The Changing Landscape of College Admission Testing Katie Rose, Communications Coordinator North Springs High School September 10, 2019
The admissions process Academic Index: Academic Index: Quantitative components Qualitative components H.S. GPA Activities SAT (Leadership, SAT (in the context Admissions Teacher/Counselor Demonstrated Subject of Schedule Recommendations Interest ACT Essays Strength and Depth) Tests Academic Strength of School) The packaging of the application —Is there HOW will they read your application? a cohesive story? 2
College Testing College Testing Similarities and SAT Differences ACT Content Scoring History 3
We will see more test-optional schools Going test optional gets an immediate admissions bump (more students apply) and increases average reported test scores (lower scores disappear) . More than 950 accredited schools in the United States do not require an SAT or ACT score for admission. —The Washington Post, 2017 4
However, US schools still put a premium on testing NACAC Survey 2017: Factors influencing admissions decisions Importance Considerable Moderate Limited None Grades in all courses 77.1% 13.8% 6.4% 2.8% Grades in college prep 76.9% 12.5% 9.3% 1.4% Strength of curriculum 51.8% 35.3% 7.3% 5.5% Admission test scores 54.3% 27.9% 13.7% 4.1% Essay or writing sample 18.9% 35.9% 22.1% 23.0% 5
The SAT and the ACT A brief history 6
SAT/ACT History 1926 Princeton professor Carl Brigham developed the first SAT, giving it to several thousand college applicants. It grew in popularity until ETS (Educational Testing Services) was established in 1947. 1959—Iowa City, IA 1947—Princeton, NJ 1948—Berkeley, CA ACT HQ ETS HQ First ETS branch 1959 University of Iowa professor Everett Franklin Lindquist created the ACT as a competing test. For decades, schools on the coasts preferred the SAT and the heartland preferred the ACT. Sources: PBS Frontline, TIME 7
Today the SAT and ACT are universally accepted Colleges will accept either test without prejudice . 8
For the first time in 7 years, the SAT leads the testing landscape SAT ACT Gap 2012 1,664,479 1,666,209 -1,730 2013 1,660,047 1,799,243 -139,196 2014 1,672,395 1,845,787 -173,392 2015 1,655,557 1,924,436 -224,436 2016 1,681,134 2,090,342 -409,208 2017 1,715,481 2,030,038 -314,557 2018 2,136,539 1,914,817 221,722 Sources: ACT, CollegeBoard, EducationWeek 9
The SAT has gone through drastic changes over the years 2006 2016 The SAT changes from a 2-part, 1600-pt test to The SAT changes back to a 2-part, 1600-pt a 3-part, 2400-pt test with a mandatory essay. test, this time with an optional essay. 2012 The ACT surpasses the SAT for the first time in terms of student participation worldwide. By comparison, the ACT has remained fairly consistent, despite some changes to content and difficulty. 10
The ACT has made some small moves towards the SAT Added more critical Added comparison thinking, analysis and reading passages time to optional essay About 75% of the content matter overlaps, which means scores should correlate more highly than ever before. However, the timing and question formats are very different. 11
Structurally, the two tests appear nearly identical SAT ACT { } Reading English Writing & Language Math 3:00 2:55 Math—No Calculator Reading Math—Calculator Science Essay (optional) Essay (optional) Testing time: 3:35 Testing time: 3:50 12
The amount of time per question is a profound difference. Section ACT SAT % Difference Writing 36.0 47.7 33% Reading 52.5 75.0 43% Math 60.0 84.2 40% Science 52.5 N/A N/A The SAT has a more forgiving timing structure, which can benefit some students, but as we’ll see, it’s also a more complicated test. 13
The SAT Digging deeper 14
Digging Deeper: SAT Reading Time: 65 minutes Questions: 52 Time per question: 75 seconds The Reading section on the SAT is a marathon! It’s the longest section and comes right at the beginning. Be prepared for dense passages! Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 15
Digging Deeper: SAT Reading Genres Students will see several types of passages, including: Students will definitely Literature Science see graphs and charts typically an excerpt of a typically two of these longer work as well in this section! Social sciences/history typically two of these Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 16
Digging Deeper: SAT Reading Questions Along with graph questions , the SAT Reading test features inference, vocabulary-in-context, and challenging paired questions , which force students to find evidence for their answers. These questions reward students who read critically and carefully! Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 17
Digging Deeper: SAT Paired Passages There will be one set of paired comparison passages on the SAT. These passages can be in any genre and show up anywhere in the Reading test. Passages will be labeled “A” and “B.” However, the questions will be mixed up—the SAT does not separate questions relating to the different passages. Students will need to read carefully and understand the relationship between the two passages. 18
Digging Deeper: SAT Writing and Language Time: 35 minutes Questions: 44 Time per question: 48 seconds The Writing and Language test features two types of questions: Grammar and Rhetorical Skills Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 19
Digging Deeper: Grammar Questions These questions cover: Pronoun use Punctuation Subjects/Verbs Redundancy Prepositions Vocal in context Sentence structure This is where students will need to remember their comma rules! Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 20
Digging Deeper: Rhetorical Skills Questions These questions ask students to improve the quality of sentences or paragraphs. They may be asked to: Combine thoughts Reorder sentences Often, the questions will give students Add or delete specific tasks to accomplish! Reading carefully is key! Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 21
Digging Deeper: SAT Math (No Calculator) Time: 25 minutes Questions: 20 Time per question: 75 seconds Formulas given: Yes The No-Calculator section is full of functions and algebra! Students will need to be comfortable manipulating algebraic expressions. Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 22
Digging Deeper: SAT Math (Calculator) Time: 55 minutes Questions: 38 Time per question: 86 seconds Formulas given: Yes This section has a variety of math concepts, including modeling relationships algebraically, as seen here. Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 23
Digging Deeper: SAT Math Content Areas The College Board groups the SAT Math content areas into three main categories: 3 2 1 Heart of Problem Solving and Passport to Algebra Data Analysis Advanced Math ratios, proportions and quadratic, radical and solving functions, linear percents; unit conversion; exponential equations and word equations and inequalities; tables, scatterplots, and graphs; problems; polynomials; graphing linear functions, linear and exponential growth factoring; non-linear functions equations and inequalities; and decay; inferring from data; and graphs; modeling solving systems of linear center, spread and share of data exponential relationships equations and inequalities; sets; other introductory statistics modeling linear relationships; concepts linear word problems 24
Digging Deeper: SAT Math Content Areas In addition to those three big areas, the SAT features a few questions each on: Geometry area, volume, perimeter, angles, polygons. Most of these are in word problem format. You’ll get a reference guide for formulas! Trigonometry right triangles, SOH-CAH-TOA 25
Digging Deeper: SAT Math Problems Being able to solve math on the SAT is often subordinate to being able to generate an equation or interpret a constant or variable . Questions like this one test students’ “math fluency,” rather than their ability to get the right sum or product. Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 26
Digging Deeper: SAT Essay The SAT essay is optional, but some competitive schools—like UCLA—require it, while others—like Stanford—recommend it. To take the essay, you have to specify that you want the test with the essay when you fi first register for the test. Don’t be fooled: “ Recommended ” means “ you need to take it! ” 27
Digging Deeper: SAT Essay If the SAT essay seems familiar, that’s because it is! College Board has modified free response questions from its AP Language and AP Literature exams for the SAT Essay. Students are given a passage and asked to write an analysis of how the author makes his or her argument. It’s not about whether you agree with the author or not—it’s about recognizing rhetorical techniques. Source: Applerouth’s Guide to the SAT, 2nd Ed. 28
Recommend
More recommend
