The slow and perhaps joyful death of the SAT Writing Section

The slow and perhaps joyful death of the SAT Writing Section

Most of you may have heard the already-old news: The SAT will no longer contain a compulsory essay section; however, the word on the street is that the writing section as a whole will be completely obliterated. While this rumor is not completely unfounded, it is most likely not true, as you can see on this CollegeBoard page.

The revised 2016 SAT will contain the following sections:

1. Evidence-Based Reading and Writing

• Reading Test

• Writing and Language Test

1. Math

1. Essay (optional)

Certainly, there will no longer be a "Writing Section", but the multiple choice writing content will be embedded in the verbal section, entitled "Evidence-Based Reading and Writing". The question, then, is not whether CollegeBoard will test you on multiple choice writing, but whether writing problems will take up a substantial portion of the verbal section and whether future writing problems will be similar enough to their obsolescent counterparts so that the latter can still serve as effective practice material for 2016 test takers.

Furthermore, although the essay section will soon become optional, it might still, according to CollegeBoard, be required by some universities. Here are some of the changes made to the 2016 SAT:

• Optional and given at the end of the SAT; postsecondary institutions determine whether they will require the Essay for admission

• 50 minutes to write the essay

• Tests reading, analysis, and writing skills; students produce a written analysis of a provided source text

So, in sum, the 2016 SAT will test you on (quite a bit of) writing, lots of reading, and math. The essay is probably, but not necessarily, optional, depending on the universities you apply to.

I will again take the liberty of (ctrl + C) + (ctrl + V)-ing things from CollegeBoard:

Current SAT			Redesigned SAT
Component	Time Allotted (minutes)	Number of Question/ Tasks	Component	Time Allotted (minutes)	Number of  Questions/ Tasks
Critical Reading	70	67	Reading	65	52
Writing	60	49	Writing and Language	35	44
Essay	25	1	Essay (optional)	50	1
Mathematics	70	54	Math	80	57
Total	225	171	Total	180 (230 with Essay)	153 (154 with Essay)