| The SAT may be the most important test a student | | | | with the ever more sophisticated high school |
| will ever take. When it comes to determining college | | | | curriculums, but many students are likely to be |
| admissions and awarding scholarships, no single exam | | | | unprepared for such advanced work. The multiple |
| is more important. It has recently undergone some | | | | choice section and the student response questions of |
| major changes, and every college-bound student | | | | the old version have not been removed. The Writing |
| must pay close attention to the new format. | | | | section will cover grammar usage as well as essay |
| Partly because of criticism that the old SAT failed as | | | | writing skills. Students are allowed 25 minutes for the |
| a indicator of college success, the College Board (the | | | | essay. This may be one of the more worrisome |
| makers of the test) have recast the assessment | | | | changes for students. Anyone hoping to bluff their |
| instead as a measure of achievement and college | | | | way through this part of the test will be disappointed. |
| preparation. Its new name, the SAT Reasoning Test, | | | | Two graders will read each essay, and judge it on |
| reflects its new emphasis on critical thinking skills | | | | how well the students thesis is developed and |
| needed for college. The changes go far beyond the | | | | supported. Certainly, the addition of the essay makes |
| name. Overall, students are likely to find the new | | | | the SAT a better measure of the skills needed for |
| version more challenging than the old. | | | | college level work, but this is a skill that many |
| The new SAT is 3 hours and 45 minutes long and is | | | | students just do not pick up from the standard |
| divided into three parts: Critical Reading, Math, and | | | | English class. |
| Writing. Each section contains important revisions | | | | Clearly, the changes to the SAT make additional |
| from the old version. In the Reading section, the | | | | preparation, beyond regular course work, a necessity. |
| much hated analogy questions have been removed. | | | | The simple test taking techniques taught in so many |
| Instead, students will answer critical thinking questions | | | | tradition prep courses will no longer be adequate. |
| on a series of passages, ranging in length from | | | | Smart students will seek out prep courses that also |
| sentences to long passages. The Math section now | | | | offer tutoring on weak subjects, stress the |
| includes Algebra II level problems, in addition to | | | | fundamentals of writing good essays, and provide |
| geometry and many other high school level problems. | | | | opportunities to take practice tests multiple times. |
| The College Board says that this is to keep pace | | | | |