I know that many of you are waiting to hear about our drive-through visit to Oberlin without CJ, as well as reflections on all those baseball games.

But I have heard from so many readers about the the ever-evolving SAT, that I feel obligated to devote a post to it.

First, a new study has shown that the new, almost-four hour SAT with the added Writing Section does not predict college succes.  However, it has given lots of business to tutors who claim they can teach a 16-year old to write a decent essay in 25 minutes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/education/18sat.html

But the major news is that the folks at College Board have decided that students will no longer be required to send in all their lousy SAT scores to colleges.   Soon, as in the case of the kinder, gentler ACTs, test takers can choose to share only the scores they like.  This means that many kids will spend their entire high school career taking and retaking the SAT, until they are satisfied with their scores. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sat21-2008jun21,0,1318580.story

Sadly for CJ, this new policy does not go into effect until March 2009, about a week after he finds out where he’s going to college.  But this opens up all sorts of possibilities for our younger son.  He can start taking the SAT in ninth grade, and sign up for it up to seven times a year.  By the time he’s a senior, he could have as many as 24 separate SAT attempts from which to choose.  This could get tedious and expensive (tutoring can cost over $350+ a week).  

But given the chance to take the test multiple times without the colleges finding out about the times he’s bombed, he should end up with an excellent score.  Unfortunately, so will everyone else who can afford it.