New SAT is to (Old SAT) as Apple is to (Apple)
The results are in on the new-purportedly new and improved-SAT, launched by the College Board back in 2005: With a new writing section, no more word associations, higher testing fee, and 3 hour and 45 minute format, the new SAT was found to have only a 0.01 stronger correlation with freshman GPA than its predecessor.
Not Much Change (or Validity)
The College Board’s research on their new test (which features an additional required writing section) made light of their original statement that the new adaptation of the SAT would have “greater predictive power of a student’s probable success” in college than before.
In reality, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the results of the College Board’s research of 150,000 students showed that their new SAT:
- Under-predicts freshman year grades for females,
- Over-predicts freshman year grades for males,
- Is less predictive of freshman year GPA than are high school grades, and
- Is a better predictor of the future grades of white students than of minority students.
And again, it is only 0.01 better at predicting those first-year grades than the shorter, cheaper version College Board dumped three years ago!
What Admissions Officers Think
Though the new test appeared after the University of California President Atkinson proposed the UC’s drop the SAT as a requirement of their admissions process, the changes don’t seem significant enough to merit the higher cost and lengthier exam.
Admissions officers don’t seem too eager to give the new test more credit than the old one. When the Chronicle surveyed admissions officials about how they feel about the new writing portion of the test, only 17% responded that it had “great influence” on their perception of potential freshmen.
Still more interesting-there is a fairly large list of colleges that have made SAT and ACT scores optional for students applying to their undergraduate programs.
All the best,
Deborah Fox
Deborah Fox is the founder of Fox College Funding®, a nationwide company that helps families find creative ways to reduce their college costs.
photo: fresh apples 1 by lusi
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