Early takers say new SAT ‘wasn’t so bad’ and not so tricky
WASHINGTON >> Not so tricky. More straightforward. Guessing allowed. The newly redesigned SAT college entrance exam that debuts nationally Saturday is getting good reviews from some of the students who took it early this week.
The new exam focuses less on arcane vocabulary words and more on realworld learning and analysis by students. Students no longer will be penalized for guessing. And the essay has been made optional.
The College Board says more than 463,000 testtakers signed up to take the new SAT in March, up slightly froma year ago.
Because the exam is new, the College Board, the nonprofit organization that owns the SAT, has restricted the exam on Saturday to those applying to college or for scholarships, financial aid or other programs requiring a college test score. People who don’t fall into these categories have been rescheduled to take the May test, which will be released at a point afterward. The College Board said it took the action because of concerns about possible theft.
Things to know about the new SAT exam:
THE NEW STUFF
The new SAT continues to test reading, writing and math, with an emphasis on analysis. Gone: some of those obscure vocabulary words like “lachrymose” that left kids memorizing flash cards for endless hours. Test-takers will instead see more widely known words used in the classroom. Students will have to demonstrate their ability to determine meaning in different contexts.
Go ahead, take a guess. Test-takers no longer will be penalized for wrong answers. In math, students will see more algebra and problem solving, instead of testing a wide range of math concepts. But use of calculators is limited to certain questions.
Overall, there are fewer questions— 154 on the new test plus one for the essay, compared to 171 on the old version.
Students will have a choice about whether to write the essay.
A perfect score goes back to 1,600 with a separate score for the essay.
SOME EARLY REVIEWS
Brian Keyes, a junior at Woodrow Wilson High School in the nation’s capital, says he really didn’t mind the new SAT.
“There aren’t as many questions where it’s trying to trick you ... It was much more straightforward,” he said
For math, he said, “the new version was a lotmore like basic concepts, so it wouldn’t be very obscure formulas that you have to remember. If you had the basics of algebra down, even if the problem was difficult, you could work your way through it.”
Said classmate Isabel Suarez: “I liked it better than the old one. I thought that it was way more applicable to what we’ve been learning in school. The English was a lot easier for me than it was with the old one.”
Isabel, a junior, said the math was a little harder. “It was more algebra based, but I think I was able to perform a lot better on it than the old one because it was stuff that I actually learned in school.”
Infact, Suarez, who likes to write, said she enjoyed the reading section. “My AP English class definitely really prepared me for it. I honestly enjoyed the grammar part because I like to pick out problems in writing. It was pretty fun actually.”
The exam was administered Wednesday at Wilson and other District of Columbia high schools and at schools in more than a dozen states as part of SAT School Day.