HOW TO SURVIVE THE NEW SAT

Will the changes affect perceptions about private tutoring? The College Board and test-prep companies have endlessly debated the extent to which coaching helps. Coletti says that ditching analogies--which aren't part of regular high-school English--should lessen any advantage. Andy Lutz, vice president for program development at Princeton Review, disagrees. He thinks the tricks for succeeding on multiple-choice questions (like avoiding answers that are meant to look right but aren't) won't change. "The new test," he says, "is going to be just as coachable."

Beyond the specifics of the new test is a pivotal timing choice for high-school juniors. Because many colleges will accept the old SAT, juniors must decide whether to take it before January, when it disappears. Then the old top score of 1600 becomes merely mediocre; 2400 (with the writing section) will be the benchmark of perfection. Current seniors have no choice. Their applications will be in by the time the new test debuts. The class of '06 will be the ones who have to game strategy. Kaplan, for example, encourages juniors to take both tests, says Jennifer Karan, director of SAT and ACT programs. "It's an incredible opportunity to play to your strength."

Karan thinks the old test is easier. It has no essay, no grammar questions and fewer reading passages. And it's shorter. But Kaplan's rivals at the Princeton Review give the opposite advice. They think students will be more ready at the end of their junior year than at the beginning. "Students are overtested," Lutz says, noting that some who take the old SAT would take the SAT II writing test anyway. (The 21 SAT IIs cover specific subjects, like American history and Spanish. Those tests aren't changing.) "I can't look myself in the mirror and advise someone to take three redundant tests."

Others say the decision depends on the student. David Benjamin Gruenbaum, who runs a test-prep company in southern California, points out that in the old test math and verbal skills each counts for half your total score. But math is just one third of the overall score in the new test. If you're a math guy, Gruenbaum says, take the old test; if you're a word guy, take the new one.

The SAT doesn't determine a student's entire future. It's how colleges use the SAT that matters. And they're not sure yet. Dartmouth is encouraging all 2006 applicants to take the new test, in order to have a consistent measuring stick. But that doesn't mean the school knows how to assess the new numbers, says assistant admissions director Lauren Foley. "It's going to be an extensive discussion before we start reading."

The most significant impact on admissions may come from the essay. Colleges will be able to read a student's actual essay, instead of just obtaining the score it yielded. That will provide a check against a widespread suspicion that the perfectly polished prose accompanying applications isn't always a student's own. Dan Walls, admissions dean at Emory, says his staff may read essays when a student's English grades and test scores don't match.