The College Board has released some numbers and results concerning the recent changes it made to its college entrance exam, the SAT.

This month, a redesigned version of the exam is being administered to students across the country that features a variety of changes intended to better reflect what’s being taught in high school classrooms.

In addition, a partnership between College Board and Khan Academy has created free, personalized test preparation materials to all students looking to prep for the exam.

The College Board has released some positive preliminary results concerning the effectiveness of its efforts.

For one, the College Board estimates that 19 percent fewer students are paying for test preparation thanks to the free resources now available to them.

"Khan Academy was literally a godsend. I have never really been a math-centric person, and so pre-calculus is a little rough. I had already been using Khan Academy and when I hooked up my PSAT (NMSQT) scores it showed me all of the math I had to review,” said 17-year-old Nicole to the College Board.

The College Board says students who have thus far taken the test are giving positive feedback.

The organization says 6 to 1 students preferred the redesigned SAT. 71 percent of students reportedly said the test reflected what they are learning in school.

Among the new changes to this years SAT are:

• no penalization for wrong answers
• an optional essay section
• a focus on analytics and problem solving in the math section
• a decrease in seldom-used vocabulary words

Some were worried that the new emphasis on reading comprehension in both reading and math sections would pose challenge for many of America’s students.

But according to the College Board, a majority of students said the Reading section was the same or easier compared to last year’s test and that “the Math section tests the skills and knowledge needed for success in college and career.”

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

3/7/2016