A new version of the Scholastic Achievement Test was administered for the first time last month and next April a revised scoring system will effectively raise average scores by 98 points.
The changes, which significantly revise both the math and verbal sections, are designed to make the test a better measure of the skills necessary for college-level work, according to a statement issued by the College Board who, with the Educational Testing Service, are responsible for the exam.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg chaired the national SAT Committee that developed and approved the changes in 1990.
For starters, the SAT will now be called the SAT-I Reasoning Tests. It will still be divided into verbal and math sections of equal size, but the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE) will no longer be included.
The College Board provided specific information about the revised test.
In the verbal section, the portion testing antonyms will be replaced by questions measuring vocabulary taken in context.
The revised test also places a greater emphasis on reading comprehension, which will now comprise more than half the verbal section in comparison to 30 percent in the old version.
The questions will involve longer reading passages to emphasize critical reading skills.
Ten of the 60 questions on the revised math section will not be in the standard multiple choice format. Instead, students will have to provide their own answers on this portion and will be allowed to use calculators.
According to the College Board, the calculators are not, in theory, needed for the exam but will help students answer the new questions.
"I think that the test is more geared to things that make sense for curricula in high school," Furstenberg said.
The new scoring system will set the average verbal and math scores at 500. The average 1993 scores were 424 verbal and 478 math, according to the College Board.
The test scores used to be centered at 500, but in recent years the averages have dropped, according to the College Board.
The recentering is designed to correct discrepancies in the average scores which fuels the misconception that students who score better on the math section are relatively stronger in math.
Conversion tables will be provided to allow comparisons of recentered scores and former scores.
Furstenberg said the recentering should not affect Dartmouth's admissions process because the highest range will not increase by as much as in the middle range.
He added that the recentering was necessary to reflect a changing population of test takers. He said the test was last recentered in the 1940s.
About 1.5 million students take SATs every year, according to the College Board.
The former Achievement Tests are now called SAT-II Subject Tests, but only the name has changed. A new Writing Test will include an essay, sentence correction questions and revision-in-context passages. In the future English as a Second Language will be added.
The recentering of scores will affect these tests as well.
Furstenberg said the new tests will play the same role in admissions as the old.
The College Board tests are the second most important factor in the admissions process behind an applicant's high school transcript. "They are certainly a useful measure," Furstenberg said.
"There are some bright kids around the country that a selective college might miss [without the SAT]," he said. "I think we're pretty savvy about that."
The College Board hopes the new test will diminish the value of formal coaching courses in preparation of the SAT. "I think these changes help to address the coaching to some degree," Furstenberg said. "It will de-emphasize the role of coaching."
Furstenberg said it is difficult to coach for the reading comprehension section and the student-produced response math questions.
