by Lauren Frank ‘23

The College Board announced earlier this year that the SAT will become entirely online by 2024. This adjustment is intended to make the testing environment less stressful and more accessible. Students will have the option to choose the device they will test on, such as a tablet or personal laptop. Despite the change in platform the test will continue to be administered in secure locations such as schools. 

 Along with these notable changes, the test will be two hours, greatly shortening the mentally taxing exam. The reading section will feature shorter passages linked with only one question per passage, offering students more time to answer each question. For the math section, calculators will be permitted for both of the sections, rather than just the calculator final section. 

Similar to the MAP testing MCPS students are used to, each section of the digital test will begin with an introductory set of questions. The difficulty of the questions will depend on whether the student performs well on the first set. The College Board will now be able to clearly see and assess the student on the skills they have already mastered. Once a test is scored, which will only take days, the student will be provided with resources for local career training and educational opportunities based on their score.

With the new changes making the SAT shorter and easier to administer, school districts will have more flexibility with how often and where they will administer the test, rather than adhering to a fixed schedule. These improvements are especially important to provide students with more opportunities to take the SAT during the school year. 

 For years, the SAT has been a significant factor in a student’s college admission experience, with many students taking months to prepare for a standardized test. The SAT has come under increased criticism for disproportionately affecting minorities and students of a lower socio-economic class because they may not have access to adequate test prep resources which tend to be costly. During the Pandemic many colleges and universities went test-optional or completely did away with the test. Prestigious schools such as Harvard have gone test-optional through at least 2026, and the University of California Schools permanently removed the test from its admission process. This gives students, especially those historically disadvantaged, the ability to stand out in other areas on college applications such as extracurriculars, leadership, and GPA.