Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...!
Take a look at the next few upcoming test dates for both the SAT and the ACT. What do you notice?
With the exception of the December and June tests, it seems that the standardized test companies have staked out their own turf throughout the school year. I’m all for it! Give the students a chance to prepare for one, then the other (if that’s what they choose).
Of course, if you’ve read along with these posts you are probably well on the way to choosing one test or the other!
Maybe this news will tip the scales for you. The SAT is rolling out some big, big changes in a few short months.
Testing in the Digital Age: The New SAT
Starting in March 2023, the SAT will offer a stage-adaptive digital test in international locations only. This means the difficulty of the test will change according to the proficiency of the test-taker, but (unlike some other digitized tests like the GRE) the difficulty only increases after each section.
What that appears to mean is that every test-taker begins with a block of questions of uniform difficulty (that may or may not be the same across the board). Then, according to the number of correct answers and type of question answered correctly (easy/medium/hard), the next section will either contain more medium/hard questions or more easy/medium questions.
The algorithm builds each test individually from a large repository of questions, which makes duplication highly unlikely. In effect, every student could potentially take a completely different test within and between testing dates. So how would each test be, you know, standardized? Stay tuned as I find out more about how the process works. Currently, there is no set date for when the digital test will make its way to the United States, but it will certainly be here sooner than later!
Students will initially be allowed to bring their own computers, with the testing app already loaded before they begin testing. This kind of test will be much shorter than the current version and potentially much easier to administer.
In addition, the test is given in a “lockdown” app, which means students will not be allowed to access any other windows but the test itself during administration. No Google searching for right answers! By 2024, the SAT plans to be fully digital.
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Impact
How does this change impact the test? A lot, actually.
The reading passages will no longer be huge blocks of reading followed by a series of 10 or 11 questions. Instead, everything a test taker needs to answer the questions will be contained on a single page. The “passages” as they now are will be just a few sentences long, with the questions coming at the end of each passage.
And the sections I referenced in my previous post are on their way to obsolescence with the new digital era. There are four sections: two combined reading and writing sections, each 27 questions and 32 minutes long, and two math sections, each 22 questions and 35 minutes long. This new test clocks in at a little bit over two hours long, compared with the current SAT (3 hours) and ACT (2 hours, 55 minutes). Easy in, easy out!
Instead of a separate unscored section, four “experimental” questions will now be mixed in with the scored questions, which makes it all but impossible to tell which questions will be scored and which will not.
Also, no more waiting weeks for secured bubble sheets to be passed through an official Scantron device and spit out your score! I’m sure those students in El Paso who have to take the SAT again after their answer sheets went flying out of a wayward UPS truck would have liked this process to have happened about a year early, am I right? Scores will be available mere days after the exam, which is a very good thing.
Not as good is that test-takers will no longer be able to access their test questions! Makes it somewhat more difficult to prepare for the test, although I have to give credit where it is due. College Board’s partnership with Khan Academy has produced an amazing practice test module for both the SAT and the advanced placement (AP) exams, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a robust and mutable repository of practice questions emerge sometime before the first test administration in March.
Today, if you're curious (as I was), College Board has published a short PDF with sample questions (and brief answer explanations). Or you can download the Bluebook app from the College Board website and take a mini practice digital test yourself!
More Changes?
The ACT doesn’t appear to be following in the SAT’s digital footsteps, but I have heard from at least one college counselor that they had their own digital test ready to roll out about the same time as COVID shut everything down back in 2020. A change in upper management and maybe a bit of gun-shyness from a previous disastrous digital roll-out of the ACT ASPIRE program in 2014 no doubt have contributed to a go-slow approach.
There will undoubtedly be kinks to work out, but I think ultimately a fully digitized test could be an extremely effective way to administer both tests. The one thing I worry about is equal access to resources. What happens if a student does not have access to a computer? What kind of computers will be available on test day? Does that mean these tests would no longer be given at high schools and colleges? Many more students take the SAT than, say, the GRE and other similar tests that are offered at testing centers. Does this new format mean more testing centers and fairly flexible test dates (think Pearson instead of local high schools), or that test administrators accustomed to giving paper tests will now have to adapt their procedures to deliver this product digitally? And what happens when a student inevitably tries to cheat the system during the test?
We will find out together. Thanks for reading!
Great article to help students prepare and know what to expect!