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The College Board recently announced a suite of changes to the SAT® to streamline the SAT experience. We’ve answered some of your most pressing questions!
At MasteryPrep, we’re committed to keeping our customers informed about important standardized testing changes. This announcement from The College Board has generated questions among students, parents, and educators alike. We hope to help shed some light on the changes and set you up for SAT success going into the 2023-2024 school year.
Long story short, The College Board has announced a series of changes to the SAT that they believe will make the test “easier to take, easier to give, more secure, and more relevant.”
The biggest change is that the SAT will no longer be a paper-and-pencil test; it’s going digital. The test will be administered digitally on a custom-built testing app. Students can access it on their own devices or school-owned ones.
On top of this, there are some structural changes to the SAT. More details on that later.
The change went into effect for international students in the spring of 2023. However, the changes will go into effect for U.S. students in the spring of 2024.
As previously mentioned, the test will be administered digitally via a testing application. This new app will be operable on Mac and Windows computers, iPads, and Chromebooks. Students have the option to bring their own, fully-charged device or they can request to borrow one from The College Board upon registration.
In the app, students can see a live timer, use a digital calculator, mark questions for review, and more. Students will have the freedom to navigate through a given module’s questions, with the ability to preview upcoming questions or mark earlier questions to return to. This technology will make the test-taking experience more personalized and less stressful.
Another major change is the delivery of scores. Students will now receive their scores in days instead of weeks, making it easier for them to plan for their future.
The Digital SAT Suite will also provide students with a more comprehensive score report, connecting them to information and resources about local two-year colleges, workforce training programs, and career options.
Digital delivery is also more secure and allows for more flexibility in administering tests for schools, districts, and states.
There are some structural changes coming to the SAT.
The Reading and Writing sections of the SAT will be combined into a single section. Instead of a few lengthy passages, students will now see many shorter passages, allowing them to see a wider range of topics that are more representative of what they will see in college. A single question is associated with each passage, making the test less repetitive and more engaging.
The test’s Math section will now allow students to use calculators throughout. Students can either bring their own approved calculator on test day or can use the graphing calculator built directly into the app. Additionally, the average length of word problems will be reduced.
Not quite–the material isn’t changing!
Perhaps the most exciting change is the introduction of Multistage Adaptive Testing (MST). This technology will allow the test to “adapt” to present questions that are more appropriate to a student’s performance level. Both the Reading and Writing and Math sections will be divided into two equal-length, separately timed modules. Module 1 questions allow students to demonstrate their achievements, while Module 2 questions take aim at the test taker’s achievement level relative to their performance in Module 1. The question difficulty will be personalized, resulting in shorter tests that still retain the precision and reliability of longer linear tests.
Another significant change is the test time. The time allotted to take the SAT will go down from 3 hours to 2 hours and 14 minutes. This time change will allow students to have more time to answer each question on average. The College Board believes this, combined with the introduction of MST, is a better way to measure students’ skills and knowledge, not just their speed.
Overall, lots of changes are coming next spring! MasteryPrep is here every step of the way to ensure your students are thoroughly prepared. MasteryPrep offers SAT solutions for every need, ranging from boot camps and bellringers to professional development for your teachers.
If you need help preparing your students for the SAT, contact us today to learn more about our available options.
About MasteryPrep:
Founded in 2012, Baton Rouge-based MasteryPrep provides mastery-based college readiness services and resources for the SAT®, ACT®, TSIA2, EOC, and WorkKeys®. MasteryPrep is the nationally preferred SAT and ACT prep provider of the Council for Opportunity in Education and partners with schools and districts to level the playing field on standardized assessments and accountability measures. MasteryPrep is ranked among the Inc. 5000 “Fastest Growing Companies,” featured by “Entrepreneur 360,” and selected among the “Growth Leaders” by Louisiana Economic Development for two years in a row.
MasteryPrep is here to bridge the gap in an e-learning environment by providing your students with much needed college readiness preparation.
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