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Vol. 19 No. 3
November 2004
"New SAT" Dominates NACAC Meeting
ABOUT 4,500 PEOPLE ATTENDED the National
Association of College Admissions Counseling's 60th National
Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in October. CB was there
and found high school counselors and college admissions officers
engaged in conversations and heated debate about the "New
SAT." Last month, CB highlighted some of the changes in
the new test. Here's some of what was said about it at NACAC:
THE NEW SAT: CRITICS SPEAK
OUT
Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest,
the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, led a NACAC session
entitled, "Caveat Emptor," or buyer beware. He charged
the term was applicable "because the New SAT, like other
marketable items, was designed to maximize the earnings of its
seller, not necessarily to benefit the consumer.
"That is precisely the case with the 'so-called' new
SAT," Schaffer said. "This product, from our perspective,
does not address the main problems that consumers have identified
in the 'Classic SAT,' including its weak predictability, its
inaccuracies, its biases and its susceptibility to coaching.
"In fact, some of these problems may be made worse by
the revised version," Schaffer contended. "The only
real problem the new SAT was designed to address was the problem
the manufacturer faced; and that was the loss of its primary
market, the biggest state they sell products to, at least 12
percent of their market. That is because the now retired president
of the University of California, Richard Atkinson, threatened
to cancel the use of the SAT in the UC system.
"That would add to the more than 700 colleges in the
country which now do not require the SAT or the ACT for many
of their applicants before making admissions decisions. This
was a very serious threat. And the College Board scrambled to
respond producing a total revision of the test just nine years
after its previous revision."
KAPLAN'S CRITIQUE
Jon Zeitlin, executive director and general manager
of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, said that, "this has
been a very interesting and tumultuous year, getting ready for
this test. There has been a lot of thinking and hand-wringing
about the effect of the test. Will it widen differences between
ethnic sub-groups? Will it widen the differences between boys
and girls? Is it a fairer test? Is it a harder test?"
But Zeitlin wanted to talk about the new test from the point
of view of the students Kaplan teachers have been counseling.
"We've been teaching classes on the new SAT since June and
talking with students and parents. What I've observed is that
the whole test is new for them. The critical reading questions
are just as new for students as the writing section. So they
don't make the distinction between the new and old test. This
is the test they are going to have to take. Students just think
of the SAT as a barrier between them and getting into the college
they want.
Zeitlin then pointed out, "The second thing we hear over
and over again from juniors is: 'Why us?' 'Why do we need to
be the guinea pigs?' Students want to know why do they have to
deal with the writing section and the longer length of the test?"
TEST SECTIONS
Zeitlin then spoke about the 'Critical Reading' section,
formerly known as the SAT Verbal section, which "has the
least radical changes. But students have always had a bit of
a hard time with reading comprehension. Students get bored, particularly
with the longer passages. They wonder why are these passages
so dry? We explain that they are academic, like many of the reading
passages they will see in college texts. The new reading comprehension
sections are a little easier for students because they contain
shorter passages so students don't lose their attention so much."
Zeitlin said, "We thought the new math section would
be harder. We thought students would look at the questions and
freak out. But we see a mixture of reactions. On one hand, kids
who aren't so strong in math see an algebra expression with a
square root sign, and that is harder for them. They get worried
and need extra help.
"On the other hand, kids who are pretty good at math,
who have taken trigonometry and will be taking calculus, found
the new, more advanced, SAT questions easier. They have studied
the advanced problems more recently in school. So it's easier
for them to remember how to do these problems.
ESSAY WORRIES
"The new essay section has gotten all the headlines,"
Zeitlin observed. "Most kids don't know that the grammar
section is going to count for more points than the essay in the
overall writing score. Parents and counselors don't know that
yet either. The College Board says the grammar multiple choice
will count about 70 percent and the essay for 30 percent of the
200-800 Writing score. Learning that is eye opening for many
students.
"Teenagers have a very strong sense of justice and they
find that having an essay is unfair because the grading is inherently
subjective. They ask, 'What if the grader is just having a bad
day? Or was out late last night?' That is a hard one to explain.
The fact of the matter is that grading essays is inherently more
subjective than scoring multiple-choice questions. We make sure
that our students study the scoring scale the graders will use
on the essay and help them get into the minds of graders so they
can write an essay that will receive a high score.
"The other thing we are seeing with kids on the essay
is that frankly their writing is not very good. Not many kids
are receiving fives or sixes on our practice tests. They understand
the directions, but they find putting together a detailed response
to be tricky. Also, sticking to their argument and constructing
a logically organized essay is challenging for a lot of students.
So they have some work to do on the essay," Zeitlin warned.
"Then, of course, there is the grammar multiple choice.
We are finding that kids are struggling here too. I think it
is because they are surrounded with poor uses of grammar in society.
Most kids, especially non-readers, can't hear the problems with
poorly constructed sentences in the grammar section. So we have
to teach some of the more formal rules of grammar and style.
You can't turn a kid from a horrible grammarian to a wonderful
one in 12 weeks. But you can get them focused on the skills that
are tested most frequently such as tense consistency, parallel
structure and wordiness. The grammar section is also the section
where we have had to do the most re-training with our teachers.
A LONGER TEST
"The final thing," Zeitlin said, "is
probably the most obvious. It is going to be a longer test now.
Even on a three-hour test, you see students' heads going down
on the table in fatigue towards the end. A four-hour test is
a long time for kids to keep their focus. Students need to understand
that the questions they get at the end count as much as those
at the beginning. A four-hour test is very, very challenging.
Schools should make sure their students take practice tests to
get them ready for the real test day."
PRINCETON REVIEW'S PERSPECTIVE
Jay Rosner, head of the Princeton Review Foundation,
said his perspective was a little different. "The Princeton
Review Foundation has a mission to address the test prep needs
of low-income kids on the high school level and students of color
in college with the GRE and LSAT and other tests. We at the Princeton
Review have a history of criticism of the tests. Now SAT criticism
is more mainstream, which is a good thing.
"I prefer to call the new SAT, the 'UC-SAT,' Rosner quipped,
"because it was redesigned to keep that market [California].
My first question was what are the implications for low-income
kids of all ethnicities, and particularly for African-American,
Latino and Native-American kids?
"The Time magazine cover story on the new SAT
back last October was a nine-page article, and I was called to
comment. The Time reporter wanted to focus on the removal
of the analogies and its impact. The conventional wisdom is that
most students have problems with vocabulary out of context, which
is what analogies consist of, and that minority students are
no different on that.
"My anecdotal evidence is consistent with that conventional
wisdom. But I told the reporter that I had some interesting data
from ETS from the October 1998 and the October 2000 SATs. Each
had 100,000 test takers.
"What I found was that for the analogy questions, the
score gap between whites and blacks was smaller than for other
verbal questions. I called the reporter back and told him that
it would be disadvantageous for African-American and Latino students
to change. He said that is very interesting but the article had
already been written. But he got me one sentence in his article.
Then Rosner looked at the SAT quantitative comparisons, questions
like 'is x greater than y' with concrete information, and so
forth. "I found the racial gap was smaller there too."
A "RECYCLED TEST"
Rosner call the "UC-SAT" a "recycled
test. It's not a new test. They've taken pieces from the SAT-II
and put them on the SAT-I. But the longer length concerns me
very much. The length of the test and stamina are key.
"You have to have your minority students take full practice
tests to build stamina and break through this resistance-avoidance
attitude that exists among all students, but is often even stronger
among minority students," he told high school counselors
in the audience.
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School-Wide Prep
Sheldon Smith, president of Test Watch based in Glencoe,
Illinois, said that test prep does work. "It is also beneficial
to the school because it increases real estate values in your
community. Real estate agents tout those scores and prospective
buyers want to know them. Second and more important, it is beneficial
to the students we serve.
"There are many students in your schools who perform
well in courses and class rank and so forth, but come test day
they find out the test is a little more demanding than they were
prepared for and they needed help honing their reasoning skills
or reducing their anxieties, so they can do better," Smith
argued. "You owe it to them as a high school counselor to
make sure students are ready.
"You need to let other companies have access to your
students and possibly provide them rooms to do their work and
you need to monitor them. That is done at Evanston Township High
School and Oak Park River Forest High School, both in Illinois,
and it works for them. It needs to be available and affordable
and a proven success," he concluded.
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ACT Tips
Michael E. McKinney, a consultant for ACT and former admission
officer at Northern Michigan U., noted that ACT provides free
consultation to school districts on ACT test preparation. "There
are two strategies ACT believes in for standardized test preparation.
We all know there are lots of resources out there to help students
prepare, free or for a fee.
"The quick and dirty short-term preparation involves
getting acquainted with the test material that will be covered,
how to take a timed test, pacing. ACT's ACTive Prep will be coming
on line in the spring. It is by individual purchase or schools
systems can license it.
"And the Preparing for the ACT book which is a
free publication given out to counselors each year is also now
a downloadable PDF file which is free. There you can find test
prep information and strategies specific to the subject areas.
On pacing, it suggests how much time they should allocate to
each subject area. That is extremely important. Sample test questions
are also available on our web site. Getting into the ACT
book has more advice.
LONG-TERM PREP
"Long-term preparation involves ways to help
teachers understand how better to help students get ready by
exposing them to the particular skills. It also involves students
taking the core course work. There is a lot of powerful data
from the practice test for the ACT. Students taking core course
work out-perform those who don't, no matter gender or ethnicity.
The sequence of courses that students take is also very important
as well.
"A student who takes a fourth year of English posts a
2.8 point difference. The message you should be sending students
is, why stop after three years, especially if students want to
go into an area that relies upon those skills. The same holds
with math and science," McKinney said. (For more info see
www.act.org.)
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THE COUNSELOR'S CORNER
Preparing for the New SAT
HOW CAN STUDENTS PREPARE FOR THE NEW
SAT? One NACAC session dealt with preparation for the
new SAT. Brian O'Reilly, executive director of SAT information
services for the College Board, noted that current juniors, not
most seniors, will be the first to take the test spring 2005.
The class of 2006 began with the new PSAT this fall.
O'Reilly pointed out that the SAT is changing for a couple
of reasons: "to better reflect what goes on in the classroom,
and to send the message of how important writing is as a college
success skill and how highly colleges value writing."
SAT CHANGES
He noted that the SAT Verbal section is changing to
a "Critical Reading" section without analogies, replaced
by short reading passages. It is going from a 75-minute Verbal
test to a 70-minute Critical Reading test.
On the Math section, the "Quantitative Comparisons"
section is replaced by more multiple-choice questions, but the
content of those questions is expanding into third-year math,
sometimes referred to as Algebra II. You can find samples on
the SAT web site (www.collegeboard.com.)
PSAT students who are just starting their third year will not
face Algebra II questions, since they are just taking that course.
The New SAT Math section is going from a 75-minute test to 70
minutes.
"Writing is the biggest change, especially with the addition
of the essay," O'Reilly said. "The essay will take
25 minutes and the multiple-choice writing will take 35 minutes.
The total test time goes from three hours to three hours and
forty-five minutes. Whatever students have been doing to prepare
in the past will still be appropriate.
"Overall, the changes will not appear that dramatic,
especially for students who take the PSAT, because it has had
multiple-choice writing for the past seven years," he predicted.
"The new SAT will not be any harder. Yes, we are adding
Algebra II, but that doesn't mean the difficulty is any greater.
In fact, some of the hardest questions are from the earlier math
subjects. This is a reasoning test, not an achievement test.
We've found that at least 97 percent of college-bound seniors
have taken at least three years of math.
"SAT scores mean the same thing: Math to Math and Verbal
to Critical Reading. Writing will be new, on the 200 to 800 scale.
It will have a two-to-twelve sub-score for the essay, a 20-to-80
sub-score for the multiple-choice writing questions. The meaning
of that sub-score will be set with the March 2005 administration
of that test. Colleges currently accepting the SAT will continue
to accept the SAT.
SAT PREPARATION
"How can students prepare? There really isn't
anything different about preparation for the New SAT," O'Reilly
argued. "The best preparation is to take tough, challenging
courses in high school. Also, read widely. High school English
teachers know that students who read widely do well on these
tests. That will continue to be true on the Critical Reading
test. Now, students will also want to write extensively, as much
as possible.
"Students should be familiar with the test. They should
not walk into it cold. The best and easiest familiarization is
to take the PSAT. With the exception of the essay and a few Algebra
II questions, everything that they will see on the New SAT, they
will have seen on the PSAT in October 2004," O'Reilly said.
PACING
"As students practice, they should work on pacing.
One of the reasons that we provide practice material for students
is so they can practice their pacing. Often students race through
a section, going too quickly. The easiest questions come first.
The hardest are at the end of a section. Rushing leads to foolish
errors on the easy questions and spending too much time on the
hard ones at the end.
"Also, the SAT has a formula for scores, so there is
a correction for guessing. Students need to know that and that
guessing may be better than not answering at all," O'Reilly
warned. "If you have an idea of the correct answer, you
have a fair chance of getting it. Take the guess, because there
is really no risk in guessing. You get a quarter of a point off
for a wrong answer and a full point for a right answer. The time
not to guess is at the end with the harder questions where you
don't have a clue.
"It's also important for students to keep track of where
they are and match the questions to the answer sheet. Be familiar
with the test. Know the directions before hand. Don't spend a
lot of time trying to comprehend the instructions. Practice is
the most important thing, beyond academic preparation. Then do
the analysis of where students made mistakes.
ESSAY PREP
"Preparing for the essay," is not so easy
O'Reilly noted. "You don't know what the topic is going
to be. Students who do not write to the topic will get a zero.
Don't come in with a canned essay. But you should practice writing
sample essays. Students will be asked to write an argumentative
essay, where they need to state their opinion on the topic, support
their opinion with some examples and come to a conclusion. As
long as they know that much, they are pretty well prepared to
go in and write to that essay topic.
"We've sent out preparation booklets to every school.
Practice questions are on the web. We also have an on-line prep
course at collegeboard.com."
Brian O'Reilly is executive
director of SAT Information Services for the College Board. He
made these remarks at the National Association of College Admissions
Counseling's 60th National Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
in October.
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BOOKSHELF
2004 Early Decision/Early Action Guide.
NACAC announced the publication of its 2004 Early Decision/Early
Action Guide, free of charge online for NACAC members and
available through its web site at www.nacac.com.
This year's report includes a directory of the 378 colleges and
universities that offer Early Decision or Early Action admission;
an essay by Christopher Avery, Harvard professor and co-author
of The Early Admissions Game: Joining the Elite (Harvard
University Press, 2003), examining the effects of early application
policies on students and the type of colleges most likely to
offer early application; data from US News & World Report
on the early and regular admission acceptance rates at more than
250 colleges offering early application; and NACAC's "Steps
to College" article on how to navigate the early application
process.
Barron's has released a new book by Marty Nemko called The
All-In-One College Guide: A More Results, Less-Stress Plan for
Choosing, Getting Into, Finding the Money for, and Making the
Most of College. 224 pages, ISBN 0-7641-2298-3, $10.95.
Susan Chiarolanzio, director of College Counseling at Flint
Hill School in Oakton, Virginia, has written Head Start to
College Planning: Get a Jump on College Admissions, also
available from Barron's, 179 pages, ISBN 0-7641-2697-0, $11.95.
Web sites on the prowl at NACAC.
College Prowler claims to provide "honest, unbiased information"
on colleges "straight from the students' mouths. Billed
as "reality guides," each paperback book includes quotes,
grades, stats and reviews. $14.95 each; 1-800-290-2682 or www.collegeprowler.com.
Monster.com has a program on colleges and careers called Making
It Count. Programs are organized in the Freshman Year, Junior
Year and Senior Year and include speakers, interactive exercises
and full-color workbooks. For more information see www.makingitcount.com.
CollegeAnswer.com
is a web site for counselors and students sponsored by SallieMae
that helps both examine various topics in financial aid and the
student loan process. It also sponsors a data base, My College
Options that says it will match student personal goals and interests
with 4,000 accredited colleges and universities nationwide. Available
in Spanish.
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FINANCIAL AID FLASH
Aid Stats. According to the U.S. Department of
Education, nearly 47 percent of students at private four-year
colleges received institutional financial aid in 1999-2000; 57
percent got federal financial aid (48 percent in the form of
loans) and 22 percent received state aid.
Top Fund Raisers. Donations
from college alumni increased almost 12 percent last year. But
total contributions remained the same at $23.9 billion. Here's
the top 10 fund raisers: Harvard U. at nearly $556 million, Stanford,
U. of Pennsylvania, U. of Arkansas, Johns Hopkins U., UCLA, Cornell
U., U. of Washington, U. of Texas at Austin and the U. of Southern
California with $306 million.
New Scholarship Search Engine.
This one sponsored by www.CareerBuilder.com
can be found at www.FindTuition.com.
Farhan Yasin, CareerBuilder's vice president, told the Chicago
Tribune recently that, "Scholarships and grants have
grown 11 to 12 percent annually in the U.S. to around $2 billion
a year." FindTuition.com features the nation's largest consolidated
database of national, state and college scholarships. The service
charges $39.95 for a three-month search period. According to
the company, about 65 percent of the students who use the service
receive assistance, mostly merit grants.
Another Option. NelNet College
Planning says it has a web site that will search $6 billion scholarship
databases. It also sponsors a $1,000 scholarship sweepstakes
drawing. See www.collegeplanning.nelnet.net.
NACAC's Site. With this
said, NACAC has a website www.nacac.com/preventscams.html
that includes the latest news on avoiding scholarship scams.
Wither Economic Diversity?
Two recent reports question the economic diversity in colleges
today. Low-income and middle-income students are being squeezed
out at the nation's most selective colleges, according to the
Century Foundation in New York, which found that only 9 percent
of students at the nation's 146 most selective colleges come
from families in the bottom half of the socioeconomic stratum,
while 74 percent hail from the upper fourth.
Statistics from the University of Los Angeles Higher Education
Research Institute show that the percentage of higher-income
students at these top schools has increased from 46 to 55 percent
since 1985. Meanwhile, the percent of middle-income students
has fallen from 41 to 33 percent of entering freshmen. Most observers
blame tuition increases which have risen at twice the rate of
inflation.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
MBA Apps Dip. For the second straight year, the
number of applications to MBA programs declined, according to
the Graduate Management Admission Council. Nearly three-quarters
of the full-time two-year programs reported decreases, with 41
percent noting a decline of 20 percent or more. Some 7 percent
fewer students took the Graduate Management Admission Test. Only
48 percent of part-time MBA programs saw declines. The cause?
Increased tuition, fewer foreign applicants and an improving
economy that offers job options.
Technological Indifference.
Just over 12 percent of 4,374 students at 13 colleges said that
all the new technology in their classrooms has improved learning,
according to a recent survey by the Educause Center for Applied
Research. Nearly half of the students said that technology's
greatest classroom impact was on the convenience of learning.
And 41 percent said they wanted only "moderate use of IT"
in their classes.
Reform Working. For the
past two decades, high schools across the U.S. have sought to
toughen their standards. And now it appears that more high school
students than ever are completing tough academic courses. According
to the U.S. Department of Education, from 1982 to 1998, high
school graduates who had completed advanced science coursework
soared from 35 percent to 62 percent, while those who completed
advanced mathematics courses grew from 26 to 41 percent.
Overseas Misadventures.
Last year, an estimated 160,000 U.S. college students studied
outside their native land. That is double the number a decade
ago. But there is trouble in paradise. According to a recent
New York Times article, many colleges are making students
sign contracts that pledge them to act as "mature"
and "responsible" adults, because too many U.S. students
have exhibited drunken and boorishness behavior that has offended
their hosts and reinforced "the Ugly American" image.
Curriculum Capsules. Yale
U. is offering a new interdisciplinary program at the Yale Center
for International and Area Studies (YCIAS). The Program on Order,
Conflict, and Violence will study these and other issues. This
year, DePaul U. in Chicago has added a Chinese degree program.
Indiana U. offers 882 degree programs at its eight campuses.
Add to those three new ones just approved by the Indiana Commission
for Higher Education; a new doctor of juridical science, a master
of arts in museum studies and a bachelor of science in forensic
and investigative science.
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COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig
Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally
Reed; Contributor: Marc Davis; Circulation: Irma
Gonzalez-Hider; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board
of Advisors: Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, Choate-Rosemary Hall;
Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (N.Y.) Central School District;
Howard Greene, author, The Greenes' Guides to Educational
Planning Series; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational
counselor; Virginia Vogel, Educational Guidance Services;
M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis,
Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.).
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