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The SAT has changed since it debuted 100 years ago – but questions remain about its relevance
The SAT has changed since it debuted 100 years ago – but questions remain about its relevance. Originally published by The Conversation.
By Beth Kania-Gosche, Professor of Education, Missouri University of Science and Technology · 2026-09-22T13:06:14.626Z
More than 2 million students took the SAT exam in 2025. zimmytws/iStock/Getty Images Plus In June 1926, the SAT exam was first administered to 8,000 high school students who hoped to attend elite universities https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/where/timeline.html . The SAT has undergone many changes since its original form 100 years ago https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED562579.pdf , ranging from how the test is administrated to what kinds of subject matter it covers. One particularly big shift came around 2000, when about 280 colleges and universities allowed applicants to apply https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/04/01/more colleges go test optional admissions without submitting scores for the SAT or the ACT, another common standardized test. Today, approximately 86% of colleges https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional age/2026/08/28/90 colleges dont require test scores 2026 27 and universities are test optional. Whether the SAT accurately measures students’ academic strengths continues to be debated https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer sheet/wp/2014/04/22/what does the sat measure aptitude achievement anything/ . Some research shows that the test offers a strong indication of students’ skills, knowledge and potential for college success https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/sat student success stem.pdf . Other research points to fundamental flaws of SAT and ACT testing, including that students from higher income families tend to have higher SAT scores https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/rich students get better sat scores heres why.html . The test, after all, costs money to take, and wealthier families can afford tutors and prep classes. Wealthier students also typically attend well funded public or private high schools. As a professor of education https://sites.mst.edu/bethkaniagosche/ , I think that understanding the history of the SAT is helpful to understanding the current debate surrounding it.
The COVID 19 pandemic offered an experiment for universities that hadn’t already made the SAT optional for applicants. Alex Brandon/Associated Press A new kind of exam The SAT was developed in the 1920s https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/where/timeline.html by the College Board, an organization founded in 1900 by the presidents of 12 leading universities to standardize the college admissions process. At the time, each university had its own variation of entrance exam. These tests were in essay format and written and graded by professors. In 1926, a uniform SAT exam was used for the first time https://www.pewresearch.org/short reads/2026/06/11/for the 100th anniversary of the sat a look at standardized test scores over time/?utm source=chatgpt.com . It had 315 questions, with a time limit of 97 minutes. This gave test takers about 18 seconds to answer each question – though students were not expected to answer every single question. The original exam included nine sections https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED562571.pdf , some similar to those that students would see today, like paragraph reading and arithmetic. But other sections, like artificial language https://cognitivemetrics.com/test/1926 SAT , are no longer in use. Artificial language meant writing coded sentences using a set of complicated rules such as “ plurals are formed by adding o https://cognitivemetrics.com/test/1926 SAT/AL .” In 1928 and 1929, as well as from 1936 1941, the SAT had no math questions. In 1930 1935, the math questions were all free response, rather than multiple choice https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED562579.pdf , as is standard today. At the time, the SAT was revolutionary because it was not an essay exam with subjects and questions chosen by one university’s professors. Multiple choice or fill in the blank exam questions could be quickly and objectively scored. High school students no longer had to travel to a college campus to take an entrance exam. The SAT allowed thousands of students to take the same exam closer to home, removing the barrier of travel to campus. The scores were viewed by multiple colleges, rather than just the one. This meant the SAT created both more competition and access to college. But not all colleges or even high school teachers embraced the idea, in part because of concerns about a test dictating high school curricula. The SAT was still used relatively rarely around this time, with about 10,000 students sitting for the exam https://freshairarchive.org/segments/history standardized test each year in the late 1930s and early 1940s https://www.edweek.org/teaching learning/made to measure/1999/06 . In 1947, Educational Testing Services, a private nonprofit organization devoted to testing and educational research https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/Nonprofit.pdf , was created to administer the SAT and develop other exams. This organization had an incentive to sell the SAT to institutions, resulting in more widespread use. The SAT gains traction Starting after World War II, universities experienced a sharp increase in college applicants who benefited from the GI Bill https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/Nonprofit.pdf . This government program offered educational https://www.va.gov/education/about gi bill benefits/ and financial assistance to military veterans. Universities began to strengthen their admissions criteria https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/document deep dive what was on the first sat 21720496/?itm source=related content&itm medium=parsely api and rely more on the SAT to weed out some applicants. The University of California system became the first and largest public system to require the SAT https://www.highereddive.com/news/why some colleges arent reviewing sat and act scores/580558/ in 1960. This was also the year that the ACT was created https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/100 years ago students across the us took the first sat today relatively few colleges require the test where is it headed 180988997/ . Over the next few decades, more schools began requiring the SAT as part of the standard admissions process. In an effort to prevent students from relying too much on private tutors, the test creators also expanded the length of the exam and revised the questions https://www.businessinsider.com/how the sat has changed over the past 90 years 2019 8 1960s 1970s the rise of the test prep industry and the controversy surrounding coaching 3 . In 1994, another change occurred when students used physical calculators https://www.pewresearch.org/short reads/2026/06/11/for the 100th anniversary of the sat a look at standardized test scores over time/ on the SAT for the first time. Not just a test Taking the SAT or the ACT is a high stakes moment for students. Not only is their college admission potentially riding on the score, but a small score increase of 50 100 points could also mean thousands of dollars in scholarships. The achievement gap between different racial groups on SAT scores has been both well documented https://www.brookings.edu/articles/sat math scores mirror and maintain racial inequity/ and debated for decades. Asian students have the highest average score for any ethnic group, followed by white students https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171 . Wealthier students are 13 times more likely https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/07/a century of the sat/ than low income students to score a 1300 or higher on the SAT, out of a maximum 1,600 points. Some research shows a link between family income and students’ test scores https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the complex ramifications of students for fair admissions v harvard/ and college success, as defined as GPA, retention and graduation. Other research indicates that a student’s high school GPA https://www.nber.org/papers/w34975 is a better predictor of college success than SAT scores. Colleges and universities reconsider the SAT Because of concerns about the usefulness of the SAT in college admissions, around 2000 about 280 colleges and universities moved to make the SAT an optional part of the admissions process https://fairtest.org/test optional/ . The start of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 served as a natural experiment for test optional admissions. Students simply could not sit to take the SAT https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/college board cancels may sat response coronavirus due to virus transmission concerns, so almost no universities required either the SAT or ACT for admission in 2020 or 2021. Six years later, over 2,000 colleges and universities are still https://fairtest.org/test optional list/ test optional – although the categorization may be deceiving https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/01/22/what does test optional really mean opinion , as some scholarships may depend on SAT scores. More than 2 million students, or approximately 47% of graduating high school https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/01/18/standardized test popularity/ students, took the SAT in 2025 https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/sat participation class 2025 surpasses 2 million test takers first time 2020 – marking the highest number since before the pandemic. And 36%, or 1.38 million, took the ACT that year.
The achievement gap between different racial groups on standardized test scores has been well documented and debated for decades. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images A high school ritual The SAT continues to be modified. In 2024, it was shortened from three hours to two hours and 15 minutes https://allaccess.collegeboard.org/sat still measures what matters . The shortened time is closer to the original exam from 100 years ago, which lasted 97 minutes. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/07/a century of the sat/ . Also in 2024, the SAT went fully digital https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/digital sat launches across country completing transition digital and providing simpler testing . The exam isn’t a perfect reflection of students’ potential and skills, but it continues to be the rite of passage that most high school students undertake as they look ahead to college.
Beth Kania Gosche has previously received funding from the National Science Foundation. She is the president of the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.