Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

Cal-Poly Won't Look at New Portion of Exam

-- Jeff Ballinger, The Tribune

The new SAT will have no bearing on how Cal Poly admits students for the fall of 2006.

The California State University system is not going to look at the new writing portion of the entrance exam.

"So a 1600 is still a 1600," said Jim Maraviglia, assistant vice president for Admissions, Recruitment and Financial Aid.

"At this point in time, we're not even requiring students to take the extra writing portion."

In fact, Maraviglia and Cal Poly would prefer prospective students not even bother taking the SAT.

"For the past few years we've been preferring the ACT," he said.

According to the ACT Web site -- www.act.org -- more students take its exam than take the SAT.

"We advise every student to shoot for the ACT," Maraviglia said. "It's an achievement test and it measures performance on the high school curriculum."

Depending on the program that students apply to at Cal Poly, test scores account for between 25 and 35 percent of the criteria admissions officers use in deciding who gets admitted, Maraviglia said.

A majority of what counts consists of a student's high school courses and the grades earned in them.