Why more students are taking the SAT, even as UC and CSU campuses remain test-free

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Set us as preferred California high school students are increasingly taking the SAT, as more universities are again requiring standardized tests for admission and as the University of California is debating whether to reinstate its test requirement amid concerns over academic preparedness.In all, 138,763 California class of 2026 students took the SAT, up 12.6% from the prior year — and the largest gain in three years — according to data released Tuesday from the College Board, the nonprofit organization that develops and proctors the SAT.

Though the UC and California State University systems do not use the SAT or other standardized tests in admissions decisions, an increasing number of universities have reinstated testing requirements after many suspended them during the height of the pandemic, including the University of Texas, all Ivy League schools, Stanford and Caltech.Priscilla Rodriguez, the College Board’s senior vice president of College Readiness Assessments, said that shift probably contributed to the increase in California test takers.“They want to have a score to keep all these options open,” Rodriguez said, adding that the College Board has also done more to make the test more readily available.

California Six years after dropping the SAT and ACT, the University of California is weighing a return to standardized testing following intense pressure from faculty who say incoming students lack basic math and reasoning skills.The UC and CSU systems first eliminated testing requirements in 2020 amid the pandemic and later permanently did away with the tests over concerns that results correlated more with race and family wealth than a student’s ability to succeed.Though the state’s public universities still don’t use scores from the SAT and the similar ACT exam in admissions, they do use the exams as ...