The New Digital SAT Test

Introduction

The 21st century dovetailing of the SAT and ACT is about to diverge. SAT’s tact is to change with the times. ACT’s strategy is to stay the course. Both make a case for how students benefit from the paths they are each paving. The new terrain looks as transformed as anything the test prep industry has previously navigated. It will require more resources, institutional experience, technical expertise, and specialization than ever before to properly respond to the needs of the market.

Difference between the New Digital SAT and Paper Tests

The Digital SAT is Much Shorter Test and Less Challenging

• The adaptive nature of the exam is critical to making it a much shorter test.
• The digital SAT will also be less speeded than the current test, according to College Board.
• Each Section will be broken into two stages (or modules) with a pause (not a break) between each stage. Each stage will run about 30-35 minutes. A break will come after the entirety of the first section (two stages). A specific order — (e.g., Does Math always come first or second?) has not yet been shared.
• The first stage of each section is not adaptive (item difficulty will not “adapt” to a student’s performance). The adaptation occurs with the second stage.
• At the end of the first stage, the test will choose an appropriate level of difficulty for the second stage. The better a student does on the first stage, the harder the second one will be. This shift in difficulty is critical to getting to an accurate score on a shorter test.
• The SAT will not be item-adaptive where every question varies based on performance (like the GMAT). It will be stage-adaptive (like the GRE). It will only adapt once for Reading & Writing and only once for Math. This lowers the stakes on any one question and also preserves the ability to go backward and forward within a stage.

Tentative Instructions for the Digital SAT

• Students testing together will encounter differing versions of the test, even on the first stages. The test draws from a large pool of problems but the created sets of problems will meet the same content standards and provide an equivalent experience.
• The risk of a test being compromised is greatly reduced — no more locked drawers, sealed booklets, or delayed mail items. Students at the same site can be started at different times, since there is a greatly reduced risk of sharing problems within a room or during breaks.
• Students will use the equipment provided by the school or site or bring their own laptop or tablet. They can also incorporate external devices such as a mouse, keyboard, or stylus for personal comfort. College Board will establish lending programs for students who do not have approved devices.
• The test will be administered in a locked-down app; students will not be able to open other applications while testing.
• Students will be expected to arrive with fully charged devices and the testing app pre-installed. Test centers *may* provide power to standard-timed examinees and *must* provide it to those with extended time.
• Scratch paper will be provided because, for example, the app will not allow for the marking-up of math diagrams. A pencil or pen is fine.
• Bandwidth requirements are minimal. The entire test is cached and encrypted, so an internet disruption should not prevent the completion of an exam. The exam results can even be uploaded after the test has already been completed. When a proctor says, “Pencils down,” on a paper test, it is difficult to enforce securely. The computer can easily end the student’s exam and keep the results secure.
• If a power issue stops the test, it can be restarted with a proctor authorization. Deliberately powering down and firing up again is cheating and explicitly forbidden. Cheating tactics that try to exploit the digital form factor are unlikely to work, as College Board effectively has a full transcript of what occurred.
• Students will have their own timer in the app, so the problem of mistiming by proctors or the lack of notifications should be eliminated.
• The fact that students end at different times may create disruptions, although College Board maintains that things have gone smoothly during its pilot testing.

Summary

So, finally

In January 2022, the College Board announced a major change: the SAT is going digital and will soon only be offered on the computer, not with pencil and paper. These changes won’t come into effect until 2023 for international students and 2024 for US students, but it’s important to know what the changes are so that you can make plans for yourself.

The six key changes to the SAT are:

1. It’ll be digital
2. It’ll be shorter (2 hours instead of 3)
3. You’ll have more time to answer each question
4. Calculators will be allowed for the entire Math section
5. Reading passages will be shorter and more targeted
6. You’ll get your scores back in days instead of weeks

We expect colleges to view the digital SAT pretty much the same way as the current SAT, although, as a whole, standardized test scores are becoming less important for admission to many schools. So, if you’re struggling over which version of the SAT to take, choose the one you think better plays to your strengths.