When I first heard about the two standardized test options— the SAT and the ACT— the SAT made the most sense for me. Since I am not much of a scientist, a college test option that didn’t have science seemed perfect for me. As I started to prepare for the SAT, I became frustrated with the strategies I needed to learn to be successful on the test. Since the test is not intuitive, I decided to seek professional tutoring which resulted in costing me a lot of money. The combination of an obscure vocabulary list, an arcane quarter of a point deduction for wrong answers, ridiculously expensive tutors, and the trickiness of the SAT’s questions made me realize this test would not reflect my best academic abilities nor my future success in the working world. The ACT and its preparation seemed more relevant to what I was doing in high school and to the real world—unlike the current SAT.

Recently, the College Board stated that in 2016 the SAT would undergo some drastic changes to fix some of the current problems. Some think the changes to the 2016 SAT will make it easier and therefore lower student’s standards. The new vocabulary list, the critical reading criteria, and the math material for the 2016 SAT will reveal and test students academic capabilities in a college and career-based environment.

One of a student’s biggest fears about the SAT is what words will they be required to know—also known as “SAT words.” College Board President David Coleman says their need to be “worthy challenges, not artificial obstacles.” The challenges students face now are words along the lines of “diaphanous” and “sagacity,” words that are rarely used outside of the test. By using such obscure words, the test creators only serve to confuse the test takers. One of the only ways these words are learned for the SAT is by repetitive usage of notecards: a method that teachers know won’t expand a person’s knowledge. Coleman also says that when the SAT is in season, students “stop reading and start flipping [notecards].” The new vocabulary system will focus less on memorizing the word itself, but more on learning the context of the word.

In addition, the reading comprehension will undergo beneficial changes. According to Susan J. Berger, “critical reading scores are the lowest in 40 years” in Valerie Strauss’ research. I shared this statistic with my ACT tutor, Susan Mazier, from Atlanta, Georgia. She responded candidly with, “The topics test creators pick are designed to be long, drawn-out, and bore you easily with no relevance to students.” These reading topics have no connection to what students learn in high school. The passages are written to stump one with vocabulary and to bore them. Kent Williamson, the executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English, says, “[critical] [reading] didn’t appear to be a very good predictor of real student success.” The 2016 SAT plans to have texts from science and history that one can analyze similar to class. That way, the passages correlate with the subjects students learn in school. The College Board wants to add a reading section on the new SAT “drawn from ‘founding documents’ like the Declaration of Independence,” says Kimberly Hefling from the Press Democrat. This is an example of an addition that is relevant and important to students for the future.

The math section will have a more narrow focus. It is mainly going to concentrate on linear equations, complex equations or functions, ratios, percentages, and proportional reasoning. As it is now, the math problems increase in difficulty after every problem, and there is a quarter point deduction for each wrong answer. This tends to discourage last minute guessing on the harder problems at the end of the test. The newer version will not have the point penalty. According to Douglas Belkin’s article in the Wall Street Journal, “the math section will draw from fewer topics, but mastery of those on the test is more likely to be predicative of the student readiness and career training.” The problems are designed for more success if you know algebra, data analysis, and real-world problem solving. Larry Gordon from the Los Angeles Times tells students that the SAT math altercations will “better assess students’ understanding, fluency, and technique” without a calculator on a select number of math problems. Now students will be able to apply their real-world math skills onto a fair test to prove their capabilities.

The new SAT changes sparked ideas that the College Board is lowering the standards for American students. People think that these changes are pure competition with the ACT vs. the SAT. These changes are being made to narrow down the range of subjects that are relevant to high school students to prepare them for the future: college and their career. Even though SAT changes were instituted in 2005, David Coleman, President of the College Board, wants to make it clear: “The road to success is not last-minute tricks or cramming, but the learning students do over years.” The SAT is designed to apply what we learn in the classroom to everyday life to become more knowledgeable. We as students need to apply what we learn, test it, and prove to ourselves what we are capable of doing on a fair test. The more context-based vocabulary, the more appealing critical reading passages, and the selection of real-world math problems are the step the College Board needs to take to improve the SAT.