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15,000 New York City school juniors take redesigned no-fee SAT test

Xinhua, March 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

About 15,000 juniors from 92 high schools across New York City took the newly redesigned SAT test free of charge on Wednesday, as part of the city's "SAT School Day" initiative aimed to make college more accessible for students.

First announced last October, the initiative is looking to waive the application fee of the test and move test dates to school days, rather than the usual Saturdays.

Owned and published by the College Board, the SAT exam, short for Scholastic Assessment Test, was usually given to students for an application fee of about 55 U.S. dollars.

Obtaining a SAT score is a requirement by many of the country's colleges in their admission process. The move is part of the city's effort to boost students' participation in college admissions, by giving students from low-income families an equal chance to take the exam.

Today's test also coincided with the implementation of the redesigned standardized test. The SAT exam has undergone a major makeover since it last changed in 2005, by shifting back its score scale to 1600 from 2400.

It is now 45 minutes shorter, and goes from three parts to two -- math and a combined language and writing with an optional essay. Students are not allowed to use a calculator on some questions in the math section, where in the old test a calculator is allowed for all questions. Students will no longer be penalized for choosing the wrong answer.

The College Board said the new test is more focused on skills and knowledge by having more relevant and familiar vocabulary words, and it will require students to do more analysis with an evidence-based reading and writing section.

"I think the new test is easier," said Angela Coronado, a junior student at the High School of Fashion Industries in Manhattan who had just taken the test. "Now if you get a wrong answer, the points don't get taken away."

"Because the score is smaller, you have a higher chance of getting a bigger grade," said Dricelly Soto, another junior at the same school. "But it also gets stressful because you can't use a calculator on one part of the math."

The changes were made against the backdrop of a failing public education system and fierce competition in the job market. In New York City, the rate of high schoolers taking the SAT remains low. Only 56 percent of the class of 2015 took the SAT at least once, according to the Education Department.

According to the College Board, 57 percent of SAT takers in the 2013 cohort "lacked the academic skills" to succeed in college-entry, credit-bearing courses without remediation in at least one subject, and the success rates for such remediation leading to postsecondary completion are "far too low".

The prospect in the job market is even grimmer. Most entry-level jobs requires a college degree, and high school graduates are struggling to find work. In a report published by the Washington D.C.-based think tank Economic Policy Institute, one in five high-school graduates of class 2015 is out of a job, compared with 15.9 percent unemployment rate in 2007.

"Many teachers say that the college diploma is the new high school diploma," said Coronado, explaining her decision to take the test in order to ensure a future career.

The free SAT test is expected to expand to all schools citywide in spring 2017. Endit