SAT tests will take on a new digital format in the spring, raising student concern and excitement surrounding the adjustment.
“Paper feels more like a standardized test. If it goes digital, I feel like I won’t take it seriously,” said junior Emily Hurley.
Current juniors will be the first to take the digital test starting this March. The new test will be one hour shorter than its paper counterpart and have adaptive sections that either increase or decrease in difficulty based on real-time student performance, according to the College Board website.
The possibility of cheating on the digital test poses another student worry, according to junior Elizabeth Sandoval, who said that using a physical test booklet is more fair as there is no way to look up the answers.
“Testing on paper has less of a chance of cheating,” added Sandoval.
Some students remain hopeful about the advantages of the new format.
“I feel like it’s going to be a lot better because I did the SAT on paper and it sucked,” said senior Nicole Richman.
Junior Danielle Ottaviano added, “With timed essays, digital is more convenient.”
Testing application features such as marking for review, calculator, reference sheet, and annotating are similar to the MCAS with the addition of a timer for students to track how much time they have left.
Calculators will be available to use throughout the math section instead of only with certain questions to help emulate real-world accessibility according to the College Board website. The length of word problems in this section has also been reduced.
Although many aspects of the SAT have altered, the content of the test will remain the same.
