James S. Murphy of Princeton Review, writing for The Atlantic, recently penned an article about the new SAT based on new sample questions which the College Board released. Murphy is encouraged by the changes that the SAT is making away from its obscure vocabulary focus and away from abstract essays, but he is less than encouraged by some of the changes to the math section of the new SAT.
The whole idea with the new SAT, a test created and offered the College Board, was to make its content more aligned with what students do in high school and will do in college. This also means aligning the test more with the new Common Core Standards, which in part were created by David Coleman, who now is the head of the College Board. Furthermore, being more college-aligned and more Common Core aligned means more problems based on interpreting charts and graphs as well as more word problems.
Making the math section more aligned with the new Common Core standards may mean putting students in non-Common Core states at a disadvantage, and privileging those students whose schools are well-resourced. In addition, more word problems will disadvantage English Language Learners.
For more details about the new SAT, follow this link: https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/changes-coming-to-the-sat/
Links to sample problems for each section of the new SAT are provided below:
Reading: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-suite-assessments/practice/reading
Reading Sample Problems: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions/reading
Math: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-suite-assessments/practice/math
Math Sample Problems: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions/math
Writing and Language: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-suite-assessments/practice/writing-language
Writing and Language Sample Problems: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions/writing-language
The SAT Essay: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-suite-assessments/practice/essay
Essay Samples: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions/essay
