Changes to The SAT

In March of 2005, some changes were introduced to the SAT. Test Prep Mentor has incorporated these changes, which are outlined below, into our course curriculum. The changes are as follows:

  1. The Verbal portion of the test is now referred to as Critical Reading. The test no longer has sections on analogies or word pairs. Instead, students are tested on reading comprehension, and are asked to answer questions based on short reading passages. The longer reading passages that were part of the old test will also remain.
  2. A new Writing section has been added, composed of two parts:
    1. A multiple-choice section which is similar to the current writing skills section of the PSAT, testing English grammar and usage.
    2. A student-written essay, where the student will be asked to develop and support a point of view on a particular topic. Essays are scored based on evidence of critical thinking, development and organization of ideas, and appropriate use of language and sentence structure. (Only the SAT will have this essay section; the PSAT will not immediately be adding this.)
  3. In the Math section of the test, quantitative comparisons (QC's) have been eliminated. Also, some questions now include concepts from Algebra II, in addition to Algebra I and Geometry. (The more advanced content questions will not appear on the PSAT test).
  4. Scores for each of the three sections will range from 200-800 points each, making the overall achievable (perfect) score a 2400. The test will also be longer - now 3 hours, 45 minutes.