College Board announces SAT revisions

College Board announces SAT revisions

Julia-Rose Kibben, Neely Metz, and Delaney Moslander
March 18, 2014

 

College Board President David Coleman has announced major changes to the SAT, starting in spring 2016, affecting over a million college-bound students
“I am very happy about the new changes,” freshman Izzy Pontecorvo said. “I’m not as stressed because the test now seems like something I could handle.”
The College Board plans to work closely with Khan Academy,  free, non-profit online education system, to provide preparation resources for the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
“I’m thrilled that students get to rely on their own devices and also on free resources, rather than the SAT being a privilege that people have to pay to prepare for,” Academic Support Director Patricia Monticello Kievlan said.
Vocabulary words will be included in text excerpts, allowing students to answer based on the context in which they are used. Vocabulary should be more relevant and apply to students’ lives outside of the test, according to the College Board.
“It seems like it would be easier because the essay is optional and the vocab is more relatable,” senior Margaux Gaede said.
The new test will focus on three major sections; evidence-based reading and writing, math, and the optional essay. The reading and writing section as well as the math section will each be scored out of 800 points, while the essay will be scored separately.
“It’s going to have a greater focus on interpreting data, on analyzing rhetorical devices and rhetorical efficacy,”  Monticello Kievlan said. “It’s going to be a lot more about testing the stuff that students actually know and learn in high school.”

Delaney Moslander, Neely Metz, Julia-Rose Kibben
Reporters

College Board President David Coleman has announced major changes to the SAT, starting in spring 2016, affecting over a million college-bound students

“I am very happy about the new changes,” freshman Izzy Pontecorvo said. “I’m not as stressed because the test now seems like something I could handle.”

The College Board plans to work closely with Khan Academy,  free, non-profit online education system, to provide preparation resources for the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

“I’m thrilled that students get to rely on their own devices and also on free resources, rather than the SAT being a privilege that people have to pay to prepare for,” Academic Support Director Patricia Monticello Kievlan said.

Vocabulary words will be included in text excerpts, allowing students to answer based on the context in which they are used. Vocabulary should be more relevant and apply to students’ lives outside of the test, according to the College Board.

“It seems like it would be easier because the essay is optional and the vocab is more relatable,” senior Margaux Gaede said.

The new test will focus on three major sections; evidence-based reading and writing, math, and the optional essay. The reading and writing section as well as the math section will each be scored out of 800 points, while the essay will be scored separately.

“It’s going to have a greater focus on interpreting data, on analyzing rhetorical devices and rhetorical efficacy,”  Monticello Kievlan said. “It’s going to be a lot more about testing the stuff that students actually know and learn in high school.”