New SAT Given March 6

Hannah Lee, Asst. News Editor

After the decision to revise the SAT format was first announced in 2014, the new version was finally given to test takers on March 6.

The test was redesigned in order to be more relevant to what students are learning in high school, in hopes of better serving the students who do not have the advantage of paying for an SAT prep class. However, in a survey by Kaplan, 56 percent of the students responded that the new test only somewhat represented what they learned in high school.

In another survey, 48 percent of the students who took the revised SAT reported that the questions were what they expected, while 30 percent said it was more difficult than they were expecting, and 22 percent said that the test was easier than what was expected. After taking the revised SAT, 17 percent of students that originally did not plan to take the ACT reported that they will consider taking the ACT in the future.

Many students took to social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to voice their opinions about the revised test. While many reported about the increased difficulty of the test, the majority of student complaints came from the math portion of the test. Many test takers reported that the math was much more difficult than the previous SAT, despite the use of a calculator.

“The new math on the SAT was so hard, I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy,” Twitter user samuelre8 said.

Students were given 25 minutes for 25 math problems, and along with the standard algebra and analysis, real life problems were implemented in the new exam to test students’ abilities to adapt to real life situations.