SAT Subject Tests no longer required at most American Colleges

As an international student applying to American undergraduate courses, you might have noticed one thing. Almost all colleges ask for SAT scores and fewer than a dozen US universities require applicants to submit SAT subject test results.

A recent review of admissions policies by The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) revealed that many colleges have moved away from SAT subject test, which some years back were crucial for admission to top American universities.

Over the past years top schools like Duke, Haverford, Columbia all stopped asking applicants to submit SAT subject scores leading to a steady decline of the once-important exams for college admissions.

Meanwhile, ACT is becoming more and more popular with students, which many colleges accept along with SAT and SAT subject tests. Registrations for ACT increased by 23% percent over the last five years.

Some university noted the SAT subject tests did not help forecast students’ college performance. High school grades continue to be regarded as the best indicator of how a student will fare in college.

Number of students taking the SAT subject tests has reduced College Board’s revenue by more than $6 million every year, as estimated by FairTest.

In another blow to the College Board, hundreds of exam questions from the redesigned SAT exam have been leaked to Reuters. The College Board released the statement below regarding the breach on its website:

“The theft of unpublished test content is a serious criminal matter. The College Board and our partner ETS are responding quickly and deliberately to investigate and resolve this matter. To be clear, this stolen content has not been administered to students. Therefore, no students have or will be impacted by this theft.

As the investigation is ongoing, we are limited in what we can share. We want to assure you, our members, that we are taking the stolen test content off the SAT administration schedule while the investigation is under way.

We will continue to update our members on the progress of the investigation.”

Also, read:

• ACT for admission to undergraduate colleges in US
• Choosing between SAT and ACT