The Digital SAT (dSAT) - How to Prepare
Beginning in the spring (March) of 2024, the SAT will only be delivered in a digital format. No more paper tests. And as much as I have ranted that filling in bubbles is “so-18th-century”…I have major concerns about this new digital SAT.
I’ll give you the TL;DR on how to prepare for the digital SAT: We have no idea. No one does.
Let’s break this down.
The Class of 2025 has three options:
Option 1: Take the ACT. Anytime. Fall. Spring. Summer. It’s not changing. Our ACT prep is top-notch and will remain so!
Option 2: Take the paper SAT in the fall of 2023. (Anticipated dates are August 26, October 7, November 4, or December 2. Prep for those tests will be the same as it’s been for the past few years.) We’re still here to help.
Option 3: Take the digital SAT beginning in the spring of 2024. (Anticipated dates are March 9, May 4, or June 1.)
~~Just a quick note for consideration, giving away our bias here: March 9 is the very first time the test will be given. God only knows what glitches will occur with testing, proctoring, or technology on that day. Some of us remember the fiasco of online AP testing by College Board during Covid in 2020. It was not good. May 4 is right in the middle of AP testing, and June 1 is, for many students, right in the middle of final exams. So - not a great schedule for lots of students in the Class of 2025. Just saying.
Here at Savvy Strategies, we strongly favor the ACT already anyhow, even without the digital SAT looming.
Why is that?
The ACT consistently releases actual tests (3x every year) along with a relatively-stable scoring curve. Using actual tests is ALWAYS better than using “practice” tests. Students should practice on the real thing. (Would you only use wiffleballs for baseball practice when you need use actual baseballs for a real game? No way. Same concept.)
Because ACT releases actual tests so consistently, we know what concepts they regularly test and what concepts they do NOT test. This makes for efficient and effective test prep time: best use of our time and your money. We like efficiency!
Our students consistently show stronger score improvements on the ACT than the SAT, even now. (We do see improvement on the SAT! But primarily among students whose strength is math…which is not everybody.)
Anyone who has taken the ACT will tell you that the biggest drawback to the ACT is the TIME CRUNCH. The ACT is a fast-paced test, and some students just will not finish certain sections. But you know…that’s why we do test prep. There are ways to strategize for that time crunch.
What are our concerns about the upcoming digital SAT? (A bunch.)
We know so little about it. There are exactly four practice tests, and (yay me) I have taken all four. I’ll shortly have a separate blog post about my experiences. But even so, I’m now DONE. There is NOTHING MORE I can do to learn about what’s on the test. I mean, I guess I can peruse Reddit posts from the international kids who have taken the dSAT, but Reddit is not a good way to build a professional, efficient, effective test prep system. Let me go back to the sports analogy. Would your student feel prepared for a soccer game with only four practices? Four??? No way. That’s all we have, and it’s not nearly enough to help us (test prep people!) know enough about the test to be able to prepare your student for it.
College Board. I don’t want to slander a billion dollar company, so I’ll just say they don’t often impress me. I remember when they overhauled the SAT in 2005, adding a writing section and then changing the scoring in 2016 to be out of 2400 instead of 1600. Anybody else remember that?? Let me just point out that the scoring is now back to 1600 and the optional essay is now gone. Also, I have not-too-fond memories of the online AP tests that they implemented in response to Covid in 2020. Some kids got locked out of their test midway through, some kids got messages that they’d submitted their test when they hadn’t, and others got messages that they hadn’t submitted it when they had. I’m still a little shook by that whole experience. So, I find myself not in a place where I am ready to recommend to all my students that they be among the first to try this dSAT. Not yet.
Technology issues. I know I’ve been ranting for…YEARS…. that having kids fill in bubbles on paper which are then shipped off to be read by scantron machines is an outdated method of testing. Way outdated. I still believe that. But the dSAT will allow kids to take the test on “an approved device” (of their own!) which has just alllllllllll kinds of opportunities for disaster. Some kids’ computers are fast and flashy; some kids’ computers barely turn on. We’ve all been in situations where are previously-perfect computer just won’t log on, connect with wifi, or load a program. For no predictable reason. It’s a situation fraught with potential problems.
Adaptive scoring. There are lots of situations where I like adaptive scoring. This is not one of them. Adaptive scoring, to be fair, means that if a student doesn’t do well on the first math or reading test, then their second section in that subject area is adapted to be either easy/medium or medium/hard. The benefit is that kids who struggle in, say, math will not end up with the hardest math problems on test day. They’ll get tracked into a second math section that has easier problems, probably more suitable for their level. Same with English. The reason this gives me pause is because sometimes even the best math (or English) students will make a silly mistake or two early on the test, and if that happens, they are then tracked to the easier second section, effectively capping their score at a lower level than they’re capable of. I feel like this test is so new and untested (pardon the pun), that the tracking/adapting feature of it will need to be tweaked and validated before I am comfortable sending kids into it.
What’s the bottom line?
The bottom line is that Savvy Strategies will continue to prepare students for the ACT.
Savvy Strategies will continue to prepare students for the SAT through December 2023….and then we will pause.
We do not feel confident that we have the the materials, the information, or the resources to effectively prepare students for the digital SAT in the Spring of 2024. We’re not ruling it out forever. As the test evolves, and more materials become available, and more information is released, and College Board makes its inevitable adjustments, then we’ll reconsider at a future time.
But for the next 12 months? We are recommending that our students stick to the paper SAT in the fall of 2023 or the ACT at any time. Next summer, we’ll re-evaluate the test, our resources, and the landscape at that time, and revisit this decision. Stay tuned! As always, if you have questions or need help, hit the button below to reach us. Onward we go!