HOW TO SURVIVE THE NEW SAT

In the end, despite all the worries, experts trot out old advice: while a weak performance can hurt your chances to land a spot at your top college, even a great SAT score can't guarantee it. Walls, whose office has been fielding lots of questions about the new SAT, urges calm. "There's a tendency to really make this sound like it's a monumental change in how admission decisions will be made," he says. "I think we'll still be offering admission to the same kinds of students." Yes, probably those with high test scores.

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