新 SAT 来啦!New SAT 解读

The exam overhauls the way it tests vocabulary, reading, writing, and math.

新SAT考试彻底改革了考查词汇、阅读、写作和数学的方式。

No more SAT words or long essays: The new SAT is here, and it looks pretty different. Almost a year after first announcing the SAT would face a major redesign, College Board President David Coleman released new information this afternoon on how the exam is going to change.

再也没有所谓的SAT词汇和长文写作了:新SAT与以往完全不同。在首次宣布SAT重设科目的消息约一年后,college board主席科尔曼戴维在今天下午发布了关于SAT改革方式的新消息。

The College Board says it is emphasizing “delivering opportunity” to all students and making the SAT more reflective of high school academics. “It is time to admit that the SAT and ACT have become disconnected from the work of our high schools,” Coleman said in a press conference. He also said he hoped the changes would remove the “sense of mystery and dismantle the advantages that people perceive in using costly test preparation.”

CB表示,改革旨在给所有学生“提供机会”并且使SAT更能反映高中的学术水平。“是时候承认,如今的SAT和ACT考试已经和我们的高中教育脱节了,”科尔曼在新闻发布会上说。他同时表示,希望此次改革将会消除“人们对这些考试的神秘感以及昂贵的备考带来的所谓优势。”

Here are some of the key changes, which will go into effect in 2016:

以下是此次SAT改革的一些要点,2016年起生效:

The test will be scored differently

考试的评分方式不同了

The exam will return to the 1600-point scale that was used before 2005, and test takers will no longer lose points for a wrong answer. In the past, each wrong answer received a quarter point deduction, while an unanswered question resulted in no deductions. This method led SAT tutors to encourage students unsure of a question to guess only if they could eliminate one of the five answer choices. The new model will encourage students to answer every question on the test to maximize their potential score.

SAT考试将重新使用2005年之前所使用的1600分制,学生们将不再因为错误的答案而失分。过去,每答错一题扣0.25分,答不确定则不得分。这种考核方式使得SAT老师们鼓励学生在五个备选项一个都不能排除时选择“不确定”。新的考核方式将鼓励学生回答试卷的每一个问题以争取更多的分数。

End of SAT words

SAT词汇的终结

The era of “SAT words” is over: The exam will now focus on words that “are widely used in college and career.” The press release uses “synthesis” and “empirical” as examples and explains, “‘SAT words’ will no longer be vocabulary students may not have heard before and are likely not to hear again. Instead, the SAT will focus on words that students will use consistently in college and beyond.”

“SAT词汇”时代结束了:这项考试如今将重点放在“大学以及职场中被广泛使用的”单词上。发布会上以“synthesis”和“empirical”为例解释,“‘SAT词汇’不会再是学生们前所未见且不会用到的。相反,SAT将致力于考查学生们在校内校外生活中常用的词汇。”

The essay is now optional

作文变成选考题了

The essay section, which was once a required and controversial part of the writing section, is no longer required, and will be scored separately from the rest of the exam. (Here at The Atlantic, we criticized the essay section last fall.)  The release gives two reasons for this change: one, the essay has not historically been predictive of college readiness and success, and two, College Board member admission officers couldn’t agree on whether the essay was useful.

作文部分,曾经是写作考查模块中的一个颇具争议的必选题,而今变为选考题并独立计分。(去年秋天《大西洋》杂志曾发表过对作文题的批评。)公告中表示此项改动的原因有二:第一,自开创以来,作文题都不能很好的考查学生上大学的知识储备以及预测其未来取得成功的可能性。第二,关于这种作文是否有用,CB招生办公室的成员并未达成一致意见。

The optional essay will ask students to analyze evidence. It will be graded based on the “strength of the analysis as well as the coherence of the writing.” The previous version of the essay asked students to answer a prompt using their own background and experiences, and evaluators did not verify the accuracy of their argument or examples. The previous essay had to be completed in 25 minutes; students will now have 50 minutes to write the essay.

这种可选的作文题要求学生分析论据。它将基于“分析的深度以及写作的连贯性”评分。以前的作文题要求学生就提示依据自己的背景和经验来回答,评分者无从验证他们的论点以及论据的准确性。学生们以前只有25分钟的时间来回答这道题,而现在有50分钟了。

 

The reading passages will be more predictable

阅读将更容易预测

Source documents on the SAT used to be a perennial surprise for students: Reading passages could come from any source and be about any topic. Now, each exam will include a passage drawn from what the College Board is calling a “Founding Document” or a “Great Global Conversation.” They use the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream speech” as examples. The other documents used on the exam will also now be from a wider range of academic disciplines; in particular, historical and scientific material was not required to appear on the old SAT. Now students will read source texts from science, history, and social studies and be asked to “analyze them the way they would in those classes.” Data will also appear more on the new SAT: Students will encounter questions about text and data, including questions about “identifying and correcting inconsistencies between the two.”

对学生来说,长期以来,SAT阅读的来源都十分出人意料:供阅读的篇章可以来自任何地方、关于任何话题。如今,每一次考试都将有一篇来自CB称作“基础文件”的文章或者一篇“伟大的国际会谈”。他们以《独立宣言》以及马丁路德金的“我有一个梦想” (演讲)为例。考试中使用的其他文章如今将取材于广泛的大学学科;特别是以往SAT考试中不会出现的历史和科学材料。如今学生们将阅读到关于科学、历史、社会研究的文章,被要求“以该学科的方法分析文章”。在全新的SAT考试中,将出现更多的数据:学生们将听到关于文章和数据的问题,其中包括“找出并改正二者中不一致的部分”。

Other changes include:

  • The SAT will be offered in both print and digital formats.
  • The College Board is partnering with Khan Academy to provide free, online test preparation for the new SAT.
  • Calculators will only be permitted on certain portions of the math section. The math section will focus on fewer topics.
  • Income-eligible students will receive fee waivers for their applications to four schools.

其他变革之处包括:

  •   SAT考试将有纸质版和电子版两种形式。
  •   CB与可汗学院合作,准备推出为新SAT考试打造的免费在线考试。
  •   只有数学部分的少量题允许使用计算器。而数学部分将集中的考查更少的题目。
  •   有收入资格证的学生将收到自己申请的四所学校的学费减免申请。

The changes to the exam might make studying easier and less dependent on the tricks of expensive tutors. The elimination of the quarter-point deduction means test takers can ditch some of their predecessors’ strategies, and with more predictable reading passages, fewer math topics, an optional essay section, and less obscure SAT words, students will simply have less material to study.

 

SAT考试的改革可能会使学习更容易、更不依赖于昂贵的辅导班传授的诀窍。答错扣0.25分的规则的废除意味着考生能够摆脱一些他们前辈的策略。而由于更可预测的阅读文章、更精简的数学题、可选的作文题、更少的SAT生僻词,学生要学的材料少多了。