<P> As part of an effort to "reduce student stress and improve the test - day experience", in late 2008 the College Board announced that the Score Choice option, recently dropped for SAT subject exams, would be available for both the SAT subject tests and the SAT starting in March, 2009 . At the time, some college admissions officials agreed that the new policy would help to alleviate student test anxiety, while others questioned whether the change was primarily an attempt to make the SAT more competitive with the ACT, which had long had a comparable score choice policy . Recognizing that some colleges would want to see the scores from all tests taken by a student, under this new policy, the College Board would encourage but not force students to follow the requirements of each college to which scores would be sent . A number of highly selective colleges and universities, including Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Stanford, rejected the Score Choice option at the time and continue to require applicants to submit all scores . Others, such as MIT and Harvard, allow students to choose which scores they submit, and use only the highest score from each section when making admission decisions . Still others, such as Oregon State University and University of Iowa, allow students to choose which scores they submit, considering only the test date with the highest combined score when making admission decisions . </P> <P> Beginning in the fall of 2012, test takers were required to submit a current, recognizable photo during registration . In order to be admitted to their designated test center, students were required to present their photo admission ticket--or another acceptable form of photo ID--for comparison to the one submitted by the student at the time of registration . The changes were made in response to a series of cheating incidents, primarily at high schools in Long Island, New York, in which high - scoring test takers were using fake photo IDs to take the SAT for other students . In addition to the registration photo stipulation, test takers were required to identify their high school, to which their scores as well as the submitted photos would be sent . In the event of an investigation involving the validity of a student's test scores, his or her photo may be made available to institutions to which they have sent scores . Any college that is granted access to a student's photo is first required to certify that they are all admitted students . </P> <P> On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced its plan to redesign the SAT in order to link the exam more closely to the work high school students encounter in the classroom . The new exam was administered for the first time in March 2016 . Some of the major changes are: an emphasis on the use of evidence to support answers, a shift away from obscure vocabulary to words that students are more likely to encounter in college and career, a math section that is focused on fewer areas, a return to the 1600 - point score scale, an optional essay, and the removal of penalty for wrong answers (rights - only scoring). To combat the perceived advantage of costly test preparation courses, the College Board announced a new partnership with Khan Academy to offer free online practice problems and instructional videos . </P> <P> The SAT has been renamed several times since its introduction in 1926 . It was originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test . In 1990, a commission set up by the College Board to review the proposed changes to the SAT program recommended that the meaning of the initialism SAT be changed to "Scholastic Assessment Test" because a "test that integrates measures of achievement as well as developed ability can no longer be accurately described as a test of aptitude". In 1993, the College Board changed the name of the test to SAT I: Reasoning Test; at the same time, the name of the Achievement Tests was changed to SAT II: Subject Tests . The Reasoning Test and Subject Tests were to be collectively known as the Scholastic Assessment Tests . According to the president of the College Board at the time, the name change was meant "to correct the impression among some people that the SAT measures something that is innate and impervious to change regardless of effort or instruction ." The new SAT debuted in March 1994, and was referred to as the Scholastic Assessment Test by major news organizations . However, in 1997, the College Board announced that the SAT could not properly be called the Scholastic Assessment Test, and that the letters SAT did not stand for anything . In 2004, the Roman numeral in SAT I: Reasoning Test was dropped, making SAT Reasoning Test the new name of the SAT . </P>

When did the sat go from 2400 to 1600