On October 5th of this year, many underclassmen at DSHS participated in a school-administered Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (the PSAT). However, rather than the usual paper-based test, students were instructed to take a virtual assessment, leading many students to wonder if this same change would apply to future PSAT and SAT tests.
“Starting in the Spring of 2024, all SAT [and PSAT] exams will be digital” Testing Coordinator, Megan Batson said.
Not only does this modification differ in the way these tests were previously administered and scored, there are other general formatting adjustments made that allow for College Board to utilize all potential benefits pertaining to this shift.
“The digital SAT will be shorter—about two hours instead of three for the current SAT, with more time per question. The digital test will feature shorter reading passages with one question tied to each, and passages will reflect a wider range of topics that represent the works students read in college. Calculators will be allowed on the entire Math section.” according to the College Board website (collegeboard.org).
Transitioning to a virtual layout also allows for the use of various reflective AI algorithms, a new way for tests to adapt to the students academic abilities and skill levels as the assessment progresses. This generates questions regarding scoring fairness for students that were forced to take the SAT on paper compared to digitally.
“I don’t think the ‘fairness’ of scoring will necessarily be affected. The College Board has been working on this shift for a number of years at this point, so I trust they’ve done what they can in regards to aligning the scoring,” said Megan Batson.
Apart from the benefits for College Board and administration regarding testing security and human labor/error within the handling of the booklets, there are many benefits for students within this change.
“As mentioned previously, the test is shorter, which means students are in testing mode for a shorter amount of time, [this] allows you to not miss as much instruction if you’re taking the exam on a school day… it also aligns with how students are mostly given exams at this point in history – although there surely are classes that give paper exams, students have a comfort level with testing online at this point in age that would not have been true even 5 years ago,” Batson said.
Although some students may be opposed to this medium in favor of preference, the decisions surrounding these alterations are final.
“Each student should know their comfort level in taking a paper exam versus a digital exam,” Batson said. “If you’ve already taken the SAT on paper, but think you may score higher on the digital exam, there’s nothing stopping you from taking it again to test your theory.”