College Board announces fully digital SAT
This update comes as more universities make standardized testing optional for admission.
Starting in 2024, American students will take shorter and completely digital SAT exam.
The College Board announced Tuesday that the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) will be administered digitally beginning in 2023 internationally. The policy takes effect in America in 2024.
Vice President of College Readiness Assessments at College Board Priscilla Rodriguez said in a statement that “The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give and more relevant.”
Whereas the SAT has taken approximately three hours, the new test is set to take only two hours.
The verbiage in math problems will be reduced, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the reading portions will be both shortened and adjusted to “reflect a wider range of topics that represent the works students read in college,” the College Board press release states.
In addition to these changes, the College Board announced another set of updates:
”Calculators will be allowed on the entire Math section. Students and educators will get scores back in days, instead of weeks. And, to reflect the range of paths that students take after high school, digital SAT Suite score reports will also connect students to information and resources about local two-year college, workforce training programs, and career options.”
These changes to the SAT comes after the exam has fallen in popularity.
Dozens of colleges have switched to “test-optional” policies, meaning students will not be required to take the SAT or ACT as part of the admissions process.
Some colleges have cited equity as a reason for ditching standardized testing altogether, claiming it will help increase diversity and inclusivity among the student body. Other colleges including Duke University, Princeton University, and the University of Texas at Austin suspended SAT requirements due to COVID-19.
Sheryll Cashin, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote an op-ed in Politico last year calling for the abolition of the SAT, labeling it as one of many “old norms of exclusion” that should be permanently discarded “for a fairer, more inclusive system.”
Campus Reform reached out to the Cashin and the College Board for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
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