Sunday, December 14, 2014

SAT Redesigned for 2016

According to the College Board, the SAT will be redesigned for 2016:

 https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/redesign

It will be going back to two sections instead of the current three, and the essay will be optional. There will be 8 key changes:

  1. Relevant Words in Context - no more memorizing esoteric SAT word lists
  2. Command of Evidence - a common theme across reading, writing, and essay
  3. Essay Analyzing a Source - read a passage, analyze  and explain how the author builds an argument (similar/along the line of essays in AP English)
  4. Focus on Math that Matters Most - focus on 3 areas: problem solving/data analysis, linear algebra, and advanced math
  5. Problems Grounded in Real-World Contexts - more real world based questions
  6. Analysis in Science and in History/Social Studies - applying reading, writing, language, and math skills to answer questions in science, history, and social studies
  7. Founding Documents and Great Global Conversation - more reading passages from US founding documents (such as Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers, etc.) as well as texts from so-called Great Global Conversations (words from the likes of Edmund Burke, Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Barbara Jordan, and Martin Luther King Jr)
  8. No Penalty for Wrong Answers - guessing is OK