Beginning in 2024, the SAT exam will become completely digital, shorter, and students will be allowed to use a calculator for the entire math section.
On Jan. 25,2022, the College Board announced that the SAT will be taken digitally beginning in 2023 for international students and by 2024 for U.S. students. The new digital SAT will be shorter and should take two hours instead of three, allow students to use calculators on the math section and have shorter reading passages.
Test administrators say this will give test-takers more time to answer questions and the shorter reading passages will cover a wider range of topics.
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments Board. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform; we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible.”
According to the College Board, the transition comes months after the SAT was pilot tested digitally in November 2021. Eighty percent of students said they found the tests less stressful, and one hundred percent of educators reported a positive experience.
Joan Lenard, a seventh-grade teacher at Nova Middle School, said the digital test format is best for both students and teachers.
“I’ve been teaching for a while now and have kids of my own that I’ve put through college, everything is being moved online, we need to accommodate the students the best way we know how,” said Lenard. “Moving the SAT in a digital format will allow students more time on these exams and improve the scores we normally see.”
The digital version will be delivered in a format more familiar to students who regularly learn and test online at school.
Recent high school graduate Jessica Parson agrees students will feel at ease with the digital format.
“I feel this change will be easier for our generation because we’re constantly using technology, and usually focus better using the computer than testing on paper,” said Parson.
Test-takers will be allowed to use their own laptops or tablets but will still have to sit for the test at a monitored testing site or in school. Test scores will be available in days, rather than weeks with the new digital format.