We are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date resources and announcements from the college admissions testing landscape. Here are some of the top headlines from this past month:
Reactions to the new SAT
Summary: We compiled a handful of articles below following the first administration of the new exam on March 5. Overall, responses have been mixed. The College Board’s surveys paint a rosy picture of a test well administered by the College Board and well received by test takers. So too do a few articles after the state-mandated testing on March 1. Students have also reported that the writing and reading sections were pretty much what they expected. However, threads on College Confidential, Twitter, and even the College Board’s own Twitter account indicate that there were a few issues.
The two biggest issues:
- No Calculator Math: Seemed very hard for some students and many didn’t feel they had time to finish.
- Experimental Section: Many students didn’t get an experimental section; it was only on some tests. It also was 20 minutes, given at the end, and clearly announced as experimental by the proctors. But there was confusion at some test sites where it was administered about whether or not essay takers were supposed to take it.
Learn more:
Student Reactions Following First Administration of the New SAT (College Board Press Release)
What Students Said Right After Taking the New SAT
SAT Enters New Era This Week
New SAT Launches
Cheating and the SAT
Summary: Read our blog post here
Learn more:
How Sophisticated Test Scams from China Are Making Their Way Into the U.S.
College Board Gave SAT Exams That It Knew Had Leaked
How Asian Test-Prep Companies Exposed the Brand-New SAT
Revised SAT Boosts Security to Thwart Cheats
Summary: This follow up story goes a bit more deeply into how the College Board went about identifying test prep experts and moving them to the May test administration. They did so by “examining the number of times the same registrant has taken the test, as well as the test dates when he or she previously took the exam.” The College Board also reported that some unscrupulous test prep people started jamming the phone lines with reasons why they needed to get in: “For example, a large number of test prep employees all came back to us testing for the same loophole, which was different from their original claim: Suddenly they all had to apply to the same summer school program, at the same school in the rural south, with the same deadline they claimed meant they needed to test in March.” The College Board has also said it reserves the right to do the same for future exams.
What this means: It’s pretty crazy the lengths some companies went to weasel into the exam. But don’t worry. Not us at ArborBridge! We took it in stride and are looking forward to taking the May exam in a few weeks. ArborBridge does not condone the type of cheating that the College Board was protecting against (getting copies of the exam to spread to students). We go in to try out the exam to see what strategies work best on the new test and to give ourselves practice with how the new test feels. We also expect that this might become the new norm: allowing test prep people only into those test administrations that will be released through the Question and Answer Service.
SAT March Voluntary Test Takers Down This Year
Summary: The College Board reported that the number of students taking the exam in March this year was 1.5% higher than last year. A big vote of confidence in the new exam? Not so fast. The final numbers are out and it appears that the entire boost came from state-mandated test takers who were forced by their school districts to take the new SAT during school this month. According to this article, the state-mandated test takers were UP 89% this month, but students who voluntarily registered for the usual March test was DOWN 22.6%. An online poll by Seventeen Magazine and The Princeton Review found similar numbers. Their poll showed that 40% of students who normally would have taken the SAT this March decided to sit out this exam.
What this means: Kids are nervous about this new exam (as they should be with any test carrying this much importance for their futures). Additionally, it looks like state testing is really helping out the College Board; it helped them “save face” for the March administration. And an 89% uptick is a serious chunk of change for the College Board. However, we have to be somewhat skeptical when we read any numbers published by the College Board. They are true numbers but it’s important to consider how they are framed and what they actually mean.
Learn more:
SAT Test Taking Declines
Many High School Students Sat Out the New SAT
The Q&A: David Coleman and Sal Khan
Summary: This interview with David Coleman (head of the College Board) and Sal Khan (head of Khan Academy) looks a bit more deeply into how the two organizations see the role of Khan in SAT prep. A few of the highlights:
- Khan mentions that Khan Academy isn’t about teaching test strategies, instead it wants to diagnose the content a student doesn’t know and address just those content weaknesses. He faults test prep for not teaching content for the exam.
- How does Khan do this? It uses a computer to identify a student’s weaknesses and then “looks at the frequency of the questions and what they look like on the actual SAT.” Khan takes a student’s exam performance on the PSAT and then customizes his or her test prep experience on Khan by giving him or her more lessons on the material that the student needs, less on what he or she doesn’t.
- Coleman stressed that the Khan site can get at foundational education weaknesses in math (say fractions or basic arithmetic) that a student has.
- Coleman notes that even if your state doesn’t do Common Core, don’t be worried that the SAT is slightly more Common Core oriented. Why? The Common Core is based on universal skills in college and high school, universal skills that all schools (Common Core or not Common Core) teach.
What this means:
- The College Board and Khan Academy are joining the trend of adaptive learning that ArborBridge has been perfecting and using for quite a while now. We use computer algorithms and questions from real exams all coded for levels and content, just like Khan. However, we have gone a step further by dividing the skills and level into more finely tuned categories than the College Board or Khan have done. This fine-tuning allows us to go even more deeply and strategically than Khan does.
- ArborBridge also agrees that test prep for too long has been focused on just tricks and strategies. That’s why we have been using an entire Root Curriculum to teach the content gaps Khan mentions. It’s a key component to how our curriculum works. However, we disagree with Khan that learning strategies isn’t helpful. Knowing how to approach the exam, make good guesses, pace yourself, etc. is equally important for helping students feel in control. Having control of the test is the only way to ensure a student’s content-knowledge can shine through. Khan doesn’t teach these strategies. At ArborBridge, students get the best of both content and strategies.
- We also go a step further giving students a human being to keep them motivated, to answer questions, and to guide them through the strategies. That personal tutor can also adjust lessons in ways that a computer algorithm can’t. All education experts agree the combination of computer diagnosis and human delivery/adjustment is the best way for students to learn. One without the other is just half the picture. Khan is only one half.
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