After years of the same drilling, practice tests, and expectations, students planning on taking the SAT in 2016 have been thrown a curveball.
College Board has decided to make the SAT more relevant to students. Instead of obscure vocabulary words in the reading section, students should now expect to see words similar to those likely to appear in college literature. Furthermore, the reading sentences now offer contextual clues for the words eliminating some of the guessing. New questions in the SAT also test students’ command of interpreting evidence. These questions will present a set of paragraphs and will ask to students to answer questions based on what they read.
College Board is also planning on introducing DBQs (document-based questions) and CEC-style paragraph analysis to the test. All these changes are meant to help prepare students for college and their life ahead. These new additions and tweaks to the test will test students on their knowledge and help them toward their ultimate goal: getting into college.
But the most startling change to the SAT is not really a change, but an omission. College Board has decided to make the essay portion of the SAT optional. Those who opt to write the essay will be provided evidence instead of having to pull evidence from their prior knowledge.
The new SAT promises changes that create a more efficient testing system. While there are both critics and supporters of this system, the new SAT will go into effect the spring of 2016.