SAT Essay is Eliminated

Big news from the College Board: the SAT (Optional) Essay will be eliminated after the June 2021 test. 

And the College Board will no longer offer SAT Subject Tests effective immediately (though international students can still take them in May and June of 2021 but not beyond). 

The writing was on the wall for the SAT Subject Tests. Over the past several years, fewer colleges required these tests. And some estimated that only about 10% of all test takers also took SAT Subject Tests. 

However, the elimination of the essay on the SAT is a major shift. Not since the current SAT format was launched in 2016 has the College Board made such a bold change to the testing experience. 

For students, this is huge. There will no longer be any need to prepare for the essay. This will save students time, money and energy in test preparation. 

As for the College Board, the assumption is that the cost of administering the essays did not yield the benefit. Consider that the College Board had to hire and train hundreds of essay readers. With revenue down because of COVID-19, it is safe to say that this is a likely a cost-cutting measure. 

Besides, as much as the SAT Essay scoring system was standardized, scores were assigned by different individuals thus making any true standardization virtually impossible. 

So win, win for all. Right? It would sure seem so. 

Yet maybe the losers in this are the students who wanted an opportunity of an essay or a subject test to demonstrate proficiency. Or maybe colleges, like those who used test scores to supplement other rigorous academic assessment, will need to find some other metrics. 

The question now is: what will the ACT do? Drop the essay too? Or will with the ACT Essay (also optional) serve as a unique point of differentiation between two very similar tests? 

Follow news about the SAT and ACT by connecting with CROSSWALK, the Monterey Peninsula's local resource for test prep and academic tutoring. 

Buyer Beware: Khan Academy and SAT Prep

That the College Board partnered with the Khan Academy to offer free SAT resources is a glorious arrangement. 

Long the subject of criticism that SAT prep resources were exclusively available to higher income families, the College Board made a strategic move with the relaunch of the new SAT in early 2016 to make many online resources free of charge via Khan Academy. 

This partnership was intended to even the playing field a bit since reports showed that the SAT favored higher income and more educated families. 

Now, it seems, that consumers are getting what they paid for. 

Thanks to one of CROSSWALK's top tutors, Dan Marks, it has come to our attention that the SAT resources on Khan Academy contain many errors. Dan has uncovered some wonkiness in both reading and math sections on the Khan materials and his findings are echoed by other tutors via online chat threads and discussion forums. There is even some debate as to who is really writing these questions. 

Personally, I stick to the official study guide book with my students. Purchasing the College Board's Official Study Guide to the SAT continues to be, in my opinion, the best bang for your buck. $25 for accurate questions, loads of study resources and full-length practice tests is an economical and worthwhile investment. 

So sad that the mantra, "you get what you pay for" turns out to be true for Khan Academy and SAT prep. I hope that both the College Board and Khan Academy take a deep dive into the online forums, comments and feedback in order to make their resources as useful as the guidebook. 

If you find yourself in need of support for the SAT, ACT, PSAT, SSAT or academic subjects, contact CROSSWALK today. We offer private Skype and face-to-face tutoring as well as group classes and other resources to help you succeed in the classroom and on test day. 

Are Bilinguals More Prepared for College?

A recent article in the New York Times touts the benefits of bilingualism. According to the article, children that grow up speaking two languages demonstrate improved cognitive skills as compared to children that grow up with just one language.

There are several studies cited in this article that illustrate the connection between bilingualism and increased cognitive function. One such study suggests that bilingualism can even slow the onset of dementia in the elderly .

All told, the case is pretty strong that bilinguals indeed can be smarter than monolinguals.

However, the bilingual advantage appears to be a disadvantage when it comes to standardized testing. Just last year, the College Board reported that SAT reading scores dropped to their lowest levels in decades. The reason? The College Board would have you believe that bilinguals, or more precisely English language learners (ELLs), are part of the reason why reading scores have dropped. The College Board reported that the 2011 SAT had the largest and most diverse group of test takers in history. In fact, 27% of all test takers in 2011 did "not speak exclusively English."

So on one hand, if you speak more than one language, your brain will be more efficient and more effective than someone that speaks only one language. However, if you do not exclusively speak English, you may find that you are not as prepared for standardized tests as those that do.

The irony of all of this lies with those colleges that place significant weight on SAT scores in the admission process. These colleges may be missing out on lots of bilingual students that are cognitively more adept than their monolingual counterparts.