Today was the first day that test prep professionals were allowed to take the new SAT at official test sites around the world. Many of our tutors and students sat in on the exam. In this blog post we will talk about the experience and general impressions. Please note, out of respect for test security and College Board policies, we won't reprint or describe any questions or essay topics.
As a whole, the test aligned pretty closely with the practice materials the College Board released. Many of the same topics and question types showed up, and they appeared in relatively the same proportion as previously released materials. There was even one case where a Math problem was reprinted verbatim from the new Official SAT Study Guide. Perhaps a mistake on the College Board’s part or part of their efforts at consistency and scaling across materials. Time will tell!
At U.S. test centers, there appeared to be a smaller than usual turn out for the May SAT exam. While the usually large crush of students showed up for the Subject Tests today, numbers for the regular SAT appeared to be low on what is traditionally a very popular month to take the SAT. This low turnout isn’t a huge surprise given students’ hesitancy to be guinea pigs for the new exam and similarly low turnouts for the first Saturday test last March.
The Reading section contained very few surprises. In terms of pacing, difficulty level, and passage themes, the May test was right on point with the released exams. For graph-related questions, it still paid off to be very careful reading each answer choice and looking at the data. One silly mistake could cost you there!
The Writing/Language Section was also just what we had all practiced and seen before. There is a clear indication that the SAT is trying to make its test at least a bit different from the ACT. The ACT focuses heavily on the nuts and bolts of grammar (punctuation, verb agreement, etc.). But this May’s SAT seemed to pivot slightly towards more conceptual questions about passage organization, vocabulary use, and carefully reading the context for each question. Students should always be sure they read carefully and understand the passage as a whole, not just focus on the sentence that contains the question.
Just as in March, the Math sections appeared to give students the biggest trouble. There were definitely a number of hard questions, but almost all of the topics were covered in the College Board’s previously released exams and in the Official Study Guide. As expected, the No Calculator section can be tricky in terms of pacing if you can’t spot shortcuts or are generally a calculator dependent student. Many students in the exam rooms did not appear to finish the No Calculator section. As a whole—just as feedback from March showed—the Math sections were the most difficult for students in terms of content and pacing.
Most students appeared ready to tackle the exam at the start. Even though it was a new test, there weren’t many extra nerves.
Rest up! This test is exhausting, especially if you take the Essay. The longer sections make it hard to concentrate for long periods of time. Many students seemed to float off in the Reading section, which is only the first part of the test. Reading for 65 minutes straight is hard! The same was true of the Essay section. Writing for 50 minutes by hand at the end of a long test appeared to wipe out most of the students. There was a lot shaking out cramped hands and many students just gave up writing in the last 10 minutes. If you need to take the Essay be sure to practice writing for the full time!
There was a lot of hubbub before the March exam when test prep professionals figured out that there might be an experimental section on the new SAT. There certainly was an experimental section at some of the locations today. The section was a 5th section (in place of the Essay) and was only given to students who did not register for the Essay. It was printed in the test booklet with the rest of the test (not given separately) and clearly announced to the students. The proctors read instructions that the experimental section could be Reading, Writing, Math No Calculator, or Math Calculator, and that students in the same room could have different experimental sections. Most students took it in stride and didn’t seem fazed.
With two official test administrations behind us, it seems the College Board has settled into its groove with only a few hiccups. This Tuesday, the College Board will release the results from the March SAT with plenty of statistics and conversion charts. Stay tuned for an update on what the numbers mean and how they affect students moving forward.