SAT to drop optional essay and subject tests

The College Board has announced that it would eliminate the optional essay and subject tests from the SAT, in an official statement, emphasising on the importance of innovating and adapting during the pandemic.

The Board said that it wanted to make the exam more flexible and reduce its demands on students. The move can be attributed directly to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the widespread cancellation of group testing sessions for SAT since March 2020, with many schools even going as far as to eliminate testing requirements for the current admission cycle, and many others permanently making the entrance exams optional for applicants. 

SAT is a three-hour MCQ (multiple choice questions)-based exam that evaluates students’ proficiency in english and mathematics. The optional essay requires another hour, and is scored separately, as are the specific subject tests. While the subject tests will be dropped immediately for US students, they will be phased out for international students by June 2021. Similarly, the optional essay will be eliminated from the SAT after the June testing session.