Courtesy of AP Guru

Students will download Bluebook to take the Digital SAT and Digital PSAT.

The end of the paper SAT and PSAT has arrived. College Board announced that the SAT and PSAT will become digitalized last year. Now, in only a few months, these digital exams will be offered at GBHS. 

The Digital SAT will offer its first test for students in the United States in 2024, which is expected to be on March 9, 2024. Students interested in taking the existing SAT version will have three remaining dates to take it: Oct.7, Nov. 4 & Dec. 2. The annual PSAT/NMSQT will be digital this year as well, which is to be taken on either Oct. 14 or Oct. 25 of 2023. 

The previous four sections will be eliminated; in place, both the Digital PSAT and Digital SAT will have two sections, Reading & Writing and Math. Within both sections, there will be two separate equal-length modules. 

The material tested will be reflected in scores in which the “scaling is probably very similar to (the paper SAT)” according to Jennifer Buschmann, one of GBHS’ Assistant Principals. On ther other hand, some students have voiced different opinions. 

“The digital one is easier,” sophomore Nithila Shanmugam said. “English sections are so much easier because before, it was really, really long paragraphs, and now it’s just a few sentences.”

Shanmugam came to this conclusion after taking practice tests now offered on Khan Academy.  

On the Digital SAT, passages in the Reading & Writing section are much shorter, and each passage only comes with one question to go with it. 

In a similar manner, the math section eliminated the no-calculator section; a calculator will be allowed for all math problems. 

The duration of these tests will be shorter; both digital exams will be approximately two hours long. The conciseness of the new SAT/PSAT tests is a sharp contrast to the previous three-hour test. 

Alongside annual administrations of the PSAT, GBHS will also offer the SAT starting in the spring of 2023. Previously, many students would have to take it at neighboring high schools. 

When the Digital SAT arrives in the spring Buschmann doesn’t anticipate hosting it on each test date the College Board offers. Buschmann said GBHS will only open SAT testing to students within the district. Students will bring their school Chromebooks and will use a pre-downloaded, browser-based software, Bluebook. 

The Digital exams will be using a multistage adaptive testing (MST) model like standardized state testing exams GBHS students already take (e.g. CAASPP), meaning that the questions that will appear for the second module or subsequent questions will be tailored to each individual’s performance on previous problems. 

There are a variety of reasons as to why the College Board is following through with this change. Ever since the pandemic happened, several College Board exams, such as AP exams, have been conducted online. In fact, other standardized tests are slowly becoming digital, too, with the ACT giving an optional computer test for its test-takers as they’re piloting the new program, for instance. 

“Because they’re digital natives, they are more familiar with technology and taking tests online, and so the College Board wants to continue that,” Buschmann said. 

Many continue to question the value of the SAT and purpose of College Board and other standardized testing in 2023.

The vast majority of colleges are now test-optional. Research from 2021 claiming the SAT/PSAT perpetuated discriminatory practices, led to changes in the standardized test mandate. Other studies, such as this one conducted by the American Physiological Society, found students “experienced additional anxiety related to the electronic examination format” compared to paper exams.  

“The data has come back saying that these tests are less indicators of a student’s success at college and so that’s another reason why colleges are not considering them or you know, not using it in their formula for admissions,” Buschmann said. 

Sophomore Tanvi Choutkuri plans on taking the PSAT her sophomore year and the Digital SAT her junior year.

“I believe it will change college admissions in the sense that receiving/grading the student’s test score will be easier and more practical and the colleges might change their guidelines when it comes to assessing the student’s performance,” Choutkuri said.