By Richard Bammer

The new-look SAT, in its biggest redesign in 10 years, debuts Saturday for hundreds of Vacaville-area students and hundreds of thousands more nationwide who will, in most cases, grapple with the hours-long reading, writing and math test that is used for college entrance.

By all accounts, the revamped version seems to be more in line with assessments based on the new Common Core State Standards, with reading portions more focused on current issues rather than passages from classic literature. The math portion, likely more often than not, will be in the form of word problems.

An essay portion — although the results are sought by admissions officers at many colleges, especially elite private schools and some major public universities — is optional. Students who decide not to write an essay would see about 50 minutes shaved off the length of the test.

Source: New-look SAT debuts Saturday