The New SAT

Ah, the dreaded 3+ hours of head-scratching and mind-numbing standardized test goodness.

As much as some of us hated it, it was something we needed to do if we wanted to go to college.

Recently, College Board announced they were in the midst of redesigning the SAT to tailor it more to the average high school curriculum, instead of the obscure vocabulary, logic-centered math, and borderline philosophical essay that we all (hated) loved so dearly. The essay’s changed, the vocabulary section is gone, and the math makes more sense. The College Board just posted four practice exams and you can check them out here.

The Essay

For most, the required essay section was one of the most dreaded parts of the test, and it was hard to complete the task in a mere twenty-five minutes. But now, the essay’s not required, which will be a relief for all who don’t need the essay portion for their college-of-choice. The question now asks you to read a short passage and (at least in the practice exams released) asks you to describe the writer’s purpose. With a greater focus on reading comprehension and rhetoric analysis, this kind of essay will feel closer to home for most high school juniors and seniors. Best of all, the writing time has been doubled to fifty minutes.

Vocab and reading

Put away those mile-long vocabulary lists — direct vocabulary sections are gone. Vocabulary has always been included in the reading score, but now it’s in a new way. The reading section is entirely reading passages, and questions about those passages. Some questions are weaved in to include vocabulary, but allows for greater usage of context clues — in other words, no more single sentences with fill-in-the-blanks.

The reading passages themselves are also a little different; some science-based passages are given, and those passages include a few questions about basic data analysis, which is an interesting and important addition to the test. I personally like it, but I don’t doubt that some students will cringe when they see a graph next to the reading passage.

Math

“No Calculator” will now appear on half of the math section, which may seem daunting. But have no fear! There’s not much math that’s insanely difficult to do by hand, and really mental math is a skill that should get built up anyway. I personally think it’s great that College Board is pushing for more non-calculator math, because as a soon-to-be engineering major I can tell you it’s practically impossible to do any math efficiently (and correctly, for that matter) if you can’t do some of it without pushing some buttons.

The questions where you bubble in your own answer are still present, both on the calculator and non-calculator portions. It would be a good idea to get familiar with how to bubble these answers before the test, because while instructions are printed, it’s time consuming to figure out when time’s pretty limited to begin with. The key to the math section is really efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.

Overall the math sections are more relevant to curriculum math; the style of questions is more familiar, which helps both the test anxiety and confidence.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy has developed a great practice system geared specifically for the new SAT — for free. Before beginning review, you are prompted to take four short diagnostic tests each for the math and reading sections. Based off of your responses to those quizzes, Khan Academy works some fancy computer magic and gives you suggestions for what you should brush up on, and promotes you to higher skill levels when they think you’ve mastered the one you’re on. This is really a great feature, since most students (including me) don’t know where to begin, and many can’t afford to take prep classes. With just a little bit of self-motivation and planning skills, you can get just as great of a review entirely free. I wish this was something they had available when I was prepping for my SATs, and I encourage everyone to take full advantage of it.

The Other Stuff

There are a few miscellaneous things that apply to the test as a whole that I really like about the new SAT: point deductions for wrong answers are gone, and all questions (excluding the write-in math questions) are four-choice. Statistically speaking, both of these improve your odds of racking up more points. *happy dance*

Oh, and a side note: Keep in mind that the new test is out of 1600 once again, not 2400.

A special side note to my fellow try-hards: This means that the 2100 you want to help you get into your number one school is not possible. Literally. Don’t freak when you see a sub-1600 score. That’s supposed to happen now.

I wish the best of luck to anyone taking the new tests come Spring 2016. Study hard, and more importantly, remember to stay calm. Breathe.