SAT is changing and effort is being made to cut out “test prep services” and let the regular schooling count more. SAT-Khan Academy tie-up could hopefully give similar ideas to IITs / IIMs and put an end to Kota type coaching factories in India that have stolen the school experiences from the students…

The SAT college exam will undergo sweeping changes on what’s tested, how it’s scored and how students can prepare, College Board President and CEO David Coleman has just announced.

CNN reports…

Standardized tests have become “far too disconnected from the work of our high schools,” Coleman said at an event in Austin, Texas. They’re too stressful for students, too filled with mystery and “tricks” to raise scores and aren’t necessarily creating more college-ready students, he said.

The SAT to be released in spring 2016 is designed to change that, he said.

The test will include three sections — evidence-based reading and writing, math and an optional essay — each retooled to stop students from simply filling a bubble on the test sheet.

“No longer will it be good enough to focus on tricks and trying to eliminate answer choices,” Coleman said. “We are not interested in students just picking an answer, but justifying their answers.”

You can read all about the changes to SAT on this linked article.

However what I found quite novel was related to the attempt being made to cut out the coaching factories as is indicated on this clip from the presentation.

Further the article details…

To prepare students for the test, the College Board will partner for the first time with Khan Academy to provide free test preparation materials, starting in spring 2015.

Partnering with the free, online resource is intended to make the SAT more transparent, and cut back on perceptions of inequality around expensive test preparation services, Coleman explained Wednesday.

“If there are no more secrets,” Coleman said, “it’s very hard to pay for them.”

Students’ classrooms are meant to be the best preparation for the redesigned SAT. The College Board’s Khan Academy tools will supplement that learning.

“It’s going to meet students where they are,” said Salman Khan, the Khan Academy creator. “We’ll take you as far back as you need to go or as far forward as you need to go.”

Khan emphasized that he is planning to challenge the existing test prep industry by offering high quality, easily accessible tools.

“This isn’t just a ‘Hey, since it’s free, it’s better than nothing,” he said. “Our intention in this partnership is this will be the best thing out there, and it happens to be free.”