The Michigan Department of Education left the state bewildered January 7 when it announced that Michigan’s main college admissions exam will switch from the ACT to the SAT. Since 2007, students have been given the ACT as an achievement test to measure what they’ve learned in school. After years of familiarity with the ACT, many are wondering if Michigan schools, teachers, and students can handle the sudden change.

Every few years, tests like the ACT and SAT make competitive bids in order to be the main college assessment test given to every junior in the state. This time, the College Board, which administers the SAT, placed a bid for the three-year contract that was $15.4 million less than the next bidder. It also met other criteria and provided a detailed proposal for implementation plans.

The ACT and SAT are both college assessments, but they require different skills. The ACT primarily tests knowledge learned at school, while the SAT is more about problem-solving and critical thinking. Juniors tend to score better on one or the other depending on the type of student they are. High schoolers who are studious and dedicated to their education tend to do better on the ACT, while students who are natural thinkers tend to do better on the SAT.

The issue is that the current high school sophomores are lined up to be the first class to take the SAT in their junior year. One year of preparation may sound like a long time, but it may not be enough when much of their curriculum has been preparing students for the ACT.

All this being said, the College Board is making a few changes that will make it easier to handle the switch. First, for the actual test, they are tweaking the SAT to make it more fair and focused. Beginning in 2016, they will eliminate unnecessary vocabulary from the reading section, as well as irrelevant problems in the math section, and there will no longer be penalties for wrong answers.

Additionally, the College Board is willing to provide extra incentives for the deal. For students, the test will be aligned to Michigan standards and they will be given free test prep materials. Schools will receive training for staff, as well as professional development for teachers and parents.

Even though the College Board is accommodating, the switch is still very sudden. The decision came as a surprise to Michigan, since we’ve had a good relationship with the ACT for eight years, and some administrators are skeptical about the change.

The switch even shocked the ACT company itself, which decided to challenge the bid January 13.

Their argument is that they were not offered any opportunity to change their proposal, and were also unfairly judged in the bidding process. In response, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget must review the the protest and decide on an action. This could result in upholding the decision or even rebidding the contract.

While there is still a lot of drama between companies, the decision should be ready in about a week. Until then, we should be content with the knowledge that either everything will stay exactly the same (we stick with ACT) or a good change will be happening (SAT), and even though it may be sudden we have the resources to be prepared.