Beginning March 3, all students planning to take the SAT will take a whole new version with a different scoring system within each category as well as a new essay format.

The old test scaled on a 2400 scale, while the new test scores on a lesser 1800 scale.

Some students who took the old SAT, the last of which was held on January 23, really prepared for the test, using as many sources as possible.

“I think it did help me because getting lessons on what I need to know and getting practice questions help me get more experience and allowed me to see what I can improve on,” junior Alison Segura said.

Others took a much simpler approach to preparing for the old SAT test.

“I just used the college board study book the first time, which wasn’t as helpful,” senior Mary Geisinger said. “The book tells you everything that’s on it but it doesn’t matter. Mrs. Hebert’s class better prepared me than that book.”

But, no one really knows what is in store for this new test.

“My English teacher was giving us vocab quizzes and she stopped because they were changing and she knew this generation SAT wasn’t the same as the old,” Segura said.

English teacher Judd Pfeiffer teaches an SAT prep class on campus.

“We break down the different aspects of the English portion of the test,” Pfeiffer said. “The essay is now optional, so we now have an optional essay class where students will learn different tips about the complicated new essay prompts that they will have.”

With differences everywhere from the questions to the format to the scoring system, students are noticing the essay portion the most.

“I feel like [the essay being optional] is a good thing because the student is allowed to choose and see it which will benefit them,” Segura said. “Like if writing is one of their strong subjects, then they can do the essay and they can benefit from that.”

Pfeiffer is unsure of what specifically to teach the students to prepare them for the new test.

“We don’t know a lot yet because no one has taken it,” Pfeiffer said. “But I think it’s going to be a better test, and by that I think it will be more fair and it will test students abilities a little bit more than the previous SAT which seemed to test more their ability to do well on one particular test.”

Pfeiffer has been preparing students for the old SAT for several years.

“I wouldn’t think that the new SAT is any worse than the old SAT,” Pfeiffer said.