High school students dreaming of a college education will have a newly formatted exam to deal with, effective the spring of 2024. That’s when College Board will launch its redesigned SAT exam in the United States.
College Board recently announced that it is once again revamping the SAT exam, which was first administered in 1926 and has undergone many revisions through the years. The change is big news to the nearly three million students who take the SAT each year at some seven thousand test centers in more than 170 countries.
The newly formatted test will first be introduced at international test sites in 2023, before launching at U.S. test sites in the spring of 2024. The most significant changes are its format, which will switch from paper to digital, and its length, which will shrink from three hours of testing material to two hours. The new test will also reduce the length of reading passages and allow for the use of a calculator on all, rather than just some, of the math problems.
Another interesting quality of the new test is that it’s “adaptive,” choosing students test questions, as they move through the exam, based on how well they are doing on the earlier test questions. Adaptive tests ask harder questions when previous questions are answered correctly, and easier questions when previous questions are answered incorrectly. Of course, students’ scores are impacted accordingly. The SAT will continue to be scored on a scale of 400-to-1600 points.
Although the test will be digital, students will not be able to take the exam at home but will be required to report to an official test center – typically a local high school.
High school students who are currently sophomores, juniors or seniors will not be impacted by the change, as they will either be seniors or will have graduated by the time the new format is introduced. Current freshmen will have the opportunity to take the SAT in its current format during their freshmen or sophomore years, or the fall of their junior year. They can also take the newly formatted SAT in the spring of their junior year, the subsequent summer, and the fall of their senior year, and ultimately use their most impressive score on their college applications.
Even though many colleges adopted a “test optional” policy during Covid days, and some continue to do so, students recognize that solid SAT scores can benefit them in a multitude of areas including college admissions, scholarships, and the avoidance of college placement tests.
Susan Alaimo is the founder and director of Collegebound Review that, for the past 25 years, has offered PSAT/SAT® preparation and private college advising by Ivy League educated instructors. Visit CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362
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