A Year Later—Update on the New SAT
The new SAT, as it is commonly referred to in the test prep world, was officially launched for the first time on March 5, 2016, and has subsequently been administered seven additional times—most recently on May 6, 2017. As we recently passed the first-year anniversary, we thought it would be helpful to report on what has transpired in the world of the new SAT since its March 2016 debut. How Hard Is It? After years of little movement in high school students’ average SAT scores, the scores went up rather significantly after the first administration of the new SAT. The average composite score on the old three-section SAT (each section worth 800 points) was 1500, while the average for the new two-section SAT (each section worth 800 points) is 1090. This represents about a 45-point increase per section. Theories quickly surfaced as to why the scores went up—for example, some felt that the new test had been “dumbed down,” that more relevant content based on what students actually learned in school allowed them to excel, and that the College Board was inflating scores to better compete with the ACT (in 2012 the ACT surpassed the SAT and became the most widely used college admissions test in the U.S.). Rumors and theories aside, it is true that students are no longer penalized for choosing an incorrect answer and that they also have more time to answer each question on the test. The consensus in the test prep community is that the score increase is a “natural” lift resulting from changes to the test and that that is a perfectly reasonable explanation. What Is the Problem with the Math Sections? According to a recent Reuters report, the design of the new SAT is defective. The math sections of the test include text-dense word problems that can cause difficulties for English-language learners, international students, and students with undiagnosed learning challenges such as dyslexia. Generally speaking, these text-heavy math sections can marginalize the performance of students who do well in math but struggle in reading. Preparing our Students for Success in a Global Age! Copyright © 2017 Esoteric Academic Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved. New York, NY 10003 +1-646-481-8216 info@e-academicsolutions.com [1]