[AZLiberty]

This has nothing to do with what the student wants, or what business wants. It's the colleges who determine whether the SAT test is a requirement, hence they are ETS's real customer. It's the colleges who have decided they want a different measurement tool. Instead of "smart" students, they now want "prepared" students.

Based on the new SAT, colleges will select from the subset of "smart" students who made some effort, the subset of average-IQ students who worked hard, and the subset of below-average-IQ students who really applied themselves.

This doesn't seem all bad, but why the colleges did this is beyond me. Their brochures make it seem that college is more about diversity than about getting an education. Maybe colleges want to get out of the business of remedial education.

[Grover_Cleveland]

Instead of "smart" students, they now want "prepared" students.

I used to tutor high-school students for SAT Math. We would boost their scores by an average of 100 points. Unfortunately, there is no known test that measures pure "smartness" to the exclusion of preparation.