News Herald – Juliann Talkington
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is changing in early 2016. Many students are wondering whether it is best to take the old SAT, the new SAT, or the ACT.
The ACT is an achievement test that measures what a student has learned at school. The SAT is an aptitude test that measures reasoning and verbal abilities. Some students perform better on the SAT and others achieve a higher ranking on the ACT.
The current 2400-point SAT test will be available in October, November, and December of 2015 and January of 2016. Then in March of 2016 only the new 1600-point SAT will be offered.
Although the College Board has released some information on the new SAT test, no one knows the exact format of the exam or the types of questions it will include.
Incoming juniors (Class of 2017) and incoming sophomores (Class of 2018) need to think carefully about when or if they will take the SAT. For these classes, there are two issues: 1) the version of the SAT colleges will accept and 2) how to adequately prepare for the test.
Most test preparation coaches and exam preparation services suggest waiting for at least three testing cycles after a new exam is introduced to take that exam. This means the earliest someone should consider taking the new SAT would be October 2016.
Almost every college and university has agreed to accept both old and new SAT scores for the Class of 2017. Some colleges and universities have agreed to accept both the old and new SAT scores for the Class of 2018, others have not yet made a decision, and at least one, Yale University, says it will only accept the new SAT.
As a result, it seems that Class of 2017 students who believe the SAT is the best exam for them, should begin testing in October of 2015, so they have time to retest before the test changes.
Class of 2018 students who have the necessary academic background and have been preparing to take the SAT should take the old SAT in October 2015 (unless the university will not recognize the test), so they have time to retest before the test changes. Most other class of 2018 students should consider the ACT, since more test preparation materials are available. 2018 graduates who believe they will perform much better on the SAT than the ACT should wait until early 2017 to take the new SAT.