Changes to the SAT include essay, algebra II

Significant changes to the SAT mean that a score of 1,600 will no longer have the same meaning, but Tufts' director of admissions does not expect the changes will significantly affect the way the university evaluates applications.

Instead of having only two sections -- math and verbal -- the test will now consist of math, critical reading, and writing sections. The analogies section will be eliminated in favor of more reading comprehension questions, and the math section will expand to include higher-level algebra, in addition to geometry.

The writing section, which includes an essay and questions about grammar, will extend the length of the test by about 30 minutes to three hours and 35 minutes. A maximum score will also rise from 1,600 to 2,400.

The College Board, which administers the SAT, PSAT, and Advanced Placement examinations, made the changes to "bring [the exam] more in line with high school curricula and focus on the skills students need to succeed in college," according to spokeswoman Kristin Carnahan. It plans to start administering the reformatted test in 2005.

She said that the test will retain its function as a reasoning test but that the changes will better reflect what high school students are learning in contemporary classrooms.

Director of Admissions Lee Coffin supports adding a writing requirement and the changes to the verbal and math sections. "The SAT has always been an aptitude or an assessment test, rather than an achievement test, and the proposed revisions would add more of the latter to the test," he said.

It is currently unclear exactly how much the changes to the test will have on college admissions, but Coffin thinks that the changes will be minimal.

"I don't expect that the new SAT will dramatically alter the way we review and select applicants," he said, emphasizing the holistic approach to evaluating applications.

"Obviously, we will have some new standardized data to consider, and that is a good and useful change in a pool like Tufts' where the acceptance rate is so low," he said. "The more information we have in our file, the better our decision can be."

Current high school sophomores will be among the first to take the test. Next fall, these students will take a modified version of the PSAT to prepare them for the new test.

There is continued debate among some testing experts over the effectiveness of the SAT. "I don't think anyone believes that the SAT or even pure [IQ] tests are -- or ever have been -- a pure measure of intelligence," Rebecca Zwick, the former chair of the College Board's SAT Committee, told Time magazine.

The SAT was originally created to predict the grades of freshmen at elite colleges, but some experts think that there are better ways to do so. The Time article featured psychologist Robert Sternberg's Rainbow Project, a test designed to replace the SAT. It tests creative and practical skills and was found to be twice as accurate an indicator of first year college GPA as the SAT. The test is still in the trial stages, but in its present form it asks students to dictate a story into a tape recorder and invent captions for cartoons, among other tasks.

Critics have questioned the new test, particularly the section that will require students to write an essay. "Tests that require a student to write essays...are highly susceptible to the judgment of the grader," Nicolas Lemann, the dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, told Time. "They have low reliability."

Some students will do better on the new test and some will do worse, and several are worried about the changes. "I'm really nervous about the changes, especially the essay," said Andrew Shaughnessy, a senior at Boston College High School. "I wish I could take it before they switch the test."

Shaughnessy pointed out the lack of preparation options for the new test. "There are so many prep courses for the old test, but no one really knows exactly what to expect from the new test," he said.

The College Board's website identifies several ways to prepare, including questions posted on their website and test preparation materials which will be sent to high schools.

Carnahan said that field tests of the new format have made the College Board confident that average SAT scores will not decrease with its implementation. "The reactions to the changes have been very positive," she said.