Last October, a student named Mia approached Candice Mackey with an uncommon request: she wanted to take the SAT, which is generally administered at her school in the spring, a few months early. Mia was one of several juniors who brought up the concept with Mackey.
Mackey coordinates testing at the Los Angeles Center For Enriched Studies (LACES) and serves as the public magnet school’s only college counselor. Normally, she would dissuade her kids from taking the standardized exam too early. She’d want them to reach their full potential, to do as much exam preparation as possible before taking the high-pressure (but now mainly optional) testing.
But this time, she recognized the students’ concerns: beginning in March, the SAT would be computerized. The classic paper-and-pencil format is no longer available, with rare exceptions for students with visual impairments, severe reading disabilities, or other documented challenges.
Mia, who asked to be identified only by her first name to avoid jeopardizing her college prospects, stated that she suffers from eye difficulties and headaches when she stares at a screen for too long. Since middle school, she has been training using paper-based tools such as preliminary SATs (PSAT) and practice SATs. There are very few digital preparation materials.
Mackey reported that other pupils had expressed similar worries
“They felt an urgency … to take the paper exam,” she said, knowing that they won’t have that option anymore.
The new format comes amid heated arguments over whether universities should consider students’ race in admissions, and some colleges have reinstated the test score requirement. High schools are also scrambling to assist kids with other changes, such as the bumpy rollout of the new federal financial aid application.
Some argue that the redesigned SAT will complicate college applications even further.
The College Board, which administers the SAT, believes digitization is for the better, that societal changes necessitate the modern format, and that students are prepared and eager to join a new technological era. Educators, test-prep professionals, and kid advocates, however, are concerned that the digital deployment would make the admissions process more difficult. They claim that many students, particularly those who lack the resources or knowledge to keep up with the latest innovations, are unprepared for what lies ahead.
“This past year, a lot of big changes have happened too quickly,” said Diane Barnett, a consultant with the online education provider Knovva Academy, which helps students get into elite schools. “Some students’ heads have been spinning from that.”
How will the SAT change in 2024?
The digital SAT was introduced abroad last year, while the digital PSAT debuted in the United States last year. The final stage of the College Board’s digital transition occurs this spring when students in the United States will take the SAT on their personal or school-provided laptops or tablets, using an app called Bluebook.
While the College Board claims the scores would be comparable, the new exam is more than just an online version of the paper-and-pencil examination from years past. Test takers will have a fundamentally different experience in various aspects.
The new test, according to the College Board, is “adaptive” in nature. The math and reading components will be separated into two halves. A student’s performance in the first portion of each segment determines the difficulty level of the second part displayed on their screen.
Depending on a student’s performance, the second half of the test will be more difficult or easier than the first. If a test taker breezes through the first half of the math questions, they will find the second half of the test more challenging. A test taker who struggles in the first half will find the second half easier. In both circumstances, a person’s scores will be calibrated according to the questions’ difficulty.
This technique advantages students who have studied, are skilled test takers, and are not frightened by challenging questions. And, according to test-prep experts, it may benefit students who are prone to botching their performance when faced with questions that are too difficult for them, as they will perform better with a second set that is more manageable.
However, educators warn that the adaptive functionality may disadvantage others, such as pupils who have terrible luck in the first half and are obliged to settle for a lower-than-expected score because they will not receive as many points with an easier second half.
Adaptive testing allows the College Board to more rapidly determine what an individual is capable of; it doesn’t spend time asking the student questions that are too simple or too difficult for their performance level.
This efficiency allows for the second major difference in the digital SAT. At slightly more than two hours, it is nearly an hour shorter than the last iteration, which was released in 2016. With the digital SAT, students will have more time each question. Math questions will be explained more concisely than previously, and reading sections will be shorter.
According to Priscilla Rodriguez, the College Board’s senior vice president of college readiness tests, the format is more user-friendly for testing. The organization launched test programs, and kids reported feeling less weary, rushed, and frightened out.
The SAT is going digital: As institutions abandon standardized examinations, exams will be shorter and conducted online
The SAT registration deadline is approaching, yet thousands of students unaware of the changes. The deadline to register for the March SAT is in just a few weeks, on February 23.
“It’s not on everyone’s radar,” said Knovva Academy’s Barnett. “A lot of kids … are really going to be surprised by it and have not had time to practice that calculator in the app or to figure out how to get their own (device). And that will adversely affect them.”
The College Board first declared its transition to digital two years ago. It has teamed with Khan Academy, which offers free online learning resources, to disseminate content and assist students in preparing for the digital SAT. The College Board also offers four free full-length digital practice examinations through the Bluebook app.
Rodriguez is convinced that word has spread far and wide, and he assures applicants that the exam will continue to evolve to meet their demands.
“My hope is that students who are about to engage with this new SAT … know what to expect, they know what’s coming; they know it’s shorter, they know how to practice,” she said. “Given this is a test that can open up a lot of doors for them, it might as well be the best possible test.”
Counselors believe that news about the digital-only test has not reached many pupils, particularly those who live in rural or high-poverty areas and have limited access to knowledgeable individuals. Given that there are over 400 pupils for every school counselor in the United States, some may have missed out on receiving information from someone on campus.
The reason for modifying an admissions exam
The benefits of the new format are clear, at least for those who will administer it according to Mackey of LACES.
The conventional exam involved shipping heaps of paper materials to schools or centers and locking them up before test day, a time-consuming method that gave would-be cheaters easier access to booklets ahead of time.
With the digital version, students will take the exam on their own devices, and each test taker will see a different set of questions, making cheating more difficult.
Many educators are encouraged since the new test considers accessibility difficulties and student well-being. According to Rodriguez, the fact that it is shorter and adaptive makes it less stressful for kids, particularly those who are prone to exam anxiety or those at underserved schools who have had learning gaps exacerbated by the pandemic.
The shortened instructions make the 2024 test easier for pupils learning English. Some educators and students believe that the app and the built-in calculator that kids can utilize on arithmetic questions are more intuitive to a digital-native generation.
Lujain Malash, 17, a high school senior in Egypt who has taken the digital SAT multiple times, detested the fact that the difficulty level of the second half was determined by her performance in the first. “It’s a little complicated,” she said. “The worst part is that depending on how you do in the first part… if you don’t do well you don’t end up with a really good score.”
However, Malash, who spent part of her youth in France and speaks several languages, including English, believes the shorter length is worth it. As someone who likes math to reading, the shorter passages feel “more relaxed” than the lengthy, paper-format ones she saw during tutoring sessions. She also liked the opportunity to rehearse with the Khan Academy materials. .
While the digital exam is easier and safer, Mackey and other observers believe that these enhancements may make success more uneven as it is implemented.
Admissions tests have long been criticized for being a stronger indicator of students’ income than their ability or aptitude. Because so much of the exam requires methods such as intelligent guessing and time management, kids who can afford to pay for pricey test prep services are better prepared to perform well than students who are equally intelligent but lack the time or resources to practice.
“Practice makes perfect – there is something to that,” said Charles Lang, senior executive director of the Digital Futures Institute at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “Getting a scenario that you can practice in that is as similar to the actual event is a very important factor” in achieving a high score. He said it’s problematic that the College Board is pitching this new test’s scoring system as essentially the same as the old one’s: “I don’t think it’s quite as straightforward as they’re painting it.”
Are SAT scores fair? The new exam raises ongoing equity concerns
Some College Board opponents, like as Akil Bello of the advocacy group FairTest, claim that the digital SAT does little to solve the exam’s inherent inequities and may make student performance more uneven.
“Theoretically, digital testing is better; theoretically, (the College Board has) prepared schools and provided guidance,” Bello said. “But I’m concerned about the practical realities and the differences between what your ideal school has and what the common school has.”
On a fundamental level, humans require technology to take the new test.
The exam needs each student to have a device and access to dependable broadband. Two-thirds of students take the SAT on campus during class time and many use school-provided devices, but there are significant gaps in whether districts have adequate infrastructure for administering the new SAT.
What happens if, for example, a remote school’s broadband service fails and there is no IT worker on duty on a day when troubleshooting is required? What if a student does not have constant access to a device that includes the software and allows them to practice?
According to Judy Henriquez, the head of career and college counseling at the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics (BXCSM) in New York City, the school’s Chromebooks can be unreliable, and students may have unpredictable internet access. Because of these concerns, many teachers prefer not to employ computer-based testing in their English language arts and history classrooms, for example.
Ama Oduro, a 17-year-old senior at Henriquez’s school, stated that she frequently has difficulties checking in or accessing assignments on the Chromebooks. The faults consume a lot of class time. Even if the school can fix problems that develop on test day, and the new format does not require a constant connection to progress, a nervous student may struggle to concentrate for the remainder of the exam. Oduro, who took the regular SAT last year, chose not to submit her test scores while applying to colleges because she felt they cast her in a negative light.
“Certain people who are not built for testing are, in a way, excluded,” she said.
If students cannot obtain a testing device from their institution, the College Board will send a loaner to the campus. However, educators warned that navigating an unfamiliar computer can be confusing and glitchy for anyone, particularly those taking a stressful test. Furthermore, these students would need to request a device at least one month before their test date. The deadline for pupils taking the forthcoming exam will soon pass.
Others express concern about the assessment’s adaptive character. There is no clarity regarding how the change-as-you-go examinations will be graded or what the adaptive approach means for applicants.
“My number one concern about going digital is that there’s not an option to have it on paper as well,” said Mackey, the educator in Los Angeles. “I’m not opposed to digital – I just don’t think that it is in the best interest of students to only have it in that format.”
Is the SAT coming back in college admissions?
Since the pandemic, most universities no longer require candidates to provide standardized test scores. The tendency toward deemphasizing the SAT began before to COVID-19, and it became the default policy when in-person exams became impossible to get.
Fausto Rivera, a 17-year-old senior at BXCSM, regards test scores as a false and unfair means to judge kids’ ability and dictate their destiny, and appreciates that schools are less interested in them. Rivera took the paper SAT last spring, despite never practicing due to work and family demands. He was curious as to how he would fare.
His score confirmed for him that the SAT was “not really measuring your capacity.” A pupil can be having a rough day. People who crumble under pressure or cannot afford pricey test preparation appear destined to perform poorly on the exam, he said. When Rivera learned that the test was going digital, he was not inspired to retake it.
He believed the alteration was like applying lipstick to a pig.
“To me, it reflected the fact that they know there’s an issue but don’t really want to address it,” said Rivera, who has previously received acceptance letters to local public and private universities but is now, like other Americans, dealing with FAFSA delays caused by a social security number error.
This new test may be vital for others
A few schools are resuming the test requirement. On Monday, Dartmouth became the first Ivy League university to reintroduce it. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgetown, both Ivy-adjacent, have already reinstated the requirement for candidates. They frequently cite data indicating that scores are a better predictor of college achievement than grades, which are sometimes exaggerated.
Meanwhile, the College Board is eager to remain relevant in its ongoing competition with the ACT. According to Lisa Speransky, whose company, Ivy Tutors Network, works with kids from a variety of backgrounds, the digital format is one way to increase its market share. The ACT will begin offering a digital version this year, although it will continue to administer the paper option.
Henriquez has accepted the fact that many institutions are moving away from admissions exams. When coaching her mostly low-income BXCSM pupils, she has purposely deemphasized test preparation.
She saw how focused they’d become on getting a good grade, and how quickly they’d lost sight of the parts of learning that she believes are truly important – essays where they could describe their passions, after-school activities where they could try new hobbies, and community service where they could help families like their own.
“They thought [the SAT] was the only way they could get into a ‘good’ school,” she said. “I hated what they were giving up.”
Disrupting the emphasis on the Ivy League and ‘exclusive’ universities
Mia, a student in Los Angeles, scored “pretty good” on the paper version of the SAT in December. She intends to take the digital exam at her school in March to see if she can perform better. “It’s definitely a scary thing – testing,” she added. “It’s like, people are saying they’re test-optional, but the pressure is still on” to score well on the test.
Despite the fact that the exam is mostly optional at the most selective universities, a huge number of students, including Mia, place a high value on it. Nearly 2 million high school graduates took the test during the past academic year, the greatest amount since the beginning of the pandemic and just a hair short of the record rate – 2.2 million members of the Class of 2019. For comparison, roughly 2.5 million freshmen enrolled in a college or university in the fall of 2019, while 2.3 million enrolled in the fall of 2022.
Bello and others argue that the debate over the new SAT format diverts attention away from a more important issue: students’ continued focus on highly selective – or, as they describe it, “highly rejective” – colleges. The majority of higher education institutions in the country accept more than half of all applications. Only a few dozen accept less than 30%.
“I worry about students who think that those top 10 or 15 schools are the only schools and that they won’t be successful if they don’t end up there,” Barnett said. “There is a school out there for everyone. It’s okay if you haven’t heard of it yet. It’s okay if it’s not what your parents want on their bumper sticker.”