College Board to change SAT

The College Board voted to transform much of the SAT I today. A writing section, additional reading and higher-level math problems will be added to the test in an effort to ensure a more accurate measure of the material that students learn in school. The changes will take effect in March 2005.

The changes to be made to the SAT will be the among the most significant of all the changes on the test in its 76 year history. Instead of being promoted as a test that measures innate mental ability of students, the test will now be one that measures student learning and reasoning.

The largest change to be made is the addition of a writing section that will include multiple choice questions and a student essay. The writing section is an attempt to emphasize a skill that is important in most academic activities. The essays will be provided to colleges and universities that ask to see them, according to the College Board.

The new writing section will ask students to write using examples from literature, history, current events, or their own experiences.

The current SAT will lose several parts of its format. The word analogies will be dropped, and more reading questions will be added. Instead of being called the "Verbal" section, that section will be called the "Critical Reading" section. The math section will test more on a student's knowledge of advanced algebra instead of such things as comparing the volume or area of different objects.

The scoring system will be changed as well. The current perfect score of 1600 will expand to a total possible score of 2400 points. Each section will still be scored on a 200 to 800 point system.