College Board Will SAT Test

College Board Will SAT Test The SAT, the most commonly accepted college admissions test, will get a facelift. College Board President Cole, who sponsors the SAT test...

College Board Will SAT Test The SAT, the most commonly accepted college admissions test, will be redesigned. Coleman, chairman of the College Board, which sponsors the SAT test, notified its 6,000 members via email on the 26th that the board will redesign the SAT test to focus more on the "core knowledge and skills" that high school graduates need to succeed in college and make the SAT more relevant to their needs. The College Board launched the changes after the SAT began losing market share to its standardized test rival, the ACT. High school students in the west and south often take the ACT, while high school students on the east and west coasts often take the SAT. In the graduating class of 2012, more than 1.66 million students took the SAT, making it the class with the largest number of students taking the SAT in history. SAT candidates are becoming increasingly diverse, with more low-income, African-American and Hispanic students taking the SAT. But in 2011, for the first time, more people took the ACT than took the SAT. Coleman said in an email that one of the reasons for revising the SAT was to make sure it was relevant. "While the SAT is by far the best standardized measure of college and professional readiness, the College Board has a responsibility to measure it every year," he said. The millions of students we serve ensure that our programs are continually evaluated, enhanced, and most importantly responsive to the emerging needs of those we serve," he said. His goal is to increase the value of the SAT to students, higher education officials, principals, teachers and counselors from kindergarten through high school. The SAT was last revised in 2005, including adding an essay, extending the test time, and raising the full score from 1,600 to 2,400. Coleman criticized the SAT's essay test for allowing too much personal narrative and failing to challenge students to write evidence-based arguments, a skill required in college.