College Board Redesigns SAT Exam Making Essay Portion Optionalhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-05/college-board-redesigns-sat-exam-making-essay-portion-optional.htmlThe College Board will make the essay portion of its SAT admissions test optional starting in 2016 and eliminate esoteric vocabulary words, a move likely to be embraced by high school students and their parents.
Scoring will return to a maximum of 1,600 points for math and evidence-based reading and writing and the optional essay will be scored separately, the College Board, which administers the test, said today. Students will be asked to show critical-thinking skills, such as analyzing source texts from science and history.
The SAT’s overhaul addresses concerns from educators and families about costly preparation for standardized tests and that they “have become disconnected” from high school work, said David Coleman, president and chief executive officer of the College Board. Most U.S. colleges require a standardized exam, either the SAT or ACT, as a factor in determining admission qualifications. The College added a mandatory essay in 2005.
“We’ve also been listening to students and their families for whom these tests are often mysterious and filled with unproductive anxiety,” Coleman said, according to a copy of a speech he made today in Austin, Texas. “They are skeptical that either the SAT or the ACT allows them to show their best work.”
For the first time last year, the SAT lost ground to ACT Inc., in the number of test takers. Also, 4,400 fewer students in the high school Class of 2013 took the SAT compared with the previous class, crimping potential revenue for the New York-based College Board. The ACT has an optional essay.
‘Completely Artificial’
From the start, the essay portion has been a lightning rod for criticism for the SAT. Many college admissions officers failed to find that the essay added value to the prediction of writing in college, John McGrath, a College Board spokesman, said in an e-mail.
Les Perelman, a writing instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been a critic of the essay since its inception. On MIT’s OpenCourseWare website, he calls the SAT essay “a completely artificial and unnatural piece of writing.”
Perelman advises students to fill both pages and use “big words” such as plethora and myriad, even if they have the wrong connotation.
“Details count,” according to the Website. “Factual accuracy doesn’t.”
The College Board generates revenue from exam fees and by selling the names and information about student test-takers to colleges, which then send information to potential applicants. The group charges $51 for the SAT and $89 for Advanced Placement exams and sells other services.
More Changes
As a counter to the test-prep industry whose costly offerings are out of reach of many low-income students, the College Board, working with the nonprofit Khan Academy, will expand its range of free SAT study materials.
Students who meet income qualifications to take the test at no cost can apply to four colleges for free, without having to ask the schools for fee waivers.
More details about the exam will be available in April. Select sites will offer computer-based testing, and decisions about locations are being determined.
A total of 1.66 million students in the high school class of 2013 took the SAT. ACT, based in Iowa City, Iowa, reported 1.8 million test takers, an 8 percent increase from the previous year.
