A new version of the SAT college entrance exam is hitting schools across the country, reportedly revised to better reflect “real-world learning.”
Bradford Area High School Principal David Ray spoke with The Era about the change, saying it offers a “cleaner, more simplified format” for students.
Ray said he thinks the test needed to change, having not been updated since 2005.
“The world has changed a lot in the last 10 years. The skills needed by post-secondary students and skilled workers have changed. The skills being taught by high schools have changed,” he explained. “The new SAT is a better test of a student’s preparedness and ability to succeed in post-secondary and the workforce. This test is more difficult, but the academic skills needed in today’s world are better represented.”
As to the specific changes, Ray said in some ways the new test is a bit harder and in others it is more streamlined for the student.
“In reading, it’s more concrete and you could say more difficult, but it’s more relevant in terms of what people need to do in the real world,” he explained. “Overall, the reading section is also more representative of the skills students will need to deal with the large amount of difficult reading they will face in college.”
Students have to be able to analyze complex passages, use evidence-based reasoning to pull out information from the passages and show their reading abilities are at a level needed for today’s society, according to Ray.
“In math, the test includes higher level mathematics than the old SAT — the old SAT was introductory algebra and geometry concepts,” he said. “The new SAT includes these, plus higher level algebra as well as trigonometry concepts.”
The new SAT also includes a “no calculator” section, whereas the old SAT allowed students to use calculators on the entire math section. “Overall, the math section is more difficult and also more representative of the math students will need to be proficient at prior to entering college,” Ray said.
There is also no penalty for guessing on the redesigned exam and the essay is optional.
“That will eliminate a lot of the strategy/uncertainty of guess/don’t guess — how sure are you of your answer/should you guess — from the test,” Ray said. “There’s no benefit to leaving questions unanswered.
“As far as the essay,” he continued, “if you are a borderline student in terms of your high school grades but a solid writer, the essay may gain you entry into a university.”
Ray said many universities — such as Penn State University — will require students complete the essay section to apply for admission.
“Before deciding to complete/not to complete the essay section, students will need to know if the colleges they are applying to will require it,” he said. “Colleges will see the essay section as a measure of a student’s ability to skillfully use the English language. If a student can show this ability, it will only help them in the college admission process.”
The new test is actually somewhat similar to the ACT, the rival test of the SAT, according to Ray. “This test is formatted like the ACT with the exception of the no calculator section of the SAT,” he said. “It’s a much cleaner, simplified format with only one reading and one math section. The old SAT had multiple reading and math sections, and the essay is now optional like the essay on the ACT.”
Ray agrees with College Board claims that the new SAT is representative of the course of study and the skills students will need in college and beyond in life.
“Our students who took the pilot exam in December also agree,” he said, noting 29 students took the pilot test. “Their overall feedback was that the new SAT was a more relevant exam in terms of what they are learning at Bradford High, but that it was also a difficult exam.”
Those students will take the new SAT in March.
Ray said the new test focuses on real-world learning and analysis rather than arcane vocabulary words — as the old test was often perceived. “The new SAT is less focused on the memorized ‘SAT-type words’, and it eliminates the ‘dreaded’ analogies section,” he said. “There’s a new focus on sentence structure and the use of vocabulary in context. Students need to show that they know how to use vocabulary in reading and writing — not just that they’ve memorized the definition of the word.”
He believes the new SAT also acknowledges the issue of fairness in standardized testing.
“With the old SAT, there was a good deal of evidence that students who could afford and had access to private tutoring did significantly better than students who didn’t receive private tutoring,” Ray said. “The new SAT is affiliated with Khan Academy (a free online tutoring organization), and students can prepare as much as they wish for no cost to them or their parents.
“This makes the test prep playing field somewhat more level,” he added. “But, that said, we still encourage that all BAHS students planning take the SAT take our SAT prep course offered as part of our course of study.”
Ray noted the test-prep fairness issue hasn’t been eliminated entirely with the new test, but the College Board has admitted that it does exist and that students who don’t prepare for the test don’t do as well as those who do.
“That’s why they are offering free online tutoring. This is also why we will continue to offer SAT Prep as part of our course offerings,” he said.
“We have been aware of these upcoming changes for over a year, so I don’t see (the first students to take the new test) as guinea pigs,” Ray said. “All students who take the SAT will take the new SAT beginning in March so the playing field will be level in those terms.”
He foresees the biggest issue to be students who tested through the end of January under the old SAT and then test again under the new test. “College Board (the non-profit organization that owns the SAT) has a system in place to convert/compare old to new scores, but the transition (could) be somewhat confusing,” Ray said.
Officials from other schools across the country reported to the Associated Press that students had been registering in great numbers to take the old test, but Ray said this is not the case at Bradford High. Surprisingly, he said, there was no measurable change in the number of students taking the final offering of the old test version at the end of January.
“We typically have about 70 students take the January test at BAHS,” Ray said. “Students and parents don’t seem to be particularly concerned that this is the last ‘old’ SAT. There wasn’t a rush to sign up before the test change.”
In general, Ray is not confident that the new test will result in higher scores for local students.
“The inclusion of higher level math (trigonometry) will cause some student’s math scores to fall, and the reading will challenge our students who are proficient but not advanced readers,” he stated. “That said, I don’t think we’ll see our scores in comparison to schools in Pennsylvania and in the United States change significantly. Overall, I suspect scores across the country will fall.”
