SAT season begins this weekend, and for the first time, students across the country will take the SAT using computers and tablets rather than the pencils they’ve used since the college entrance exam was introduced nearly a century ago.
Although it’s unfamiliar territory for today’s digital natives, some are still beginning to embrace the idea.
“I didn’t really like it at first because I’ve always been the type to do things on paper, but it’s not terrible,” said Rachel Morrow, a senior at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham. said. I practiced using the digital version. She likes the timer feature so she can continue working without looking at the clock.
SAT defended against ‘false’ attacks as exams become increasingly optional for students
The launch of the digital SAT comes as its administrator, the College Board, and supporters of standardized testing hope to gain support from schools and critics skeptical of the SAT’s place in college admissions. I was disappointed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has canceled the entire SAT exam season, reinforcing long-standing questions about whether the exam favors students from higher-income families. Many universities have dropped testing requirements, and most still leave it up to students to decide whether to submit scores.
Recently, a select few universities, including Dartmouth College and Brown University, announced that they would resume requiring SAT or ACT scores. They use this test to identify promising students who might otherwise be overlooked, students from schools that don’t offer advanced coursework or extracurricular activities, and whose teachers are too weak to write glowing letters of recommendation. They say they can identify students who may be too lazy.
Elijah Nicolas Hernandez-Valeriano studies before taking the digital SAT at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School on March 6, 2024 in Birmingham, Alabama. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Many students believe there are benefits to taking the SAT, even if colleges don’t require scores.
“Right now, a lot of people are trying to take a voluntary test, and if you get a score, it’s likely to give you an advantage,” Morrow said.
Her class practices on a digital version of the SAT. Four years ago, the school partnered with CollegeSpring, a nonprofit organization that provides on-campus preparation for students from low-income backgrounds to better position themselves for college, to offer a mandatory SAT prep course for juniors. The company took the unprecedented step of introducing the system.
Celia Marks, a test prep teacher, said the SAT is especially important for students like her, who are primarily Black and Latino and come from low-income households.
“In America, it’s an attack on you,” Marks said. “To compete, you need to get every advantage you can. And it’s the same with college, where the exams are optional and they don’t know where you went to school and don’t trust that your grades aren’t inflated. One way or another, they’re going to rely on the feeder schools that they trust, and they’re actually excluding more people than you might think.”
The SAT can also unlock scholarships, but scoring high enough to qualify requires thorough test preparation that many low-income Americans don’t have access to.
The digital test is one hour shorter, but has the same set-up and scoring method, with two sections (one math, one reading and writing), each worth up to 800 points. Depending on the student’s performance, the questions may become a little easier or more difficult. Candidates can use their own laptops or tablets, but must take the exam at a supervised testing center or school rather than at home. To prevent cheating, students are not allowed to work with other programs or applications while the test is running.
Digitization does not resolve the equity debate. Critics say the SAT and its replacement, the ACT, are biased toward well-resourced, high-income students, but supporters say the SAT remains the best tool for predicting college success and that students argues that it can be considered in the context of socio-economic factors such as place of residence.
Test administrators say the Digital SAT addresses what’s within their control by including an advanced calculator for use during the exam and offering free full-length practice exams. And while the results may reflect inequalities in the education system, they say they do not cause them.
“The inequity claims around standardized testing, on a macro level, are certainly something we’re looking at and certainly concerned about,” said Priscilla, director of college readiness assessment at the College Board. Rodriguez said. “But the performance disparities on tests like the SAT mirror the performance disparities we see on every standardized assessment in this country, going back to third-grade tests.”
About 1.9 million students in the Class of 2023 took the SAT at least once, up from 1.7 million in 2022, according to the College Board.
Emerson Hauser, 17, will take the test Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. She plans to submit her scores to the colleges she applies to, whether they are required or not. Judging by online practice tests, she prefers the digital version.
“I didn’t have to fill in bubble sheets, so I just had to focus on the screen the whole time,” she said. “It’s now easier to read and respond to prompts.”
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Ashley Chavez-Cruz, a third-grader at Holy Family Cristo Rey, said there are features that make the digital test more approachable, such as highlight options. However, she said the digital version makes it difficult to mark up questions and passages because you can only write notes in a text box on the side.
But there’s something less nerve-wracking about taking a test digitally.
“Paper-based tests definitely have an exam-like feel, especially with the clock ticking quietly in a quiet room,” she says. “The digital SAT made me feel less anxious, even though I knew it was a test in my head.”
