The College Board will officially debut its new Digital SAT (DSAT) and PSAT in 2023-24. Here’s everything you need to know.

https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/digital/digital-practice-preparation

I’m kidding, of course: the digital SAT has been in the works for years now, but as of today’s announcement (1/25/22), it’s official.

According to the College Board, the first round of digital SATs will arrive in time for the March 2023 International exams (and beyond). If you’re curious about the real reason for this change: the College Board has encountered huge problems with international exam security, including test leaks, cheating scandals, score delays, and cancelled scores, and the digital SAT promises to be far more secure than paper-based exams—though the College Board’s promises about “every student” having a “unique test form” are surely more hype than reality, since most high-scoring students will likely see the same counted questions, although possibly in a different order.

Next come the Fall 2023 Digital PSATs, the March 2024 US Digital SATs, and the March 2024 School-Day SATs (also digital), at which point a paper exam option will no longer be available anywhere — with the exception of students with accommodations, who will still have the option of paper-based testing.

College Board Frequently Asked Questions / Google Slides Presentation / DSAT Sample Questions

Some highlights:

-The digital SAT will be shortened to just 98 questions in 2 hours, 24 minutes, including the 10-minute break — from 154 questions in 3 hours, 15 minutes on the current version of the SAT, or 3 hours, 35 minutes if you include the 5th, “experimental” section that is unscored. Test starting times will likely become more flexible, and test dates will likely become more frequent. Students will be allowed to bring their own laptop computers or tablets. Loaner devices (Chromebooks, to be specific) will be provided for those who request them in advance.

As of November 2022, there have been reported problems with the BlueBook app / taking the digital SAT on Mac computers, so for now I would recommend using a PC if you have one.

-The exam requires internet connectivity, and is designed to pick up right where you left off if your computer crashes, freezes, loses power, or drops internet signal.

-Despite its somewhat deceptive name, the digital SAT is NOT an at-home exam: you must take the exam in an official College Board testing center, such as your local high school, on an official SAT test date.

-Given the digital SAT’s shorter length, there will only be 2 sections: 1) a combined Reading and Writing section, and 2) a Math section — both about one hour in duration. Each section will be composed of two modules, and will follow a “section-level adaptive format,” where a student’s performance on the first module of questions will determine the difficulty level (easy or hard) of their second module of the same type.

Early reports from digital SAT pilot test-takers tell us that the 2 Reading and Writing modules will each be 32 minutes long, with 27 questions per module — and that the 2 Math modules will each be 35 minutes long, with 22 questions per module, totaling (64 + 70) = 134 minutes of actual testing time. There is also a single 10-minute break after the 2nd Reading and Writing module. 2 (unidentified) questions from each module will be experimental aka “pretest” questions—which means that they do not count toward your score. (Source)

-Scores will be returned within days, not weeks. Additional features (“Testing Tools”) will include a countdown timer and a math reference page with common formulas (same as the current SAT), as well as Mark for Review, Annotate, and Zoom options.

-Unlike the current SAT, which has a Math no Calculator section 3 and a Math with Calculator section 4, a calculator will be allowed for all math questions. You can bring your own approved calculator, or use the provided on-screen calculator from Desmos (iOS / Android / desktop). Student-produced responses aka “grid-in” answers will include negatives, and up to 5 digits.

The exam content will stay mostly the same. However, despite the College Board’s claims to the contrary, there will be additional topics and skills tested — such as poetry and synthesizing information from notes — on the digital SAT, and that other question types will be removed and/or de-emphasized, as has happened every time the SAT has changed exam formats and question types. The College Board has promised that the first official digital SAT prep materials and practice tests will be available by the fall of this year (2022).

Additional math topics tested will include proportions, functions, systems of equations, geometry, coordinate geometry, number properties, and parabolas.

-Thanks to the wonders of adaptive testing, nearly every student will see a different combination of questions on their digital SAT, making cheating, test leaks, and answer sharing much more difficult.

-The Reading and Writing section will be altered from the current 5 long passages with 10 or 11 questions each, to shorter passages from a wider variety of sources, including shorter, paragraph-style passages, with only one question tied to each passage.

Am I surprised to hear about these changes? No, not at all. I began tutoring the SAT during my freshman year at Harvard in 1998, and this is the 3rd time that the SAT has changed since then. Historically, the SAT has switched exam formats every decade or so: the test was altered in 2005 (to a 2400-point exam), then again in 2015 (back to 1600) — and now, the big switch to a digital-only format has been slated for 2023-24.

As usual, I’m sure that there will be a rush of test-takers attempting to take the current paper-based SAT before it changes formats, given the huge amount of real practice exams available (70 official SAT exams and counting), versus the dearth of practice materials currently available for the digital exam.

Plus, despite the many conveniences and advantages of digital testing, let’s face it: it’s often easier to take a paper test than a computer one, so many students will still prefer the paper-based exam, regardless of any difference in length. Staring at a computer screen while taking an SAT for 2 straight hours is an almost entirely different experience from taking a 3-hour, paper-based SAT, which is not only easier on the eyes, but also perhaps easier overall.

-Brian