Adding a writing section to the SAT has not done much to improve the test's overall ability to discern how students will perform in college, according to research released Tuesday by the test's owner.
Critics of the SAT seized on the College Board's findings, which came three years after the revamped, nearly four-hour exam made its debut.
"After all their ballyhoo about how the new test was going to be a better tool for college admissions, it's not," said Robert Schaeffer, director of the group FairTest. "It's longer and more expensive. That's all you can say about it."
The College Board replied that no predictor of college success is perfect, but that the exam is a remarkably good one. It emphasized the finding that the writing test actually does a slightly better job of predicting freshman-year college grade point average than do the math or critical reading sections, both of which are multiple choice.
"Both tests are very valid, the old one and the new one," said Laurence Bunin, the senior vice president who oversees the SAT program. "What's important here is that the new SAT places an emphasis on writing" and offers a valid test of another skill that is "critical to college success."
The SAT now takes three hours, 45 minutes — or 45 minutes longer than the old version — and will cost 45 U.S. dollars in 2008-09, up from 29.50 dollars, though aid is available. The ACT, the other leading college admissions exam, has an optional writing section.
The College Board added the writing test, including a 25-minute essay, to help colleges make more finely tuned decisions about students' skills. College admissions officers can even download a student's essay and read it. The multiple-choice sections were also changed somewhat in 2005.
The College Board, a not-for-profit group, claimed the test would elevate the place of writing in high school classrooms. It backed up that argument last year with a survey reporting 88 percent of teachers said writing had become a bigger priority in their schools.
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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