Are you taking the digital SAT? See what students and tutors have to say

Francesca Lesinski

January 5, 2024

The new year often marks new beginnings—as such, some high school students will kick off 2024 preparing for the worldwide launch of the digital SAT on March 9th. In early 2022, following preliminary trials, the College Board announced its transition to online standardized testing in replacement of the traditional paper-and-pencil format that has been an integral part of many colleges’s admission processes.

Along with digitizing the SAT, the College Board has also integrated the online calculator Desmos, which students can access on both math sections, reduced the duration of the test, shortened reading comprehension passages, and implemented adaptive questions that increase or decrease in difficulty depending on a student’s performance in previous modules.

The College Board justifies its digitization of the SAT as “adapting to meet the changing needs of students and educators alike,” primarily emphasizing the security and equity allegedly ensured by the online format. By utilizing multistage adaptive testing, The College Board claims that a digital SAT will offer students individualized questions to enhance security, expedite results through online scoring, and accurately measure students’ capabilities. In contrast with this favorable view of the changes, a prominent SAT tutor in the greater Los Angeles area argues that moving the test to a digital format will not promote equity; instead, he says, it will exacerbate the existing inequities among student minorities.

“I don’t think the shift will significantly improve equity in testing. The underlying causes of disparities—limited access to preparation resources, cultural biases in test content, and subpar pre-secondary education, for instance—are not solved through digitization. If anything, the change will widen the effects of the digital divide by disadvantaging students who don’t have reliable access to computers and the internet.”

Students also expressed some hesitation in regard to the digital SAT. Based on interviews with multiple test-takers, attitudes are divided: some are optimistic about the change, while others question the fairness and complexity of online standardized testing.

An 11th-grade student attending a private girls’ school in Los Angeles, Jenna, recognized the value of the new digitized test, especially its changes to the English modules. “I find the online English section of the SAT less stressful because the passages are shorter and the questions are displayed directly next to each passage, which makes it easier to navigate,” Jenna stated. “I think that this version of the English section on the SAT will benefit students who have shorter attention spans and struggle reading long passages.”

On the other hand, an 11th-grader attending another private school in Los Angeles, Savannah, raised a potential debate about the security of the digital SAT, as it uses learning software to generate different sets of questions for each student.

“I think that although it does decrease cheating…it seems a little unfair to me that people are taking different tests,” Savannah stated. “For example, if a student doesn’t do as well on the second section as they would have on an original test because it was made harder, is that really fair for everyone?”

In considering both the advantages and disadvantages posed by the online SAT, Savannah questioned the College Board’s decision to eliminate paper tests entirely and suggested offering students both online and pencil-and-paper testing options.

“Students should still have the choice whether to take it online or on paper, depending on which works best for their focus or learning style…I feel like for me it could go either way,” Savannah stated. “On the one hand, I work better with physical copies, but on the other, I do a lot of practice with online tests already, and having a digital SAT will definitely reduce any scantron mistakes.”

Although the shift to digital testing was perhaps unavoidable, given society's growing reliance on technology, its consequences for student scores and the application process remain to be seen.