News

Undergrad Council to discuss SAT

Cougar News Staff

Changes to the dreaded SAT college entrance exam, which was one item of discussion at todayis Undergraduate Council session, are making University officials rework admission requirements before they even fully know the student response to the overhauled exam.

The College Board announced its new SAT I exam in June. A College Board press release said the new exam would improve its focus on "college success skills" such as reading, mathematics and writing.

One of the key changes includes removing the analogy section and replacing it with more critical reading passages. A writing section with a student-written essay segment will also be added. The math section will also include more advanced algebra skills testing.

The changes will be implemented in the Spring 2005 testing season.

A report from the Undergraduate Councilis Academic Policies and Procedures Committee said the admissions criteria for Fall 2006 might have to be set without much knowledge of how students will perform on the exam.

"Because the new SAT will be given for the first time in Spring 2005, and we need to have our admissions criteria, to be effective in Fall 2006, ready for publication in Summer 2005, there will not be time to see the data before making a decision," the report said.

To get around this, the committee is looking into getting preliminary studies and data from the College Board as well as inviting College Board representatives to answer questions.

In the report, Ed Apodaca, UHis associate vice president of enrollment and admissions, also brought up the possibility of using this opportunity to review admission standards as a whole in order to raise them.
 

 Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu