By: Kevin Finn

Sentry Staff Reporter

Last week the College Board announced some remarkable changes to their much hated Scholastic Aptitude Test or the SAT.  As an upperclassman, the changes are almost irrelevant to me but I do believe that the College Board’s decision will be positive. The College Board made some big changes to the test which I believe will push the test and college admissions in general into the future by making it more knowledge based rather that strategy based.

Starting in the spring of 2016 the test will begin to be offered on the computer in certain locations. This will make much of the test less expensive. I can understand the desire for the traditional bubbling in of answers. This is similar to the use of cursive to sign the honor code but these are quite outdated. Transportation of testing materials will cease and students will not have to worry about whether they brought a number two pencil to take the test.

The College Board also decided to eliminate the multiple choice writing section which it installed in 2005. Writing is not about finding the right answer, it is about writing. Writing skills cannot be determined through a multiple choice section so getting rid of the multiple choice section is logical. Also the once required essay will now be optional. Since the essay is of so little importance to college admissions departments, forcing students to write an essay makes little sense.

A major change to the test will be the elimination of obscure words in the vocabulary section. A college admissions test should measure how many vocabulary words that are relevant to the real world. Is a student who knows the definition of the word “picayune” really more prepared for college than a student who does not? This elimination of these words will give the test  more meaning and value by taking away obscure and obsolete questions.

Lastly, the College Board is eliminating the infamous -¼ point for each question a student answers incorrectly. This is an archaic rule from the 1970s when there was little information on the test and administrators wanted to eliminate random guessing. Now it just gives students with a dominant strategy a huge advantage over those that do not, which is not what the test should be about. Usually the kids with a better strategy are those who paid for SAT classes. Removing this strategy will eliminate the inequality on the test because students who are wealthy will not have as much of a leg up on students who are not able to pay for expensive test prep material that teaches students the strategy on the test.

There are a few other changes to the test such as analyzing important historical documents, science and social studies knowledge and evidence based reading.  I think we need more time before rendering judgement on these decisions.

The changes to the SAT are  positive. The test is beginning to look more like the ACT. This shows a positive trend in the college entrance exam market. Due to competition, the SAT is being forced to change because of competition with the ACT. What this competition does is make both tests better because the tests are forced to compete and make themselves better. Ultimately this competition benefits the students which is why the changes to the SAT are  good for teenagers.