The first annual anxiety festival is now behind BOYCP’s class of 2017. Next comes applying to colleges and financial aid. Now obviously, next year’s juniors at BOYCP will suffer the same fate. This time, however, they will be strained by a different challenge- the SAT. It is significant to mention that the SAT has been revised this year by its owners and producers- The College Board.

According to The College Board’s website, the newly edited SAT has undergone 6 major changes to the test. These changes include: different “components,” question amounts, a more lenient scoring system, new time limits, varying focuses, and testers being given a “subscore reporting” along with their results.

What the SAT means by “components” is what the material is about. The College Board’s website states that 2016’s pre-March SAT components were, “Critical Reading, Writing, Mathematics, [and an] Essay.” The SAT our sophomores will take next year will consist of “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, [a] Reading, [a] Writing and Language, Math, [and an] Essay (optional).” The ACT the juniors here took had 4 sections: English, Reading, Math, and Science, along with an essay.

Next year’s SAT will have a different quantity of questions and time allotted per component. The College Board’s website reports reading will have 52 questions and tasks with 65 minutes for completion. Writing and language will have 44 questions and tasks with 35 minutes for completion. The essay will ask students to, “produce a written analysis of a provided source text” within 50 minutes. The math section will have 58 questions and task with 80 minutes for completion. Excluding the essay, the new SAT will have a total of 154 questions and tasks with 180 minutes for completion.

The latest ACT had a total of 215 questions and tasks (excluding the essay) with 175 minutes for completion. The only other difference between the two is how the tests are scored. 2016’s revised SAT is out of 1,600 points- the previous was out of 2,400 points. The most convenient change made to the SAT is how testers are no longer penalized for incorrect answers. The ACT continues to be out of 36 points for the composite score and per section.

Enjoy your summer, sophomores.

– Rolando Arroyo