One of my ninth grade students recently tried the first English module on the new digital SAT for the first time. It took him almost twice as long as the 32 minutes the test allows, but he only got one question--about comma placement--wrong. He’ll have to speed up, of course, when he takes the test for real in eleventh grade, but he basically already knows everything he needs to know.
Most of the older high school students I work with are having, by and large, a similarly easy time. The digital test is far less comprehensive than previous versions of the SAT have been. When I first took it in the early 1980s, there was an entire section on analogies, but it required too much vocabulary for many students and was removed. After colleges complained that incoming students couldn’t write a five-paragraph essay in the early 2000s, the College Board added an persuasive essay (four paragraphs were sufficient for a top score). Students were supposed to articulate a position about something and support their arguments with facts, details, and examples. That essay was then replaced with a rhetorical analysis essay, which meant that students had to analyze someone else’s writing instead of having to think of their own arguments. It was discontinued during the pandemic, and has not been replaced.
At the same time, the long reading passages have been replaced with short passages that test vocabulary, basic sentence structure, punctuation, and graph-reading. However, their structure is so consistent that students will find it easy to “crack” because much of the information they provide is irrelevant to the question being asked and can be safely skipped over or ignored.
As an example, here’s the first question in Module 1 from one of the College Board’s free online practice tests:
In the early 1800s, the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah created the first script, or writing system, for an Indigenous language in the United States. Because it represented the sounds of spoken Cherokee so accurately, his script was easy to learn and thus quickly achieved _______ use: by 1830, over 90 percent of the Cherokee people could read and write it.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) widespread
B) careful
C) unintended
D) infrequent
The passage introduces someone who did something noteworthy and asks the student to insert one of four mid-level vocabulary words into the second sentence. No knowledge of Native American history is necessary, and no critical thinking ability is required to correctly select “widespread” to complete the sentence.
Here’s question 13 from the same module:
In a research paper, a student criticizes some historians of modern African politics, claiming that they have evaluated Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, primarily as a symbol rather than in terms of his actions.
Which quotation from a work by a historian would best illustrate the student’s claim?
A) “Lumumba is a difficult figure to evaluate due to the starkly conflicting opinions he
inspired during his life and continues to inspire today.”
B) “The available information makes it clear that Lumumba’s political beliefs and values
were largely consistent throughout his career.”
C) “Lumumba’s practical accomplishments can be passed over quickly; it is mainly as
the personification of Congolese independence that he warrants scholarly attention.”
D) “Many questions remain about Lumumba’s ultimate vision for an independent Congo;
without new evidence coming to light, these questions are likely to remain
unanswered.”
This question looks difficult because most high school students are unfamiliar with twentieth-century African politics and have not heard of Patrice Lumumba, but it is structurally similar to the one above. Lumumba is introduced and some information about him is given. All the student has to do is zero in on what’s being said about Lumumba, specifically the words “primarily as a symbol rather than in terms of his actions.” Choice C provides the best match because it says that Lumumba’s “accomplishments can be passed over quickly; it is mainly as the personification of Congolese independence that he warrants scholarly attention.” This is a restatement of the idea that Lumumba is largely a symbolic figure.
My students quickly figure out that much of the information provided in questions like these is actually irrelevant and that they can often skip the passage and just read the question and answer choices.
I used to have to at least read a new practice SAT before I taught it. That’s no longer the case. Is a test on which a ninth-grader makes one mistake and that a teacher can teach without preparation an adequately rigorous assessment of who will succeed in college?
Elizabeth Breau, Ph.D. (she/her), is an award-winning writing coach and private English tutor. Her book, History According to SAT: A Content Guide to SAT Reading and Writing, won a silver medal in the teen category from the Nonfiction Authors Association and was a young adult nonfiction finalist in American Book Fest’s Best Book Awards. You can reach her at elizabeth.breau@gmail.com.
Comments