College
Board Announces Huge New SAT Changes Posted on March 5, 2014 http://blog.shmoop.com/2014/03/05/college-board-announces-huge-new-sat-changes
After as much anticipation
as a Hunger Games movie, the College Board finally announced the major changes
they’ll be making to the 2015 PSAT and
2016 SAT http://shmoop.com/sat. David
Coleman, College Board President, said the changes are being made to better
align to students’ high school curriculum and really show what students have
learned and how that will apply to their prospective college classrooms. So what’s in store?
To break it down:
§ No more penalty for guessing. If students
don’t finish in time, they can fill in “C” all the way down without fear of
retribution.
§ No more ten-dollar words. The College Board
finally has seen the Shmoopy light: just because a word has seven syllables
doesn’t mean it should be used to determine how smart you are. Vocabulary is
meant to help us communicate, so the SAT will replace words like “depreciatory”
with words students actually use, like “empirical.”
§ Optional essay. If students do choose to
write an essay, they’ll be asked to analyze a passage and explain how the
author made his or her argument.
§ Welcome back to the perfect 1600. Now that the
essay’s gone semi-sayonara, scores will once again be out of 1600, with 800
each for reading and math.
§ Sourcing source documents. Students will be
asked to use source documents from science, social studies, and American
history (hello, Declaration of Independence!) to answer questions.
§ Math Refocus. Questions will be focused on
linear equations, complex equations/functions, and ratios, percentages, and
proportional reasoning. Also important to know: calculators will only be
allowed on part of the math section. Time to break out that abacus!
§ Both digital and paper formats. Welcome to
the technological revolution!
