Editorial: SAT changes need more emphasis on writing skills

When prospective University of California students open up their SAT booklets starting in spring 2016, they will dive into a test that could overlook writing, a skill vital to performance both at the university level and beyond.

The College Board announced major changes to the structure of the exam in March, including a return to a 1600-point scale. This revised SAT will be composed of two mandatory sections– “evidence-based reading and writing” and “math” – as well as an optional 50-minute essay scored separately from the rest of the exam.

In response, the UC Academic Senate’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools composed a letter earlier this month stressing that “writing is critical for success at UC.” The UC also played a major role in advocating for the introduction of a writing section prior to 2005, when the test was still in its previous two-section format.

This board agrees with the Academic Senate’s stance on the importance of writing for college admissions and urges the academic senates of each respective UC to take up this message. It is in every campus’ interests to advocate for a new test format that would retain an essay requirement able to equip admissions officers with a clear picture of applicants’ writing abilities.

For its faults and limitations in predicting academic success at UC institutions, the mandatory SAT Reasoning Test essay exists as one of few unadulterated measures of students’ abilities to express themselves and clearly organize their thoughts in a time-bound environment.

UC-wide application personal statements are designed to give campuses a better understanding of prospective students’ passions and perspectives, but there are few safeguards to determine whether these voices actually belong to the students themselvesand not a sibling, parent or counselor.

To its credit, the College Board intends for the new SAT to be a less-coachable achievement test, one that relies more heavily on reasoning, rhetorical analysis and use of evidence to answer questions.

But there is still much to be determined regarding the effectiveness of the SAT’s new writing multiple-choice questions, its optional essay and its applicability to the admissions process. What won’t change is the analytical capacity with which students are expected to write once they set foot on college campuses.

At UCLA, many major programs require the completion of a writing-intensive Writing II course to progress beyond pre-major status.

Even prior to filling the Writing II requirement, students must complete a Writing I course, a basic writing requirement waived only by a student’s performance on Advanced Placement English examinations or a score of 720 or higher on the writing portion of the current SAT. In most professional fields, the ability to write in a quick and concise manner is likewise essential.

In the two years of development prior to the new test’s official release, we encourage the UC Academic Senate to work with the College Board and advocate for an essay that adequately measures a student’s college readiness upon putting a No. 2 pencil to paper.