Soon after our last newsletter was sent out over these airwaves, the College Board decided to institute, for the 2005 SAT I, a 20-30 minute essay question that will be scored by the College Board and sent electronically to college admissions officers. As reported here and elsewhere, the University of California had forced the issue, threatening to unsubscribe from the SAT I unless the College Board revised some if its more Mesozoic testing procedures. Universities will appreciate the writing sample in this age of word processing and Internet appropriation, not to mention four-figure fees for college advising consultants. John Barnhill, director of admissions at Florida State University, comments that, with the new essay question, colleges will know "the author is the author."

The College Board plans to duplicate what it is already assessing on the SAT II Writing test, which is currently optional for most students. The extra cost is expected to be $6 to $11 more than the existing $26 fee for this past fall.

Other changes in the 2005 SAT I will be the elimination of the long derided analogy section as well as math questions that include topics from algebra II. In the past, the SAT I has barely scratched the surface of algebra I and geometry. In addition, quantitative comparison questions (which is bigger, column A or column B?) will be eliminated.

In a slightly related story, both the College Board and ACT, Inc., which administers the eponymous American College Test, have announced that no longer will students who sit for tests under special conditions, for example extended time, will be identified with an asterisk. The ACT, which consists of four skill-oriented tests ranging from science to reading, is more popular in 27 states than the SAT.

For students to be eligible for extended time, they must provide extensive, expensive documentation of their disability or disabilities. Because of the cost involved, it is estimated that private school students are four times as likely as public school students to have such documents, although the College Board says they recently decided to audit and discipline high schools that seem to be granting an unreasonable number of accommodations. In public schools, only 2 percent of students nationwide request accommodations.

Sources: The New York Times, USA Today