Both the SAT and ACT have announced plans for redesign. Many of the changes to each are comparable and were made with the intention of closely mirroring the challenges students will face in college and in their career.

  • SAT and ACT will change their scoring by 2016
  • UK institutions will need to re-evaluate their entry criteria
  • The British Council is in contact with College Board (who manage SAT) and ACT
  • To stay abreast of developments register here directly with College Board and ACT.
  • For College Board or SAT questions, you can contact Clay Hensley or visit www.internationalcollegeboard.org.
  • The British Council will be conducting a webinar that gives an introduction to the SATs in late August with Clay Hensley that will also be recorded for reference. More information will be released soon. 

SAT Redesign

You can expect to see changes on the SAT in Spring 2016. Besides talk of dropping the essay requirement and returning the top score to 1600 instead of 2400, there are eight key changes to note in this new design:

  • Relevant words in context – vocabulary words will be tested in a passage, meaning students will no longer have to memorize obscure words
  • Command of evidence – students will have to pull quotes from the reading passages
  • Essay analysing a source – explain how author builds an argument to persuade an argument
  • Focus on math that matters most - “Problem Solving and Data Analysis, the Heart of Algebra, and Passport to Advanced Math” i.e. quantitative math like ratios and percentages, linear equations, and complex equations
  • Problems grounded in real-world contexts
  • Analysis in science and in history/social studies
  • Founding documents and great global conversation – i.e. Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, also including international works like those of Mahatma Gandhi or Margaret Thatcher
  • NO penalty for wrong answers

What international students should know:

  • The College Board International team collaborated with educators throughout the world while redesigning
  • The new SAT measures skills and knowledge that are essential for internationally universal college and career readiness
  • No prior knowledge is necessary – all questions are based off of a given passage, including the “Founding documents and great global conversation” passages, which can be international works as well as American documents
  • Rigorous course work will be the best preparation for any student
  • Students can use free College Board resources (students taking the current SAT can look here for resources)

ACT Redesign

The ACT has added additional new scores to help students gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in areas that are directly related to challenges they will face in college. Additionally, there will be slight changes in the test’s content, also aiming to cover areas that are related to college challenges. Changes can be expected sometime in 2015.

The addition of new scores will include the following:

  • STEM score based on students’ scores on the math and science sections
  • English language score based on student’s scores on English, reading and writing
  • A “progress toward career readiness” score that will be based on students’ demonstrated knowledge in areas that could set them up for success in the work place
  • A “text complexity progress indicator” that will be based on all of the writing passages (not just the reading section)
  • New scores on the optional writing test (currently, an overall score) so they will receive separate additional scores on ideas and analysis, development and support, organization, and language use

The ACT test itself will also be changing in the following areas:

  • Increase in questions about probability and statistics in the mathematics section (estimated increase from 3 to 4 questions out of 60)
  • Some reading comprehension questions will be based on comparing/drawing information from two separate passages (instead of only questions based on a single passage)

Some useful links can be found here, to stay up to date and to read the full details: