During the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the country were forced to adapt to remote learning. After remote learning, schools across the country continue to digitalize the educational experience. This will soon include the College Board’s Standardized Aptitude Test (SAT), which high school students will have to take digitally starting in 2024.
Students from varying grade levels at Townsend Harris High School commented on the change.
Some students welcomed the change, reasoning that many aspects of society are leaning more towards the digital world and so this exam should too.
However, sophomores Mark Mbogho and Aizay Amin said that they prefer the SATs to be held on paper. “I’m used to taking big tests physically, so doing it on a computer might be different,” said Mark.
Differing from the current SAT even more, the new exam will also have a shorter testing period, an adaptive format, and faster results.
Previously, students had to answer 154 questions within a three-hour limit. Now, the old Reading and Writing subsections will be combined into one English section with fewer multiple-choice questions and shorter passages. Additionally, annotation tools such as highlighting and flagging questions will be available.
The mathematics section of the new SAT also will have some major changes. Similar to the English section, there will only be one section, as the non-calculator subsection will be removed. There will also be 12 fewer multiple-choice questions and two fewer student-produced questions. This change will shrink the time limit down by ten minutes.
The adaptive format ensures each student will begin their test with a randomized question, and the difficulty of the questions will adjust based on whether or not the student answers correctly.
Though she isn’t taking the SATs this year, incoming freshman Kaylee Oh said, “Now that the exam is digital, I’m worried if I will have the right resources to study and if anything else will change in the future.”
The College Board has preparation materials on their website.
“I feel I would score better on paper,” Aizay said. “I would have to learn how to do everything digitally.”
This will be the last year to take the current paper-and-pencil version of the SAT. Starting in the fall, all PSAT-related tests will be administered digitally. During the spring, all SATs will be administered digitally, and the traditional paper test will not be offered.
