GILROY
– Not only will Gilroy High School’s class of 2006 be subjected
to the state’s exit exam, it will also be the first class to take
the revamped SAT.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Not only will Gilroy High School’s class of 2006 be subjected to the state’s exit exam, it will also be the first class to take the revamped SAT.
The College Board, the testing agency that produces the SAT, will create a new and improved test by March 2005. The addition of a writing section will be the biggest change in the test.
Principal Bob Bravo said the new section, which includes an essay and multiple-choice grammar questions, will push teachers and students to practice and improve students’ writing skills.
“The positive effect, I think, is that it will help us concentrate on writing,” Principal Bob Bravo said. “I think that there’s more of an effort on the part of all teachers to have students practice writing.”
The SAT is now reflecting high schools’ efforts to produce better writers, Bravo said.
“I think colleges and universities, all of them were sending out the message that they want to see students be better writers,” he said.
Both the University of California and California State University systems have been skeptical of the SAT in recent years, calling it outdated, and some colleges and universities have toyed with the idea of no longer considering SAT scores in admission decisions.
The College Board said the new test is better aligned to instructional practices at high schools and will help colleges make better admissions decisions.
Other test changes include the elimination of analogies and the addition of short reading passages in the reading section of the test, formerly called the ‘verbal’ section.
In the math section, quantitative comparisons will go and several tougher questions will be added. This is the first time that third-year college preparatory math – Algebra II – will be included in the SAT.
“It’s not supposed to be harder, it’s just supposed to be a different style of testing,” said Sylvia Rabago, testing coordinator for GHS.
With the writing section, which will also be scored from 200 to 800 points, a maximum SAT score will now be 2400 instead of 1600.
The test will be 30 minutes longer, lasting three hours and 35 minutes. Even the price of the test will change, increasing by $10 to $12 in price.
