During and following the pandemic, many aspects of students’ lives have become digitized. Following this trend, College Board has decided to convert the paper SAT and PSAT to online.
During the 2020-2021 school year, College Board began conducting research on a digital PSAT. Using pilot programs in schools across the country, they were able to examine digital SAT relationships with other educational measures and ensure that the digital SAT offers comparable levels of reliability to the current SAT. According to the College Board’s FAQs, specific data from these programs will be shared later, however no matter what the data shows, all students (excluding those who medically require paper tests) will be issued a digital test in the future.
Despite College Board’s enthusiasm, some students are not thrilled about the change.
“Computers crash, people practice on paper, so seeing it in a different format… is different…I don’t like the change, I feel like it’s unnecessary. I personally work better with paper tests, I just process it better,” twelfth-grader Ava Pappas said.
Pappas was recently awarded the title of National Merit Semifinalist and will not be taking any more SAT or PSAT tests. However, many juniors who struggle with staring at computers for extended periods of time may share her opinion.
Students who are hesitant about this change may be glad to hear that the digital SAT will be shorter — around two hours compared to the three-plus of the paper test. The shortened SAT is able to effectively measure the same things as a longer paper test because of a new algorithm built into the test.
Now, the SAT can adapt the questions while the student is testing. College Board’s FAQs explain that the algorithm will “allow the same core reading, writing, and math knowledge to be tested much more efficiently, shortening the overall length of the test while also allowing students more time per question.”
“I think in some ways, it’s good, because we needed to make that change eventually. But I don’t think they should have done it in the beginning of the year, because there’s been rumors like it’s supposed to be easier than the paper SATs… and they’re not going to be able to tell the difference between who took the paper one and who took the digital one. So that’s going to be unfair for some people,” eleventh-grader Ava Michalopoulos said.
Michalopoulos also said that they feel the digital aspect of the SAT will, overall, benefit them, and thinks that those who do not have the chance to take it are at a disadvantage.
Like Michalopoulos said, as rumors and misinformation go around, it is important to know factual information about the new changes.
“Online there are a lot of third-party vendors, companies, businesses, that may also want to, in addition to provide information, increase their business and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, the most reliable source of information is always going to come from the College Board,” College and Career Advisor Lori Wiley said.
Wiley urges all students to be “good stewards of information” and to fact check all information with College Board. In addition, Wiley encourages students to be familiar with digital tests prior to test day.
“Practice, practice, there’s just no substitute for practice… Our Pine View kids are such good testers, I hope that they at least just go in one time, just one time to see what this new test is going to look like – because you might love it,” Wiley said.