The SAT, an exam long associated with paper and pen, moves toward
being fully digital
Starting in 2024, the College Board will fully digitalize the SAT, a college admissions exam long associated with paper and pencil. The digital SAT will be two hours instead of three, include shorter reading passages, and allow approved calculators on the entire math section. Additionally, scores from the digital SAT will also be returned in days instead of weeks. The College Board believes that this digitalization will benefit students.
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” said Ms. Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at College Board in an interview with College Board Newsroom. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform—we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible. With input from educators and students, we are adapting to ensure we continue to meet their evolving needs.”
The College Board facilitated pilots of the digital SAT starting in April 2022 by inviting students to take the test. Students who accepted the invitation were given the option to decide between a $50 or $100 gift card or a free exam registration for the March or May 2022 paper-based SAT. The digital pilot would be officially scored and, under the premise that students would take the paper-based SAT alongside the digital, students were given until the end of August 2022 to decide whether they would like to keep or cancel the scores after viewing them.
“It felt a lot less stressful, and a whole lot quicker than I thought it'd be,” said Natalia Cossio ’24, from Fairfax County, VA who participated in the digital pilot in an interview with the College Board Newsroom. “The shorter passages helped me concentrate more on what the question wanted me to do."
With the new digital SAT, the College Board hopes to further secure the exam as the issue of cheating stands to be very prominent with the exam.
“The changes will make the SAT more secure. With the current paper and pencil SAT, if one test form is compromised, it can mean canceling administrations or canceling scores for a whole group of students. Going digital allows every student to receive a unique test form, so it will be practically impossible to share answers,” said Priscilla in an interview with EdWeek.org.
Mr. Dan Sorrell, the testing coordinator of the high school, believes that the test has the potential to be beneficial to students with a more comfortable exam format and a more concise exam experience.
“Students at the high school, and the current generation, for the most part, grew up with computers. Adapting the SAT to a similar format may provide some familiarity,” said Sorrell. “It could also have the potential to speed the total exam time up. If the software is logged-into, and already has all of a student's registration information, then students will not have to spend time at the beginning of a test "bubbling in" their personal registration information.”
Amidst the positive feedback of the digital SAT, many argue that the exam continues to favor the affluent. According to data from Forbes, students with a family income of $100,00 or more are more than twice as likely as students with a family income under $50,000 to have combined SAT scores of 1400 to 1600.
To this point, the College Board believes that the digital SAT will help in closing this score gap stemming from income differences by providing access to free practice on Khan Academy and devices for the SAT.
“In designing the digital SAT, we’ve focused on access and equity. All students can receive free practice at Khan Academy; if students don’t have a device to use, the College Board will provide one for use on test day; and more students will benefit from the opportunities provided through the SAT School Day program,” said Priscilla in an interview with EdWeek.org.
According to Sorrell, lack of access to devices for the exam may hold more of a negative impact than expected.
“Arranging that loaner, or arranging to borrow a device is an extra step and hurdle,” said Sorrell. “Standardized testing, in theory, is supposed to even the playing field for students. In actuality though, it has the potential to create inequity between those who have access to resources to prepare for, and take the exam. Requiring students to either provide their own computer, or borrow a computer, has the potential to amplify already present inequalities.”
In a poll on The Bradford Instagram, 62% of respondents stated that they preferred the paper SAT.
“It’s more difficult to stay focused on the computer,” said Oren Liebenthal ’23.“Technical difficulties are also really frustrating.”
On the other hand, another respondent stated that they would prefer the online SAT due to the essay portion of the exam.
“Correcting mistakes is much easier online, especially in the essay,” said Sophie Balter ’24.
The digitalization of the SAT marks a new beginning of the college admissions process. Now, students will not only have the option to not take the test with the recent surge of test-optional schools but will be able to experience a full digital version of the exam. Whether the digital SAT will be effective in increasing accessibility for different economic classes or whether the exam is easier, however, stands to be a question for 2024 when the digital tests will be fully implemented in the U.S.
“From what I have seen with the Digital AP Chinese Language and Culture exam that we administered at the high school last year, the software used was not at all clunky, and was very straightforward,” said Sorrell “I am hoping that the SAT will use the same software, but we will have to wait and see.”
Published in December of 2022, Print Exclusive of The Bradford June 2022 Edition. See in: InDesign/Print
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” said Ms. Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at College Board in an interview with College Board Newsroom. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform—we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible. With input from educators and students, we are adapting to ensure we continue to meet their evolving needs.”
The College Board facilitated pilots of the digital SAT starting in April 2022 by inviting students to take the test. Students who accepted the invitation were given the option to decide between a $50 or $100 gift card or a free exam registration for the March or May 2022 paper-based SAT. The digital pilot would be officially scored and, under the premise that students would take the paper-based SAT alongside the digital, students were given until the end of August 2022 to decide whether they would like to keep or cancel the scores after viewing them.
“It felt a lot less stressful, and a whole lot quicker than I thought it'd be,” said Natalia Cossio ’24, from Fairfax County, VA who participated in the digital pilot in an interview with the College Board Newsroom. “The shorter passages helped me concentrate more on what the question wanted me to do."
With the new digital SAT, the College Board hopes to further secure the exam as the issue of cheating stands to be very prominent with the exam.
“The changes will make the SAT more secure. With the current paper and pencil SAT, if one test form is compromised, it can mean canceling administrations or canceling scores for a whole group of students. Going digital allows every student to receive a unique test form, so it will be practically impossible to share answers,” said Priscilla in an interview with EdWeek.org.
Mr. Dan Sorrell, the testing coordinator of the high school, believes that the test has the potential to be beneficial to students with a more comfortable exam format and a more concise exam experience.
“Students at the high school, and the current generation, for the most part, grew up with computers. Adapting the SAT to a similar format may provide some familiarity,” said Sorrell. “It could also have the potential to speed the total exam time up. If the software is logged-into, and already has all of a student's registration information, then students will not have to spend time at the beginning of a test "bubbling in" their personal registration information.”
Amidst the positive feedback of the digital SAT, many argue that the exam continues to favor the affluent. According to data from Forbes, students with a family income of $100,00 or more are more than twice as likely as students with a family income under $50,000 to have combined SAT scores of 1400 to 1600.
To this point, the College Board believes that the digital SAT will help in closing this score gap stemming from income differences by providing access to free practice on Khan Academy and devices for the SAT.
“In designing the digital SAT, we’ve focused on access and equity. All students can receive free practice at Khan Academy; if students don’t have a device to use, the College Board will provide one for use on test day; and more students will benefit from the opportunities provided through the SAT School Day program,” said Priscilla in an interview with EdWeek.org.
According to Sorrell, lack of access to devices for the exam may hold more of a negative impact than expected.
“Arranging that loaner, or arranging to borrow a device is an extra step and hurdle,” said Sorrell. “Standardized testing, in theory, is supposed to even the playing field for students. In actuality though, it has the potential to create inequity between those who have access to resources to prepare for, and take the exam. Requiring students to either provide their own computer, or borrow a computer, has the potential to amplify already present inequalities.”
In a poll on The Bradford Instagram, 62% of respondents stated that they preferred the paper SAT.
“It’s more difficult to stay focused on the computer,” said Oren Liebenthal ’23.“Technical difficulties are also really frustrating.”
On the other hand, another respondent stated that they would prefer the online SAT due to the essay portion of the exam.
“Correcting mistakes is much easier online, especially in the essay,” said Sophie Balter ’24.
The digitalization of the SAT marks a new beginning of the college admissions process. Now, students will not only have the option to not take the test with the recent surge of test-optional schools but will be able to experience a full digital version of the exam. Whether the digital SAT will be effective in increasing accessibility for different economic classes or whether the exam is easier, however, stands to be a question for 2024 when the digital tests will be fully implemented in the U.S.
“From what I have seen with the Digital AP Chinese Language and Culture exam that we administered at the high school last year, the software used was not at all clunky, and was very straightforward,” said Sorrell “I am hoping that the SAT will use the same software, but we will have to wait and see.”
Published in December of 2022, Print Exclusive of The Bradford June 2022 Edition. See in: InDesign/Print