The SAT has changed in March 2016. Read on to learn about the differences between the previous SAT and the new test, and get some advice on how to prepare for exam day.

 

Current SAT vs. New SAT

To make the content of the SAT more relevant and applicable to future college success, College Board introduced the New SAT in March 2016. Below find side-by-side overviews to compare each section of the previous SAT with the updated version.

 It offers in-depth review lessons for the entire exam and has been updated to reflect the new style of the SAT.

 

Reading and Writing Sections

 

Old SATNew SAT

Sections/TestsSingle 2-section Reading and Writing testSeparate Writing and Language Test and Reading Test

Skills AssessedWriting Section:
*Sentence completions,
*Random vocabulary
Reading Section
*Reading comprehension based on random sources writing and Language Test
* Passage-based grammar
*Contextual vocabulary
Reading Test
* Reading comprehension drew from historical, scientific and sociologic documents with more graphs and charts

Number of QuestionsReading Section: 67 questions
Writing Section: 49 questionsReading Test: 52 questions
Writing and Language Test: 44 questions

Time AllottedReading Section:70 minutes
Writing Section: 60 minutes reading Test: 65 minutes
Writing and Language Test: 35 minutes

 

Math Section

 

Old SATNew SAT

Sections/TestsSingle Math testSingle math test with no-calculator questions

Skills Assessed* Basic Algebra
* Geometry
* Arithmetic
* Statistics and Probability* Linear equations
* Quantitative data analysis
* Complex equations

Number of Questions54 questions57 questions

Time Allotted70 minutes80 minutes

 

Essay Section

 

Old SATNew SAT

Sections/TestsRequired essayOptional essay (some colleges may still require it)

Skills Assessed* Ability to write an argument based on a writing prompt* Ability to analyze an author's argument and provide support for a 600-700-word passage

Number of Questions1 essay prompt1 essay passage

Time Allotted25 minutes50 minutes

 

Test Structure & Scoring

 

Previous SAT

The previous SAT gave 5 answer choices per question, and students were penalized for wrong answers. Students had 200 minutes to complete the exam.

New SAT

The new SAT has only 4 answer choices per question and does not penalize students for wrong answers, using a rights-only scoring system. The new SAT is 180 minutes long.