does the sat have a essay

The Optional SAT Essay: What to Know

Tackling this section of the SAT requires preparation and can boost some students' college applications.

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Even though an increasing number of colleges are dropping standardized test requirements, students who must write the SAT essay can still stand to gain from doing so.

Although the essay portion of the SAT became optional in 2016, many students still chose to write it to demonstrate strong or improved writing skills to prospective colleges.

In June 2021, the College Board opted to discontinue the SAT essay. Now, only students in a few states and school districts still have access to — and must complete — the SAT essay. This requirement applies to some students in the SAT School Day program, for instance, among other groups.

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Tiffany Sorensen Sept. 14, 2020

Whether or not to write the SAT essay is not the biggest decision you will have to make in high school, but it is certainly one that requires thought on your part. Here are three things you should know about the 50-minute SAT essay as you decide whether to complete it:

• To excel on the SAT essay, you must be a trained reader.
• The SAT essay begs background knowledge of rhetoric and persuasive writing.
• A growing number of colleges are dropping standardized test requirements.

To Excel on the SAT Essay, You Must Be a Trained Reader

The SAT essay prompt never comes unaccompanied. On the contrary, it follows a text that is about 700 words long or approximately one page. Before test-takers can even plan their response, they must carefully read and – ideally – annotate the passage.

The multifaceted nature of the SAT essay prompt can be distressing to students who struggle with reading comprehension. But the good news is that this prompt is highly predictable: It always asks students to explain how the author builds his or her argument. In this case, "how” means which rhetorical devices are used, such as deductive reasoning, metaphors, etc.

Luckily, the author’s argument is usually spelled out in the prompt itself. For instance, consider this past SAT prompt : “Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved.”

Due to the essay prompt’s straightforward nature, students should read the passage with an eye toward specific devices used by the author rather than poring over “big ideas.” In tour SAT essay, aim to analyze at least two devices, with three being even better.

The SAT Essay Begs Background Knowledge of Rhetoric and Persuasive Writing

Since your SAT essay response must point to specific rhetorical devices that the author employs to convince the reader, you should make it a point to intimately know 10-15 common ones. The more familiar you are with rhetorical devices, the faster you will become at picking them out as you read texts.

Once you have read the passage and identified a handful of noteworthy rhetorical devices, you should apply many of the same essay-writing techniques you already use in your high school English classes.

For instance, you should start by brainstorming to see which devices you have the most to say about. After that, develop a concise thesis statement, incorporate quotes from the text, avoid wordiness and other infelicities of writing, close with an intriguing conclusion, and do everything else you could imagine your English teacher advising you to do.

Remember to always provide evidence from the text to support your claims. Finally, leave a few minutes at the end to review your essay for mistakes.

A Growing Number of Colleges Are Dropping Standardized Test Requirements

In recent years, some of America’s most prominent colleges and universities – including Ivy League institutions like Harvard University in Massachusetts, Princeton University in New Jersey and Yale University in Connecticut – have made submission of ACT and SAT scores optional.

While this trend began as early as 2018, the upheaval caused by COVID-19 has prompted many other schools to adopt a more lenient testing policy, as well.

Advocates for educational fairness have long expressed concerns that standardized admissions tests put underprivileged students at a disadvantage. In light of the coronavirus pandemic , which restricted exam access for almost all high school students, colleges have gotten on board with this idea by placing more emphasis on other factors in a student’s application.

To assess writing ability in alternative ways, colleges now place more emphasis on students’ grades in language-oriented subjects, as well as college application documents like the personal statement .

The fact that more colleges are lifting their ACT/SAT requirement does not imply that either test or any component of it is now obsolete. Students who must write the SAT essay can still stand to gain from doing so, especially those who wish to major in a writing-intensive field. The essay can also demonstrate a progression or upward trajectory in writing skills.

The SAT essay can give a boost to the college applications of the few students to whom it is still available. If the requirement applies to you, be sure to learn more about the SAT essay and practice it often as you prepare for your upcoming SAT.

13 Test Prep Tips for SAT and ACT Takers

Tags: SAT , standardized tests , students , education

About College Admissions Playbook

Stressed about getting into college? College Admissions Playbook, authored by Varsity Tutors , offers prospective college students advice on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, SAT and ACT exams and the college application process. Varsity Tutors, an advertiser with U.S. News & World Report, is a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement. The company's end-to-end offerings also include mobile learning apps, online learning environments and other tutoring and test prep-focused technologies. Got a question? Email [email protected] .

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, does the sat still have an essay.

Hi! I've heard mixed information about the SAT essay. Does the current SAT still include an essay section or has it been removed? I'd appreciate any clarity on this!

Hello! The SAT has undergone a range of changes lately, and in June 2021, the College Board eliminated the optional Essay section from the SAT. This means that the current SAT no longer includes an essay portion, and you'll only be assessed on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math sections. With this change, it's essential to focus on maximizing your scores in these two sections to demonstrate your academic abilities to colleges and universities.

Additionally, many colleges now place greater emphasis on personal statements and supplemental essays in their evaluation of your writing abilities instead of turning to your SAT Essay score. To make sure your essays are as strong as possible, consider utilizing CollegeVine's Free Peer Essay Review Tool, or submitting your essay for a paid review by an expert college admissions advisor through CollegeVine's marketplace.

Best of luck with your SAT!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

Challenges in College , Getting Into College , Higher Education News , Tips for Online Students

Does the SAT Essay Matter? – Don’t Stress it Too Much

Updated: October 19, 2023

Published: January 29, 2020

If you’re applying to college in the U.S., you will most likely need to take the SAT or ACT exam. This is because most colleges require the SAT or ACT as part of the application. The SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, is administered by the College Board. It consists of four sections and an optional essay. The four sections cover: Reading, Writing and Language, Math (no calculator), and Math (calculator). Since the essay is listed as optional, you may be asking yourself, does the SAT essay matter?

That’s a really good question with an interesting and somewhat variable answer. We will look at everything you need to know about the SAT scoring overall, and provide more insight into the essay. After reading this, you should be able to make an informed decision for whether or not you should take the SAT essay or skip it.

Photo by  Ben Mullins  on  Unsplash

Sat subject scoring.

Before jumping into the essay specifically, let’s break down how the SAT is scored. Upon completion of the test, you can receive a score between 400 and 1600. Each topic is given a raw score. This is the number of questions that you answered correctly.

Then, the College Board performs a process called “equating” based on data. That gives you a score between 200 and 800 for the two general sections, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math. The College Board doesn’t provide much insight into how “equating” works.

SAT Essay Scoring

The SAT essay used to be required, whereas the ACT essay has always been optional. Recently, the College Board made the SAT essay optional, too.

Students are provided with 50 minutes to write an essay.

The new SAT essay asks students to analyze how the author built his or her argument.

Grading for the essay requires two readers who grant it a score between 2 and 8. Then, your final score is the average of their two grades.

The essay’s score is provided separately to your overall SAT score when it is sent to colleges.

Does The SAT Essay Matter?

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Should I skip the SAT essay entirely?”

The fact of the matter is that only about 10% of colleges still require it. But, keep in mind, this could change. It’s best practice to check with your school of choice directly before taking the SAT to see if they require it or not.

A good way to find out if your school requires the SAT essay is to google: “[school name] SAT requirement.” If the school you want to attend requires it, then it’s a no brainer — you must complete the essay.

Some people will suggest you take the essay anyways, in case you decide later to apply to a school that requires it. Also, it’s worthwhile to keep in mind that you cannot take just the essay portion separately. If you decide later that you will need it, you will have to take the whole exam again. That means you will have to pay again and dedicate three to four more hours of your time to complete the exam.

Pros of Taking the SAT Essay

There may be benefits of completing the essay portion of the SAT exam. If you decide to complete the essay, you will have:

1. Ensured that you can apply to any school

2. Potentially increased your application (even if schools may not require it, they may use the score as an indication of how well you can write)

Cons of Taking the SAT Essay

If you know for a fact that you won’t need the SAT essay, it may be worth skipping it. This is because:

1. It costs an additional $14 extra

2. It adds about an hour to the test which is already three hours

3. It will require more studying and exam preparation

Photo by  Kyle Gregory Devaras  on  Unsplash

How to prepare for the sat essay.

If you decide to take the SAT essay, then you should come prepared. The SAT essay presents you with a passage that is between 650 and 750 words. You’ll have to read, digest, and interpret the passage. Then you will be asked to analyze and explain how the author made his or her argument.

To prepare, you can consider performing the following:

1. Study sample passages and prompts

2. Conduct practices by writing responses and timing yourself for 50 minutes

3. Read op-ed pieces from published outlets to see how others write and structure arguments

4. Ask different people you trust to read and grade your practice essays

On the test day, be sure to do the following:

1. Read the prompt carefully

2. Allocate time to read the excerpt

3. Outline your response

4. Write clearly, concisely, and with as few errors as possible

5. Leave time for editing

Not All Colleges Require the SAT

While you may be considering whether or not to take the SAT essay section, you should know that some colleges don’t require the SAT at all. This is particularly true of many online universities .

At the University of the People, there are few requirements to enroll . The main two must-haves include: English proficiency and proof of high school completion.

There has been much debate about how hard and unequal the playing field is to be accepted into American universities. This is even true of the SAT and ACT as it is less of a test of intelligence and more of a test-taking skills test.

So, for some who can afford private tutoring and SAT courses, they may have an advantage over students who study alone.

As such, the University of the People believes in offering quality, tuition-free higher education to students from all around the world. It doesn’t matter how well you do or don’t do on standardized tests.

Instead, the utmost importance is that you have a will to learn.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that taking the SAT essay portion is a subjective decision. While it is optional, there are some schools that still require it (taking away its status as being optional).

If you are dead set on attending a certain school that does not require the essay portion, then you can save money and time by not taking it.

However, if you are unsure of where you may end up applying, it could be in your best interest to complete the essay. Before you sign up for the SAT, perform your research and be sure of your decision.

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Digital SAT Reading and Writing

Course: digital sat reading and writing   >   unit 1.

• About the digital SAT
• Digital SAT overview
• About the digital SAT Reading and Writing test

Digital SAT FAQs

• About the digital PSAT/NMSQT

Frequently asked questions

What is the digital sat, which version of the sat will i take.

• Starting in 2023, students taking the test outside the United States and its territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands) will take the digital SAT.
• Starting in 2024, the digital SAT will be taken by all students.
• You’re taking it outside of the U.S., you should prepare for the digital SAT only by using Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep .
• You’re taking it in the U.S. (or its territories), you should prepare for the paper-and-pencil test using Khan Academy’s Official SAT Practice .

What is the difference between the digital SAT and the paper-and-pencil test?

• Calculator use: Calculators are now allowed throughout the entire Math section. A graphing calculator is integrated into the digital test experience so that all students have access.
• Question word count: The average length of Math word problems has been reduced. In-context questions are still a big part of the test, but they’re not quite so wordy.
• One test for Reading and Writing: While the pencil-and-paper SAT tested reading and writing in separate test sections, the digital SAT combines these topics.
• Shorter passages (and more of them): Instead of reading long passages and answering multiple questions on each passage, students taking the digital SAT will encounter shorter passages, each with just one follow-up question.
• New question types: With a greater number and variety of passages, the digital SAT includes new types of questions, with new prompts that require new strategies.

How should I start studying for the digital SAT?

• Starting with a practice test will help you diagnose the areas where you need the most practice.
• After taking each practice test, you can review your performance and read answer explanations for the questions you missed.
• You can take full-length practice tests using College Board’s Bluebook app .
• We recommend taking full-length practice tests at set intervals throughout your test prep journey. Doing this will help you gauge your progress, refine the focus of your skill practice, and build endurance and experience for test day.
• The best way to practice individual skills is to explore both the digital SAT Math course and the digital SAT Reading and Writing courses on Khan Academy.
• In these courses, you can read articles and watch videos that cover each skill, practice those skills, then test yourself in the related exercises. As you become proficient in more skills, you’ll become more prepared for test day.

How many practice tests should I take to be prepared?

What types of practice does khan academy’s official digital sat prep have.

• The Math course is organized into 37 math skills and features three levels of difficulty in each skill.
• The Reading and Writing course is organized into 11 skills and covers the full range of questions on the exam.

Will Official Digital SAT Prep show me where to focus when I study?

What is included in the math section of the digital sat.

• Algebra: Analyze, fluently solve, and create linear equations and inequalities, as well as analyze and fluently solve systems of equations.
• Advanced Math: Demonstrate attainment of skills and knowledge central for successful progression to more advanced math courses, including analyzing, fluently solving, interpreting, and creating a variety of equation types.
• Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: Apply quantitative reasoning about ratios, rates, and proportional relationships; understand and apply units and rates; and analyze and interpret one- and two-variable data.
• Geometry and Trigonometry: Solve problems that focus on perimeter, area, and volume; angles, triangles, and trigonometry; and circles.
• Multiple-choice: Questions offer four possible choices from which students must select the answer.
• Student-produced response: Questions require students to produce their own answer, which they then enter into the provided field.

How can I use Khan Academy’s digital SAT Math course to study for the digital SAT?

• Taking the course challenge: By attempting 40 questions from different lessons throughout the course, you can get credit for the skills you’ve already mastered and identify the skills where you could improve. You can also get credit within individual units by attempting unit tests.
• Working from top to bottom: The course takes all the math skills tested on the SAT and splits them into three difficulty levels: Foundations, Medium, and Advanced. By working through the course from top to bottom, you’ll encounter each skill at each level, keeping your practice balanced and ensuring no skills fall through the cracks.
• Taking quizzes and unit tests as you go: As you progress through different skills, you can take quizzes and unit tests to prove your mastery of the content. The more units you master in the course, the more prepared you’ll be for test day.

What is included in the Reading and Writing section of the digital SAT?

• Information and Ideas: Use, locate, interpret, and evaluate information from various texts and infographics.
• Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of high-utility academic words and phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make supportable connections between multiple related texts.
• Expression of Ideas: Use revision skills and knowledge to improve the effectiveness of written expression in order to accomplish specified rhetorical goals.
• Standard English Conventions: Use editing skills and knowledge to make texts conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.

How can I use Khan Academy’s digital SAT Reading and Writing course to study for the digital SAT?

• Work from top to bottom: The course takes all the reading and writing skills tested on the SAT and organizes them by focus. By working through the course from top to bottom, you’ll encounter each skill in turn, keeping your practice balanced and ensuring no skills fall through the cracks.
• Try exercises more than once: Because the digital SAT Reading and Writing test is new, there’s not as much content available for practice as there is for the SAT Math test. While we hope to expand this course in the future, we encourage you to squeeze every last bit of practice you can from the presently available materials. So, even if you’ve tried (and passed) an exercise before, you can get extra practice by attempting it again!

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What Colleges Require the SAT Essay?

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If you’re going to be applying to college soon, there’s a good chance that you’re already thinking about the SAT. Most colleges still require standardized test scores, and millions of students across the country tackle this exam each year. 

As you begin your college search, it’s important to understand the exact standardized test requirements of the colleges on your list. Some will be test-optional . Others require scores from the SAT or ACT. In addition, some will require that you submit scores from the optional essay portions of these tests. There may also be schools that require or recommend SAT Subject Tests. Knowing the exact testing policy at each school you’re considering will help you plan your test taking strategy, and begin test prep well in advance. 

If you’re planning to take the SAT, you won’t want to miss this complete overview of what colleges require the SAT essay. 

What is the SAT Essay? How is it Scored?

Before we dive into which schools require it, let’s take a closer look at what exactly the SAT essay is, and how it is scored. 

On the SAT Essay, students are provided with a written argument that they must read and analyze. Students have 50 minutes to read the passage, plan the essay, and write their response. Most successful responses stick to the standard five-paragraph essay format. To see an example prompt and scoring rubric, check out the Essay Sample Questions on the College Board website. 

It’s important to note here that the SAT Essay score is separate from your overall composite SAT score. It does not impact the score ranging from 400-1600 as reported on your score report. Instead of being included in your composite score, it is provided in addition to it. 

The Essay is scored on a scale from 2-8 in three areas of evaluation—Reading, Analysis, and Writing. Each essay is reviewed by two scorers, and scores between 1-4 are awarded in each dimension. These scores are then added together so that you’ll receive three scores for the SAT Essay—one for each dimension—ranging from 2–8 points. A perfect score on the essay would be 8/8/8, but the mean score on the essay is a 5 for Reading and Writing, and 3 for Analysis. This means if you can achieve any score over 5/3/5, you have scored above average on the essay. For a more complete look at how the test is scored, don’t miss our post What is a Good SAT Essay Score?

Should I Take the SAT Essay?

First of all, the SAT essay is technically an optional section, so no, you are not required to take it. That being said, some colleges do require applicants to take the SAT with Essay. If you choose not to take the essay portion of the test, you will not be an eligible applicant for any of these schools. 

The SAT Essay used to be required at many top colleges, but it has become optional at many schools. Now, among elite schools, only the University of California schools require the Essay. Other selective colleges like Duke University, Amherst College, and Colby College recommend the Essay, but it’s not required. 

Take a look at the colleges on these lists, and see if there are any you plan to apply to. Also be sure to double-check on your schools’ webpages, as these policies can change. 

If you think you might change your mind about which schools you want to apply to, you should take the SAT Essay to leave those doors open. This is why we generally recommend taking the essay, regardless of whether or not it’s required. After all, you can’t go back and just take the SAT Essay if you decide to change your mind and apply to a school that requires it—you’d have to retake the entire SAT.

Some colleges don’t require the essay, but do recommend it. In these cases, we always direct students to do what the college recommends. 

That being said, there is currently no option to withhold your essay score if you do terribly on it. Your essay scores will always be reported with your other test scores from that day, even to colleges that don’t require them. 

What Colleges Require the SAT with Essay?

There colleges request scores from the SAT with Essay in order to apply.

Schools that Require the SAT Essay:

• All of the University of California schools
• Benedictine University
• City University London
• Delaware State University
• DeSales University
• Dominican University of California
• Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
• Howard University
• John Wesley University
• Kentucky State University
• Martin Luther College
• Molloy College
• Schreiner University
• Soka University of America
• Southern California Institute of Architecture
• Texas A&M University—Galveston
• United States Military Academy (West Point)
• University of North Texas
• West Virginia University Institute of Technology
• Western Carolina University

Discover your chances at hundreds of schools

Our free chancing engine takes into account your history, background, test scores, and extracurricular activities to show you your real chances of admission—and how to improve them.

These schools do not require the SAT Essay, but do recommend that students submit it. At CollegeVine, our best advice is to always follow a college’s recommendations. 

Schools that Recommend the SAT Essay:

• Abilene Christian University
• Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
• Allegheny College
• Amherst College
• Art Institute of Houston
• Augsburg University
• Austin College
• Caldwell University
• California State University, Northridge
• Central Connecticut State University
• Central Michigan University
• Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
• Coastal Carolina University
• Colby College
• College of Wooster
• Colorado School of Mines
• Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
• Corban University
• Cornerstone University
• Dallas Christian College
• Duke University
• Eastern Illinois University
• Eastern Nazarene College
• Easternn University
• Endicott College
• Five Towns College
• Gallaudet University
• George Washington University
• Georgia Highlands College
• Greenville University
• Gwynedd Mercy University
• High Point University
• Hofstra University
• Holy Family University
• Husson University
• Indiana University South Bend
• Indiana University Southeast
• Indiana Wesleyan University
• Inter American University of Puerto Rico: Barranquitas Campus
• Juilliard School
• Keiser University (West Palm Beach)
• Lehigh University
• Madonna University
• Manhattan College
• Marymount California University
• Massachusetts Maritime Academy
• McMurry University
• Mercy College
• Modern College of Design
• Montana Tech of the University of Montana
• Morehouse College
• Mount Saint Mary College
• Mount St. Joseph University
• National-Louis University
• New Jersey City University
• Nichols College
• North Park University
• Occidental College
• Ohio University
• Oregon State University
• Purdue University Northwest
• Randall University
• Randolph-Macon College
• Reading Area Community College
• Rowan University
• Rutgers University—Camden Campus
• Rutgers University—Newark Campus
• Saint Michael’s College
• Sciences Po
• Seton Hill University
• Shiloh University
• Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
• Silver Lake College of the Holy Family
• Southern Illinois University of Carbondale
• Southern Oregon University
• Spring Hill College
• Sul Ross State University
• SUNY Farmingdale State College
• SUNY University at Stony Brook
• Tarleton State University
• Texas A&M International University
• Texas A&M University
• Texas State University
• The King’s College
• United States Air Force Academy
• University of Evansville
• University of La Verne
• University of Mary Hardin—Baylor
• University of Massachusetts Amherst
• University of Minnesota: Twin Cities
• University of New England
• University of Northwestern—St. Paul
• University of the Virgin Islands
• University of Toledo
• University of Washington Bothell
• VanderCook College of Music
• Virginia Union University
• Wabash College
• Webb Institute
• Webber International University
• Wesleyan College
• William Jewell College

If any of the schools you are considering appear on either of the lists above, we recommend taking the SAT with Essay. In fact, we recommend that most, if not all, students take the SAT essay since it leaves more doors open in your college search. However, if you’re absolutely sure you won’t be applying to colleges that require or recommend the SAT with Essay, you can skip it.

Regardless, as you consider which colleges to add to your list, you’ll want to be certain you know what colleges require the SAT essay so that you can plan ahead for this part of your test. 

For help figuring out which schools might be a great fit for you, don’t miss our customized and innovative Chancing Engine and School List Generator . Here, we use a proprietary algorithm backed by over 100,000 data points to develop a school list based on your real admissions chances and preferences.

Want to know how your SAT score impacts your chances of acceptance to your dream schools? Our free Chancing Engine will not only help you predict your odds, but also let you know how you stack up against other applicants, and which aspects of your profile to improve. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to gain access to our Chancing Engine and get a jumpstart on your college strategy!

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The Definitive Guide to the SAT 2024

Dec 12, 2023 | Articles , SAT , Standardized Tests

What is the SAT?

The Digital SAT is a standardized test created by the College Board and has been completely redesigned beginning with the March 2024 test. You’ll take the test on the SAT Bluebook™ app (unless you have paper-based accommodations) which you’ll want to download and practice with before test day. Typically, juniors and seniors take the test for college admissions, scholarship awards, and school assessments. The test takes about two and a half hours, including two short breaks. For some students in particular states, an optional Essay portion adds an extra fifty minutes at the end.

What are the sections of the SAT? 

The Digital SAT includes two sections with two modules each, Reading & Writing and Math . Each section counts for 50% of your composite score. This newly adaptive test contains a mix of easy to difficult questions in the first module for each section, then offers an easier or tougher second module depending on how well you answer the questions in the first section.  No Science section exists on the SAT as on the ACT, but knowledge of interpreting charts, tables, and graphs is assessed throughout all test sections. The SAT provides 68% more time per question than the ACT, and there’s no penalty for guessing.

Reading & Writing

The Reading & Writing section includes short (25-150 words) reading passages (or passage pairs) on subjects from literature, history/social studies, the humanities, and science.  Each multiple-choice question that follows a passage covers one of four domains:

• Information and Ideas.  Measures comprehension, analysis, and reasoning skills and knowledge and the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, and integrate information and ideas from texts and informational graphics (tables, bar graphs, and line graphs).
• Craft and Structure.  Measures the comprehension, vocabulary, analysis, synthesis, and reasoning skills and knowledge needed to understand and use high-utility words and phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make connections between topically related texts.
• Expression of Ideas.  Measures the ability to revise texts to improve the effectiveness of written expression and to meet specific rhetorical goals.
• Standard English Conventions.  Measures the ability to edit text to conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.

The Math section requires a deep understanding of algebra, but the test provides basic geometry formulas. The Bluebook app includes a built-in calculator, or you can still choose to bring your own from an approved list . Most (approximately 75%) questions are multiple-choice; but for some questions, you’ll need to provide a specific answer. These student-produced response (SPR) format questions may have multiple correct responses, but you’ll only provide one answer. Questions measure your ability to apply essential math concepts and about 30% of questions ask you to evaluate an in-context (worded) scenario and determine how to apply your math skills to find the answer. Each question covers one of four content areas:

• Algebra. Algebra measures the ability to analyze, fluently solve, and create linear equations and inequalities as well as analyze and fluently solve equations and systems of equations using multiple techniques. (13-15 questions)
• Advanced Math. The Advanced Math area measures skills and knowledge central for progression to more advanced math courses, including demonstrating an understanding of absolute value, quadratic, exponential, polynomial, rational, radical, and other nonlinear equations. (13-15 questions)
• Problem-Solving and Data Analysis. Problem-Solving and Data Analysis measures the ability to apply quantitative reasoning about ratios, rates, and proportional relationships; understand and apply unit rate; and analyze and interpret one- and two-variable data. (5-7 questions)
• Geometry and Trigonometry. Problems to solve include area and volume formulas; lines, angles, and triangles; right triangles and trigonometry, and circles. (5-7 questions)

How long is the SAT? 

How many questions are on the SAT? 

The SAT includes 154 questions. 

• Reading & Writing includes 54 questions in 64 minutes (average 71 seconds per question)
• Math  has 44 questions in 70 minutes (average 95 seconds per question)

What are the SAT dates? 

The SAT is offered seven times each year in March, May, June, August, October, November, and December. This provides multiple opportunities to take the test and increase your scores. Many schools, especially in states where the SAT is mandated for all high school juniors, also offer the test during the school day for students, generally in the spring. Check with your school to see if and when they offer the SAT. 

What is the average SAT score?

SAT scores range from 400 to 1600. The average SAT score for the class of 2023 was 1028 , down 22 points from 2022. ( Curious what that would be on the ACT? ) A ccording to the College Board’s latest score report , only 7% of all test-takers scored higher than 1400. No one scored below 590, and 12% of test-takers scored between 600 and 790. The Digital SAT (March 2024 onward) may be difficult to compare with the previous version of the SAT.

How do you register for the SAT?

Register for the SAT at www.collegeboard.org . Test centers can be found on the SAT website , where you can search by state and test date. B ring a photo ID with your admission ticket on test day. You can use a driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued photo ID. If you don’t have any of these IDs, the SAT offers alternative methods to prove your identity.   When you register, you can choose to include information to allow colleges and scholarship organizations to contact you. 

On test day, you are expected to bring your fully-charged device with the Bluebook testing app already loaded. You can also bring a pen/pencil and use the scratch paper provided at the test site.

How much does the SAT cost? 

For 2023, taking the SAT costs $60. Add $30 if you register late, after the regular deadline. You can send up to four free score reports up to nine days after the test date. Additional score reports or reports ordered after you take the test are $14 per report. The SAT offers fee waivers to eligible test-takers (free & reduced lunch, receiving public assistance, etc.). Students can use the waivers to take two free SATs (with or without the essay) and send unlimited score reports. If you think you may be eligible, work with your school counselor to submit your request. 

When should you take the SAT?

Taking the PSAT is a good introduction to the format and content of the SAT, during the sophomore or junior year of high school. You may only qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program by testing during your junior year. Register for the PSAT through your school. After taking the PSAT, consider taking the SAT at least four times. No one gets their best score the first (or even second) time. Try taking the test twice in your junior year and twice in your senior fall. This increases the chances of scoring your best and boosting potential scholarships and financial aid! 

Should you take the SAT or ACT? 

All colleges accept both the ACT and SAT, so try both, then decide where to focus your effort. The SAT has two Math sections compared to only one for the ACT. The ACT, however, has a Science and Data Interpretation section.   In general, the content on the SAT is more challenging, but more time is given per question, compared to the ACT. Th e most important thing is to take either test multiple times. Improve your scores through practice.

How long does it take to get SAT scores? 

SAT multiple-choice scores are usually reported within 2-3 weeks of your test date. A schedule for individual test dates is available. The College Board sends a ll score reports to your selected colleges within ten days. 

How do you improve your SAT scores?

Practice and preparation are two of the biggest ways you can improve your SAT score. Find SAT prep that’s fun and engaging but also gives you strategies to help take the test. Not all test prep is created equal, so research, read reviews, and look past flashy guarantees.   OnToCollege offers an effective video course that not only gives you strategies but also practice tests and solution videos to help you learn from your mistakes. Use actual SAT practice tests as you study, (three are included in our course) to learn the format of the test. Then take the actual SAT multiple times, ideally twice your junior year and twice your senior year. 

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NBC SPORTS PRESENTS MILESTONE 150 TH KENTUCKY DERBY THIS SATURDAY, MAY 4 AT 2:30 P.M. ET ON NBC AND PEACOCK

Saturday’s Live Coverage to Feature Nine Races; NBC Sports to Present 15 Total Races Across Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks Day

Live Coverage from Churchill Downs Begins with 5 Hours of Kentucky Oaks Day Races on Friday, May 3, at 1 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock

Derby Day Coverage Starts with Live Racing on Saturday, May 4, at Noon ET on USA Network and Peacock

All Coverage Streaming Live on Peacock

STAMFORD, Conn. – April 29, 2024 – NBC Sports presents coverage of the milestone 150 th Kentucky Derby on NBC and Peacock this Saturday, May 4, at 2:30 p.m. ET live from iconic Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

NBC Sports’ Derby day coverage features nine races across NBC and Peacock on Saturday. Live coverage from Churchill Downs begins with five hours of Kentucky Oaks day racing this Friday, May 3, beginning at 1 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock. Over the two days, NBC Sports will present 15 live races from Churchill Downs.

Telemundo Deportes will present coverage of the Kentucky Derby, beginning Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET on Universo, and streaming on TelemundoDeportes.com and the Telemundo app.

The 150 th Kentucky Derby features morning-line favorite Fierceness (5-2), who won the 2024 Florida Derby (G1) and the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Other contenders include 2024 Blue Grass Stakes (G1) winner Sierra Leone (3-1), this year’s UAE Derby (G2) winner Forever Young (10-1), 2024 Louisiana Derby (G2) winner Catching Freedom (8-1), and 2024 Blue Grass Stakes (G1) runner-up Just a Touch (10-1).

COMMENTATORS : NBC Sports’ coverage of the Kentucky Derby features host Mike Tirico , anchoring Derby coverage for the eighth time; analysts Jerry Bailey , the Hall of Fame jockey and two-time Kentucky Derby winner, and Randy Moss , who is covering the Derby for the 44 th time; handicappers Eddie Olczyk and Matt Bernier ; host Ahmed Fareed ; reporters Britney Eurton , Donna Brothers , Kenny Rice , and Nick Luck ; and race caller Larry Collmus . Rebecca Lowe also returns to NBC Sports’ coverage and will examine the history and pageantry surrounding the “Run for the Roses.”

Steve Kornacki , NBC News’ celebrated national political correspondent, returns to NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby coverage as an insights analyst for the fourth year. NBC News’ Dylan Dreyer , who has previously been part of NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby and Royal Ascot horse racing coverage, and E! News correspondent Zanna Roberts Rassi , who is returning to Derby coverage, will serve as fashion and lifestyle correspondents. NBC Sports’ Tim Layden will write and narrate an essay on his perspective of the 150 th “Run for the Roses”.

The senior producer of NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby coverage is Lindsay Schanzer . The Kentucky Derby is directed by Kaare Numme . Saturday’s early race coverage is produced by Billy Matthews and directed by Timothy Nelson . Executive producer and president, NBC Sports Production is Sam Flood .

Highlights of Kentucky Derby coverage Saturday on NBC and Peacock include:

· Nine races during NBC and Peacock’s five hours of coverage (15 live races over Friday’s and Saturday’s total coverage)

· “How to Call a Race” featuring Telemundo’s Emmy-award winning sportscaster Andres Cantor and renowned race caller Larry Collmus

· “ The Descendants ” providing a look into the lineage of the 1 st , 50 th , and 100 th Kentucky Derby winners

· A feature on the underdog story of Larry Demeritte – trainer of West Saratoga , among the Derby’s biggest longshots (30-1)

· A look into World Series champion (2008 Phillies) and All-Star outfielder Jayson Werth ’s ownership of Dornoch , a contender in this year’s Derby

· Mike Tirico interviews Mike Repole , the owner of Fierceness, as he aims to win his first Derby after having last year’s favorite Forte scratch

· Feature on famed jockey Frankie Dettori , who recently came out of retirement. He is set to ride Society Man in the Derby

· “Kentucky Derby for 3-Year-Olds” segment in which Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss give a tour of the Kentucky Derby Museum to a class of three-year-old children

· Feature on the connection between Just Steel ’s 88-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas and rider Keith Asmussen – son of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen

· A new set location overlooking the newly constructed paddock at Churchill Downs, which will include SkyCam coverage from the paddock

· A “Phantom Camera,” which has been used on golf coverage, providing super slo-mo replays and reactions to make sure viewers don’t miss a moment

· A live drone and two live jockey cam systems will be utilized in Derby coverage (among 54 total cameras)

· The 360 Glam Cam on the red carpet for celebrities to show off their Derby Day outfits and make their race picks

· Two Nucleus cameras – one on each finish line – providing fans with a unique super slo-mo look at any photo finishes

· A camera focused on race caller Larry Collmus

· A POV camera in the steward’s room

· A Bat Camera – which will fly alongside the horses as they race down the backstretch

NBC SPORTS’ UPCOMING HORSE RACING COVERAGE SCHEDULE

KENTUCKY DERBY COVERAGE ON NBCSPORTS.COM & THE NBC SPORTS APP

NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app will stream live coverage to desktops, mobile, tablets, and connected TVs via authentication, giving consumers additional value to their subscription service, and making high-quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms. The full HD-quality video stream will come directly from NBC’s broadcasts. NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app are available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TVs, Xbox, and Chromecast.

NBC SPORTS AUDIO KENTUCKY DERBY COVERAGE

NBC Sports Audio (channel 85 on SiriusXM radios and the SiriusXM app) will present a full day of live Kentucky Derby coverage on Saturday, May 4, with a four-hour special edition of Down the Stretch beginning at 10 a.m. ET. A three-hour pre-race show, hosted by Steve Byk live from Churchill Downs, begins at 2 p.m. ET, leading into NBC Sports’ coverage of the 150 th “Run for the Roses” from 5-7:30 p.m. ET with Larry Collmus handling the live race calls. This is the third consecutive year NBC Sports and SiriusXM have teamed to produce audio coverage of the Kentucky Derby.

NBC SPORTS AND HORSE RACING

NBC Sports is the exclusive home to the most important and prestigious events in horse racing, including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Royal Ascot, and Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational Series.

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‘He craved an Oscar’: James Baldwin’s long campaign to crack Hollywood

He pitched slave-ship dramas to Ingmar Bergman, cast Marlon Brando as a bisexual man and wrote a Malcolm X screenplay that horrified the FBI. Why was this cinephile spurned by Hollywood?

I t’s fair to say James Baldwin wasn’t a fan of The Exorcist. “It has absolutely nothing going for it,” he wrote in his 1976 memoir-meets-criticism collection The Devil Finds Work. “Except Satan, who is certainly the star.” William Friedkin’s 1973 horror hit about a possessed schoolgirl might have caused havoc in theatres , but for the African American literary giant it was a garish dud that missed the real target. “For, I have seen the devil, by day and by night, and have seen him in you and in me,” he went on. “He does not levitate beds, or fool around with little girls: we do.”

Baldwin wasn’t an opportunist critic bashing a big commercial hit – he was an ardent cinephile whose obsession with film began as a young child in Harlem when a teacher called Orilla “Bill” Miller took him to see movies. Those early trips began a lifelong love affair. He went to the cinema whenever he could, to see everything from The Maltese Falcon to the 1959 lynching drama I Spit on Your Grave. Baldwin scholar Caryl Phillips said that while literature was his biggest love, “Baldwin discovered the cinema before he discovered books, and he never forgot the impact that these early movies had upon him.”

A new season at the Barbican in London hopes to put The Devil Finds Work into the conversation with the author’s better known nonfiction, such as the essay collections No Name in the Street and Nobody Knows My Name, by showing a series of films that are connected – thematically or more directly – with Baldwin’s work. Barry Jenkins, who directed 2017’s If Beale Street Could Talk , is taking part; while Claire Denis’s 35 Shots of Rum and Steve McQueen’s Hunger are also screening, alongside a talk by young Black British film-makers Ayo Akingbade and Rhea Storr, who have both taken inspiration from Baldwin.

In The Devil Finds Work, Baldwin mentions about 60 films that he neatly weaves through vignettes from his life and observations about his main preoccupations: race and America. He recalls his father’s interest being piqued by Bette Davis, a white movie star who wasn’t his mother (“I had caught my father, not in a lie, but in an infirmity”) and offers his own slant on Margaret Farrand Thorp’s “escape personality” theory, which said golden age audiences saw themselves in the stars on screen. “No one makes his escape personality black.”

His most cutting critique is reserved for the interracial romance Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, in which Sidney Poitier’s doctor character tells his disapproving father: “You think of yourself as a coloured man. I think of myself as a man.” “Which means that a man exists only in the brutally limited lexicon of those who think of themselves as white,” Baldwin says.

Phillips says The Devil Finds Work is Baldwin’s most “underrated work of nonfiction”, while in 2014, the Atlantic called it “ the most powerful piece of film criticism ever written ”. Yet, even for many Baldwin fans, it sits outside the established canon. This year is Baldwin’s centenary , but while some of his books are being reissued by Penguin Classics , The Devil Finds Work isn’t among them.

The Barbican season’s curator Clive Chijioke Nwonka hopes that audiences will see a new side to Baldwin. “The documentaries we have like I Am Not Your Negro and Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris, show him as a polemicist, but there are so many layers to him: he was an exceptional film critic and someone who truly understood the form.”

Only one of Baldwin’s novels was adapted for the screen in his lifetime. In 1985 – two years before his death from stomach cancer – there was a well-received TV adaptation of the writer’s first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. But it wasn’t until 1998, when French director Robert Guédiguian released À la Place du Coeur (Where the Heart Is) – inspired by If Beale Street Could Talk – that the writer’s work ended up on his beloved big screen. It took until 2018 for Baldwin’s work to be adapted in English, when Barry Jenkins made If Beale Street Could Talk, his follow-up to Moonlight.

Phillips doesn’t think it surprising that there’s such a dearth of adaptations; the literary worlds that Baldwin creates are often so expansive. “Another Country, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone and Just Above My Head are sprawling novels that move over vast periods of time. They’re not easy to fit into 90 minutes of screen time. With the exception of Giovanni’s Room, all his books that were ripe for adaptation have been made.”

Nwonka has a different view. “Maybe they’re not right for film adaptation but all the novels are televisual,” he says. “We live in an age where projects can be spread over six or 12 episodes – with that kind of room, a showrunner could explore some of Baldwin’s worlds. I wasn’t sure The Underground Railroad was filmable, but look at what Barry Jenkins did with that .”

Baldwin “positively yearned” for the kind of exposure and fame only Hollywood could bring, according to Phillips, who said that if pushed Baldwin would have admitted he “craved an Oscar almost as much as he did a Pulitzer”. He certainly wasn’t shy about pitching his ideas to directors.

When on assignment to interview Ingmar Bergman for Esquire in 1960, he outlined a movie idea as the pair talked in the director’s office in Stockholm: “My film would begin with slaves boarding a good ship Jesus: a white ship on a dark sea, with masters as white as the sails of their ships and slaves as black as the ocean,” he wrote.

It was a story about an enslaved man who died on the middle passage protecting a woman who would have his child. The child would then grow up to lead a slave revolt only to be hanged but then reappear in every generation as a Reconstruction-era politician “murdered upon leaving Congress”; a first world war soldier who is “buried alive”; a jazz musician who goes mad; and finally a present-day incarnation who ended up as a “junkie”.

Like nearly all of Baldwin’s cinematic aspirations, the project was destined to be unfulfilled. This wasn’t for want of effort on the writer’s part. When Jenkins was working on Beale Street, Baldwin’s sister gave him a brown leatherbound notebook with a list of directors, including Gordon Parks and François Truffaut, whom he would have liked to direct the story, and notes on how he thought it should be made.

There were concrete offers too. Rainer Werner Fassbinder approached him about adapting Giovanni’s Room, as did the Black British film-maker Horace Ové, who shot a documentary of Baldwin’s time in London during the 1960s. Both men believed they’d secured the rights, but the author’s dislike of legal agreements and contracts meant that neither of them did and the film was never made. “Jimmy wasn’t a dotting the Is and crossing the Ts kind of guy,” says Phillips.

The trappings of Hollywood did appeal to Baldwin, though. At the peak of his fame in the 1960s, he became close friends with Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Richard Burton and Yves Montand. Baldwin hung out with Ava Gardner who once, he claimed, tried to convince him that she’d be the perfect person to play Billie Holiday – despite being white. When Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968, Baldwin reportedly heard the news while poolside at Billy Dee Williams’s place in LA. He was in town working on a screenplay of Alex Haley’s Malcolm X autobiography, which was scuppered because of FBI interference (they insisted on reading every page Baldwin wrote) and because the studio was reportedly considering casting Charlton Heston as the Black revolutionary.

Perhaps the most tragic of his failed film projects was his final attempt to get Giovanni’s Room made. The British director Michael Raeburn and Baldwin worked on a script in the late 1970s. After a meeting in Paris involving decoy limousines, Marlon Brando was pencilled in to play Guillaume, the bisexual main character, while Robert De Niro was also reportedly interested. But as with earlier efforts, interest fizzled out and the 211-page script sat in Raeburn’s London flat for 40 years. “There’s no way that would have been made,” says Phillips. “Even if it was eminently filmable, because of how homophobic the industry was.”

Despite that disappointment, there is a Baldwin biopic in the works starring Billy Porter , although the actor’s recent interview with the Guardian showed a level of political awareness some distance behind the great writer’s. Even if that project is destined to be hit by the Baldwin curse, the Barbican’s new programme will give a deeper dive into a thinker whose first love was always film.

The Devil Finds Work: James Baldwin Through Film is at the Barbican , London, 2-22 May

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The Courage to Follow the Evidence on Transgender Care

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

Hilary Cass is the kind of hero the world needs today. She has entered one of the most toxic debates in our culture: how the medical community should respond to the growing numbers of young people who seek gender transition through medical treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapies. This month, after more than three years of research, Cass, a pediatrician, produced a report , commissioned by the National Health Service in England, that is remarkable for its empathy for people on all sides of this issue, for its humility in the face of complex social trends we don’t understand and for its intellectual integrity as we try to figure out which treatments actually work to serve those patients who are in distress. With incredible courage, she shows that careful scholarship can cut through debates that have been marked by vituperation and intimidation and possibly reset them on more rational grounds.

Cass, a past president of Britain’s Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, is clear about the mission of her report: “This review is not about defining what it means to be trans, nor is it about undermining the validity of trans identities, challenging the right of people to express themselves or rolling back on people’s rights to health care. It is about what the health care approach should be, and how best to help the growing number of children and young people who are looking for support from the N.H.S. in relation to their gender identity.”

This issue begins with a mystery. For reasons that are not clear, the number of adolescents who have sought to medically change their sex has been skyrocketing in recent years, though the overall number remains very small. For reasons that are also not clear, adolescents who were assigned female at birth are driving this trend, whereas before the late 2000s, it was mostly adolescents who were assigned male at birth who sought these treatments.

Doctors and researchers have proposed various theories to try to explain these trends. One is that greater social acceptance of trans people has enabled people to seek these therapies. Another is that teenagers are being influenced by the popularity of searching and experimenting around identity. A third is that the rise of teen mental health issues may be contributing to gender dysphoria. In her report, Cass is skeptical of broad generalizations in the absence of clear evidence; these are individual children and adolescents who take their own routes to who they are.

Some activists and medical practitioners on the left have come to see the surge in requests for medical transitioning as a piece of the new civil rights issue of our time — offering recognition to people of all gender identities. Transition through medical interventions was embraced by providers in the United States and Europe after a pair of small Dutch studies showed that such treatment improved patients’ well-being. But a 2022 Reuters investigation found that some American clinics were quite aggressive with treatment: None of the 18 U.S. clinics that Reuters looked at performed long assessments on their patients, and some prescribed puberty blockers on the first visit.

Unfortunately, some researchers who questioned the Dutch approach were viciously attacked. This year, Sallie Baxendale, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University College London, published a review of studies looking at the impact of puberty blockers on brain development and concluded that “critical questions” about the therapy remain unanswered. She was immediately attacked. She recently told The Guardian, “I’ve been accused of being an anti-trans activist, and that now comes up on Google and is never going to go away.”

As Cass writes in her report, “The toxicity of the debate is exceptional.” She continues, “There are few other areas of health care where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behavior.”

Cass focused on Britain, but her description of the intellectual and political climate is just as applicable to the U.S., where brutality on the left has been matched by brutality on the right, with crude legislation that doesn’t acknowledge the well-being of the young people in question. In 24 states Republicans have passed laws banning these therapies, sometimes threatening doctors with prison time if they prescribe the treatment they think is best for their patients.

The battle lines on this issue are an extreme case, but they are not unfamiliar. On issue after issue, zealous minorities bully and intimidate the reasonable majority. Often, those who see nuance decide it’s best to just keep their heads down. The rage-filled minority rules.

Cass showed enormous courage in walking into this maelstrom. She did it in the face of practitioners who refused to cooperate and thus denied her information that could have helped inform her report. As an editorial in The BMJ puts it, “Despite encouragement from N.H.S. England,” the “necessary cooperation” was not forthcoming. “Professionals withholding data from a national inquiry seems hard to imagine, but it is what happened.”

Cass’s report does not contain even a hint of rancor, just a generous open-mindedness and empathy for all involved. Time and again in her report, she returns to the young people and the parents directly involved, on all sides of the issue. She clearly spent a lot of time meeting with them. She writes, “One of the great pleasures of the review has been getting to meet and talk to so many interesting people.”

The report’s greatest strength is its epistemic humility. Cass is continually asking, “What do we really know?” She is carefully examining the various studies — which are high quality, which are not. She is down in the academic weeds.

She notes that the quality of the research in this field is poor. The current treatments are “built on shaky foundations,” she writes in The BMJ. Practitioners have raced ahead with therapies when we don’t know what the effects will be. As Cass tells The BMJ, “I can’t think of another area of pediatric care where we give young people a potentially irreversible treatment and have no idea what happens to them in adulthood.”

She writes in her report, “The option to provide masculinizing/feminizing hormones from age 16 is available, but the review would recommend extreme caution.” She does not issue a blanket, one-size-fits-all recommendation, but her core conclusion is this: “For most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress.” She realizes that this conclusion will not please many of the young people she has come to know, but this is where the evidence has taken her.

You can agree or disagree with this or that part of the report, and maybe the evidence will look different in 10 years, but I ask you to examine the integrity with which Cass did her work in such a treacherous environment.

In 1877 a British philosopher and mathematician named William Kingdon Clifford published an essay called “ The Ethics of Belief .” In it he argued that if a shipowner ignored evidence that his craft had problems and sent the ship to sea having convinced himself it was safe, then of course we would blame him if the ship went down and all aboard were lost. To have a belief is to bear responsibility, and one thus has a moral responsibility to dig arduously into the evidence, avoid ideological thinking and take into account self-serving biases. “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence,” Clifford wrote. A belief, he continued, is a public possession. If too many people believe things without evidence, “the danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.”

Since the Trump years, this habit of not consulting the evidence has become the underlying crisis in so many realms. People segregate into intellectually cohesive teams, which are always dumber than intellectually diverse teams. Issues are settled by intimidation, not evidence. Our natural human tendency is to be too confident in our knowledge, too quick to ignore contrary evidence. But these days it has become acceptable to luxuriate in those epistemic shortcomings, not to struggle against them. See, for example, the modern Republican Party.

Recently it’s been encouraging to see cases in which the evidence has won out. Many universities have acknowledged that the SAT is a better predictor of college success than high school grades and have reinstated it. Some corporations have come to understand that while diversity, equity and inclusion are essential goals, the current programs often empirically fail to serve those goals and need to be reformed. I’m hoping that Hilary Cass is modeling a kind of behavior that will be replicated across academia, in the other professions and across the body politic more generally and thus save us from spiraling into an epistemological doom loop.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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David Brooks has been a columnist with The Times since 2003. He is the author, most recently,  of “How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.” @ nytdavidbrooks

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Don’t Trust Our Test!

The College Board, creator of the SAT, is abandoning merit for racialism—and it doesn’t intend to let the Supreme Court stand in its way.

In January, the New York Times interviewed several high school seniors, asking them about the college-application process since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action last June. All but one of the students told the Times that under the advice of their high school counselors, they had, following the ruling, rewritten their college application essays to highlight their race or ethnicity.

The Times described one Hispanic student who said that she had originally written her essay about a death in her family, but “reshaped it around a Spanish book she read as a way to connect to her Dominican heritage” after the ruling. Another student had “wanted to leave his Indigenous background out of his essay,” but later “reworked it to focus on an heirloom necklace that reminded him of his home on the Navajo Reservation.” The most dramatic change came courtesy of an interviewee who identified as both black and Asian: “The first draft of Jyel Hollingsworth’s essay explored her love for chess. The final focused on the prejudice between her Korean and black American families and the financial hardships she overcame.”

Many high school counselors and college admissions officers believe that while the Court struck down Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s race-conscious admissions policies, it did not foreclose the consideration of race in college admissions altogether. They point specifically to the majority’s statement that “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” Advocates of colorblindness disagree with those officials’ interpretation, noting that the majority also warned that “universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”

Did the Supreme Court, in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ( SFFA ), remove race and ethnicity from college admissions entirely? Americans are unlikely to get a clear answer until the justices take up another case involving racial preferences. In the interim, proponents of colorblindness ought to ask something else: Who is encouraging underrepresented minorities—namely, black and Hispanic students—to frame their college-application essays around their racial and ethnic identities?

One culprit is the College Board, a nonprofit with more than 6,000 collegiate, high school, and other institutional members, best known for its Scholastic Aptitude Test and Advanced Placement exams. It was founded as the College Entrance Examination Board in 1900 to create and administer a single standardized test for college admissions in the U.S. The SAT’s goal was to provide students, regardless of race, religion, or socioeconomic status, with a chance to obtain higher education. Today, the College Board boasts on its website that it “pioneered programs like the SAT[] and AP[] to expand opportunities for students and help them develop the skills they need.”

For the past 20 years, though, the organization behind the SAT and AP has quietly advocated for racial preferences. Indeed, one week after the SFFA decision, the College Board, alongside top education consulting firm EducationCounsel, began advising high school counselors and college admissions officers on how to help black and Hispanic students frame their application essays around their race or ethnicity.

The College Board’s foray into racialism began in 2004. In response to 2003’s Grutter v. Bollinger , in which the Supreme Court held that colleges could consider race in admissions given institutions’ “compelling interest” in diversity, the organization co-founded the Access and Diversity Collaborative. The ADC, per the College Board, is a group of education professionals, professional organizations, and colleges and universities “dedicated to upholding the principles of equitable access to higher education and promoting diversity on campus.” Today, the ADC has 95 members, including Dartmouth, Columbia, Princeton, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the National Association of College Admission Counseling.

The ADC and College Board have supported racial preferences in three ways: they’ve filed amicus briefs in affirmative action cases, provided admissions officers with blueprints on how to increase the number of black and Hispanic students at their institutions, and, since SFFA , have held an information session on how such students can mention race in their college application essays. These combined efforts suggest that the groups believe applicants’ skin color is more valuable than their academic achievements.

First, consider the amicus brief that the College Board filed in 2016’s Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin , a case in which the Supreme Court evaluated the university’s affirmative action program. In its brief, the College Board argued that “the predictive value of the SAT for admissions purposes does not lead to the conclusion that SAT scores should be the sole (or even the principal) factor in judging a student’s ability to succeed at a particular institution.” Likewise, in its brief in SFFA , the organization wrote , “Any hint that standardized test scores on their own are the equivalent of ‘merit’ are unfounded,” and “Eliminating consideration of an applicant’s unique lived experience and perspective associated with their race and ethnicity would unfairly treat applicants for whom that is a critical part of their life story.”

Second, in 2019, the College Board published a “playbook” on how admissions officers can use apparently race-neutral strategies to boost the number of black and Hispanic students at their respective colleges and universities, such as minimizing the role of standardized tests in the application process. Given racial disparities in SAT performance, the document calls on institutions to acknowledge the exam’s “inherent limitations,” and counsels them to “never us[e] a standardized test as a sole criterion for high-stakes purposes like admission and aid, considering test scores in light of other contextual factors associated with an applicant’s background and experience.”

Finally, since June, the ADC and the College Board have advised high school counselors and college-admissions officers on how black and Hispanic students can frame their application essays around their racial and ethnic identities. For example, the College Board shared “preliminary guidance” from EducationCounsel on its website, stating: “The practice of considering an applicant’s background, experiences, and perspectives associated with race or ethnicity in admissions is permissible, and should shape the design of application essay questions.”

Their efforts to maintain race-conscious admissions after SFFA didn’t end there. The ADC has also held information sessions for high school counselors and college admissions officers. At a  November 2023 session , panelists urged counselors not to discourage minority students from talking about race-related experiences in their college essays. Darryl Tiggle, Director of College Counseling at the Friends School in Baltimore, Maryland (where tuition begins at $24,400 for prekindergarten and goes up to $38,000 for grades 9–12), seemed to suggest that students could wink and nod at their racial identity without explicitly mentioning it and used the following story as an example: 

“As melodic harmonies of gospel music and the squelching wet sponge against the countertops weave their way into my drowsy consciousness, I know it’s a signal from my mother that it’s time to embark on a sacred mission: cleaning my room.”

Based on that story, Tiggle continued, “We knew something about her identity right away but she’s not going to be talking about that journey, but she’s sort of giving you some context about her life.”

At the same information session, Stephanie DuPaul, the vice president of enrollment management at the University of Richmond, shared a telling hypothetical:

Two applicants apply. They’re both lacrosse players. . . . One of them writes his essay about being a lacrosse player and blowing his knee . . . That applicant happens to be African American. The second applicant also is [an] African American lacrosse player, and he writes about blowing his knee . . . but he also writes about . . . how it’s been an interesting experience for him to be a student of color in a majority-white sport, and how he’s occasionally experienced some hurdles others might not have.

Dupaul suggested that the second essay was superior to the first.

The College Board’s abandoning merit for racialism is all too familiar. The ACLU, the American Medical Association, and many other storied organizations have, in recent decades, also replaced their longstanding missions with progressive orthodoxy. That doesn’t make the College Board’s degradation any less unfortunate—especially for black and Hispanic students, who, like their white and Asian peers, deserve to be judged on their academic prowess, not their race or ethnicity.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in his dissent in Grutter , explained that one reason he rejects racial preferences is that he believes “blacks can achieve in every avenue of American life without the meddling of university administrators.” Clearly, the College Board and its affiliates do not share that belief.

Renu Mukherjee  is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute and a Ph.D. candidate at Boston College.

Photo: Ridofranz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, which colleges require the sat essay complete list.

SAT Logistics , SAT Essay

Planning to take the SAT? Before you sign up, you need to decide whether you're going to take the test with or without the optional Essay . How should you pick? Well, some colleges require that you apply with the SAT with Essay; others don't care whether you submit an SAT score with or without the Essay.

In this article, I'll provide you with a complete list of colleges that require or recommend taking the SAT with the Essay .

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

What Is the Optional SAT Essay?

The redesigned SAT debuted in March 2016 with a now-optional Essay section. For the Essay, you have 50 minutes to read a passage (similar to those you see on the Reading section ) and write an essay dissecting how the author made the argument . Did the author use evidence to support the main claim? Appeals to emotion? Specific word choice?

If you take the SAT without Essay, the test length is three hours . However, if you take the SAT with Essay, the optional Essay adds 50 minutes . It also costs more to take the SAT with Essay : $64.50 vs $49.50 without the Essay.

Don't automatically assume you must take the Essay. Whether it's important for you depends on which schools (and scholarships) you're applying to and what the rest of your application looks like. I'll go into more depth later about how to decide which version of the SAT to take.

List of Schools That Require the SAT With Essay

Below, I've compiled a list of colleges that require or recommend taking the SAT with Essay. All data comes from the College Board and some individual schools we consulted separately.

Note: This list is subject to change, so make sure to double-check with each school you're applying to.

Surprisingly (and in contrast to how it's been in the past), top schools mostly do not require the SAT essay . Currently, no Ivy League School requires students to take the SAT with Essay; the same is true for Stanford, Caltech, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, NYU, and UChicago. Many of these schools no longer even recommend students to take the SAT with Essay, which is a huge turnaround from just a couple of years ago.

Similarly, most liberal arts colleges do not require or recommend the SAT with Essay ; however, there are some exceptions, such as Soka University, which does require it.

In general, most state schools also do not require the SAT with Essay, though there's still a significant portion that do. There tends to be some weird variance even within states. For example, all University of California schools require the SAT with Essay, but most of the California State University schools do not.

Regardless of the types of schools you're applying to, don't assume that they all ask for the SAT with Essay . Check with every school to make sure you understand their testing requirements.

How to Decide Whether to Take the SAT Essay: 4 Questions

When making your decision about whether to take the SAT with Essay or the SAT without Essay, you'll need to consider the following four questions.

#1: Do Any Schools I Want to Apply to Require the SAT Essay?

If you're applying to any school that requires the Essay, then you must take the SAT with Essay . If you take the SAT without Essay, your application will be incomplete and you won't get admitted. By contrast, if you apply to any schools that don't require the SAT Essay, you can still take the SAT with Essay since these schools will accept both types of SAT scores (with or without Essay).

To reiterate, colleges that require the SAT Essay won't consider your score if you took the SAT without the Essay . The last thing you want to do is take the SAT without the Essay and get a good score—but then find out that one of your target schools requires you to take the SAT with Essay.

Remember that some colleges change their application policies from year to year, so make sure to double-check the testing policies of the schools you're applying to .

#2: Do Any Schools I Want to Apply to Recommend the SAT Essay?

If you're not applying to any schools that require the SAT Essay section but are applying to some that recommend it, then I'd still suggest taking it . This gives you another dimension schools can use to evaluate your application; however, there are some cases in which you shouldn't take the SAT with Essay.

If, for some reason, you do not qualify for SAT fee waivers and paying the extra cost to take the SAT with Essay would be a financial burden to you , then please don't feel as if you have to take it. In this case, it's fine to take the SAT without Essay instead.

In addition, if you really struggle to write essays under time constraints (due to anxiety), you might want to opt out of the Essay . That said, I only recommend this for students who normally have strong English and writing skills but struggle to write coherent essays when there's the added pressure of a time constraint.

For example, do you get As on essays you can work on at home but Cs on in-class essays because you get easily nervous? If that's the case, taking the SAT with Essay might not be a good idea.

#3: Am I Applying to Any Scholarships That Require an SAT With Essay Score?

Many scholarships (such as National Merit ) require you to submit SAT scores , and some specifically want SAT with Essay scores.

Therefore, be sure to check the requirements of each scholarship you're planning on applying for . While scholarships that don't require or recommend the SAT Essay should still accept your SAT with Essay score, scholarships that require the Essay section will not consider your SAT score if you took the no-essay version .

#4: Will the SAT Essay Enhance My Application in Other Ways?

Generally speaking, taking the SAT Essay if it's not required won't add a lot to your application. In truth, colleges that don't recommend or require the Essay really don't pay much attention to it.

Nevertheless, the Essay might be helpful for international students who want to prove they have strong English skills and who think they'll do especially well on it. If you fall into this category and feel confident you'll get a high score on it ( after doing practice essays , for example), definitely consider taking the SAT with Essay.

On the other hand, if you don't think you'll do well on the Essay, I recommend against taking it.

What's Next?

Need help preparing for the SAT? Read our ultimate study guide to get expert tips on prep and access to the best free online resources. If you're taking the test soon, learn how to cram for the SAT .

Want to learn more about the SAT Essay? Check out our step-by-step guide to writing a great essay .

Not sure where you want to go to college? Learn how to do college research right and figure out your SAT target score .

Ready to go beyond just reading about the SAT? Then you'll love the free five-day trial for our SAT Complete Prep program . Designed and written by PrepScholar SAT experts , our SAT program customizes to your skill level in over 40 subskills so that you can focus your studying on what will get you the biggest score gains.

Click on the button below to try it out!

As an SAT/ACT tutor, Dora has guided many students to test prep success. She loves watching students succeed and is committed to helping you get there. Dora received a full-tuition merit based scholarship to University of Southern California. She graduated magna cum laude and scored in the 99th percentile on the ACT. She is also passionate about acting, writing, and photography.

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A Nail-Biter Show for Late-Night Bingeing

Culture and entertainment musts from Walt Hunter

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Walt Hunter, a contributing editor who focuses on poetry and fiction. His past stories cover AI’s poor attempts at writing poetry , the intimate work of Louise Glück , and Jorie Graham’s musings on the demise of the world.

Walt recently became a father, and his 15-week-old son, Julian, has already exposed him to a new catalog of media, including the book Spring Is Here and “newborn eats dad’s nose” videos. When Walt isn’t watching kid-friendly YouTube videos, he enjoys reading Ali Smith’s clever and engrossing novels; binge-watching Blue Lights , a police show set in Belfast; and listening to “A Day in the Water,” by Christine and the Queens.

First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic :

• The accidental speaker
• Why your vet bill is so high
• The happiness trinity

The Culture Survey: Walt Hunter

The television show I’m most enjoying right now: My favorite show in a long, long time (well, at least since the previous season of Shetland ended) is Blue Lights (out now on BritBox). The show, which is set in Belfast, follows three rookie police officers and their more seasoned partners. It’s a nail-biter with romance and some comic relief. Perfect for binge-watching during the first few weeks of our son’s 3 a.m. meals.

An other online creator that I’m a fan of: For the past 100-plus days since Julian was born, I’ve been exploring the universe of “newborn eats dad’s nose” videos . In doing so, I have broken Instagram and now receive only recommendations of videos of people playing the piano with chickens on their heads or pushing seals around in carts. [ Related: The algorithm that makes preschoolers obsessed with YouTube ]

Something delightful introduced to me by a kid in my life: Julian recommends the book Spring Is Here for the ever-surprising calf cameo near the end.

Best novel I’ve recently read, and the best work of nonfiction: Ours , by Phillip B. Williams, a novel about a town of freed slaves in 19th-century Missouri. For a nonfiction option, Winters in the World , by Eleanor Parker, is an enchanting book about the seasons and weather of medieval England. Can I include some poetry? Right now I’m reading the work of Ama Codjoe, Divya Victor, and Jenny Xie while also exploring some of the 19-century poets published by The Atlantic —Celia Thaxter, for example, who wrote beautiful descriptive verse about the coasts of New England.

An author I will read anything by: Ali Smith. I started with her quartet of seasonal novels right after Autumn came out, and then went back to her earlier works. She has a reputation for clever wordplay, which is certainly a feature of her style. But she would be hard to categorize as a postmodernist; she’s really just an incredible novelist in the long line of Laurence Sterne, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison, with some Muriel Spark thrown in. Her characters struggle with the inhospitable conditions of the present by insisting on friendship and forgiveness. And there’s a beautiful touch of allegory in her work—characters can have names such as Lux and Art—which I take to be a reminder of the place of stories in our everyday lives. [ Related: Ali Smith spins modernity into myth in Winter . ]

The last museum or gallery show that I loved: This isn’t really a museum, but my partner, Lindsay, and I recently visited the Eden Theatre in La Ciotat, France, and watched a few Lumière films (the train pulling into La Ciotat Station is one of the first films, along with the lesser-known Repas de Bébé ). I like very small and focused museums and shows: Last summer, the Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, had an exhibition on Jean Genet’s suitcases and papers. Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers is one of my favorite novels, and it was neat to see some of his ephemeral scribbles. Another recent favorite was the Judson dance exhibition at the the Museum of Modern Art in New York City a few years back.

A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: I was living in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2017 and went to a random show in a record store around the corner from our house. A band called Friendship, from Philadelphia, played a quiet song called “ Skip to the Good Part .” It’s a barroom love song, and the singer wistfully mumbles encouraging lines such as “Our days are full of shit and so few.” The loud song is just a song I play loud, and that’s “ A Day in the Water ,” by Christine and the Queens. This song is for a cool morning in early summer, or a too-hot afternoon in late summer. It pulls you out of your reality and into a space that feels like pure music. Music for me is either ruefulness or transcendence.

A favorite story I’ve read in The Atlantic : Ann Hulbert’s story on the theme of marriage in George Eliot’s novels. It’s one of the best pieces of literary criticism I’ve read in many years. Ann argues that marriage opens rather than forecloses possibilities for experimentation in Eliot’s fiction. I love the idea that a novel might encourage us to rethink the coordinates of reality and to treat what seems permanent as susceptible to revision and change.

The last thing that made me cry: The film Petite Maman , by Céline Sciamma, a short fable in which a little girl meets her mother as a little girl. It’s a perfect work of art. In my favorite scene, the two kids share headphones and listen to a song called “The Music of the Future,” which then plays in the film as they take a canoe out to a mysterious pyramid. Almost everything I like about art is in this scene.

A poem, or line of poetry, that I return to: “ And then I start getting this feeling of exaltation .”

The Week Ahead

• The Idea of You , a romantic-comedy film starring Anne Hathaway as a single mother who starts a whirlwind relationship with a famous singer (premieres on Prime Video on Thursday)
• The Veil , a spy-thriller miniseries, starring Elisabeth Moss, about two women who are caught in a dangerous web of truth and lies (debuts Tuesday on Hulu)
• Mean Boys , a collection of essays by Geoffrey Mak about our societal thirst for novelty (out Tuesday)

Why a Dog’s Death Hits So Hard

By Tommy Tomlinson

My mom died six years ago, a few hours after I sat on the edge of her bed at her nursing home in Georgia and talked with her for the last time. My wife, Alix, and I were staying with my brother and his wife, who lived just down the road. My brother got the phone call not long after midnight. He woke me up, and we went down to the nursing home and walked the dim, quiet hallway to her room. She was in her bed, cold and still. I touched her face. But I didn’t cry. Two years earlier, the veterinarian had come to our house in Charlotte, North Carolina, to see our old dog, Fred … We had him for 14 and a half years, until he got a tumor on his liver. He was too old for surgery to make any sense. Alix and I held him in our laps as the vet gave him two shots, one to make him sleep, the other to make him still. All three of us cried as he eased away in our arms. By any measure, I loved my mom more than our dog … So why, in the moment of their passing, did I cry for him but not for her?

Read the full article.

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