This is what the new SAT will look like
Update: The College Board has released sample questions for the updated SAT. Scroll down to see some selected questions below.
It’s going to be a late night for folks in the multi-billion dollar tutoring and test prep industry. Details of the newly revamped SAT are expected to hit the web just after midnight eastern time.
“I’m somewhat of a night owl,” says Christine Brown, executive director of K-12 and college prep products at Kaplan Test Prep. “I’ll probably be online this evening keeping an eye on things.”
From the big players like Kaplan to small mom-and-pops, test prep companies will be scrambling to overhaul their offerings in time for the new test’s debut in the spring of 2016—and hoping to capitalize on an expected surge in demand.
“When the new SAT comes up, business just goes through the roof,” says David Benjamin Gruenbaum of Ahead of the Class, a California-based tutoring company.
He expects another bump in business this time around, even though the College Board is teaming up with the nonprofit Khan Academy to offer free help.
As Marketplace has reported before, the college application process is a huge — read: expensive — endeavor. Standardized tests cost from registration to score reports:
Just taking the SAT costs upward of $51.00. Tack on individual subject tests required by some colleges, and you’re adding another $24.50 in initial registration fees, plus $13-24 for every individual subject.
The ACT costs $36.50. The ACT Plus Writing Test, required by some colleges, costs $52.50.
A new official test prep book is $31.99. A subscription to the full online suite runs $69.95 per year.
SAT and ACT tutoring costs an average of $125 per session. Private tutoring for the tests will range in costs by tutor. Princeton Review’s 24-hour private tutoring program will set a family back $3000. One independent tutor we spoke with charges almost $550 an hour for his services.
Sample questions from the new SAT:
Reading and Writing:
Courtesy of The College Board
Courtesy of The College Board
Math:
Courtesy of The College Board
Problem Solving and Data Analysis:
Courtesy of The College Board
View the entire set of sample questions here.
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