage!</p>
<p>@cantooo—my HS Sr had a similar reaction! He had already discussed the changes with teammates by the time I saw him. (NYT pushes news alerts to phones.) His younger teammates, sophomores, commented that they will now have to score 800 or look dumb! </p>
<p>Time will tell…</p>
<p>And March 2016 confirmed as first ‘new’ format, for anyone with current HS freshmen looking to schedule Jr year exams with old format.</p>
<p>So the old essay and writing section will be removed.</p>
<p>And absolutely nothing of value was lost.</p>
<p>Easier vocabulary, fewer math concepts tested……</p>
<p>Here is CB’s comparison of the old and new exams.</p>
<p><a href=“About the SAT Suite – SAT Suite | College Board”>https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/compare</a></p>