We've been preparing students for the newest version of the SAT, the Digital SAT (dSAT), since January. The dSAT is taken on a student's digital device and is adaptive by section: you must do well on the first module to get to the second harder module and challenge for a higher score. We did a deep dive on the new format here, and that analysis is still broadly valid. Here are some more thoughts:
- The questions have different weights!
Getting an easy question incorrect will really lower a score while getting a super-hard question wrong will have much less impact. Hence, students need to work hard to not make silly errors on the easier questions in the first module. If you don't get to the harder second module, scores are really capped at about 580/800.
- The test is shorter!
It is now just over 2 hours long and the computer based nature means that there is much less faffing about at the start with the answer sheets and whatnot. Kids click "Start Test", and they are off to the races. A much more pleasant, and much shorter, experience for all concerned than the old SAT and especially the ACT.
- Focus is key!
While shorter, the Reading and Writing half of the test requires students to focus on a brief passage about, say, Native American pottery, to answer one question and then tackle the next question which may cover an experiment in botany, followed by interpreting a Shakespeare quote, etc. Switching so quickly is a challenge for many and requires laser-like focus for the full 64 minutes of the two Reading modules. We have developed some great timing strategies to maximize Reading/Writing scores.
- DESMOS is a game-changer!
The DESMOS graphing calculator is embedded in the testing app and on some math modules it can be used on up to a third of the questions to effectively blunt-force your way to the correct answer through trial and error. Learning how to employ this powerful tool is key to a higher score, especially for students who don't remember what a discriminant will tell them about the number of solutions to a quadratic function.
- The test has worked!
We had profound fears regarding the many, many things that could go wrong with this transition to a new test format. Thankfully, things have gone largely to plan - a few issues aside. International students are being used as beta testers before the test is rolled out in the States from next March but to give College Board credit, it seems to be working just fine.
Supreme Court Ruling on Admissions
The start of July saw the American Supreme Court rule that race could no longer be considered in admissions decisions. We'll leave it to experienced education journalists like Jeff Selingo to attempt to parse out all the ramifications. The next policy to likely get legally challenged is the use of legacy preference, which is much less divisive.
The big question for families is whether this change will have any material impact on the admissions rates of the most rejective schools? These rates have plummeted overall in the last three years or so and the admit rate for students in Singapore is much, much lower than the headline rate. This number is known by the universities, but good luck getting them to reveal it.
The short answer is NO. There will be no discernible change to the single digit admit rates that international students are currently facing. While universities are now technically barred from directly considering race and ethnicity, this ruling was intended for the domestic American population. There is nothing barring universities to continue to consider nationality and geographic location to "build their class". Singapore has many excellent students applying to a very small list of popular universities, and these universities can only take so many per country or high school.
So, what to do? For years we've been advocating away from chasing a brand name school that is popular in favor of universities that have programs that interest you and are located in a place you'd love to live for 4 years. Here is an article we published back in 2010 on why rankings are garbage, they even worse now and schools are finally walking away. Work with your school university counselor to come up with a viable list of universities that will be a good fit for you. You should have a great reason to apply to each of them, not "XXX U is highly ranked/renowned/respected."
Summer Ideas!
The tendency over the summer is to enrol in intensive on-campus pre-university programs to effectively pad university applications. While there is no firm data on whether these activities actually do help with applications, they certainly do help universities monetize their lovely campuses and graduate students earn some nice money over the break teaching wealthy high school students. There is also a more recent trend of kids writing "academic papers" in partnership with "mentors" which are then "published" in "academic journals". This grift is revealed in this recent article.
So, what should a rising junior or senior do with their summer break? Here are some ideas:
- Tour Schools
Go on university tours. Even you aren't interested in a school, go on the tour if your travel brings you near the campus. Top tip: after a tour finishes, sit down and write notes about the campus you just viewed to refer to later. Otherwise the campuses tend to merge together in your memory a bit like temples in Thailand.
- Get A Job!
If you are legally allowed, get a paid job. Lifeguarding, baby-siting, F & B, landscaping, retail, whatever you can find. You will learn more about what you want to do with your life and how to interact with other people in a summer working at McDonalds than in Economics 101.
- Intern
We recommend students leverage their parents' professional networks (LinkedIn) and see if anyone might need a gofer/peon for a few weeks. The job should entail making copies, mindless data entry, pointless market research, and fetching tea/coffee/muffins for people. This experience should hopefully be both enriching and humbling for students as they learn a bit more about how the real world actually operates. You don't need a work visa for an unpaid internship.
- MOOC MOOC MOOC!!!
Massive Online Open Courses are a great way for a young student to dip a toe into real collegiate-level academic content. A good directory is here.
- Khan!!!! (Sal, not Noonien Singh)
You should be able to get your hands on the syllabi of some of the courses you are taking next school year. Why not steal a march and use Khan Academy to knock out the first few modules of math/econ/history so you can get off to a great start on the school year?
- Read More
We are a bit of a broken record on this. Here is a great list of 20 "must read" books for high school students. Beyond that reading magazines and anything without too many pictures will serve you well.
- Relax
School is stressful. Covid was stressful. Life is stressful. Be sure to take the time to do things that you find help you to relax. Run. Walk. Bake. Cook. Meditate. Binge watch. Zone out. Have a great holiday!
Recent Trends in Admissions and Testing - August 2022
We will need another hour-long webinar to even come close to covering all the developments in the world of testing and admissions. The impact of the Covid pandemic is ongoing and indeed will be echoing around the halls of learning for years to come. American Universities stopped requiring tests students couldn't take, and there was an ensuing flight to perceived quality among applicants. The direct result was a well-reported and alarming reduction in the acceptance rate of the most competitive schools as students no longer saw a (relatively) middling test score as a barrier to entry.
The universities opened their application doors up widely and have been enjoying an unprecedented surge in interest, applications, and application fees. What they haven't done is expanded any of the entering class size to any real degree with giants such the University of California system actually reducing the seats available to out-of-state applicants. The net result at UC is that only 2,442 international students were accepted for 2023, down 12.2% from last year. (What isn't reported is how many of these international admits were olympic or professional-caliber athletes...)
The net result is that universities that used to be very completive, are now absurdly competitive, and those that used to be a bit competitive, are now very competitive. Past historical data from your high school on admissions into universities X, Y, and Z are now no longer nearly as indicative as it used to be and students will need to look at the last couple admissions cycles instead. In many cases, a school that would have been a bit of a "reach" for a student in 2018 is now out of reach - even if GPA/IB results are outstanding and SAT scores are tip-top. For those of graduating in 2023, the key is to adjust your expectations and take to mind that the most competitive schools often aren't the best choice for your future.
Nearly all American schools are now some form of "Test Optional", and this will continue to be the new normal. Students will need to consider how their results on the SAT/ACT compare to the most recent data from the university on accepted students - check the Common Data Set rather than the university - just google "Common Data Set XXX" to get data on XXX University. Please also note that the last couple years of data will have inflated test scores from accepted students as only the students who scored high will submit their scores. Though data is still spotty, students who submit scores generally have a better chance of acceptance - though these same students are those that tend to be stronger academically, something the tests profess to measure.
Oh, we almost forgot to remind readers that the SAT is changing format in 2023 to a new digital format. That will present an entirely new array of variables and challenges to an already-Byzantine process. We'll circle back on this in subsequent editions of this newsletter...
When to test? (for the class of 2024)
Several months ago the College Board announced changes coming to the SAT. We'll get much more into the weeds later on the specifics when more information is revealed. Our friends at Compass do a decent summary of the "known knowns" here.
The big question is always when to test and this has gotten more complicated with the new digital test being rolled out from March 2023 in international markets. College Board is using international markets as a beta test a new "product' with the digital version not coming out in the States till 2024. College Board did not cover itself with glory with the at-home APs the last few cycles and indeed, it was largely an unreported fiasco. We really can't see it being bug-free by next March. It is just way too compressed a time line for something that hasn't really be done before on anywhere near the same scale. Using a kids' own device is much more challenging technically than taking a TOEFL/ACT/GRE/GMAT at a test center with a bank of dedicated PCs. How many test centers could handle 1500 students accessing the WiFi at the same time?
Hence, we anticipate the March 2023 test to be a bit of a mess with the scoring really "iffy". If it was rolled out in the States at the same time, CB would have many more results to effectively smooth out the scoring to effectively match past versions. As it is, it will just be international so exact scoring will be best guess. In the past the first iterations of new versions of the SAT have skewed hard or easy until CB had enough data to lock things in with equivalency/concordance tables and the like. Smart universities know this and the March 2023 results will likely have a bit of a virtual asterisk next to them as a result.
So, our general advice for current 10th graders (Class of 2024) is to do absolutely nothing SAT-related this academic year. Then, if kids are looking to test - December 3rd. 2022 for most students, and the October 1st, 2022 for the kids in math club who also read Jane Austin for fun. You can use some of the summer for prep and we have summer programs that pause, then resume in the weeks leading to the Oct/Dec test dates.
Better the devil you know.
Then, students can wait until the dust clears with the new test format and test again in August 2023, or even October 2023 (or even December 2023 in most cases) if necessary. But always best to get a good mark the first time around and be done with it. Important that the changes (such that we know now) are more in format/delivery rather than content, so test skills for the old test will translate largely to the new one.
News came out the night before our most recent Webinar and the first 10 minutes or so of the video is our initial "hot take/rant" on things. Those in this silly world have expected this move for some time and we at Testtakers will be ready for the new test when it comes.
