Worried About the New SAT? Here’s the Skinny on the New Test
As an educator, the SAT looks like it’s going to be a much better test. It will test the student’s ability to read, write and edit essays, and solve math problems.
Nervous? Unlike its predecessor, it’s going ask questions to test overall reading and math comprehension skills rather than asking specific questions for an answer to a particular word or phrase in an essay or the final solution to a math equation.
In other words, for reading, they’ll require that students actually read the whole passage to determine the author’s point of view; and for math, they’ll provide a word problem that the student needs to solve or a table/chart that the student needs to analyze. Makes sense, right? The good news is that they’re giving students over an hour for the reading sections; the bad news is that they’re giving the students over an hour for the reading sections. Huh? The reading is dense and students seem to struggle staying focused on the long reading sections, even with the extended time allowed.
The new reading section is similar to the ACT and follows the Common Core theme. The new SAT is not going to use ridiculously difficult vocabulary so students won’t have to memorize thousands of “SAT words” to prepare for the exam like in the past. That’s really good news! And best of all, they will stop docking that ¼ point for guessing. Finally!
Want to know more? Keep reading.
The reading passages will include reading in the sciences and the College Board will pull a science score from the math, reading, and writing sections. In other words, the new SAT won’t have an actual science section like the ACT but there will be a science score.
While there will be a writing section, the majority of the writing score will focus on finding grammar problems or better ways to write a phrase or sentence. The essay section now requires real evidence. In the old SAT, a student could write an essay and support it with fictitious facts. No more. The new essay is evidence-based.
The math section, however, is radically different from the ACT. It follows the Common Core philosophy of math fluency and comprehension. It is reading-heavy with big word problems. They’re testing fluency rather than solving equations.
70% of the math questions are word problems in the new SAT. The “no calculator” section has more long division and multiplying decimals, which can be difficult for students who are used to using their calculator for simple math. The new SAT is all about algebra (both Alg 1 and Alg 2) and has very little geometry (only 1 or 2 problems), but it does have statistics. The goal for the new SAT is to test more applied math concepts. The ACT has all of the algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
As a college advisor, the new SAT is worrisome because many students don’t have strong critical reading skills and most students don’t like math word problems. So if you are a good reader with good comprehension skills, the new SAT might be a good fit.
On the other hand, if you are a quick reader and can handle doing more problems in a shorter period of time, then the ACT might be a better fit. In the next few years, all of the colleges will determine which portions of the SAT and ACT that they’ll use in making admissions decisions. My bet is that the new SAT will be revered as a better signifier of success in college than the ACT or the old SAT.
The first new SAT will be offered in March 2016, but the scores won’t be available until after the May exam. The College Board will use both the March and the May exams to create the new curve. That said, don’t take the March test because you won’t get your results in time to help you prepare for the next sitting. Everyone is expecting twice as many students to take the ACT in 2016 as a result.
I recommend that juniors take the January 2016 SAT (the old version) because it’s a test we understand. Take the ACT to see how you score, and then take the new SAT in May or June. You’ll still have plenty of time to prepare for the fall 2016 SAT and ACT test dates.