Michigan Drops ACT; Switches to SAT

The Michigan Department of Education announced a change to its testing procedures.
Instead of all high school juniors in the state taking the ACT as a college admission exam, they will be administered the SAT instead.
The switch is scheduled to take effect in the spring of 2016, according to Southfield High Testing Coordinator Kara Shuell. The reason for the change is because the SAT is cheaper, Shuell said.
The SAT won a 3-year, $17.1 million contract to be Michigan’s college entrance exam, which is $15 million less than the ACT. Since 2007, the state has been required by law to give each junior a college entrance test for free. In past years, that test has been the ACT.
Going forward, it will be the redesigned SAT, Shuell said. On the new SAT, “There is no science section,” Shuell said. The science content is built into the math, reading and writing sections, she said.
For example, the reading passage could be about a science topic, or the chart in the math section could be about a scientific topic, she said.
“I think that it’ll be harder to prepare for,” says sophomore Rodney Harrington when asked how he felt about taking the SAT instead of the ACT next spring.
Although the difficulty level is opinion-based, there are some major differences between the two tests. While the ACT tests on subjects such as English, reading, science, math, and writing, the SAT focuses on writing and language, reading and math, and includes an essay, which is optional.
The scoring scale on the SAT is also vastly different than the ACT. While the ACT is based on a composite score range of one to 36, the SAT ranges from 400 to 1600, which breaks down to 800 possible for evidence-based reading and writing and 800 possible for the math section.
For the essay portion of the SAT, students can earn 2 to 8 points on each of three traits for the essay. The essay on the ACT was worth zero to 12 points.
There aren’t penalties for wrong answers or guessing on either test. In previous years, the SAT imposed a quarter point penalty for each wrong answer, discouraging guessing.
The math on the SAT is only 78 percent composed of multiple choice questions and tests on the areas of Algebra, problem solving and data analysis, as well as some advanced math.
The redesigned SAT with the essay is also 25 minutes longer than the ACT with the essay. The SAT takes 3 hours and 50 minutes.
“It’ll be an adjustment for me because I had already started preparing for the ACT,” says sophomore Joshua Flounory. “Now I have to prepare for a completely different test.”
Students who prefer the ACT can still take that test with their own money, Shuell said. But Southfield High will switch to the SAT along with the rest of the state, she said.