THE COMPASS GUIDE TO COLLEGE

2023

2024

EDITION

THE COMPASS GUIDE TO

COLLEGE

ADMISSION

TESTING



Table of Contents

F2o0r 2t5he&CBlaesysonodf !

For updates, please visit guide. The electronic versions of the Compass Guide may be redistributed for non-commercial use so long as no changes are made to the document. Please contact guide@ for additional licensing or distribution options. Copyright ? 2023 by Compass Education Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Volume 20, Issue number 1, updated 6/13/2023

OWNERSHIP OF TRADEMARKS *For all references herein, PSAT, SAT, and AP are trademarks owned by the College Board, ACT, PreACT, and Aspire are trademarks owned by American College Testing, and NMSC, National Merit, Merit Scholarship, and Merit Scholar are federally registered service marks of National Merit Scholarship Corporation, none of which were involved in the production of, nor do they endorse, these materials.

Introduction

3

College Admission and Testing

4?5

Popular Testing Timelines

6?9

A New Era in Testing

10?12

The Competitive Landscape

13?21

Understanding and Comparing Scores

22?31

SAT & ACT Percentiles

32?33

The New Digital SAT

34?39

Digital SAT & ACT Content and Timing

40?53

Reading

42?43

SAT Writing and ACT English

44?47

Math

48?51

Science

52?53

PreACT, PSAT, and National Merit

54?58

National Merit Scholarship Program

57?58

Test Scores and Scholarships

59

AP Exams

60?65

Securing Testing Accommodations

66?67

Test Dates and Score Requests

68?71

Score Choice and Superscoring

72?73

Early Action and Early Decision

74?77

Additional Reading and Resources

78?79

The Compass Approach

80?104

Our Reach

82?83

About Our Tutoring Programs

84?89

Practice Tests

90?91

The Online Testing Center 92

My Compass Account

93

Compass Score Reports

94?95

Services for Schools and Counselors

96?99

The Compass Team

100?103

Compass Commitments to Diversity,

Equity, and Inclusion

104?105

Preparing for Test Day

106

COMPASS GUIDE | INTRODUCTION

Introduction

For 20 years, The Compass Guide to College Admission Testing has been the comprehensive resource for counselors and families interested in understanding the details of college admission testing. A valuable resource in times of stability, the Guide is extraordinarily useful in times of change. This year marks the most significant change to the SAT in its nearly 100-year history: the test is going entirely digital. In this edition of the Guide, all references to the SAT are to the digital SAT unless otherwise noted.

In the U.S., the digital SAT rollout begins with the digital PSAT in October 2023, followed by the first national digital SAT test date on March 9, 2024. Unless you are a 12th grader finishing testing in the fall, you are going to be affected by these changes. What are the differences between the paper and digital SAT? See pages 34 to 39 for a breakdown of the new test's structure and format. The scoring is one thing that is not changing, and College Board will not be updating the concordance between the SAT and ACT. According to College Board, a student who receives a 1400 on a legacy paper SAT would expect to receive the same score on the digital SAT.

Compass is well prepared for this change. In fact, in the 2022?2023 school year, thousands of students at our partner schools took Compass's digital PSAT and received score reports that allowed them to dig deeply into the data surrounding their experience.

The choice for students continues to be whether to prepare for the ACT or SAT. Compass strongly recommends a practice test of each before settling on a preparation plan, as the two tests have diverged. See pages 40 to 53 for descriptions of the differences between tests. The digital SAT is shorter and adaptive. Many schools will elect to offer a school day testing administration of the digital test, which may impact test preparation decisions.

Once a family has decided on which test to take, they can then decide whether private tutoring or a small group class is the best method of preparation. Private tutoring with Compass is fully customizable to meet the student's strengths, weaknesses, and schedule; Compass classes offer comprehensive preparation in a small group setting.

As students focus on demonstrating the academic rigor of their college preparation, AP scores grow in importance for those students who attend schools with AP programs. A score of 4 or 5 helps substantiate that a student is well prepared for the challenges of college work. See pages 60?65 for more information on the growing significance of APs, their role in college admissions, and how the tests' scoring mechanics can help students be strategic about preparation.

ABOUT COMPASS EDUCATION GROUP

Compass is one of the world's leading providers of comprehensive, one-on-one tutoring and small group instruction for high school students aspiring to attend competitive colleges. We provide individualized test preparation and academic subject support anywhere in the world via live online tutoring and classes. In-home tutoring and in-person classes are also available in select cities.

We have earned an unmatched level of trust from college counselors and administrators at thousands of high schools.

Beyond preparation for students, we offer a range of resources to assist schools in their efforts to support students' transitions to higher education. Compass also has a proud tradition of partnering with schools and nonprofit organizations to help more students receive high-quality preparation regardless of financial means.

Compass leaders serve as keynote speakers at hundreds of high schools, colleges, and conferences annually. We partner with schools to provide advising seminars for parents, diagnostic assessments and analyses for students, and professional development for faculty and counselors. Our reputation in the education community dating back to 1989 is due to the outstanding successes our students achieve, our relentless commitment to research and to sharing accurate information about tests, and the high ethical standards evident in our relationships with our constituents.

3

COMPASS GUIDE | COLLEGE ADMISSION AND TESTING

College Admission and Testing

There are approximately 2,300 accredited, non-profit, four-year colleges and universities in the United States. Their admission protocols have never been uniform, and even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, applicants faced an increasingly complex range of requirements and expectations. In the wake of the pandemic and ongoing discussions about fairness and diversity in the college admissions process, the value of testing is at an important inflection point.

The trend at selective colleges is toward more flexible testing requirements even as the competition to gain admission to these schools continues to intensify. The ACT and SAT are now optional at a majority of US colleges and will remain so. SAT Subject Tests and the SAT Essay have been discontinued by College Board; ACT inexplicably refuses to phase out the essay component of their exam despite its irrelevance in admissions. Several dozen schools have gone beyond test optional to a test free policy, meaning test scores are not considered at all even if submitted. The chart below reflects survey results from prior to 2020; a post-pandemic survey is not available but would surely show diminished relevance of standardized testing, in policy if not in practice.

ADMISSION FACTORS

PERCENTAGE OF COLLEGES REPORTING "CONSIDERABLE OR MODERATE IMPORTANCE"

GRADES IN ALL COURSES GRADES IN COLLEGE PREP COURSES

STRENGTH OF CURRICULUM ADMISSION TEST SCORES

COUNSELOR RECOMMENDATION ESSAY OR WRITING SAMPLE

TEACHER RECOMMENDATION EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES STUDENT'S DEMONSTRATED INTEREST

CLASS RANK WORK

AP/IB SCORES INTERVIEW PORTFOLIO

STATE GRADUATION EXAM SCORES SAT SUBJECT TEST SCORES

% 8%

% % 8%

% 8% %

6% 6% 54% 49%

% % 8% 8%

SOURCE: NACAC STATE OF COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

GPA and course rigor continue to be the most important factors in a student's application despite the pandemic's impact on school attendance and grading policies through the 2020?2021 school year. Colleges have responded by becoming more flexible and creative in how they evaluate applications from students who had to cope with a global health crisis.

See pages 10?12 for more discussion of the complex effects of testing policy changes on student behavior and predictability of admission outcomes.

STANDARDIZED TESTING OPTIONS

ACT offers the eponymous ACT and PreACT, and the College Board oversees the PSAT, SAT, and AP exams. A generation ago, most high school students took the SAT or ACT with little awareness of the other test, despite the fact that colleges have long accepted the SAT and ACT interchangeably. Today's myriad testing related options allow students greater choice but also require highly contextual considerations to make optimal decisions regarding testing.

4

COMPASS GUIDE | COLLEGE ADMISSION AND TESTING

GPA AND STANDARDIZED TESTS

Performance in a rigorous high school curriculum is the best predictor of success in college and is the most heavily weighted factor at most colleges. However, the GPA is imperfect as a sole academic criterion for admission for two reasons. First, course difficulty and grading policies vary from teacher to teacher, school to school, and state to state. Second, grade inflation has compressed the GPA scale. As more students earn As, it becomes harder to distinguish applicants from one another.

Both College Board and ACT emphasize that the proper role of standardized tests is to complement the use of GPA and other factors in the admission process. The intent is to mitigate the two primary limitations of grades. Standardized tests provide a common baseline for all students and are designed to provide a useful and consistent distribution of scores.

The issue of grade inflation is demonstrated in the graph on the right. While the first six years showed a slow creep upward of the percentage of A-average students, the last six years have seen that percentage dramatically increase. On the other hand, the ACT distribution below shows how scores are predictably distributed-- particularly above the mean.

PERCENTAGE OF ACT TEST TAKERS WITH AN AVERAGE OF A, B, OR C FROM 2010 TO 2021

6

6.8

6.

.6

.

6.

. .6

A

.

.8

.

.8

.

8.

6.

B

C

.

.

.

.

.6

8.

8.

6

8

SOURCE: ACT, GRADE INFLATION CONTINUES TO GROW IN THE PAST DECADE

ACT COMPOSITE SCORE DISTRIBUTION -- CLASS OF 2022

% % % % % % %

SOURCE: ACT PROFILE REPORT--NATIONAL, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2022

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download