About That Redesigned SAT Experiment . . .

About a week ago, I was greeted in my inbox with a rather disappointing email. The College Board cancelled my SAT registration. Citing 'a new test security measure' -- which, by the way, is conveniently not listed in writing on their website and was not included in the email -- I was told that only students taking the test for its 'intended purpose' were allowed to sit for the March test.

I tried getting a hold of someone who could give me more information. I spoke to customer service representatives. I asked to speak to supervisors. I got lots of vague and unhelpful responses including but not limited to:

• The March test was not an "open" administration
• There was a security risk having people who were not looking to apply to an undergraduate institution take the test
• It wasn't about my age, they claimed not all older students had their registrations cancelled. (Considering I'm a college counselor and not a tutor or test prep employee, I find this hard to believe.)
• There will be no Q&A service for the March administration (Mind you, I hadn't paid for the Q&A service, unclear how or why this is relevant)

They told me that I could move my registration to May, but I'm not convinced they won't pull a similar last minute cancellation stunt then. I requested a refund and was then told that would involve going to my bank, which sounded confusing (has anyone reading this ever had to go in person to a bank to be issued a refund from a company?), so I'm still waiting on clarification on how that will work.  They actually never even responded to my appeal, I had to call them back Friday to even verify that my registration was definitely cancelled.

On a practical level, I'm disappointed with the SAT cancellation because I had genuinely been trying to prepare for the past two months for this test. I had been doing Khan Academy lessons diligently and while I certainly wouldn't say I'd been cramming, I had been regularly devoting at least two hours per week to prep and had sat through three practice tests online. I'm a adult who has been out of high school for over 15 years and I was re-teaching myself what a radian was. Trust me, there wasn't much residual fun for me during that process. It is annoying to have done that work for seemingly no benefit.

On a philosophical level, I'm disappointed with the SAT cancellation because I think a consumer who registers and pays money for something should be entitled to that service unless there is evidence to show they have nefarious intent. I also feel the burden of test security is on The College Board and the testing site, not on the test taker. If you felt adults taking the test were a security risk, put us in a separate room or seat us with extra empty desk around us. Or, better yet, considering this redesign was in the works for years, state a clear policy on testing rules well in advance of registration.

On an educational level, I'm disappointed with the SAT cancellation because I did honestly want to go through the motions of taking the test to better connect with  my students. I wanted to feel that same timing pressure. I wanted to toss and turn the night before the test and remind myself of those high school  memories that can be easy for adults to forget. I wanted to log in and see my scores with the same bubble of excitement/fear that I know my students feel. I genuinely wanted to see how much Khan Academy could move the needle on my score.

So, what was The College Board afraid of? Were they nervous that having journalists, educators, bloggers, and test prep tutors in the pool of test takers would make it easier for exam issues to be put out in the media? Did they suspect problems and want to keep only the most vulnerable people in the room to minimize collateral PR damage? I couldn't help but notice they had no problem sharing how much students 'liked' the new test after the school day administration last Wednesday. Were they fearful of outliers skewing the norming process? (If so, I'm not sure why they couldn't just pull our tests from the norming in advanced, considering they were able to identify us for cancellation). Was this always planned as a way to deliver another striking blow to the test prep industry? (David Coleman's original announcement made it clear that The College Board's partnership with Khan Academy was intended to cut off the test prep industry at the knees. Something, I should add, I might actually agree with The College Board about . . . )

One thing is clear: while the exam itself has been redesigned, other aspects of The College Board have not changed. This situation was poorly handled and can be added to the list of concerns I have about The College Board and their practices.

2015 Redesigned SAT Pre-Test

I've decided to take the redesigned SAT in March. When I tell people I'm doing this, the most frequent response is: why would you want to do that?

My reasons include:

• I took the SAT and ACT my junior year of high school over 15 years ago. Considering that a large part of my work revolves around giving advice and interpretation of these tests, it seems like having more recent exposure could be useful. 
• The exam is being redesigned starting in March of 2016 and I want to take the new test alongside the Class of 2017 to stand in solidarity with them in the face of this new exam
• The College Board has partnered with Khan Academy to give free online preparation to all students. As an adult who has been exposed to the topics on the test 15 years ago but not made use of these particular skills lately, I'm curious to see how much of a difference Khan can make. 
• Much attention is paid to the pressure and anxiety students face when taking standardized tests. I wanted to replicate these conditions for myself and see if that could help me better relate to my students. Doing drills or taking a practice test at home just isn't the same as sitting for the test under real testing conditions. 

I plan to begin my Khan Academy preparation in earnest in January. Before today, the only thing I'd done was take a few of the skills assessments (this helps Khan determine what skills you are strong in and which need improvement). Then, this morning, I sat for my first online practice test. Khan has 4 full length practice tests available online. But each one is only unlocked when you complete the one before it. I figured I should take my first test now before I do any formal prep so that I can get a baseline of where I'm starting.

Caveat: This practice test was completed on a computer. The real test will be on paper. I also skipped ahead in the CR and W sections because I had minutes left and was ready to move on. On a real test, that won't be possible.

Impressions:

• The first Reading section has 65 minutes to complete 52 questions. I completed everything with 26 minutes to spare. I opted not to go back and review and triple check my answers, mainly because I wanted this performance to be purely skills based. I was willing to miss some questions. On the real test, I suspect I won't feel this way. 

• The second section is the Writing and Language section. You have 35 minutes to complete 44 questions. The format used for these questions is not to my liking. There are two different sets of numbers jumbled up in passages -- one referring to the sentence number and one referring to the question number. Talk about confusing. I was able to get it mostly sorted out but for a 16 year old, I think this will be challenging. There just has to be an easier way to get the point across. I finished this section with 9 minutes to spare. This portion sometimes asks the test taker to be a sort of editor - making adjustments and improvements to the text. This is tough because for a person who isn't a strong reader or already struggles with grammar, it is hard to read the full passage with so many small (or sometimes not so small) errors. 

• The third section was the Math section with no calculator. Oh boy. Talk about timing issues. I COMPLETELY ran out of time. Like didn't even make it to the free response questions and was guessing in the last 20 seconds just to get something entered in for the multiple choice. This is definitely going to be my weak spot and will take the most energy for practice. 

• The last section is the Math section with the calculator. It has 38 questions in 55 minutes. I did better on the timing here but still had to do a lot of guessing because I just couldn't remember how to do that math they were asking. 

In the end, I scored a 1330. I got a 600 on the Math and a 730 on the Reading and Writing. I'm pleased with the score. It is higher than I expected it to be. Considering how long it has been since I have done the majority of the math included on the test, I was not expecting to get a 600. I was a pretty strong math student in high school (due to studying, not innate understanding) and last took math in college when I took intermediate Calculus my first semester of my freshman year. I know that my biggest work will be refreshing my memory on the steps needed to complete these math problems. I also, admittedly, have never been strong with mental math and the no calculator portion is going to be an extra large hurdle.

This score is lower than the score I got in high school and higher than the score I got in 8th grade when I took the SAT for CTY. I'm not setting any specific goals in terms of the score I want to get, I'm more just curious about how Khan Academy will impact my score. How much can I teach myself using the online demos and practice questions?

The experiment will continue in 2016 . . . .

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Redesigned SAT

Yesterday I attended a professional development at the College Board that shared some additional insight into the redesigned SAT. I have a vested interest in this both because ElRo students will be taking this test in the future and because I myself will be taking this test in March.

Here are some of the things that I learned:

- All Critical Reading passages will come from real texts - nothing will be generated just for the exam. These will be real world examples of actual things a person could read outside of the SAT.

- The 'Command of Evidence' section will now featured paired questions. A paired question means that there will be one question the student answers and then the next question will refer to how they got their answer to the first question. In other words: explain why you selected the answer to question 1 for your response to question 2.

- The essay is now optional and will occur LAST (it used to be first). It will now be 50 minutes in length. The prompt is already out and online, the only thing that will vary from test to test is the source material. You will no longer be asked to defend your opinion. You will instead be asked to explain how the author of the source material makes their argument.

Here is the currently published prompt:

"As you read the passage below, consider how [the author] uses

• evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [his/her] audience that [author’s claim]. In your essay, analyze how [the author] uses one or more of the features listed above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of [his/her] argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage. Your essay should not explain whether you agree with [the author’s] claims, but rather explain how the author builds an argument to persuade [his/her] audience."

-  There will be a much larger focus on Algebra on the redesigned test.

- There will be 'founding documents' included on the exam - historical documents that relate to core issues like liberty and freedom

- There will be no more points lost of wrong answers. Only points gained for correct answers. There will also only be 4 answers to choose from instead of 5.

- The redesigned PSAT from this fall is only going to be out of 760 for each section. This is because there is alignment between the exams and there is a small amount of content (about 40 points it would seem) that is on the SAT but not on the PSAT.

The redesigned SAT will be offered for the first time in March of 2016.

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The Redesigned SAT Experiment

As I hope you all know by now, the SAT is launching a redesigned exam in March of 2016. This change will impact the Class of 2017 and beyond and has already be the source of many discussions between and amongst students, parents, school counselors, and colleges.

After reading a book about a mom who set out to get a perfect score on the SAT, I thought it might be interesting to put my money where my mouth is and sit for the redesigned exam along with the rising juniors. My goal in doing this is a little different than hers (I'm not super focused on getting a 'perfect' score), but I am hoping to show some solidarity with the Class of 2017 as they too are faced with being the first to take the redesigned exam.

I'm not going to get a tutor or spend huge chunks of my life in a test prep class, but I am planning to also try out another new product that the College Board is rolling out: free online test prep with Khan Academy. The site just went live last week and students (or their college counselors) can create personalized online accounts where free diagnostics, practice questions, and exams are available to all. This is the College Board's attempt to fight back against prep that is driven by socioeconomic status - allowing all students, regardless of income, the chance to get exam practice directly from the test provider (CB is working in collaboration with Khan Academy - something no other test prep company can claim).  I take a little issue in the assumption that an online self-moderated portal can compete on a level playing field with an in-person tutor/group class, but I do respect the effort to make free prep available to those that are self-disciplined enough to seek it out. I don't suspect it will greatly impact a huge portion of test takers, but for those on the fringe who really are able to take the help and run with it, I think it is a great thing.

So, I tried my first two diagnostics this week - one in Reading & Writing and one in Math. The diagnostics are untimed and you are encouraged to just do your best so the portal can get a sense of what level you'll need to start with. For the first time in awhile, I was flooded with memories of taking standardized tests and the indecision that comes along with picking among choices that often tempt you to be torn between 2 or 3 different answers. Even though I knew it was just a diagnostic and even though it was for a test that literally has zero impact on my future, I couldn't help but be a little on edge as I pressed submit after finishing the ten questions. To my delight, I got ten out of ten correct on the Reading & Writing -- things were looking good!

A few days later, I decided to give the Math diagnostic a try. This one I was avoiding a bit because I was going to be starting with a diagnostic for the section without a calculator. (The redesigned SAT is going to have some math where a calculator is permitted and some where it isn't).  To give you some background, I've never been amazing with math but I have been amazing at working hard at math. What that means is that in elementary school when I moved classes between 3rd and 4th grade I unfortunately missed the units where we learned multiplication and long division. I've never, even now, learned my times tables and mental math is not my strong suit. Even with this gap in my math education, I focused really hard on catching up and was able to make it to AP Calculus BC during my junior year of high school. I then continued on to Math Topics, the most advanced math class in my school, even though it wasn't required for my high school diploma. So as you can see - my history with math is a complicated one. I found great success with the material, but it has never come to me naturally. As I start to prepare for this redesigned SAT next March, I'm confident that nothing on the exam will be something I've never seen before (there isn't any Calculus on the test) but I also haven't solved a math problem since my first semester of college in the fall of 2000, so I am going to need a lot of practice to get back into fighting shape.

Anyway - long story short - the math diagnostic for the portion with no calculator was hard. Like hitting road blocks no idea what to try next hard. Like getting 4 answers correct out of 10 hard. I know I'll get better with practice, but I think in the age of digital everything where every student has a calculator on their phone in their pocket in day to day life, this no calculator section is going to be a hard sell.

I'm going to try and continue with Khan Academy between now and March, giving you periodic updates here on the blog. Any current 10th grade student who wants to give Khan Academy a try, be my guest! There are certainly worse ways to spend a few hours per week this summer.

Because I suspect many students will just opt for the ACT - this redesigned SAT isn't as crazy a deal as it might seem. Students will be taking a redesigned PSAT this fall, so that should help give students additional information if it is worth taking.

(On a semi-related tangent - anyone interested in taking a Kaplan group course for the current SAT in preparation for the October 2015 test can register at: http://kaplanatschool.com/eleanorrooseveltny  The course begins in August. Be sure to use the discount code 150CLASS to get the lower price negotiated for our school)

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