The Specifics on Several Startling SAT Facts

By Alexis Nadeau

Many students have dreaded the time when they would have to take the SATs. It would be a time where they studied in every free moment, and got ready on a specified day to go to the testing center, and sit for hours on end taking sections in math, reading, and writing. But a lot of students don’t really know what the SAT is, and what it's used for. The SAT is a multiple choice pencil and paper test that is used as an entrance exam by most colleges and universities. The whole purpose behind having students take the SAT is to measure their readiness for college, and provide all colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants for that school. It used to be a huge deal, to both students and colleges, and resulted in many sleepless nights for the test takers. When the pandemic hit and school was forced to close in March of 2020, nobody could comprehend how much our lives would change both in school/work and out of it, especially the college's stance on the SAT.

Everybody didn’t think that the quarantine would last long, never mind that it would have any significant impact on the way things have been done for years. The first major wrench COVID threw into the SATs was that the test taking had to be paused. That meant that for multiple months of 2020 (March, April, May, and June), nobody was allowed to take the test, which meant hundreds of students were unable to take the test they studied so hard for. That in turn caused an increase in the number of people who needed to take the test when testing centers were reopened, and that test centers would have to ban students from taking it, or increase student capacity inside the centers. The second problem that arose from COVID was close contact in large groups, that meant rules were put in place on how many people could be in a certain area at once (testing centers). Testing centers then wouldn’t be able to keep up with the increase of students needing to take the test, and may not be allowed to open at all due to health and safety matters put in place. The third significant change COVID caused is that it made colleges and universities rethink their stance on needing SAT scores. Many colleges and universities have decided to drop the requirements stating a student needed an SAT score to apply and be considered for admittance (they have now either refused to consider taking test scores, or not making it a requirement for students). The last change to the status quo that just recently came about is the decision that the SAT test will be moving from paper and pencil to online, which is a monumental change. All in all, nobody knows if the changes will have more positive or negative effects, but we’ll see the results of those decisions in the future.