The SAT is changing! What’s the deal with that?!
Over the past week, my Harvard friend visited Montreal over his spring-break and asked to catch up on life. It had been 7 years since we last saw one another. It was summer of grade 9 where we had met over summer school and became really good friends. However, once summer was all over, he returned home to the states, I stayed in Hong Kong and chances weren’t high that we’d see each other again. Not having caught up on life for the past 7 years, we spent a good 2 hours revisiting our memories and catching up on life. As curious as any non-Harvard student, it was natural for me to ask him about his university choices and how he came about to choosing Harvard. Little did I know, he had a perfect SAT score and was accepted into 5 ivy league’s.
The effectiveness of standardised testing as a measure of talent has long been debated. In more than 10 years, the first revision of the SAT was administered for the first time in early March of 2016. Several aspects of the SAT are changing in major ways; this affects how you should study, what you should prepare for, and even when you should take the test.The new SAT exam consists of a 1600 point scale, fewer obscure vocabulary words, narrowly focused math section and no penalisation for incorrect answers. It also features a revamped optional essay section where students analyse documents deemed historically influential. The new formatting holds many controversial issues especially for the less privileged.
For every revised version of psychological tests that come out, there will always be uncertainty and fear about how well it will be in comparison to the previous version. Having taken the SAT exam before, I believe the changes to the revised version does not increase the test’s capacity to measure essential skills such as reading proficiency and math ability. It simply increases the advantages for students that come from a privileged socioeconomic, racial and cultural background. Those of higher socioeconomic backgrounds have the opportunity to pay for SAT classes and tutors.
The College Board was committed to revising the exam by making it more accessible and equitable to reducing achievement gaps. However millions of students in America’s public schools who are members of minorities, immigrants, who have English as a second language, low income families will face a tough uphill battle. Many of the disadvantaged students will still find the exam difficult.
There are talented students in many areas — leaders, organisers musicians, athletes, science award winners — who may have moderate or low SAT scores but who’s presence on a campus would change it. Therefore, the revised and new SAT may have testing issues related to generalisability and reliability of the test as those who come from low income, don’t speak English as their first language is likely to suffer at most. The new revised SAT is seen yet another assessment exam that shapes rather than reflects what kids learn in school.
