The new test will include sections on verbal and quantitative reasoning and analytical writing, but each section is being revised. The exam will lengthen to about four hours from its current length of two and one-half hours. The subject matter tests will not change.
How will it change?
- Every question on the new exams will be used only once and the test will start at different times in different time zones. This measure will increase security as students will not be able to pass on questions to peers in different time zones.
- The test will also be given fewer times per year, perhaps about 30 times.
- The test will no longer be computer adaptive, with questions tailored to students’ performance on previous questions. Instead every student taking a test on a given day will receive the same questions. Those questions will not be reused.
- The verbal section will consist of two 40 minute sections (rather than one 30 minute section). It will place less emphasis on vocabulary and more on higher cognitive skills, like reading comprehension.
- The quantitative section will entail two 40 minute sections (rather than one 45 minute section). Fewer geometry questions will appear. There will be a greater emphasis on interpreting tables and graphs.
- The analytical writing measure will consist of two 30 minute essays (rather than one 45 minute and one 30 minute essay).
