The New SAT differs from the Old SAT in multiple ways, so without further ado…
Instead of scores of 200 – 800 for each of reading, writing, and math that were present in the Old SAT, in the New SAT there are only two scores of 200 – 800, one for math and another for reading and writing combined, even though reading and writing (now called “Writing and Language) are presented as separate sections..
While the Old SAT was presented as 10 sections (an essay, three for math, three for reading, two for writing, and one experimental), now there are only five (the optional essay, one reading, one writing, and two math, one allowing calculator use and one prohibiting calculator use.
While the time allocated to the New SAT is about the same as it was for the Old SAT, that’s only if the now-optional essay is included.
Another important change is that the College Board has eliminated the ¼-point penalty for answering a question incorrectly, and that’s changed scoring. On the Old SAT, because of that ¼-point penalty, guessing randomly on all of the questions would yield an extremely low score — 230 (roughly the first percentile of all students) — just as one would expect. But in the New SAT, guessing randomly on all of the questions should result in getting 25% of the answers right, and that would equate to a math score of 360 (roughly in the ninth percentile of all students). And that’s a BIG difference.
Graphic literacy – the ability to understand and answer questions concerning charts and graphs – is another general change: Charts, graphs, and questions concerning them might appear in any or all of the New SAT’s math, reading, and writing sections.
Now has two sections, one of which doesn’t permit use of a calculator.
Is much, much more difficult because of the math skills being assessed and the manner in which the questions are presented.
The New SAT’s math focuses on three areas, and algebra is the king:
Heart of Algebra, which focuses on the mastery of linear equations and systems.
Problem Solving and Data Analysis, which is about being quantitatively literate.
Passport to Advanced Math, which features questions that require the manipulation of complex equations.
The emphasis on algebra comes at the cost of de-emphasis on geometry. Geometry questions constitute only 6% of the New SAT’s math questions, compared to 24% of the Old SAT’s questions, and, as we’ve said many times before, “Without geometry, life would be pointless.”
The New SAT’s substantially changed Reading section, in addition to collapsing all of the reading passages and questions into a single section, instead of the three that were present in the Old SAT, does away with the between five and eight sentence completion questions that led each of the Old SAT’s reading sections.
Gone are the questions testing knowledge of arcane vocabulary words that students might not encounter again a single time in the rest of their lives: For example, “treacly” (look it up) was the target word in one of the Old SAT Official Guide’s practice tests. But that doesn’t mean vocabulary isn’t going to be tested in the New SAT, because it will.
The differences are that vocabulary in the New SAT will be tested in a far lower percentage of the questions asked than was true in the Old SAT, the words tested will be – generally, anyway – more commonly used than was true previously, and they’ll be tested “in context” as the words are used in the long passages that now dominate the New SAT’s reading section. Questions that read, “As it’s used in line __, which of the following choices best describes the intended meaning of “_______?” are common, and they’re common for passages for which the peak words per sentence are far higher than is the case with recent ACT practice tests..
We qualified part of our above statement with “generally, anyway,” and the reason that we did so is that some of the vocabulary tested (for example, “brazier,” “betook,” and “discomfiture”) is going to be drawn from older texts with which very few students will be familiar.
We also want to note that it appears that some 