Would Shakespeare Get Into Swarthmore?

Every year more than a million college-bound high school students spend a Saturday morning taking the SAT. In 2001 the University of California system, led by Richard Atkinson, then its president, threatened to change that by replacing the SAT with a test that measured a student's mastery of advanced high school-level math, did not contain verbal-analogy questions, and included an essay.

Since the University of California is the SAT's biggest customer, and has been for more than thirty years, many thought this spelled the beginning of the end for the test. In the summer of 2002 the College Board announced its plans to change the SAT. The new test will (surprise, surprise) contain several higher-level algebra questions, will no longer contain analogies questions, and will—as part of a whole new section on "writing"—include an essay question. It is scheduled to be administered for the first time in March of next ...