Roughly 19,000 students from Ohio took the S-A-T this year-- a 16 percent drop.
The decrease could be due to the declining number of high school seniors and the popularity of a rival exam, the A-C-T, which recently surpassed the S-A-T.
Another budding trend is to make entrance exams optional.
Ross Grippi, President of the Ohio Association for College Admissions, says a handful of the state’s private schools and branch campuses of state universities are joining hundreds of colleges nationwide in lessening the role that tests play in college admission.
“I think the test is important, but you’re seeing schools that are really focusing on GPA as well, and the strength of the curriculum at the high school, and the success they had in the classroom, and weighing that, at times, more so than an ACT or an SAT board score,” he said.
Earlier this year, the National Association for College Admission Counseling released a study looking at 123,000 students across the country who enrolled in colleges that don’t require the tests.
It found no significant difference in the performance of those who opted out of the SAT and ACT.