Prospective college applicants who were anticipating the new, redesigned SAT exam must consign themselves to the current version for another year. In an email to college counselors and university officials, the College Board announced this week that it was delaying the debut of a redesigned SAT until the spring of 2016. The accompanying PSAT will be first administered in the fall of 2015.
At its annual conference in October, the College Board had announced that the details about the new exam would be revealed next year and that the new exam would go into effect in January 2015. The postponement reportedly comes partially in response to concerns from college counselors and admissions officers. They worried that a quick roll-out would not allow students to prepare for the new exam and render colleges unable to interpret scores properly.
"We heard clearly from our members — including our Board of Trustees, national and regional councils, the SAT committee, attendees at our national Forum, and particularly those in higher education — that you need more time, and we listened," wrote College Board President David Coleman.
It's likely as well that the College Board took warning from this year's problematic redesign of the Common Application, which has been plagued with technical and substantive glitches. Thus far, the College Board had hinted at the expected content and structure of the new SAT in fairly broad strokes. So, it has significant latitude to respond to feedback and perform beta testing.
"This change in the timing of the redesign will serve our members in higher education by providing two years to plan for the redesigned exam, familiarize themselves with changes, and meet system and publication requirements," wrote Coleman.
The postponement means that all current 11th graders (Year 12's in the British system) and 10th graders will sit for the current version of the SAT, as they apply for January 1, 2015 and January 1, 2016 application deadlines, respectively. Current 9th graders are the first class that will take the new SAT en masse.
There are no expected changes to the ACT, which is also accepted by almost all U.S. colleges. In the U.S., students sit for the SAT and ACT in roughly equal numbers.
ArborBridge has been monitoring announcements about the new SAT and is dedicated to helping overseas students navigate the SAT and ACT testing process as smoothly as possible. ArborBridge looks forward to updating its curriculum to ensure that its students will well prepared for the new SAT.
