by Sean McGarry
Recent updates on the College Board and its exam structures.
Retrieved from https://about.collegeboard.org
COVID-19 has brought a great amount of change to society, specifically in the way that education and schooling operate. After months of constant distress, schools have generated a hybrid learning format, accounting for the preferences of students and their families. The most difficult decision comes down to whether or not colleges should require a submission of the SAT or ACT in the application process, or just run test-optional. Most have chosen to exclude testing from their obligations, but will likely be much less lenient this upcoming school year. Shifting back to a normal atmosphere, the College Board has made crucial adjustments to their testing options.
Is anything different with the SAT? At the highest point of the pandemic, the College Board mentioned that they were considering creating an online version of the SAT to be proctored from home, but that never ended up happening. Luckily, the SAT has been administered in person and on paper since its resume in August of 2020. But, some aspects of it have seen a sudden modification. On January 19, College Board put out a statement saying the following: “We are no longer offering SAT Subject Tests™ in the U.S. Because SAT Subject Tests are used internationally for a wider variety of purposes, we’ll provide two more administrations, in May and June of 2021, for international students. We will also discontinue the optional SAT Essay after the June 2021 administration.” With a rise of interest in AP and IB classes, the College Board does not think that subject tests and an essay are necessary for students to complete.
The College Board was met with dissatisfaction amongst higher schoolers last year when it came to AP testing. How have they been able to improve? Far from the conditions of last year, the College Board now offers AP testing to accommodate in-person and virtual students. The tests are given in three administrations through the months of May and June, with results released in July and August. Virtual students take a full-length test this year with stringent security measures and plagiarism detection. One negative aspect of remote testing is that students cannot go back to the previous question after submitting, which is a disadvantage compared to those completing the test on paper. Nonetheless, the process has run much smoother than the catastrophe of last year’s circumstances.
References
1. College Board. (2021, January 19). College Board Will No Longer Offer SAT Subject Tests or SAT with Essay. The College Board. https://blog.collegeboard.org/January-2021-sat-subject-test-and-essay-faq
2. Marco Learning. (2021, April 13). What We Know About the 2021 AP® Exams. https://marcolearning.com/what-we-know-about-the-2021-ap-exams/