New Digital SAT Coming In 2024: The Changes You Need to Know About (Video Blog)
Watch as Matthew Stroup gives an update on what we know so far about the new Digital SAT in 2024, the key changes to the test, and a big change that you probably haven’t heard about!
The SAT is changing to a Digital Test in Spring 2024 in the US (and Fall 2023 Internationally). So what does that mean? Below are the key changes that we know about so far.
1) The SAT is Now Digital
Starting in Spring 2024 in the US, the SAT is going to be digital. This means that students will bring a computer or tablet to test day and will complete the test on their computers. The SAT is NOT an online test. Students cannot take the SAT from their own homes. This is a very common myth going around since the SAT made the announcement about the new digital test. Students still must enroll at a testing center and will complete the SAT on specific testing dates.
No, you can’t take the SAT from the comfort of your own home. You still need to go to a testing center on test day.
2) The SAT is Shorter
The Digital SAT is going to be a 2 hour test instead of the current 3 hour test. The shorter test will have fewer total questions and will feature shorter passages in the Reading sections. The test will also be only two sections - one Reading/Writing Test and one Math test. On the Digital SAT, students will also be allowed to use a calculator for the entire test, unlike the current SAT, which has one no-calculator and one with-calculator test.
We will know much more about the exact changes to the test once the College Board releases the first practice tests in Fall 2022.
3) The New SAT is an Adaptive Test
You might be thinking, what is an adaptive test? An adaptive test is a test in which the questions that students are given depend on how they perform on previous questions. In short, the test “adapts” the difficulty based on how the students is doing as the test progresses. As a result, adaptive tests are supposed to be able to effectively measure a students skill level with fewer questions.
The Digital SAT will have two sections: 1 Reading/Writing and 1 Math. The questions in each test are going to have 2 modules. All students will be given the exact same questions in Module 1. Depending on how the student performs on the questions in Module 1, students will be given certain questions in Module 2. As a result, not all students will answer the same questions on test day. For a more thorough explanation of how this works, you can watch the video above.
What Does This All Mean for Me?
If you are in the class of 2023 or 2024, it means nothing to you! The Digital SAT will be too late for you. For students in the class of 2025 and beyond, the Digital SAT is going to be an option for you to take instead of the ACT. The launch of the Digital SAT is still 2+ years aways, so we will know much more as the College Board released more information.
Once we know more, we will update our SAT vs. ACT posts to go into further detail about how these changes will affect students. To stay updated, you can follow our YouTube channel, where we will post more videos as we know more, and follow along with our blog here.