It's been more than a year now since the SAT added a writing section to the college entrance exam, but Penn State says it isn't considering the writing scores.

The university said the section will be reviewed two years from now, so they have time to review how much weight the scores should carry. But perhaps the writing section is not the only problem.

Over the past year, students have said they are more fatigued after completing the elongated test, which may have contributed to the decline in seniors' grades this year, the most drastic in the past 31 years.

Students have also been graded with incorrect scores or sometimes no score at all, and these records could keep qualified students from admittance to their chosen college.

When scores are so important to schools like Penn State (they contribute to one-third of an applicant's evaluation) they should be precise and consistent. The admissions office said grades in high school are weighted even more than SAT scores, but it's time for this to be taken more seriously than that.

Despite the flaws with the SAT and the new writing section, Penn State still needs some measurement of a student's writing ability.

Perhaps the university should consider making the optional essays required. While this would add more time to the admission process, the caliber of admitted students could only improve, and professors would have to spend far less time teaching students the writing skills they should have learned years ago.

Hopefully, by the time Penn State revisits the SAT and the writing section two years from now, some necessary changes will be made to the test. Until then, other options should be considered with more weight than the SAT, including essays, SAT IIs and the ACT.