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College Board

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New SAT® for the Press

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why did the College Board change the test?

The College Board changed the SAT to better reflect what students are learning in high school, and to include writing, which is an important skill for success in college and beyond.

Is the SAT still a reasoning test?

Yes. The new SAT still measures the kind of reasoning skills needed for college by assessing how students apply what they have learned in school. Colleges use the SAT as a common yardstick that complements a student's high school record in a consistent way.

Q: How can you compare scores from the previous SAT to scores from the new SAT?

The math and critical reading test scores can be compared to the previous math and verbal scores, respectively. This is something colleges need for consistency in admissions requirements. However, the SAT writing section is completely new.

In April 2004, the College Board and ETS presented important research findings on the new SAT to the National Council on Measurement in Education. Field trial research conclusively demonstrated that scores on the new critical reading section and the new math section are comparable, respectively, to scores on the previous verbal section and previous math section.

Q: Is the SAT with the new writing section being used as an admissions tool by many colleges and universities?

Yes. Institutions requiring the new SAT include public and private colleges, large and small institutions, and technical and liberal arts schools. More than four hundred colleges and universities have announced their decision to require writing and so far 36 others have decided to recommend it. To date, this group includes 54 percent of the nation's public flagship universities, 100 percent of the Ivy League, and 64 percent of colleges in the major athletic conferences. For example, almost all members of the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference, PAC 10, and Big East conferences have already committed to requiring writing. Almost all of America's competitive institutions now require a standardized writing test for admissions.

Still, it is important to note that the College Board believes the SAT is only one of many criteria that colleges should use in making admissions decisions.

Q: Is this the first time the test has changed?

No. Since the SAT was first introduced in 1926, it has evolved to remain aligned with classroom practices. The most recent content changes occurred in 1994, when antonym questions were removed and longer reading passages were added. Open-ended math questions were also added, and calculators were allowed.

Q: Why is the writing section required and not optional?

The College Board believes that the addition of writing encourages and supports the teaching of writing at every grade level. Colleges and universities have for some time expressed concern about the writing skills of high school graduates. Similar concerns have been voiced in the secondary education community and among business leaders. A 2003 report from the National Commission on Writing for America's Families, Schools, and Colleges—a blue-ribbon group made up of university leaders, public school superintendents, and teachers, assisted by an advisory panel of writing experts—revealed that the amount of time and money devoted to student writing must be drastically increased in every curriculum and at all grade levels. (For information on the Commission, visit www.writingcommission.org.)

The College Board, and its many member advisers, strongly believe that making the writing section required and not optional sends a strong message about the importance of writing for success in college and the workplace.

Q: What is the best way to prepare for the new SAT?

The short-term answer is that students should familiarize themselves with the SAT by taking practice tests. Students who take the PSAT/NMSQT® will receive Score Report Plus, which provides personalized feedback on their academic skills and identifies strengths and possible weak areas. The College Board also offers free and low-cost test-preparation materials for students and teachers.

The long-term answer is that the best preparation for the SAT, and for college, is to take demanding courses within a strong curriculum. Students should write as often as possible and read challenging books and articles on a variety of subjects.

Q: Do students who can afford to pay for expensive SAT coaching gain a significant advantage over students who can't?

It is wise to be skeptical about the claims made by high-priced coaches and coaching companies. Although commercial coaching courses—those that focus on drills, tricks, and memorization techniques—often advertise huge score gains, students should know that recent research demonstrates that coached students are only slightly more likely to have large score gains than uncoached students. The research also demonstrates that about one-third of coached students are likely to have no score change at all or to have a decrease in scores.

However, the College Board strongly recommends that students familiarize themselves with the SAT—including the types of questions on the test and the directions for each type of question. The College Board makes free practice tests available to students at collegeboard.com and through publications sent to high schools. Taking practice tests is very helpful and is one of the best ways to prepare for the SAT.

Q. Is the new SAT more or less coachable than the previous SAT?

It's in the interest of high-priced coaches and coaching companies to claim that they can help students achieve big score gains on both the current and the new SAT, and several of them are making those claims. But, as we've pointed out, research shows that coached students are only slightly more likely to have large score gains than uncoached students. It also shows that about one-third of coached students are likely to have no score change at all or have a decrease in scores. This is likely to be as true for the new SAT as it was for the previous one.

Some educators even speculate that without analogies, the new SAT is less coachable than the current one, because the analogy format encourages drilling on vocabulary words.

There are also coaching companies that encourage students to memorize an essay before entering the test room and adapt it to the essay prompt on the exam. Such advice is dangerous. Essays not written on the essay topic will receive a score of zero.

Q: How big a role do SAT scores play in college admissions?

Colleges and universities use the SAT as only one of many factors in admissions decisions. The most important factor is high school grades earned in demanding courses. The use of high school grade point average with SAT scores provides the best information regarding a student's likelihood to succeed in college.

Q: Have many four year colleges and universities dropped the SAT as an admissions requirement in the last few years?

Not-for-profit four-year colleges and universities rarely drop standardized admissions tests from their requirements. Instead, over the years, a small number have made admissions tests "optional." These are usually very small colleges, which do not have a very large applicant pool. Some of these schools have quietly returned to requiring the test. Still, almost all of the schools that have introduced an optional policy for admissions tests show average admissions test scores in popular college handbooks and magazines such as US News because colleges understand that SAT scores are one of the ways students evaluate their "fit" with a particular school. Often, they ask for the scores after the students have been admitted.

Institutions that are specialized and/or for-profit, such as art academies, culinary schools, Bible and Talmudic colleges, some vocational institutions as well as all virtual and distance education schools are now frequently included on lists of schools that do not require admissions tests, but these are institutions that never required admissions tests because the criteria for admission to these schools is based on specific skills or talents or because admission is open to anyone who can pay.

In addition, some colleges and universities do not require the SAT for relatively small segments of their applicant pool. For example, the SAT may not be required for admission to a dance program or, in the case of some state institutions, it may not be required for a student in the top 10 percent of his or her class but it's still required for all other applicants. The vast majority of not-for-profit colleges still use standardized tests when making admissions decisions as they provide a valuable and proven tool for admissions and placement as well as a safeguard of high standards. In the past year, only 14 schools that are popularly considered "selective" have adopted a test-optional policy.

Q: What about students in the class of 2006 who took the "old" SAT? Should they take the new SAT, too?

Members of the class of 2006 who chose to take the old test should be sure to check the requirements at each school to which they plan to apply. If a member of the class of 2006 were to submit scores from the previous SAT, many college and universities would accept those scores, but there are other colleges that would not.

Q: Is the new test harder?

It is different, not harder. A few math questions on the new SAT cover some topics from Algebra II. However, the test still measures reasoning ability and problem-solving skills gained through activities and learning in and outside of school. The critical reading section may seem easier to students who do not like analogies. With the addition of the writing section, students have a new opportunity to demonstrate how well they have learned to express and organize their thoughts.

Q: Have the SAT Subject Tests changed as well?

The SAT Subject Test in Writing was discontinued when the new SAT was introduced. None of the other Subject Tests have changed. The SAT Subject Test in Math Level 1 will continue to be available, and the content will not change.

Q: Is it true that the changes were made to accommodate the University of California?

While the College Board certainly paid attention to the University of California's suggestions that analogies be eliminated and writing be added—as a membership organization we consider the feedback of all of our members—many other factors contributed to the decision to change the test. In fact, seeds of the current revisions were planted in 1990 by a blue-ribbon commission and its culminating report called "Beyond Prediction," which led to the revisions in 1994. A recommendation considered, but not adopted, was the addition of the kind of writing section we introduced in March 2005. Among the reasons a writing section was not adopted at the time was the lack of technological capability to transmit millions of student essays to professional readers for scoring—something that is feasible today.

Q: Is the SAT fair?

One of the College Board's highest priorities is to ensure that the SAT is fair for all students. It is the most researched test in the world. It takes more than two years to develop a form of the SAT. Each SAT question goes through a series of at least four content reviews (and sometimes several more) and a separate "sensitivity" review to be sure it is fair in content and tone for all students. In addition, a statistical review called differential item functioning, or "DIF," is used to compare how subgroups of students perform on each question. If students from different groups who have approximately equal knowledge and skill perform in substantially different ways on a test question, it is discarded or revised and reviewed again.

Q: How can students be expected to produce a polished essay in 25 minutes?

The College Board recognizes that an essay written in a short amount of time will not be polished. It is just a first draft and will be scored as such. The essay is similar to the on-demand writing required for in-class college exams.

Q: How are the essays scored?

Essays are scored in a manner that is fair and consistent, using a holistic approach. In holistic scoring, a piece of writing is considered as a total work, the whole of which is greater than the sum of its parts. The essay is scored by qualified readers, who take into account such aspects as complexity of thought, substantiality of development, and facility with language.

Each essay is scored separately by two readers who won't know the other's score. Each reader gives the essay a score from 1 to 6 (6 is the highest score), based on the overall quality of the essay and its demonstration of writing competence. If the two readers' scores differ by more than one point, a scoring leader will resolve the difference. The essay score equals one-third of the entire score for the writing section.

Q: Who scores the essays?

The essays are scored by trained high school and college teachers who have at least three years of classroom experience.

Q: What constitutes a good essay?

The short essay is designed to measure a student's ability to think critically and to develop ideas in a thoughtful, cogent, and coherent essay.

The essay prompt (either a pair of quotations or a short paragraph adapted from some authentic text) gives students the opportunity to draw on a broad range of experiences, learning, and ideas to support their points of view on the issue in question. Students may write about literature, the arts, sports, politics, technology and science, history, current events, or personal observations, among other topics. Students may accept or reject the idea presented in the prompt to whatever extent they see fit and draw on the rhetorical approach that best suits their writing style. For instance, some students may use an expository or argumentative style; others may structure essays through comparison or contrast, or other techniques.

Q: Do spelling, grammar, and handwriting affect the score?

Spelling errors do not affect a student's score unless they are so pervasive that they get in the way of the reader understanding the essay. Even with some errors in punctuation and grammar, a student can get a top score on the essay. Similarly, handwriting will not be evaluated, but essay readers must be able to decipher a student's handwriting. Accommodations will be made for students who have a documented disability that requires the use of a computer and meets College Board guidelines for testing accommodations.

Q: Why did the math content change?

The content was changed to reflect current classroom practices and admissions standards. Seventy percent of high school students finish Algebra II (or its equivalent) by the end of their junior year. Ninety-seven percent of college-bound students complete three years of math, with 69 percent completing four or more years. Most four-year colleges require three years of math for admission.

Q: Why were analogies dropped?

Analogy questions have been removed because they are less connected to the current high school curriculum. Additionally, some educators have expressed concern that the analogy format encouraged rote memorization of vocabulary words. The new SAT still assesses analogical reasoning in the short and long reading passages.

Q: What is the College Board?

The College Board is a not-for-profit association composed of more than 4,700 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Each year, the College Board serves over three million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,500 colleges through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT, the PSAT/NMSQT®, and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®).

The College Board's mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the Board is committed to excellence and equity in education.

Q: What is the relationship between the College Board and ETS?

The College Board was responsible for the development of the first "College Boards," a series of essays in nine subjects that composed the entrance exams used by 12 selective colleges in the northeast. These institutions wanted to compare students from across the country fairly and equitably regardless of where they went to high school. The College Board commissioned the design of the SAT in 1926. This test was devised to assess ability and acquired knowledge more broadly so that the exam would not depend upon the specifics of any curriculum. The College Board contracts with Educational Testing Service (ETS) to help develop and administer the test.

Q: What kinds of research data from the College Board are available to the press?

The College Board has a long-standing commitment to conduct and disseminate educational research. In addition to research studies involving College Board programs and services (most notably the SAT and Advanced Placement Program), research has been conducted on a broad range of educational topics, including college placement, high school curriculum and grades, access and retention in higher education, student characteristics and preparation, educational policy, and other areas. Click here for available online research reports or contact the Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

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