Students say SAT a struggle

Michael Miller

Newport-Mesa juniors and seniors on Monday faced one of the most

stressful times in any high school student’s career -- announcement

of SAT results.

But their day was unique for more than one reason. The students

who rose from bed -- some as early as 5 a.m. -- to check their scores

online were among the first to take the new SAT, which debuted this

spring.

On March 12, prospective college students nationwide took the

revamped version of the standardized test, which eliminates the

verbal analogies and quantitative comparisons from the original test

and adds an hour-long writing portion. Before, a perfect score on the

SAT was 1600. In its new form, with more than an hour of added

testing time, the top mark is 2400.

With 1600 no longer the magic number, many students didn’t know

what to expect on Monday. Some were disappointed by what they

estimated as low marks, while others, despite little in the way of a

precedent, found themselves pleasantly surprised.

“As much as I was annoyed by it, I’m happy with the way it came

out,” said Harrison Brown, 16, a junior at Newport Harbor High

School. Brown, who got a 2060 on the test, hadn’t yet decided whether

to retake it later this year.

Many of Brown’s classmates, along with their peers at other

schools, complained about the extreme length of the test. The SAT, in

its current incarnation, has an official running time of three hours,

45 minutes.

“I was really well prepared because of the Princeton Review

[practice] test, but like any four-hour test, it was long and

grueling,” said Audrey Nisbet, 16, a junior at Newport Harbor. “You

lose your focus a little bit when you sit there for four hours,

answering multiple choice questions.”

Nisbet, who scored a 1970 on the test, said she planned to take it

again and was shooting for a mark “anywhere in the 2000s.”

Last year, 55% of seniors in Newport-Mesa took the SAT. The

average Newport-Mesa score out of 1600 was 1080, higher than the

statewide average of 1020 and the national average of 1026. Peggy

Anatol, director of K-12 assessment for Newport-Mesa, said her office

would receive a complete list of district SAT scores in late summer

or fall.

The College Board, which controls the SAT, offered the old version

in October, November, December and January, with the new version

beginning in March. Students may take the new test in May and June.

A number of Newport-Mesa students had spent years practicing for

the old SAT, only to find the test reconfigured in 2005. Jennifer

Holt, 17, a junior at Costa Mesa High School, said she had taken

practice SATs her first three years of high school and ended up

studying for the current exam with a guide “like a phone book.” She

was disappointed by her score of 1570, but said she would retake the

test in June.

Sarah Muradian, 17, a junior at Estancia High, was happy with her

2170 score but questioned the effectiveness of the test itself.

“When a test is that long, I don’t know if it tests your ability

that well because you’re so drained,” Muradian said. “By the end, I

didn’t really care that much. I just wanted to go eat.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.