Ask any upperclassman about studying for the SAT and they’ll immediately conjure up a nightmarish image of vocab lists that seemingly go on forever, hours of preparatory courses, stacks of SAT prep books, and countless practice tests. Without a doubt, the current version of the SAT has come to measure the rigor of students’ preparations rather than their natural aptitudes.

Until the revision of the SAT that will take effect in 2016, students will be taking the current version of the SAT, which tests solely on math, writing, and reading and is notorious for its use of bizarre and obscure vocabulary. And so, in desperation to achieve a high-enough score to gain acceptance into their desired college, students hit the books. Summers and weekends are spent with private tutors or at SAT preparatory centers as students frantically memorize vocabulary, test strategies, and formulas—information that tends to fall out of brains as soon as students leave the testing center.

As a result, SAT scores mostly reflect how much energy, time, and finances a student has devoted into studying for it instead of their natural ability. Elena Yang ’16 asserts, “I don’t believe that intelligence correlates with one’s SAT score—I know a friend who increased his score by 600 points with just two weeks of studying. I think that preparing for the SAT relies on memorizing the format and becoming accustomed to thinking the way CollegeBoard thinks. The questions aren’t ever tricky and doing well on the test is based on how well you prepare.”

In fact, most preparatory courses conform specifically to the SAT, focusing on questions it is notorious for asking, or any recurring concepts. As a result, students don’t really prepare with the goal to gain knowledge; instead, students study with the intention of getting to know the SAT in order to do well on it.

The idea of success on the SAT stemming from rigorous studying ironically defeats the entire purpose of the SAT studying students’ innate abilities—after all, the SAT is an acronym for the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

In contrast, the new version of the SAT, set to be taken by students in spring of 2016, will contain stripped-down vocabulary, components of history and science, and will not deduct points for incorrect answers. CollegeBoard has revised the SAT in order to compete with the burgeoning popularity of the ACT by making its own test less demanding and more relevant to what colleges look for in students.

Michael Hackett ’17 maintains, “Now, the contemporary vocabulary and use of important documents is able to better test students’ aptitudes. The archaic vocabulary [on the current version of the SAT] only tests memorization, so it isn’t helpful. The new SAT will test important words that will actually be used throughout college.”

Hopefully, the new version of the SAT will serve to decrease students’ stress and increase their scores as well.