The changes to be made to the SAT will make the test less stressful for students in 2016.

An announcement released on March 5 by College Board outlined various changes that will be introduced to the exam. This year’s ninth graders will be the first to take the exam in their junior year of high school.

The most important change is that the traditional essay portion is now optional. Students will now be able to choose to write the essay or not. If they choose to, the essay prompt will rely heavily on building an argument using analytical evidence of the text.

This change influenced the overall grading scale of the exam to go from 2400 to 1600, with the essay points awarded separately from the 800 points given for the reading and math sections.

Iona College students are far past the time of worrying about the SAT, but they haven’t forgotten the stress of getting through it.

“I feel like changing the format of the exam will only make it look like students are doing better, when really they aren’t,” junior Meagan Walsh said. “It’s not really going to help students if we make it easier for them. But if a change needed to be made then I support looking for a solution.”

According to a USA Today article on the new format of the test, other changes include the math section being divided into three parts. These parts include ratios, percentages and proportions; linear equations; and more complex equations similar to calculus. The calculator will also only be available for use on certain parts of the math portion.

The reading section is also facing a change, specifically the vocabulary section. Obscure words will be exchanged for words that are more commonly used in school and work environments.

The “guessing penalty” will also be eliminated, where before a student was encouraged to skip a question instead of guessing it. Guessing was seen as a worse option than skipping a question because students did not lose points for skipping an answer but they did for a wrong answer.

Another incentive added by the College Board is the inclusion of four college application fee waivers for eligible students.

“I think giving the waivers for college applications is a really good motivation to take the test,” junior Brianna Byrd said. “I also think eliminating the guessing penalty and unnecessary words will make the test less stressful for students. These were things I hated about the exam.”

These changes are the first the SAT will experience since 2005. Evidence on if the new version benefits or hinders incoming college students won’t be seen until a few years after 2016, the first time this version of the exam will be taken.

According to its website, The College Board wants the information that students study for the test to last long after it’s over, instead of memorizing it for the one time that they will be taking it.

David Coleman, president of College Board, said that they wanted to make these changes to express that, “The road to success is not last-minute tricks or cramming but the challenging learning students do every day.”