The College Board failed to respond to an ask for comment on the Yale announcement

The College Board failed to respond to an ask for comment on the Yale announcement

Dropping the SAT Essay

Yale follows Harvard in ending requirement that students complete portion that is writing of or ACT. University of north park makes move that is similar leaving only 25 colleges because of the requirement. More colleges go test optional.

Yale University week that is last counselors who work with twelfth grade students that the university will no further require applicants to perform the SAT essay or the ACT writing test.

A memo Yale provided for counselors said the university wanted to result in the application process easier on those that use the SAT or ACT during school hours. Those administrations frequently usually do not give students time for the writing test, so students had to register for the test another right time and energy to complete the writing test.

The move comes 90 days after Harvard University announced it was making the SAT essay or ACT writing test optional. Harvard’s announcement noted that its applicants submit essays as part of their applications, so writing remains a part that is crucial of application process.

Even though the moves by institutions such as for example Harvard and Yale capture attention, they reflect an even more disinclination that is general of leaders toward the writing tests of the SAT and ACT. The Princeton Review, which tracks how many colleges require the test, now identifies only 25 institutions which do so. Those that have already dropped the requirement include Columbia and Cornell Universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of San Diego also recently announced it would no longer require the SAT essay or ACT writing test. Stephen Pultz, assistant vice president for enrollment management at San Diego, said via writers website email that “we decided the writing sections were not reliable measures for placement purposes, that will be how we originally envisioned their use. We’ve had better success with the other sections of the exams, Advanced Placement exams, and senior school curriculum and grades.”

The faculty Board first started offering an essay regarding the SAT in 2005. But writing that is many were highly critical of this format, noting on top of other things so it did not judge whether statements were factually correct. Les Perelman, an MIT writing professor, famously coached students on how best to write ludicrous essays that would receive high scores.

In 2014, the College Board announced revisions into the SAT

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With substantial changes towards the essay, including the utilization of writing passages to make test takers to cite evidence for opinions inside their essays.

Generally, critics associated with the first version of the writing test agreed that the version that is new better, however some continued to question whether the writing test had enough value to justify leading students to get ready for and take it. Some advocates for the essay hoped the changes would lead more colleges to depend on it as part of the admissions process. But the news from Harvard and Yale, and the lack of desire for adding the writing test as a necessity, implies that this is simply not happening.

On its blog, Princeton Review said after Harvard’s decision that the essays must be eliminated from the SAT and ACT. As they are theoretically optional, many students feel pressure to take them (and prepare for them), even though a very small number of colleges actually make use of the scores.

“While over 70 percent of students taking the SAT and more than 50 percent using the ACT opt in the essay, not really 2 percent of colleges require an essay score,” your blog post says. “Students and taxpayers are sending tens of huge amount of money to the College Board’s and ACT’s coffers and don’t appear to be getting anything out of it apart from yet another way to obtain anxiety when it comes to college applications. It really is time for the SAT and ACT essays to go.”

While Yale still requires applicants to take either the SAT or ACT for the nonwriting elements of the exams, more colleges continue to announce they are going test optional. Among the colleges in recent weeks announcing these policies are Concordia University (St. Paul), Prescott College and Rider University.

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