Starting in the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016, College Board is putting into effect the new PSAT and SAT all across the country.

The changes made will affect the structure and content of the test in major ways that affect those who plan to take this new version of the test, which will be offered this spring. The changes made are to make the test easier on students and more focused on important and applicable knowledge according to the College Board website.

Changes vary between each test. The PSAT is increasing its test taking time by 35 minutes. 10 minutes have been added to the reading section, 5 to the writing and 20 to the math. The test will now take a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete, which some students said they are pleased with.

“Extra time is good because it will give more people a chance to finish the test without feeling pressured” said Vincent Lan, a freshman at Eleanor Roosevelt.

According to information on the College Board website, the PSAT also now has a new scoring system and will no longer be scored on a scale of 60 to 240. It will now be scored from 320 to 1520 overall, with a range of 160 to 760 for each section. While the scoring and timing for the test has changed, the tests total number of questions has only increased by 14, going from 125 to 139. The College Board has also decided to allow for sub scoring in this new version of the PSAT to allow for a better understanding of a student’s performance on the exam.

“I plan to take the new PSAT”, said sophomore Alison Graham “it’s good practice for the actual SAT.” The new PSAT will be available to take this October.

Unlike the PSAT, the new SAT is seeing a time reduction. This is due to the inclusion of a new type of optional essay on the test. The test with the essay will take 3 hours and 50 minutes to complete, while the test without the essay will take only 3 hours.

“I plan to take the SAT but not do the essay” said junior Grace Kendall. The new test will also feature “no vocab that you will never use again” according to the College Board website. The SAT will also undergo a scoring scale change. The new scale will be scored from 400 to 1600, with the reading/writing and math sections ranging from 200 to 800 points each. The new SAT will be first be available to take March 5th, 2016.

Mr. James Miller, the SAT prep teacher, explained that the new test will lead to drastic changes in the classes curriculum but that the studying strategies will remain the same. He said that the class will be receiving new books alongside with this curricular change next semester.

“The math section will be more difficult, while the reading section will become easier as there is no more sentence completion on the test” said Mr. Miller. Due to this change, he said expects the reading scores to improve while the math scores decline.

Both tests are also taking away their point deduction system. Now students will no longer be penalized for answering questions incorrectly on either exam.

Students like senior Kailey Held said they were glad to here this. “This is good because it will encourage students to answer more questions on the tests” said Held.

These changes to the exams take effect this fall and next spring. Students can sign up so both the PSAT and SAT on the college board website, Collegeboard.org under PSAT and SAT.