New Digital SAT

The College Board is switching to a digital SAT in spring 2024. The current, paper SAT is available until then.

What should I do?

Class of 2024: You are unaffected! Keep doing what you’re doing.

Class of 2025: You have a few options, and don’t necessarily HAVE to take this digital SAT.

  1. Focus on the paper ACT

  2. Focus on the paper SAT, and get it done by December 2023

  3. Try the digital SAT spring of 2024 in addition to option 1 or 2

We can determine the right course of action together after taking diagnostics this spring or summer, by which point we will also likely have more information about this new SAT.

March 2023:

SAT goes digital outside the U.S.

Fall 2023:

PSAT goes digital within the U.S.

March 2024:

SAT goes digital within the U.S.

What’s Changing

For the most part, these changes are positive and will improve anxiety and stress for students of the current version about how long the test is, not being able to use a calculator for math, and having to read through long, complex passages.

Going digital

  • Testing will still happen at schools and testing centers, NOT at home.

  • Students can bring their own laptop or tablet to the testing site, or they can use one provided by the school or College Board.

  • The new online platform will have built-in features: a calculator (though students can still bring their own), elimination, flagging, and timer.

What’s the same?

  • Content (reading, english, math) and question types

  • Scoring out of 1600: 800 for Verbal, 800 for Math

  • Cost

  • Comparable difficulty

  • Accommodations available (details TBD)

What’s different?

  • Shorter: about 2 hours as opposed to 3

  • More time per question

  • 2 sections: Verbal (combining previous Reading and English) and Math (combining two previous Math sections)

  • Reading: a single question tied to individual paragraphs, rather than 10-11 questions tied to a long passage

  • Math: multiple choice and grid-in questions are mixed together, rather than separate

  • Calculator allowed on all math sections

  • Scores posted within a few days, rather than 10+ days

Adaptive Testing

The biggest change is that the test will be adaptive, meaning the sections will start out the same for all students, but the second half will vary based on how they performed in the first half. This allows for

  • Shorter testing

  • More secure testing

  • Testing better tailored to each student

Look out for more information from me in the coming months, as I’m working on ways to best prepare my students with digital practice. We will know more as the College Board releases more information, as well as we see how colleges and their admissions teams respond. As always, reach out with any questions!