Matt's Past SAT/ACT News Update:

Matt O'Connor

Sep 26, 2017

As expected, the advantage in total cohort testing numbers enjoyed by the ACT in recent years has started to narrow, due to College Board/SAT recent contract wins. A total of 1,715,481 students in the graduating class of 2017 took the new SAT.

2017 SAT Program Results

[Excerpts]:

The class of 2017 is the largest cohort in SAT history. More than 1.8 million students took the old or new SAT at least once during high school; 1.7 million (93%) have taken the new SAT, first administered in March 2016.

The first year of performance results on the new SAT sets the baseline for SAT performance going forward.

In the class of 2017, 46% of students who took the new SAT met or exceeded the new College and Career Readiness benchmarks, showing they are likely ready to take and succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing college courses.

The mean total score for students in the class of 2017 who took the new SAT was 1060. The mean score for the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section was 533 and the mean score for the Math section was 527.

Because the new SAT is a new test with a new score scale and new benchmarks, this year’s performance results cannot be compared to previous years’.

PSAT-Related Assessment Participation and Performance

Nearly 4.3 million students took the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 in the 2016-17 school year, an increase of more than 46,000 students compared to 2015-16. And a record 1.3 million students took the PSAT 8/9 in 2016-17, an increase of more than 417,000 students (47%) compared to 2015-16.

Nick Anderson weighs in on the SAT results.

Scott Jaschik does the same.

Here is a Jed Applerouth article from two weeks ago with details on the commercial battle between the SAT and ACT:

ACT Loses Ground to Redesigned SAT