Earlier this month the College Board, creator of the SAT, announced changes to its infamous test that will alter the landscape of college admissions starting in 2016.

The College Board believes that the proposed changes to the redesigned SAT will result in a more accurate assessment of college readiness and what students have learned in high school classrooms. 

But is the newly redesigned test going to fix the two biggest problems many people had with the old SAT? Will the test level the playing field for low-income students who many believe are at a disadvantage when taking the test compared to their more affluent counterparts who are receiving expensive test prep?  And is the test going to better predict college readiness? 

The new changes are not an improvement over the current test, but a marketing difference.  To many people, these changes will remind them of the current ACT, which had more test takers than the SAT for the first time in 2012, but before answering either question, it is important to understand the changes that were made to the test. 

Gone is the 2400-point scale, instead opting for two mandatory sections each with a maximum score of 800. The Critical Reading and Writing Sections have now merged into the awkwardly named “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing.” The Math section has also changed, opting for three math areas to be the focus: “Problem Solving and Data Analysis,” “the Heart of Algebra” and “Passport to Advanced Math.”

Arcane vocabulary words are also gone.  The SAT has instead opted for more “relevant” and “common” vocabulary words that are used in the classroom and workplace. But don’t worry, if vocabulary words are not your strong point, there is no longer a penalty for

incorrect answers. 

For many, the problem with the SAT was the disproportionate advantage for more affluent students. To help combat this, the College Board, in partnership with Khan Academy, will offer free online practice problems and instructional videos, as well as fee waivers for low-income students to apply to four colleges for free.

“It is time for the College Board to say in a clearer voice that the culture and practice of costly test preparation that has arisen around admissions exams drives the perception of inequality and injustice in our country,” said the president of the College Board, David Coleman, when he announced these changes.

This still won’t stop test prep companies like Kaplan Test Prep from offering services and private tutoring for the new SAT-specific strategies. Like the students, the test prep companies will also adapt to the changes and the result will not measure a student’s college preparedness, but instead his or her SAT preparedness.

But even with these changes and newly-offered free prep services, this still does not change the fact that the SAT is not the best indicator of college readiness.

Recently published research by a former Bates College admissions director shows that a better indicator of college readiness already exists – high school grades. 

“Universities using test-optional policies can increase enrollment of first generation and other low-income students, while maintaining the academic quality of entering classes,” according to the report.

The report also found that there are no significant differences in either cumulative GPA or graduation rates between submitters and non-submitters of the SAT, with non-submitters making up 30 percent of the students at the institutions surveyed.  Of the 123,000 students included in the report, the differences between submitters and non-submitters came down to less than one-tenth of a GPA point.

The study also revealed that high grades in high school generally lead to higher GPAs in college, despite low-to-modest standardized testing. Conversely, lower high school GPAs and relatively high standardized testing earned lower college GPAs. I guess hard work really does pay off.

I’m sure Creighton admissions counselors already have a rough go of it parsing out thousands of high-quality applicants each year selecting who will be successful here. But maybe it is time to not put as much weight on standardized tests, because what exactly are they measuring and what do they really reveal about applicants?