Photo: Thomas Park
By: Nick Gambino
The SAT as you know it is coming to an end, but don’t worry there’s plenty for soon-to-be high school graduates to stress out about. The test is finally graduating from paper and pencil to completely digital.
The administrators behind the college readiness tests announced that it will move online by 2023 for international students and then for U.S. students by 2024. It’s been a long time coming and I for one am surprised it took this long. Pencil and paper is going the way of the dinosaurs as classrooms work moves toward a more digital experience.
This change is not entirely out of the blue as they did a digital test back in November 2021 with both national and international students. A survey afterward found that 80% of those students who took it found it less stressful and a can’t-get-better-than-that 100% of educators reported it was a positive experience.
They’re not simply taking the test as it exists and digitizing it. Rather, they’re using this shift to also change up the exam itself. This new online exam will be completed in 2 hours, instead of the traditional 3, and will allow for more time spent on each question.
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” Priscilla Rodriguez, the VP of College Readiness Assessments at College Board, said in the announcement. “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.”
While this new format is an updated embrace of a digital world, it also seems this is a direct response to a need for a more COVID-friendly exam. (And yes, I’m aware “COVID-friendly” seems counterintuitive, but I’m standing by the word choice.)
Students will be allowed to use their own laptops and tablets in the classroom and, despite the exam being conducted online, they’re not going to be allowed to take their SATs at home, for obvious reasons. They’ll have the choice of using a school-issued device if they prefer.
This is also a more secure version of the test. SAT policy has always been to scrap the whole test if even one form is compromised in some way. In its new iteration, each student will receive their own unique digital exam so they can’t cheat off each other.
With fewer students taking the college readiness exam in recent years, we’ll see if this changes things.
