At three hours, 45 minutes, the newly expanded SAT exam can be a grueling marathon of essays and multiple-choice bubbles, many high schoolers say. Now, with preliminary figures showing a small but noticeable drop in scores this year, some experts wonder if student fatigue is to blame.

That could further pressure the College Board to let students take different sections of the test on separate days — an issue on the agenda at the nonprofit's SAT committee meeting today in New York.

"Right now, it's longer than the GRE, the LSAT and the GMATs, and those are all taken by college students or college graduates," said Brad MacGowan, a guidance counselor at Newton North High School in Massachusetts, who has asked the College Board to let students split up the exam.

Counting tests taken through January, scores for the upcoming college freshman class are down between four and five points on the combined math and critical reading sections, according to the College Board, which owns the SAT. Full-year numbers are expected to show a "small additional decline."

The change, over two sections totaling 1600 points, is not unprecedented; scores have changed as much as eight points per year over the last quarter century. But it would be the biggest jump in at least a decade, and sticks out because it coincides with changes made to the test. The College Board added a writing section and made other adjustments to the new test, which debuted in March 2005, but insisted scores would remain comparable.

Some colleges, however, are reporting substantial declines. The University of California system saw a 15-point drop, while La Salle University in Philadelphia saw a 12-point drop — even as their applicants looked better than last year's group by other measures.

"I've never seen better (students') records, and lower scores. Never seen it in 36 years," said Bob Voss, La Salle dean of admission.

There may be other explanations.

Typically, students' scores rise a combined 30 points on the math and critical reading sections on a second try. While more students are taking the SAT, fewer are taking it multiple times, said College Board spokeswoman Chiara Coletti. The price of the test has risen from $28.50 to $41.50, though fees are sometimes waived.

Also, this year, some high-achieving students may have declined to take the new test, sticking with their junior year scores on the old SAT. That could explain the drop at UC, which allowed applicants to stick with their old scores, said Jeff Olson, executive director of research at the test-prep company Kaplan.

But Olson said fatigue may also have played a role. When Kaplan surveyed 2,000 test-takers in March 2005, 37 percent said they feared the length would affect their scores. Also, nearly half of test centers didn't allow students to snack during breaks last June, Olson said.