An altered rite of passage for US teens

This weekend marks the unveiling of the latest variable in the nation's college admissions equation - the new and possibly improved Scholastic Aptitude Test, to be offered for the first time Saturday, March 12.

While the test may be different, a constant remains: Worried high schoolers here and across the country see the exam as a possible boost - or barrier - to their future hopes and dreams. When they turn up bright and early Saturday morning, they will be armed not only with graphing calculators but also with a wide range of personal concerns.

Junior Jennifer Toyzer, of Havertown, Pa, hopes to score 60 points higher than she did on her last try, thus improving her chances of getting into the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Economics or Georgetown University.

Tom McLaughlin, of Glen Mills, Pa., taking the test for the first time, dreams of a perfect score - what used to be a 1600 on the old test. For Tom, it's an important step on the way to achieving his dream of studying film. Lauren Walder, of Exton, Pa., another first-timer, simply hopes to hone her test- taking skills so she'll get a good score the second time she takes the exam.

"No one really knows what to expect," says the Bishop Shanahan High School junior, who plans a career in health-care.

The revamped version of the SAT, which will be taken by an estimated 1.4 million of the nation's 5 million high school seniors, incorporates a widely debated 25-minute essay writing section, leaves out the traditional vocabulary- and association-sensitive analogies section, and on the math side brings in advanced algebra.

The test - which once took three hours - will now be a whopping 3 hours 45 minutes long, this on a Saturday morning, a time when many high-schoolers want to score nothing more than a couple of extra hours of sleep.

"It's daunting," says Linda Milliken, reading specialist for the Chester County (Pa) Intermediate Unit, who teaches test preparation courses at the county's public high schools. "To me it's a test of endurance."

For teachers like Ms. Milliken, the new exam has already meant extra work.

This year, as always, she says, her students are a mixed bag in terms of their energy and ambition. One needs the lure of a butterscotch candy to be coaxed back into class after the break, she says, while others are driven and complain if they are cheated out of a moment of valuable test-prep time. "If my class ends at 5 o'clock, and we start to get ready to leave at five of, they want that extra five minutes," she says.

But what has been different for Milliken has been the number of students she has faced. Normally turnout is light in the spring, with her class usually topping out at 15 participants. This year, however, 46 turned up for an initial SAT prep class she gave at suburban Downingtown High School.

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