I just wanted to add that UC has had a long on-going feud with College Board (I’ll abbreviate it “CB”), and previously, e.g., CB buckled to UC’s not liking of the vocabulary section and took it out. Then CB put larger weights on certain questions, but that’s still out there unchanged, and it undoubtedly angered UC again.
There are some that feel that UC and CB will make amends, but this time, of course, it has a completely different air about it, because Napolitano led the Regents to go against the Academic Senate and vote it out, when before they would threaten CB and eventually back off when CB would make their concessions. The thought of another vote with a reversal seems impossible. But if CB approached UC and bows before it and grants its wishes, who knows?
I hope this will happen, but Napolitano seemed to have other ideas by making a big splash in one of her last acts as president, despite having nothing concrete for the future, and I don’t think students should be experimental rats. And the new CEO of CB seems to be pretty tough minded, so he may not make concessions. He may not care that CB is losing one of its biggest customers (actually of course it’s the students who apply to UC, but many will still be taking the test anyway because they’ll be applying beyond UC). The individual campuses could also advise the students to add test scores as an accomplishment when UC takes the reporting of scores out of the application process because some departments at UC like Engineering will still need something to reinforce top-tier math and science grades. Or as some have said, UC could switch to the various SATIIs which is another CB test, which would mean that the average student could be taking a good five IIs.