The SAT test: Frequently Asked Questions
By Renee Dudley and Steve Stecklow (Reuters) - A newly redesigned SAT debuted on March 5 in the United States. Here is a guide to the new test and some of the security problems that have plagued the SAT. Q: What’s on the new SAT? A: The test is in three main parts – a math section; a reading and writing section; and an optional essay. The math section has 58 questions. The reading portion has 52 questions; the writing-and-language portion has 44 questions. The math and verbal sections are each scored on a scale of 200 to 800, so a perfect score is 1600. The core test is three hours long. The optional essay test, graded on a different scale, is 50 minutes long. Q: Does everyone who takes the SAT on a given date receive the exact same test? A: Not always: Multiple versions of the exam might be used on a test day. Q: Are fresh versions of the exam used for each sitting of the SAT? A: The College Board, the organization that owns the SAT, told Reuters that it will reuse portions of tests overseas at some point after those tests have been given in North America. This has been the prior practice as well. Q: Has the College Board recycled tests in America, too? A: Yes. One example: The test given in America in January contained some portions of the U.S. exam that was administered in June 2014. But interviews and an analysis of online discussions by test-takers indicate the College Board does not recycle SATs as frequently in the United States as it has abroad. Q: How much material is reused? Entire tests? Just individual test questions? A: Sometimes the College Board recycles one or more sections of tests. Sometimes it reuses smaller portions. College Board officials won’t say much about this for fear of helping content thieves or cheaters. Q: Why does reusing parts of tests present security problems? A: Exam booklets are sometimes stolen. Also, test-takers frequently go online to discuss questions immediately following the SAT. When test material leaks, and if that material is later reused, students potentially can preview actual test questions before an exam. Many Asian test-prep companies specialize in collecting material from prior tests and packaging it for their clients. Q: How do the Asian test-cram schools learn what was on past exams? A: They might harvest Internet chatter from discussion groups on U.S. websites like College Confidential or reddit, where students who’ve taken the exam discuss questions and answers. Cram schools also interview students who took the exam or send their own staff members to take the test. Q: Doesn’t the College Board prohibit kids from talking about what’s on the test? A: It instructs them not to discuss any of the material afterward. But students routinely ignore this and talk about math problems, reading passages, questions and answers in online forums. They also sometimes try to recreate the test from memory in shared documents. Q: And how do cram schools know which material will be reused? A: The College Board regularly releases certain exams for practice. Those don’t get used again. But other past exams could be reused. That’s the material the cram schools focus on teaching. Q: How does this information actually help a cram school’s students? A: Schools are able to provide those students with reading passages, test questions and answers that may appear on upcoming tests. Some create answer keys for prior SAT sections. Past SAT booklets, sometimes with the answers, also are offered for sale in Asia. Q: I can see how getting the correct answers in advance would help – that’s obvious. But how does it help if you simply see questions in advance? A: Students who get an advance look at questions may gain a distinct edge. A 1984 study by ETS, the SAT’s security contractor, found that test-takers who repeat the same version of a standardized exam perform much better the second time than students who take different iterations of the test. The research focused on the GRE – an admissions exam for graduate school. Neal Kingston, one of the study’s authors, says he expects the findings also hold true for the SAT. Even a single extra right answer can boost a score by 10 or 20 points on an SAT section’s 800-point scale, according to a practice-exam scoring table posted by the College Board. Q: How does it help if all you get is an advance look at a reading passage, without seeing the questions beforehand? A: Students who’ve seen reading passages in advance can gain a deeper understanding of the material. They also can spend more time answering the related questions, or working on other parts of the test section. Q: Why doesn’t the College Board just stop recycling? A: Cost is one issue. The College Board says the cost of using an exam only once would be passed onto test-takers, who could end up paying more than double the current fee of up to $54.50. Q: How many students take the SAT internationally? A: In the 2013-14 school year, there were 206,000 SAT test-takers overseas, according to the College Board. Of those, 64,000 were from East Asia and the Pacific region, including 29,000 from China. The College Board does not provide comparable data for test-takers in the United States. (Edited by Blake Morrison)
