Digging out the pencils for a new (longer) test

The Daily Pennsylvanian

Early last Saturday morning 320,000 high schoolers across America sat down to take the first offering of the revamped SAT.

The three-hour-45-minute test -- significantly longer than the old three-hour SAT -- featured a 25-minute essay as well as a writing multiple choice section and new math content emphasizing high school algebra.

Gone from the test are analogies and quantitative comparisons.

John Brady, the chief educational manager for Higher Education Services in the Middle States Region for the College Board, said that the College Board was still collecting feedback on the test's first administration. Still, he said that it "went extremely well."

"I'm really pleased with the way it went because [the administration of the test] was routine," he said.

Penn's Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said that while he was "encouraged by" and is "very supportive of" the new test format, the University will take a "wait and see approach" to judging it.

Stetson noted that it would take a number of years to collect the data necessary to evaluate scores as precisely as they are evaluated now.

"We're still deliberating on how to weight it," Stetson said.

Stetson also said that the one piece of feedback on the test he has heard is that it was "a bit long and tedious."

"The College Board lost touch with what's realistic for students to do in one morning," said Steve Friedman, a junior at Lower Merion High School in suburban Philadelphia.

Friedman -- who is considering applying to Penn next year -- took the test on Saturday.

He said he believes that fatigue affected his performance in the latter sections of the test, which he called "ridiculously long."

The experience was so tedious, he said, that he would be less likely to retake the test if his score ends up not being as high as he had hoped.

However, Brady said that in the many trials run by the College Board -- the largest of which involved 45,000 testers -- test fatigue was not a factor in testers' performance.

According to studies, he said, test fatigue does not set in until after six hours in a highly motivated situation.

Another concern with the new SAT, Friedman said, is the confusion over what colleges are requiring which tests.

Starting with next year's applicant pool, Stetson said that while Penn prefers applicants to have taken the new version of the test as well as two SAT II subject tests, scores from the old version of the test accompanied by three SAT IIs will also be accepted.

This policy is not universal, however, as Brady noted that some schools -- including some in the Ivy League -- will still be requiring three SAT IIs.

Some colleges have made the decision to ignore the writing sample of the new SAT altogether.

"Georgetown has made the decision not to use the SAT writing scores as a factor in its admissions decisions because we do not think it will add value to the criteria presented about applicants," Assistant Vice-President of Communications at Georgetown University Julie Bataille said in an e-mail interview.

"We're concerned about the potential negative implications of it for poor students who do not have access to a strong writing curriculum or preparation," she continued.

Brady said, though, that the College Board believes that writing is "a skill that has become ever more critical."

"The entire test is meant to measure not only what a student knows," he said, "but how they take what they have learned and apply it to a new situation."

Overall, Brady said that he believes the new SAT has been well received.

"It's a good change," he said.

The New SAT

Ivy League Schools have different policies regarding SAT requirements for the classes of 2010 and onwards as they begin to take the revamped standardized test.

- Harvard: Will accept either version of the SAT I along with three SAT II subject tests. Undecided as to whether the new SAT I is sufficient alone for the class of 2011. - Yale: Will accept either version of the SAT I (or both) along with three SAT II subject tests. Prefers the new SAT I. - Princeton: Will accept math and verbal scores from either version this fall. Only accepts writing test scores from the new SAT I. Prefers the new SAT I. - Columbia: Will accept either the new SAT I with two SAT II subject tests or the old SAT I with three SAT II subject tests. - Dartmouth: Will accept either the new SAT I with two SAT II subject tests or the old SAT I with three SAT II subject tests. - Cornell: Will accept either version of the SAT I along with two SAT II tests. Will only accept the new SAT I for the class of 2011. - Brown: Will accept only the new SAT I along with two SAT II subject tests. - Penn: Will accept either the new SAT I with two SAT II subject tests or the old SAT I with three SAT II subject tests. Prefers the new SAT I.Source: University Web sites

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