The New SAT
Like many people in America’s image-obsessed culture,
the old SAT didn’t think it was up to snuff. So it went under the
knife, Michael Jackson–style. A nip here, a tuck there—and wham!—you’ve
got a whole new test. The SAT doctors performed four major surgeries
to make the old test new:
The SAT Extreme Makeover
| PROCEDURE |
STUFF ADDED |
STUFF CUT |
STUFF KEPT |
| The Verbal Face Lift |
Short Reading Comp; name changed
to “Critical Reading” |
Analogies |
Everything else |
| The Math Nose Job |
Algebra II content |
Quantitative Comparisons |
Everything else |
| The Writing Transplant |
All new section,
with an essay and multiple-choice questions on grammar |
All new section |
All new section |
| SAT Enlargement Surgery: Length and Score |
45 minutes longer; perfect score
now 2400 |
1600 no longer a perfect score |
A better shot at 1600 |
That’s the summary of the changes to the test. Here’s
a little more detail about what the test looks like now that the
bandages are off.
Just the Facts
The new SAT is 3 hours and 45 minutes long. It covers
three major topics—Critical Reading, Math, and Writing—divided into
seven timed sections. Each section is graded on a scale from 200–800,
and a perfect score is a 2400.
The New Critical Reading Section
The former SAT Verbal section has been replaced and renamed
“Critical Reading.”
- 70 minutes long. Those 70 minutes
are divided into three timed sections: two 25-minute sections and
one 20-minute section.
- Three types of questions. The Critical Reading
section contains Sentence Completions, Reading Comprehension questions
about short paragraphs (100 words), and Reading Comprehension questions
about longer passages (500–800 words).
- Critical Reading Skills. Unlike the old Verbal
section, which was essentially a glorified vocabulary test, the
Critical Reading section really does test critical reading skills.
The New Math Section
Here are the basic facts of the new SAT Math section.
- 70 minutes long. The section
is divided into two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section.
- Quantitative Comparisons have been cut. The
Math section contains the standard multiple-choice questions and
grid-in questions.
- New math topics. Math questions cover topics
in basic numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, and data analysis.
The algebra in the new SAT now includes a bunch of topics from Algebra
II.
The New Writing Section
The Writing section is the one everybody’s talking about.
An essay! Grammar! Aaargh! But, actually, it’s just as beatable
as every other part of the new SAT.
- 50 minutes long. There will
be 25 minutes to write an essay and 35 minutes for three different
types of multiple-choice questions.
- One essay topic. For the essay, you’ll have
to take and justify a stance on a broad topic. You won’t have a
choice of topics.
- Multiple-choice questions. The Writing section
contains three types of multiple-choice questions: Identifying Sentence
Errors, Improving Sentences, and Improving Paragraphs.
- Writing skills. The essay and the multiple-choice
questions test both your writing skills and your understanding of
grammar and language usage.
The Experimental Section
The new SAT also contains a 25-minute experimental section.
It doesn’t count toward your final score. It’s in there just so
that the test-makers can try out some of their new questions on
you.
We know what you’re thinking: It would be nice if you
could figure out which one was the experimental section and, since
it doesn’t count toward your score, just blow it off during the
test. You can’t do that. The experimental section looks exactly like
one of the other test sections. Unfortunately, you need to treat
every single section of the test as if it counts.
