Students have been asking many questions about the newly announced changes.   How do I start preparing for the SAT? Will the SAT be even harder than the last one? What is different about the new version? When does the test change? Why do students have to take the SAT?

    With high schooler’s waiting patiently, the test makers finally changed the SAT test. For the first time in nine years, major changes will be made in the spring of 2016. The most recent changes were made in the year 2005. Which means freshmen will be taking the new version in their junior or senior year.

     The “SAT” also known as the Scholastic Aptitude test, this test is a worldwide test and a journey for high school students to request an admission to a college. Most four year colleges require students to have test scores for college admission. Test scores will come back to the scale 1600 instead of the goal of 2400 introduced in the year 2005.

     The reading and writing portion of the test will give a variety of questions and will require students to support their answers with evidence on why they chose their answer choice. The other portions of the test like Science, History, Math and English will have passages that students will be required to read a passage and answer questions.

     The math section will no longer let students use calculators on every question. It will mostly focus on real world problems and more advanced questions that can prepare high school students for college and their careers. The section will be broken down into three portions including ratios, percentages, proportions and linear equations.  

     The portion of the essay writing is optional and will require students to read a passage and write an essay about how the author made an argument. The entire test shouldn’t take students very long; there will be extra time for the writing portion of the test. The essay will be printed and not hand written.

     Essays will completely be calculated onto another score sheet from the rest of the test and the essay portion will always be the same on every SAT test. Essays will show how students understand the material and how students can explain how they got their answers in a way where teachers and students can understand how they got their answers on the problem.

     There are certain changes that were unexpected; students will no longer get marked down for the wrong answers.

     Students will have the choice of whether they want to take the test on the computer or by hand.