Test Optional: What Does It Mean?
What Does Test Optional Mean In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of U.S. colleges quickly shifted to test-optional admissions to ensure access and flexibility for students facing canceled or limited SAT and ACT dates. Now, in 2025, the landscape continues to evolve. While many institutions have made test-optional policies permanent, others, including highly […]
Test Optional and Test Blind for Admission Cycles
Many Universities in the US are remaining Test-Optional for the upcoming application season (2023-24). Recently, Columbia University was the first Ivy League to no longer require SAT/ACT testing as of 2023-24 and will be test-optional permanently.
What are AP Tests and should I take them?
Here at Ivy Central, we get many questions about AP Tests, are they needed or useful in the US college application process? How many should you do? Are some subjects more valuable than others? This article will help you answer these and other questions you may have about AP Tests.
All Change for the SAT… But Not Yet.
The SAT, together with its near relation, the ACT, has been a feature of college applications for many years. As a result of the COVID pandemic most US colleges have moved to a ‘Test Optional’ application format, meaning that applicants can choose whether to submit an SAT or ACT score without it affecting their chances of acceptance. This test optional format remains in place with most colleges for the 2022/23 round of applications and some colleges, including some of the most prestigious, have already announced that this will be the case for the following two application rounds.
All of this has led to questions being asked about the future of standardised tests and if they are needed. The University of California colleges announced last year that they will no longer consider SAT or ACT scores when making application decisions and an increasing number of colleges have followed a similar route.
In an attempt to reinvigorate the SAT, the College Board, which owns the SAT, announced at the end of January that, following a trial in November 2021, they are going to make significant changes to the SAT and the way it is administered.
The End of SAT Subject Tests and Essay.
Over the last few days, the College Board has announced that they are scrapping the optional SAT subject tests and essay, describing the move as an effort to ‘reduce and simplify demands on students.’ In this blog article, we will consider what is behind this sudden change and what the implications are for students.