Many changes are coming to the SAT, starting in March 2024. For starters, the test will be fully digital instead of on paper. It will also be much shorter. All sections combined will take two hours and fourteen minutes instead of the three hours the previous version took.
The new version of the test is designed to be both easier to administer and to take. According to a survey, the College Board website says 80% of students who took the digital SAT reported that it was less stressful than the previous version, and 100% of teachers said that they had a positive experience with it.
Both math sections will take twenty-five minutes and will have twenty-two questions. The test will now have a built-in graphing calculator and a reference sheet with equations students can look at when solving math problems. There will no longer be separate calculator and no calculator sections; students can use a calculator for the entire math section.
Both reading and writing sections will take thirty-four minutes and will have twenty-seven questions. The new reading section will have shorter passages (around 25 to 150 words), with only one question per passage. The passage length is very different from the previous version of the reading section, which had longer passages with around ten questions each. The reading questions will make up the first part of the reading and writing sections, and the writing questions will make up the second. Both sets of questions will progressively get more challenging.
Another significant change is that everyone will get a personalized set of questions. How students do in the reading, writing, and math parts of module one will determine what questions they get for module two. If they do poorly in the first part of the test, they will end up with slightly easier questions for the second part. However, this also means that questions are weighted differently regarding scoring. So, if you want a top score, you must ensure you do well on the first part to get the more challenging questions.
According to Collegeboard, since the tests are digital and can be graded faster, students should get their score reports more quickly. While this will vary, they estimate that students should get their reports within a few days, not weeks, as before.
Many aspects of the new SAT will stay the same. It will still be scored on a 1600-point scale and have four main sections that test the same reading, writing, and math skills.
