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The Scholastic Assessment Test, abbreviated as SAT, is a standardized test many Indian Hills students choose to take in order to apply to colleges or universities. Many students study assiduously to receive a high score on the SAT, as the SAT is a standard requirement to further pursue passions or interests. In early 2022, however, Collegeboard announced its creation of the new online SAT in response to the growing reliance on technology. Starting in the Spring of 2024, Indian Hills students will be required to take the online version of the SAT, forcing current sophomores, juniors, and future underclassmen to now prepare for the online format and adjust to the abrupt change.
The original paper version of the SAT consists of reading, writing, math with a calculator, and math without calculator sections that hold an identical level of difficulty. In the online version, sections are adjusted based on a student’s performance in a previous section. Gabriel Spieser, a student in the class of 2023, was selected to participate in a trial run of the online SAT at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. According to Gabe, the “layout makes it so the test is more challenging but will be more rewarding and should represent a student’s ability better. For example, on one of my paper math exams, I got a 730 with 8 wrong questions. On the digital exam, I got a 740 on the math section but may have gotten 15 questions wrong, but since the questions were more difficult in the second section, I was not punished for more wrong answers.” In the traditional SAT, sections are identical for everyone taking the test that day, with no adjusting sections based on a student’s previous performance. The online SAT, in comparison, encompasses sections that adjust based on a student’s performance. Therefore, students answering more questions incorrectly in the reading section will receive an easier writing section to increase score numbers.
Parallel to the prominent change in layout, reading, writing, and math sections are assumed to be easier than its antecedents. In the digital SAT, the reading and writing sections are combined into one, similar to the no calculator and calculator sections being combined into one. In the singular reading and writing section, Collegeboard has shortened reading passages while maintaining similar levels of rigor. Jia Chen, a current sophomore, brings up how the “online SAT would make the reading section a little harder because it would be harder to make annotations as you read.” Collegeboard, however, has yet to provide a solution. In the singular math section, students will be permitted to utilize calculators for the entirety of the section, allowing Collegeboard to assess a student’s ability to use a calculator. In a similar fashion to the reading and writing section, word problems have been shortened while maintaining a comparable level of difficulty.
The last major changes implemented by Collegeboard revolve around the decrease in time to complete and send out SAT scores. According to Collegeboard, the digital SAT is “substantially shorter than their paper and pencil predecessors—lasting 2 hours and 14 minutes instead of 3 hours.” In the years leading up to the implementation of the digital SAT, students have complained about the lengthy time to hear about scores. “exact date for when Indian Hills will begin the digital SAT as we will follow guidance from the College Board as they become available. They are stating that Spring 2024 would be the earliest the digital SAT would be administered in the United States; it is being piloted internationally now.” If the digital SAT follows its estimated date to be implemented, Collegeboard administrators and school test coordinators will hear about student performance results in the 2023- 2024 school year. Gabe Spieser adds how the online SAT “hurt my English score significantly. This could be because I rushed out of the English section to go to my soccer game. For students in the upper score range I would say it is useful because it leaves less up to chance. This is because students looking for a score in the upper range are hurt by one wrong question on paper while the digital exam leaves more room for error.” As the digital SAT rolls out in the spring of 2024 for students at Indian Hills to take, Mrs. Fisher interprets Collegeboard’s sudden decision as a decision to increase “test security and expediting score reporting” rather than progressing student performance. Despite a multitude of unknowns that have yet to be answered, the online SAT remains an important test for college applications. Whether the new version of the SAT will benefit or hinder student scores, however, remains another unknown that will be answered in the spring of 2024.
