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Three letters have been a rite of passage for many college-bound high schoolers: SAT.And while nationally, the traditional college entrance exam is seeing an increase of test takers, Ohio has experienced the opposite.Roughly 19,000 members of the state's Class of 2014 took the test-- a 16 percent drop compared to the year before.The decrease could be due to the declining number of high school seniors and the popularity of a rival exam, the ACT, which recently surpassed the SAT
Another budding trend is to make entrance exams optional.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,” said Ross Grippi, President of the Ohio Association for College Admission Counseling.The tests can still be used in different ways, adds Grippi, like by aiding in class placement or serving as a requirement for those who don't meet a required GPA.Out of those 19,000 students who took the exam, about 64 percent earned a minimum test score of 1550. That's the score the SAT's parent company, the College Board, defines as the "College and Career Readiness" benchmark, saying a student is likely to be successful in college if they hit that number.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.