Students to select SAT scores

While to the average college student taking the SATs may just be a painful memory, for current high school juniors the experience may become considerably less stressful.

Beginning in March 2009, students will be allowed to choose which of their SAT scores colleges see, the College Board announced last week.

Currently, if a student sends one score to a school , that school is also privy to all that student's scores - good and bad. But, with this new move, high school students are now able to increase their scores without revealing to colleges the number of times it took to get them to that final score.

College admissions consultant Steve Goodman said that, with this decision, the College Board is bringing a 10-year-old policy back to life.

"The original idea was to give students more choice as to where they could send their SATs," he said. "The College Board stopped it because . too many students were taking too many tests and it was taking time away from academics."

While these concerns are still valid, many believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

"I think it's a student's right to have a choice," said college admissions consultant Michele Hernandez. "This decision is long overdue."

Students are also enthusiastic about the College Board's recent decision.

"I think it's a great idea," said Lower Merion High School senior Kelly Kempf, who will be taking SAT subject tests next spring. "Personally, one of the reasons I took the ACTs [instead of the SAT I] is that I was so concerned with getting one bad score."

However, students are not the only group benefiting from the decision.

Now that students know colleges will only see their best scores, they also realize the more times they take the test, the better they will perform.

Given the large number of students taking the tests and the fees those students will pay, the College Board will benefit from this decision as much the students will.

Another potential factor in the decision is that the College Board's biggest competitor - the ACT - already lets students choose which scores to send.

"It's a million-dollar industry," said Hernandez. "Everyone buys into it."

However, Goodman admits that, while the decision may have perks for the College Board, it also gives certain advantages to higher-income students.

"Having money in admissions is a huge advantage," he said. "The more money you have, the more resources you have to be able to study for any standardized test."

But according to Hernandez, the real question is why the College Board has not done away with the SATs altogether.

"It's outdated, it's just a bad test," she said. "It just shows how well you take the SATs and how many resources you have."

Goodman agreed, saying that universities recognize that affluent students have an edge in the admissions process.

"Let's face it," he added, "The correlation between your SAT score and first-year grades is now down to 0.46."

Comments (10)

Does the decision allow students to select their best individual scores on various exams (ie Math from March 2008 exam, Writing from April 2008, and CR from February 2008) or simply their best combined score? For our admission cycle, though we had to submit all scores, universities simply examined our best individual scores on various exams. If this no longer becomes the case, students could be worse off.

What exactly is the great benefit to this new policy? Don't schools only consider students' highest scores as it is?

[QUOTE]Does the decision allow students to select their best individual scores on various exams (ie Math from March 2008 exam, Writing from April 2008, and CR from February 2008) or simply their best combined score? For our admission cycle, though we had to submit all scores, universities simply examined our best individual scores on various exams. If this no longer becomes the case, students could be worse off.[/QUOTE] Students are not allowed to only report scores in the manner in which you describe (Math from March, Writing from April, Critical Reading from February). You must report all or none from one test sitting. (However, you may report or hide any SAT II scores, even if you take multiple ones in one sitting.) There's no disadvantage though, because colleges will still "superscore" students' SATs -- Meaning that they'll still only consider your highest score on each of the three sections.

Ridiculous, what a wonderful ploy to profit has this floundering and mistrusted institution created. hate collegeboard evil!

I wish it was this way back when I was in high school. I personally took the ACT just because it allowed me to choose which score to send. Words cannot describe how much that lowers stress levels on the day of the test.

Although colleges may say they only look at a student's best combined scores, the other scores are still very visible. If you took the SAT ten times before you finally cracked a 600 in math, I'm sure that would throw off some red flags in the admissions department. This only encourages "test-coaching" and similar practices which erode away at the test's already limited use as a standardized measure of academic ability.

wonderful. "not only will students benefit, the college board will benefit too!" in case we forgot: SAT scores are a zero-sum game. this doesn't "benefit" anyone but the college board and those lucky few who can afford more tests--and even they will be suffering ever more exams. i predict a new era of ever-worse exam woes for those unfortunate students who haven't made it into college yet. i'm sorry. cynical take #294518: more tests are necessary to keep the college board afloat because the testing population will decrease after the class of 2012.

Most admissions offices (I've worked in 5) receive SAT scores by computer tape, not on paper. The colleges' computers pick out the top scores in each required exam and those are usually the only ones even printed on the forms for the admissions officer to read. It is absolutely a money-making ploy by the College Board, playing on anxieties of high school students. And the flip side: a ton of students will *think* they released their scores and will find that they did not, and it will cause them more problems (and cost them more money) than the traditional way would have.

One of the most common questions students ask me is “What is a good SAT score?” My response: where do you want to go ? A 1700 composite score will not get you into Harvard , but you may be surprised at the range of good schools that you could get into if you can back your score up with grades and extracurricular activities. The SAT is broken down into three sections : Critical Reading, Writing, and Math. Each section has a cap of 800 points each, bringing the total possible score up to 2400. As a rough guideline, 500 points per section is the average on the SAT , so 1500 is the average score on the SAT.

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