SAT

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What Students Think of the New All-Digital SAT

'It's not terrible'

(Newser) - As SAT season kicks off this weekend, students across the US for the first time will take it with computers and tablets—and not the pencils they've used since the college admissions test was introduced nearly a century ago, the AP reports. It's not unfamiliar territory for today'...

Yale Reverses Course, Will Require Standardized Tests

It joins Dartmouth in the Ivy League in again focusing on tests such as the SAT and ACT

(Newser) - First, Dartmouth. Now, Yale. The latter has become the second Ivy League institution to reverse course and require standardized testing for incoming students, reports the New York Times . Both were among schools that ditched SAT and ACT requirements during the pandemic. Yale will allow students to submit scores from the...

Felicity Huffman Speaks Out on College Admissions Scandal

'It felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn't do it'

(Newser) - Felicity Huffman has spoken out about the college admissions scandal that sent her to federal prison for 11 days—and she says she didn't go into it looking for a way to "cheat the system and making proverbial criminal deals in back alleys." The Desperate Housewives star...

Columbia University Makes a Big Move on the SATs

Ivy League school announces it's keeping its test-optional policy without time limits for admissions

(Newser) - During the peak of the pandemic, many schools around the nation, including Ivy Leagues, suspended their requirements that applicants submit SAT and ACT scores to be considered for admission. Now, one Ivy League might be making that move permanent. NBC New York reports that Manhattan's Columbia University is now...

SAT Gets Digital Revamp
Big Changes Ahead
for SAT Test-Takers

Big Changes Ahead for SAT Test-Takers

It's going digital, and it will take 2 hours instead of 3

(Newser) - As more and more colleges make the SAT optional, the test itself will be shortened and entirely digital by 2024, reports CNN . The College Board, the body behind the standardized college admissions test, says it did extensive research before making the decision. “We're not simply putting the current...

Harvard Extends Big Pandemic Change for 4 More Years

Candidates won't be required to send in their SAT, ACT scores until at least 2026

(Newser) - It was a change brought about by the pandemic, and one that Harvard University now plans on continuing for at least four more years—and maybe even for good. The New York Times reports the Ivy League school has decided to go the test-optional route, not requiring SAT and ACT...

University of California President: Let's Stop Using the SAT, ACT

Janet Napolitano, president of the UC system, recommends use of a homegrown test

(Newser) - The president of the University of California wants to end the use of the SAT and ACT as admission requirements and replace them with a homegrown test, according to a plan released Monday. Janet Napolitano’s five-year plan was submitted in advance of a May 21 Board of Regents meeting...

Students Could Take SAT Exams at Home

June testing has been called off

(Newser) - A home version of the SAT college entrance exam is being prepared in case schools remain closed into the fall, College Board officials said Wednesday as they announced the cancellation of June testing. Instead of a paper-and-pencil test given under proctors' supervision, the home version would be digital and rely...

CEO, Wife Get Jail Time in College Admissions Scandal

Gregory and Marcia Abbott to each spend month in prison after paying $125K to fix daughter's tests

(Newser) - As Felicity Huffman prepares for her 14-day stay behind bars at the end of the month, more sentences are rolling in for the college admissions bribery scandal—and this time, it's both members of a couple who will see jail time. Gregory Abbott, the CEO of International Dispensing Corp....

College Board Decides New SAT Score Was 'Wrong'

There won't be an 'adversity score'

(Newser) - "The idea of a single score was wrong. It was confusing and created the misperception that the indicators are specific to an individual student." That's the assessment of the CEO of the College Board, which on Tuesday announced it was doing away with its plans to...

SAT Has Verbal, Math, and Now 'Adversity' Scores

It will measure hardships of students taking the test

(Newser) - Anyone who has taken the SAT knows the test provides separate scores on the math and verbal sections. But starting this fall, the Wall Street Journal reports that more test-takers will get a third score—for "adversity." The adversity score does not account for race, but it uses...

Student: My SAT Score Rose, and They Assume I Cheated

Kamilah Campbell is demanding Educational Testing Service release her score

(Newser) - Kamilah Campbell wanted to improve her March SAT score. So the 18-year-old Florida high school senior "studied harder than she ever studied before," says her attorney. The result was a 330-point increase when she took the test again in October, getting a score of 1230. But then she...

This Major University Wants to Wipe Out the SATs

University of Chicago has become the first major school to nix testing requirements

(Newser) - The University of Chicago is becoming the first major US research university to stop requiring American undergraduate applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores, reports the AP . The decision that school officials say is designed to help even the playing field for students from low-income or underrepresented communities has been...

High School Seniors' High Grades May Be Deceiving

Grades are rising, on average, but SAT scores are falling—so are students learning?

(Newser) - If you've got a straight-A student living under your roof, you may want to give your teen a pop quiz once in a while. A new study reveals that even though a larger percentage of high school seniors than their 1998 counterparts are heading off to college with an...

College Board Recycled Compromised SATs
College Board Recycled Compromised SATs
INVESTIGATION

College Board Recycled Compromised SATs

Exams keep falling into the hands of 'bad actors'

(Newser) - The College Board has been trying to clamp down on SAT cheating worldwide, but "cram schools" in East Asia are running rings around it, throwing thousands of exam scores into doubt, reports Reuters . The board, a nonprofit organization that owns and develops the standardized test, routinely recycles SAT test...

Students Bombed This Year's SAT

Scores lowest since test got revamped a decade ago

(Newser) - The nation's SAT results are in, and they're not good. Numbers are down in all three sections, among both male and female students, reports Inside Higher Education . The average score was 1490 out of 2,400, down seven points from last year and the lowest since the test...

George Washington University Ditches SAT, ACT Scores

School was worried tests were driving away promising students

(Newser) - George Washington University will no longer require that students submit their ACT or SAT scores for most freshman admissions. The dean of admissions at the DC university says administrators were concerned that below-average test scores were leading otherwise strong students to not apply. "Although we have long employed a...

Students Can Retake SAT for Free After Misprint

Written, spoken directions on time allowed were off on 2 sections

(Newser) - Students who took a flawed SAT this month can get a free do-over. The College Board will waive the $54.50 fee for any student who took the June 6 exam, which contained a printing error that gave some students five more minutes on one section of the test. The...

Va. School Finds Its Lost SATs— in Own Building

Oddly, 236 tests were in the shipping area

(Newser) - A month after 236 SATs went missing , school officials in Loudoun County, Va., found the tests yesterday—and they weren't exactly in the hands of UPS as the school had initially claimed, reports NBC Washington . Rather, they were neatly boxed up sitting in a cart in Broad Run High...

Virginia Students Told Their SAT Tests Have Vanished

Loudoun County kids who took it May 2 might have to subject themselves to it again

(Newser) - As far as anxiety-fueling tests, here's one that tops the SAT: the SAT do-over. At least 100 high schoolers in Loudoun County, Va., have been told they may have to take the SAT all over again because their tests have gone missing (some reports say 100 kids; WJLA puts...

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