Classic Learning Initiatives (CLI) in Annapolis, Md., has created the Classic Learning Test (CLT), the first new college admissions exam to be offered since the debut of the ACT in 1959. The founders of CLI recognize that the SAT, while not without merit, leaves out crucial aspects of a true education. Texts featured on the SAT don’t reflect the values that are most cherished by home and private educators. CLI believes that within each child is a capacity and thirst for unlocking the good, the true, and the beautiful.
Put simply, the texts featured on the SAT, and ultimately in many classrooms, fail to connect students to the goodness, truth, and beauty they inherently desire. By contrast, the CLT features works from the Western tradition by authors such as Plato, C.S. Lewis, and Martin Luther King Jr. By doing so, the CLT hopes not only to espouse a love of deep analytical thought in students, but also to be accessible to students from all educational backgrounds.
The CLT hopes to be a more user friendly exam as well. The exam is taken online on a student’s computer or tablet, and, at two hours in length, is significantly shorter than either the SAT or the ACT. Students are also free to move between the exam’s three sections (reading comprehension, writing, and quantitative reasoning), as well. With its premiere June 11th administration, the CLT has proven itself to be a more comfortable and accessible exam for students to complete. Students are also given their score soon after submitting their exams, eliminating the anxious wait to receive test scores!