If you are checking out the Best Colleges rankings as a junior or senior, you’re preparing to sit — or have already sat — for the 2400-point SAT, complete with its fancy vocabulary words and mandatory essay. But members of the class of 2017 will begin prepping next year for a completely overhauled test.

Last March, College Board President David Coleman announced major revisions to the fall 2015 PSAT and the 2016 SAT, saying the SAT had “become disconnected from the work of high schools.”

The changes, which include going back to the 1600-point composite score based on 800-point math and “evidence-based reading and writing” sections, and making the essay optional, are intended to better reflect the material students should be learning in high school and improve the SAT’s reliability as an indicator of how prepared applicants are to tackle college work.

[Take a look at sample questions from the new SAT.]

The current test is designed more to get at innate abilities. The new test “aligns with the Common Core curriculum standards,” says Kasey Urquidez, dean of undergraduate admissions at the University of Arizona, who believes that the changes will be beneficial.

Defenders of the current test think the change could weaken what they see as an effective tool to identify smart, capable students at academically weaker schools.

One big innovation is the way vocabulary will be handled. Rather than test students’ knowledge of obscure words out of context — like “cruciverbalist,” “mellifluous,” or “prestidigitation” — the focus will be on so-called high-utility words that appear in many disciplines, and they’ll be used in a passage.

For example, after reading a selection about population density that uses the word “intense,” test-takers might be asked which word has the closest meaning: “emotional,” “concentrated,” “brilliant” or “determined.”

Angel Perez, vice president and dean of admission at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, thinks this shift will let students from all backgrounds show what they really know, not just what they’ve memorized in prepping. Gary Gruber, who has written more than 40 test prep books, remains a fan of the way the current test gets students to tap their critical thinking skills and knowledge of Greek and Latin roots.

[Learn more about applying to college.]

The new SAT will also require students to draw conclusions by taking account of evidence, to revise and edit text, to analyze data and interpret graphs, and to solve the types of math problems most commonly seen in college courses and the workplace.

It’s no coincidence, observers say, that the new test will more closely resemble the ACT, which has been growing more popular. The redesigned SAT will last three hours, with an extra 50 minutes allotted for an optional essay in which students will analyze a passage and how the author builds an argument.

Another popular change is the elimination of the guessing penalty, the practice of subtracting points for wrong answers.

Juniors and seniors, too, can take advantage of one much-heralded development that takes effect right away: the College Board’s new partnership with the nonprofit Khan Academy to provide free online test prep materials. The idea is to start by taking a practice SAT, then master the material by watching in-depth explanatory videos and answering as many practice questions as you want.

Admissions deans and college counselors alike welcome the partnership as a possible step toward taming the overwrought test prep culture that excludes many less-savvy kids and those who are less affluent.

Whichever test you take, devoting time to practice should increase your comfort level. But some experts advise against sitting for the real thing several times in an attempt to raise your score; some colleges may ask to see all your results — and they certainly want to see you engaged in more activities than test prep.

Try to keep the testing in perspective, urges Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “There is some predictive value in SAT scores, but they are not determinative,” he says. “Certainly there are students who get lower SAT scores who perform well here. And factors like persistence, resilience and organizational skills, which aren’t measured on tests, also predict future academic success.”

In fact, many fine colleges have concluded that they don’t need test scores to make admissions decisions. The National Center for Fair & Open Testing maintains a database of some 815 schools that are “test-optional” or that de-emphasize the tests.

[Find out which highly ranked schools don’t demand test scores.]

“I think taking standardized tests well is innate and doesn’t necessarily show how well one will do in college or in life,” says Jessa Stein of Denver, who chose not to send her SAT results of around 1800 to Pitzer College in California, her first choice. She wanted to be judged on her other strengths — teacher recommendations, essays and community service — and is now a sophomore at Pitzer.

Some test-optional schools later request scores for placement, merit aid consideration or internal research. “Many scores are extremely high and come accompanied by a note saying, ‘I wanted you to judge me on what matters to me,'” says Martha Allman, dean of admissions at Wake Forest University, which asks freshmen to submit scores for research purposes only. That’s “exactly what we like to hear.”

This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “ Best Colleges 2015 ” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.

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How the New SAT Is Trying to Redefine College Readiness originally appeared on usnews.com