By Gillian McGoldrick
Editor-in-Chief and Entertainment Editor

In Spring of 2016, long-loathed standardized test that determines a students’ readiness for college will change drastically. The College Board has set up new requirements for test questions and changed the entire scale of the SAT to start in April of 2016.

The SAT announced on March 5 their blueprints and reasoning for the new ideas that the redesign of the SAT will be based around.

According to the College Board’s official website, the reasoning for the changes is: “The redesigned SAT will focus on the knowledge and skills that current research shows are most essential for college and career readiness and success. The exam will reflect the best of classroom work.”

The College Board also provided the areas of study that the new test will be focusing on including problems grounded in real-world contexts, analysis in science and social studies, and an optional essay that is written based on analyzing a source. There also will no longer be a penalty for wrong answers – which was a one-quarter of a point deduction in the past.

Neshaminy’s freshman will be juniors at the time of the change to the SAT, which is the prime test-taking year. Most current sophomores, juniors, and seniors have expressed some hard feelings to the changes that are coming to a test that has caused them all so much frustration and hardship.

“It’s really unfortunate for our graduating class that we will have to take the more difficult test,” Junior Robert Clark said. “But at the same time the fact that the test is more difficult now looks better for us.”

The SAT is traditionally under a 2400 point scale: 800 possible points for reading, math, and writing. The new model of the SAT will work under a 1600 possible-point scale that now combines reading and writing in one section, makes the essay optional, and has a more focused math section. These changes will help relieve some of the stress that applying to colleges a student is bound to run into.

These changes may factor into many students leaving the SAT and taking the competing ACT that is much more content-based due to the lack of penalty for wrong answers, includes a science section, and is a much more reasonable test all-around. The ACT is around three hours and twenty-five minutes while the SAT is three hours and fourty-five minutes.

The SAT has morphed into a futile test that students across the nation dread. These changes are proof of the SAT moving in the right path of making their lengthy and dreaded test much more manageable and relatable.