In the News: SAT Goes Digital in 2024
The first students to face College Board’s fully digital version will be PSAT test-takers in October of 2023. The digital SAT will start in 2024.
That means current 9th graders (the class of 2025) will be the first high schoolers in the U.S. to face the new test (the tests will be administered outside the U.S. earlier in 2023). Nearly all students in the class of 2024 will have completed college admission testing by the time the new SAT is offered.
There are differences other than the completely online format. According to College Board, the new test will be shortened to two hours, the test is section-adaptive, which means modules are adjusted based on the test-taker’s performance in earlier modules and the content will be more student-friendly and relevant. All math questions will allow calculator use. Long reading passages with lots of related questions are replaced with short passages on more topics and one question per passage.
Other notable changes:
Students will be allowed to use their own computers or tablets or ones provided by the test center.
Testing will not be allowed at home.
The digital format will allow greater flexibility in test dates, scheduling, and locations. College Board will continue to encourage schools to administer during the school day
Scores will continue to be based on the 1600 scale
Students will receive within days rather than weeks
The new test does not allow students to return to questions once they have been answered
Still unknown is how often students will be allowed to sit for the exam. Currently, students are restrained by the number of national test dates plus those offered more locally.
Also unknown is how the new test scores will correspond with ACT test scores. Students and counselors rely on comparison charts to weigh student SAT vs. ACT scores. College Board has not yet stated whether it will need to collaborate with ACT to create a concordance to compare new SAT scores to old SAT scores to ACT scores.
College Board announces this overhaul as colleges struggle with whether these standardized unfairly penalize students without access to test prep and as the pandemic forced many to adopt test-optional policies. More than 1800 schools do not require standardized test scores this year, according to nonprofit org FairTest.
The University of California system has eliminated standardized test scores as an admissions factor indefinitely at its 10 schools. Harvard announced late last year it would not require the SAT or ACT through the next four years.
FairTest, which questions the use of standardized tests in admissions, said the change in format “does not magically transform it to a more accurate, fairer or valid tool for assessing college readiness.”