A study released Tuesday by New York-based College Board, creator of the SAT college entrance exam, shows the test’s recent addition of a writing section added time and expense but did little to boost the exam’s ability to predict a student’s success in college, and failed to remedy what some critics see as cultural insensitivity.

According to the report, a high school student’s grade point average remains the best single predictor of college success. When analyzed with the student’s SAT score, the predictive quality improves. The ability of the writing portion to gauge future success, however, was found to be equal to that of the traditional SAT, consisting of one math and one reading section. The news comes at a time when more than 40 schools in the past two years have opted out of requiring the test, including Fairfax’s George Mason University, Baltimore’s Goucher College and Roanoke College in Salem, Va.