Students looking to take the SAT will no longer have to worry about the optional essay-writing portion, as the College Board revealed it is dropping that section and will no longer offer any supplementary subject tests.
The organization said the coronavirus pandemic “accelerated a process already underway at the College Board to simplify our work and reduce demands on students.”
“After June 2021, the Essay will only be available in states where it’s required for SAT School Day administrations for accountability purposes,” a press release from the organization said. “Students registered for the SAT with Essay this spring can cancel the Essay portion at any time, free of charge.”
The College Board will also revise the main math and reading portions of the SAT in an effort to make the test “more flexible” and “streamlined” — including providing the option to take the test digitally. College Board chief David Coleman said more information would be coming in April, according to the Washington Post.
Nearly 2.2 million students who graduated high school in 2020 took the SAT at least once, according to a College Board press release — in spite of the coronavirus pandemic shuttering schools, making it difficult for students to find testing centers. Only 900,000 of those tests were taken during typical weekend sessions — hundreds of thousands more were conducted through publicly funded programs that administered the tests during the school day.
The pandemic also prompted some students to delay enrolling in college at all — more than one-fifth of current college students opted not to enroll last fall, according to a poll conducted by College Reaction and Axios, and more than 25% of students lost their summer employment.
Coleman said the subject tests are often being replaced by Advanced Placement high school courses, which are also directed by the College Board.
“AP provides a much richer and more flexible way for students to distinguish themselves,” Coleman said. More than 1.2 million students in the class of 2019 took at least one AP test.
The writing portion of the SAT was never a required test for the majority of colleges and universities across the country, according to Inside Higher Ed. That trend accelerated in 2018 after major institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and the University of San Diego announced they would no longer require the writing portion for admissions.
Some universities, including the University of California, have taken steps toward dropping SAT or ACT tests from the admissions process entirely, citing a need to create “better, equitable outcomes in our admissions processes,” according to UC board Chairman John Perez.
