Two years from now, when students aspiring to excel on the SAT open their test booklets, they won’t see what juniors and seniors years past are used to finding in them. On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced that the infamous SAT test is to be redesigned. The new and improved test will be available in the spring of 2016. While the full changes won’t be published until April 16, the College board has come out with a list of major changes to be put in place on the 2016 spring SAT.

Major Changes

• No more perplexing vocab – The words students will be required to define, will be based off of a reading and will be words used throughout their lives.

• Scoring – Instead of a 2400, the perfect score will be reduced to 1600.

• There will only be two mandatory parts of the test- Math and Reading Comprehension

• Essay – Will not be a mandatory part of the testing. However, some colleges require the essay portion be completed.

• Point system – No deductions on wrong answers! Students only get points on questions they get right.

The College Board changed the test to be more connected to the high school education. David Coleman, president of the College Board, says that the changes will expand opportunities and help college success. However, another speculation is that the Changes have been made to compete with growing popularity of the ACT, a test widely known to be easier than the SAT.

Even though the test is being simplified, these changes make it seem like the SAT is being dumbed down, which ruins the whole point of the test to being with. At rocklin, students have responded to the news of future changes negatively. Upperclassmen feel they’ve been cheated out of an easier testing opportunity that could have enhanced their college applications.

“I am annoyed that the test is changing after I am done taking it,” said Tawny Lee.

Given the changes will directly affect the class of 2017 who will be able to take the renovated test, they still affect the student population as a whole. Say a student got a 1890 out of 2400 on the current SAT and another student got a 1200 out of 1600 on the future SAT, and they got into the same college. It doesn’t seem fair that the student who took an easier test and got a good score could get into the same college as someone who took the harder test.

In the end, change is inevitable, and the best thing we can do as students is embrace these new changes and use them to our advantage.