January 2016 will be the last opportunity for high school students to take the current version of the SAT. The redesigned version, which will first be offered on 5 March 2016, strives to “provide to higher education a more comprehensive and informative picture of student readiness for college level work while sustaining, and ideally improving, the ability of the test to predict college success.” It will not require an essay (a 50-minute essay is optional), does not penalized guessing, includes sub-scores for each test, provides 4 response choices rather than 5, and reduces testing time by 45 minutes to a 3-hour timeframe.
The College Board website offers charts containing features of the current SAT (maximum composite score of 2400) and new SAT (maximum composite score of 1600). The side-by-side summaries provide a useful at-a-glance comparison of the exam versions:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test/compare-current-new-specifications (Also see www.mytutor.com/sites/default/files/imce/SATACTChart.pdf for a chart that includes features of the ACT.)
According to The Redesigned SAT, published by the College Board, the new assessment places a greater emphasis on assessing “meaningful, engaging, rigorous” high school coursework than the current test. In the mathematics section, the revised test requires students to “show command of a focused but powerful set of knowledge, skills, and understandings in math and apply that ability to solve problems situated in science, social studies, and career-related contexts,” as well as “demonstrate skill in analyzing data, including data represented in tables, graphs, and charts in reading, writing, and math contexts” (p. 2).
For more information, read The Redesigned SAT at https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/test-specifications-redesigned-sat.pdf or visit https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat
