If you plan on taking the SAT in the spring of 2024 or any time after, leave your pencils home. The SAT exam will be going digital and saying goodbye to pen and paper tests. What does that mean to students who will be taking this new format?
The good news about this change is that the digital test is shorter by almost one whole hour. The digital SAT will end after two hours compared to the current time of three hours. There are also fewer questions so students will have more time to review each question. This change in format appears to place less emphasis on speed throughout the exam. In addition, the math section will now allow calculators for all questions, unlike the current version which allows calculators for one section and not the other.
The scoring remains the same with both the paper and digital version (400-1600). The digital SAT will be an adaptive test, which means the exam will be designed to the student’s performance on questions. How a student does on the first section of the test will determine the difficulty of the questions on the second portion for that student.
The digital SAT can be taken on your own computer or tablet and test centers will also be providing computers to use if needed. Super scoring sections between the paper and the digital version appears to be available, although many advise to verify this with the college you are applying to.
So will the digital SAT be easier than the format we have all been accustomed to? There is no simple answer to that question yet but the shortened test and the ability to take it on computers that we are all so familiar with certainly makes many feel better about the future of SATs. What is your view on this?
