As if it isn’t already hard enough to even be impartial about the SAT, College Board, starting in spring 2016, will be transforming the exam that is predominantly responsible for accepting students into college. Now another thing has been added to a high schooler’ s to-do-list:facing the nation’ s most influential college en-trance exam in its new state.

There are many reasons that College Board gives in response to the undergoing changes of the SAT college exams. College Board President and CEO, David Coleman states the first reason; the exam is “far too disconnected from the work of our high schools.”The standardized test is apparently filled with tricks that students can use to attain higher scores than they deserve which results in students who are not college-ready.

Coleman also revealed that the second reason why the SAT is going through such heavy construction is due to its drop in popularity. SAT,which used to be commonly taken throughout the West Coast, is now a less popular college entrance exam than the ACT. In 2012, it was announced that for the first time in history, more students took the ACT than the SAT.

SAT writers explain that they are changing the test to make it easier for students. The vocabulary sentence completion portion will be more practical and will drop some of the obscure vocabulary traditionally used. The use of calculators will also be banned, as the math section on the exam will be narrowed down to fewer topics focusing on academic skills.

The essay will be optional and as opposed to the 1/4th point deduction for incorrect answers on the previous exam, there will be no penalization for skipped answers. And lastly, the SAT will return back to its old 1600-point scale, which was last altered in 2005.

Is anything going to significantly change through this transition or are future high school students just going through the process of buying the seemingly new iPhone 5C after using the iPhone 5? Critics seem to claim that the testis practically useless and that it doesn’t reflect college success. No test will even be close to perfect, but a better approach would be exams that allow students to utilize the skills and knowledge learned in school, much like the Advanced Placement exams.