Standardized test comeback includes digital SAT’s launch

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — As SAT season kicks off this weekend, students across the U.S. for the first time will take it with computers and tablets — and not the pencils they’ve used since the college admissions test was introduced nearly a century ago.

It’s not unfamiliar territory for today’s digital natives, but some are still warming up to the idea.

“I’ve always been the type to do things on paper, so at first I didn’t really like it, but it’s not terrible,” said Rachel Morrow, a junior at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, where students have been practicing with a digital version. She likes a timer function that keeps her on track without having to watch the clock.

The digital SAT’s launch comes as its administrator, the College Board, and backers of standardized tests hope to win over schools and critics who are skeptical of its place in college admissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic canceled a full SAT testing season and intensified longstanding questions about whether the exams favor students from high-income families. Many colleges dropped test requirements, and today most still leave it up to students to decide whether to submit scores.

Recently, a small number of selective colleges including Dartmouth and Brown announced they would resume requiring SAT or ACT scores. They say the tests allow them to identify promising students who might otherwise be overlooked — students from schools that don’t offer advanced coursework and extracurriculars, and whose teachers may be stretched too thin to write glowing letters of recommendation.

The SAT also can unlock scholarships, but scoring well enough to qualify often requires intense test prep, which many low-income Americans don’t have access to.

The digital test is an hour shorter but set up and scored the same way, with two sections — one math, the other reading and writing — worth up to 800 points each. It adapts to students’ performance, with questions becoming slightly easier or harder as they go. Test-takers can use their own laptops or tablets but they still have to sit for the test at a monitored testing site or in school, not at home. To prevent cheating, students can’t work in any other program or application while the test is running.

Going digital will not resolve the debate around equity.

While critics say the SAT and the alternative ACT are biased toward better-resourced students, supporters say they remain the best tool for predicting success in college and can be considered in the context of socioeconomic factors like where a student lives.

Test administrators say the digital SAT addresses what is within their control by including a built-in advanced calculator for use during the exam, and by offering free practice exams. And they say the results may reflect inequities in the education system, but do not cause them.

About 1.9 million students in the class of 2023 took the SAT at least once, up from 1.7 million in 2022, according to the College Board.