SAT Subject Tests and SAT Essays are a Thing of the Past -

This week, College Board – the manufacturer of the SAT, announced that they are eliminating all SAT Subject Tests. Subject Tests will no longer be available to US students but international students who are registered for the May or June 2021 Subject Tests, can either go ahead with testing as planned or can contact College Board for a full refund of their payment. Given the situation with COVID-19 and the fact that many universities have been and will be test optional for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years, I am not recommending that students take any Subject Tests or write the essay portion of the SAT. As always, there are exceptions to every rule. Case in point if you are already registered to take an SAT Subject Test, let’s say for a foreign language or Math 2 and you are pretty sure you will get full marks for it, then there is no harm in taking the test if you do not have to take any more time to prepare for testing. Keep an eye on the websites of the universities you’re targeting to see any updates regarding their policies for the upcoming admission cycle. Most institutions will likely NOT consider the essay score or sores from Subject Tests.

There will be more focus on AP exams, so my recommendation is to take your AP courses and their exams very seriously. In the absence of SAT Subject Tests, universities will be paying more attention to your AP scores as they are always looking to even out the playing field.

The College Board has also announced that they intend to revise the SAT Test in the near future and that they will be making the test digital in the years ahead. For the time being, there is nothing for you to do about this with the exception of preparing for testing. If you’re in grade 9, it is too early to prepare. If you’re in grade 11, take the test this year without the essay portion. If you’re in grade 10, you might want to accelerate your prepping for the SAT and taking the test as soon as you’re ready in order to be done with it. We certainly don’t want you to prepare for one test and then when it comes time to test, be faced with a new version of the test – requiring more test prep especially given that this will be new to all test prep instructors as well. For grade 10 students, time is of the essence.

According to College Board, more updates about the state of SAT testing will be released in April and I will keep students informed when the time comes.