Last year, writing portions were added to the SAT and ACT college entrance exams, but Penn State won't consider those scores for two more years.

"We need time to study how to evaluate these scores," said Patrick Smith, director of communications and customer services for the undergraduate admissions office. "We want to use it in the best way possible given the large number of applications we receive every year."

In applications, test scores contribute to one third of the overall evaluation, and grades carry a heavier weight, Smith said.

"Strong SAT scores help an applicant," he said. "But we really look at what people have been doing in ninth through 12th grade."

For the nation's 2006 high school graduates, SAT scores suffered their greatest decline in 31 years. The average for students' combined math and critical reading scores dropped seven points, according to the College Board.

With the new essay portion, College Board raised the price of the exam from $28.50 to $41.50. The new SAT also lasts an extra 45 minutes. Andy Wilson (freshman-mechanical engineering) said he took both versions of the SAT and felt more tired after the new version.

"By the end, I was in the test for over four hours and it started to get to me," he said. "My scores were pretty close on both tests though."

The lower scores resulted from fewer students taking the SAT multiple times, said Caren Scoropanos, spokesperson for the College Board.

"When the test changes, student habits also change," Scoropanos said. "But we didn't conduct any surveys, so we can't be sure of why we had fewer repeat test takers."

These repeat test-takers generally score higher on subsequent tests, Scoropanos said.

The writing portion of the ACT remains optional, and more than 60 percent of students don't take the essay part, said Ed Colby, spokesperson for ACT.

"We chose to make it optional because most colleges still don't accept it in admissions," Colby said.