The SAT, an exam high school juniors take to measure their ability before college, has been modified to be taken digitally. Many students are frustrated and need clarification on what to expect now that the structure and format have changed. The College Board has ensured that this new modified version of the SAT is crafted to be more relevant, with examples and concepts that are more familiar to students than the previous paper version.
While the main ideas of the SAT remain intact, the sections aim to test our reading, writing, and math skills but with a more personalized and adaptive approach. There are shorter reading passages designed specifically for each question, and the math section is now more geared toward practical problems that relate to situations that may be used in the future. Additionally, instead of the original 3-hour duration, the digital version only lasts about 2 hours and 14 minutes and you can view your scores much faster.
Furthermore, the Digital SAT itself has built-in features for students to use while testing, which are listed below and on the College Board website. ‘Mark For Review,’ with this feature, students can flag any question and return to it later on. ‘Testing Timer,’ is another feature that counts down the time remaining in each module. In addition, students can hide this timer and get an alert when the module is about to end. There is a built-in calculator available during the duration of the math section of the SAT and a reference sheet of common formulas to use during certain questions. Finally, students have access to an ‘annotation’ tool that allows them to mark up any question and leave themselves a note.
In hindsight, now knowing that we have access these tools and resources, the Digital SAT should have been easier and more convenient for students. However, after the first Digital SAT was administered on March 9th of this year, this opinion is quickly changing.
It was reported that with each question it can get harder depending on if you got the previous one wrong or right. Many students who took the first Digital SAT noticed how the reading and writing was as expected but the Math section was found to be more difficult than the paper one. Many students are complaining that the practice tests the College Board administered online did not resemble the actual Digital SAT structure at all.
Even students who are taking advanced math in school were stumped at the second module in the Math section. Several reports of how the calculator froze prevented them from answering the questions to come. Some students even noticed how there were missing parenthesis during the math problems making it more difficult and complex.
These increased difficulty-type questions caused more test anxiety for both the students and their families. Those who depend on the SAT grade to get into colleges or even those who self-study for the SAT feel more pressure to practice to achieve their desired grade. It raises the question of how fair and if it completes its goal of highlighting the student’s capabilities in a more relevant light. The results of this SAT would showcase the need for adjustments in the updated Digital SAT section.
Our school SAT is on April 12 and hopefully, all these corrections and adjustments will be fixed.
