Pencils no longer needed to take the SAT
The SAT will soon be taken exclusively on a computer, the College Board announced Tuesday, ending an era in which high schoolers have had to make sure their No. 2 pencils were sharpened and their answer bubbles were completely filled in.
The exam, which students will complete on laptops or tablets at testing centers, will also be shortened from three hours to two hours. The changes will begin in 2024 in the United States and in 2023 in other countries.
The College Board is trying to retool the exam that has stressed
out millions of students in the face of questions about whether college admissions tests are fair or even necessary.
A growing number of colleges have eliminated the requirement that applicants submit scores from the SAT or the competing ACT, and the trend of “test-optional” admissions accelerated greatly during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 1,800 schools did not require standardized test scores for 2022 admissions, according to nonprofit organization Fairtest.
The number of SAT test takers declined from 2.2 million high schoolers who graduated in 2020 to 1.5 million in the class of 2021, according to the College Board. About 1.7 million students in the class of 2022 have taken the test to date.
In addition to its transition to a digital test, the College Board will also allow calculators on the entire math section, shorten reading passages and reflect a wider range of topics.
In pilot runs last year, 80 percent of students said they found the digital tests less stressful, according to the College Board, which said laptops or tablets would be provided for students who need them.
Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of college readiness assessments for the College Board, said the changes would make the test more relevant.
“In a largely test-optional world, the SAT is a lower-stakes test in college admissions,” Rodriguez said. “Submitting a score is optional for every type of college, and we want the SAT to be the best possible option for students.”
In recent years, the SAT has come under criticism from those who say that standardized tests handicap poor and minority students, partly because they may not have access to expensive test preparation classes.
In response to criticism, the College Board has said that SAT scores serve to strengthen the applications of many students who test better than their grade-point averages would indicate.