The three letters every rising junior dreads and every spring semester junior cringes at upon hearing: SAT.

This year’s juniors seem to be guinea pigs to the College Board as they have changed most of what is expected from the SAT. The last time the old SAT was administered was in January 2016 and the version of the new, redesigned SAT was first given this past March.

College Board made changes concerning content, format, and scoring to the SAT. For instance, the the essay portion is now optional and is separately scored rather than the score being included with the writing section. Because the essay is now optional, the test is administered for 3 hours (plus 50 minutes given to take the essay, if chosen) rather than 3 hours and 45 minutes. Also, rather than given 25 minutes to write the essay, the test takers are now allowed 50 minutes to write the essay portion at the end of the test rather than the beginning.

The redesigned SAT has also been reduced to 3 sections rather than 4, with Critical Reading and Writing combined into one section: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. Although this is now one section, it is still composed of two separate tests: a reading test and a writing and language test. This test places greater emphasis on word meaning, word choice, and how the word choice can shape the tone, meaning, and impact of a sentence rather than placing emphasis on vocabulary.

While the old SAT did not count unanswered questions wrong, it did deduct points off of the final score for incorrect answers. When scoring the new SAT, only right answers are counted. This means when taking the test, students need to answer every question even if they are unsure of the answer. Test takers cannot be penalized for wrong answers and therefore cannot be penalized for guessing.

The way the test is scored has also been changed. While the old SAT was graded on a scale ranging from 600-2400, the new test is graded on a 400-1600 scale. On the old test critical reading, mathematics, and writing were all three separately graded on a 200-800 scale. Now, with the new SAT, the scale is 400-1600 with the Evidence Reading and Writing section and the Math section both graded on a 200-800 scale with the essay reported separately on a 2- 8 scale for each three dimensions.

With the old SAT, test takers were allowed 225 minutes to answer a total of 171 questions; with the redesigned SAT, students are now allotted 180 minutes to answer 154 questions or 230 minutes to answer 155 questions with the essay portion included.

College board also added a new feature called subscore reporting to the test. If the test taker decides to take advantage of this feature, he or she will be sent his or her test scores along with an evaluation and feedback on his or her test to help better prepare he or she for the next time the student takes the test.

While some colleges are still accepting the old SAT scores, any graduating class after 2017 will be administered the redesigned SAT and students will be required to send those scores to colleges.

College board has all these changes listed in a chart on their website (https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test/compare-old-new-specifications).