As someone who makes it her business to stay at the cutting edge of changes to standardized testing landscape, I’ve been paying close attention to is the seismic shift that is the recent switch from a paper-based to a fully Digital SAT.
One question I’m getting all the time from my one-on-one test prep clients these days is: what are the advantages and disadvantages of the new test—as compared to the old SAT, AND as compared to the ACT? How can a given test-taker know whether the Digital SAT will play to his/her/their particular strengths as a test-taker?
It’s a good question indeed, and today I’m going to answer it thoroughly for you.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Watch this article as a video
2. Digital SAT Pro #1: It’s shorter
3. Digital SAT Con #1: Early Qs have a bigger impact on your score
4. Digital SAT Pro #2: More time per question
5. Digital SAT Con #2: More complex problems
6. Digital SAT Pro #3: Discreet questions
7. Digital SAT Con #3: More sophisticated passages
8. Digital SAT Pro #4: Blue Book app tools
9. Digital SAT Con #4: No more “pen-on-paper” benefit
10. Digital SAT Pro #5: Built-in Calculator and Formula Sheet
11. Digital SAT Con #5: Free Response Questions and Geometry
Watch this article as a video:
Digital SAT Pro #1: Shorter
The first plus of the Digital SAT is that it is now a much shorter test as far as standardized tests go. The new, Digital SAT is considerably shorter than the previous, pen-and-paper SAT was—and is shorter than the ACT still is. The DSAT takes 2 hours, 14 minutes, all in, for a regular-time test-taker, versus over 3 hours for the analog SAT and about 2 hours 55 minutes for the ACT.
A briefer test means less physical and mental fatigue—which can have a substantial bearing on your final score! Standardized test-taking is not a question of how well your brain operates under ideal conditions; you’re sitting in a chair for hours, possibly hungry, hot, or cold. The fewer minutes you have to spend doing so, the fresher your brain will stay.
DSAT Minus #1: Early sections have a big impact on your score
The whole reason the Digital SAT can be so much shorter now is that the exam has become computer-adaptive. What that means is that the test can use fewer questions than before to assess your skill level…but that also means that the test has a different format. In each section—the Reading + Writing section and the Math section—the first half of the questions will size up your general prowess. Then, based on how well you do on that initial chunk of questions (the first “module”), the test will either issue you an easier or a harder second half of the section (the second “module”).
As you’ve probably figured out by now, the downside of this new layout is that if you don't perform well in the first half of the section, you might get locked into an easier second set of questions….and thus a lower score.
So a key takeaway here is that every question matters more on the Digital SAT—especially those early Qs. So if you choose to take the Digital SAT, you should really do your best to answer each problem accurately. And especially in those first few questions, i.e. the first module of each section, it's super important that you look sharp and focus in.
Digital SAT Benefit #2: More Time Per Question
Many of my high school tutees hate standardized tests before they start working with me—in large part because they feel too rushed during the test to truly show off their knowledge/abilities. If you count yourself in that number, I’ve got good news: the DSAT gives you significantly more time per test question. You have about:
82 seconds per question on the whole test overall;
71 seconds per question in the reading-writing;
95 seconds (over a minute and a half) for each question in the math section.
All three of these numbers come out to more time than you get on the alternate test (the ACT), where you’re only afforded between 36 and 60 seconds per question if you’re a regular time test taker.
Negative #2 for the DSAT: More Complex Problems
Perhaps you’re already noticing a pattern to this post: with every pro comes a con. So while the Digital SAT might make us smile because we get more time per question, that smile might turn upside down when we realize that those questions…are also more nuanced and more sophisticated than those on the paper SAT and those on the ACT. The DSAT tends to ask things in a more roundabout convoluted way, and you really have to read carefully and read more dense content to figure out what it's asking.
Digital SAT Upside #3: Separate Questions
Has this ever happened to you? You're in the middle of a standardized test, and you're reading a passage for the Reading section. However, you just can’t, for the life of you, understand what it's about. Your eyes are running over the words again and again, but the meaning is just not clicking. And unfortunately, that's a cruddy situation: if you don't understand what the passage says, how are you going to answer the 10 or 11 questions that are attached to the passage? Not grasping this one passage might well bring down your section score…and thus, your whole test. Not a good vibe.
To counteract this common complaint, the Digital SAT contains only discrete questions throughout the whole test. This is especially relevant to the Reading and Writing section: every question asks you about its own, separate text. And that text is shorter. A given blurb will be maybe one paragraph, possibly a couple of paragraphs at most.
So the result is that if you don't understand what, say, Question 17 is asking, or you just didn't understand the passage itself—and you get that question wrong—this error has no bearing at all on your ability to read and comprehend Question 18 and get that question right. No more long passages with a long string of questions hingeing upon them!
DSAT Drawback #3: Sophisticated passages
Well, those new texts may be only one paragraph or two paragraphs….but man, are they (potentially) tricky and nuanced! They contain tougher vocabulary. They vary in format (poetry, historical documents, etc.). There's a lot of jumping around within the same passage from talking about topic A to talking about (completely different) topic B. And another thing: these texts may come from very different time periods. They're not modern, helpful, friendly and accessible blog post-style reads.
For some students, any one of those elements of complexity may be extra draining.
DSAT Benefit #4: Blue Book app tools
Picture this very common test-day scenario, if you would: you're in the middle of taking a standardized test. However, instead of focusing on the system of linear equations problem that's right in front of you, all you can think about is, “Oh my gosh, how much time have I used up? I can't see the clock because it's behind me and it'll look like I'm cheating if I turn around. Is the Proctor going to remember to give me my five-minute warning? Or did she forget? What if I have less than five minutes left?!”
What’s happening here is that instead of focusing on the test content at hand, you've been absorbed by a whole mental conversation with yourself about how much time you have left. It's going to tank your ability to focus. And when you get in that downward spiral, it can really sink your score.
The Digital SAT solves this problem by building a countdown clock right into your test interface. You’ll take the DSAT on a special app called Blue Book. It will be installed on whatever device you’re taking the test on, whether that’s a laptop, a computer, or a tablet. This app has the countdown clock right there, so you never have to wonder how much time you have left….and you never have to worry about your mind spinning off in that direction.
The app also offers a couple of other useful features. One is that you're allowed to flag a question to return to later, so if there's a problem that you don't really know how to solve, you don't waste time thinking about it: you can always quickly find it again and go back to it later once you’ve finished the rest of the test. Blue Book also lets you underline text and annotate questions and passages (i.e. leave notes for yourself).
DSAT Limitation #4: Less Physical Connection
Though you gain all sorts of bells and whistles with Blue Book, the con that goes hand in hand with using a digital program is that if you're a kinesthetic learner, you won’t have that feedback of pencil on paper to help you process what you’re reading/solving.
Some students need to underline, circle, and write notes to themselves (by hand) in order to fully engage with test material. If you’re in that boat, using a screen, mouse, and keyboard to complete your test will come with extra challenges.
Digital SAT Plus #5: Built-in Calculator and Formula Sheet
Are you the type of student who has trouble remembering your math formulas? Maybe you keep messing up the ratios for the 30-60-90 special right triangle…and getting docked points in the process. However, you knew the basic principle—how to APPLY the numbers. You just forgot what one of the actual numbers was. And you definitely can't solve anything without a calculator.
If this sounds like you, you’ll be relieved to hear that on the Digital SAT, you get a geometry and trigonometry reference table (see below) that you can access at any point. It’s right there in the Blue Book app. In addition, there's also a calculator in the app that you can use. That said, if you want to use your own calculator because you're more comfortable with it, you can bring it as well, so long as it's one of the approved calculators for the digital SAT.
These formulae and ratio are provided to you on the Digital SAT.
Digital SAT Con #5: Free Response Questions and Geometry
The related Digital SAT tradeoff here is this: yeah, you get to use a calculator the whole time…BUT if you're one of those people who likes to back-solve, you’re out of luck. By “back-solving,” I mean that you prefer to use the provided answer choices in your multiple choice question to figure out the answer instead of actually solving the whole problem completely on your own. Unfortunately, on the Digital SAT, about a fourth of the questions—roughly 11 questions in the Math section—are completely self-produced. You don’t get any options to pick from; you just have to generate the number on your own and type it into the computer.
A related “con” has to do with whether you're one of those students who loves Geometry. If that math sub-topic was your favorite class—the shapes made sense to you, and areas, perimeters, and volumes just clicked in your head—the sad news is that the Digital SAT doesn't really emphasize geometry so much.
On the ACT, about a fourth of that Math section is Geometry. However, on the Digital SAT, it’s roughly 10%. (Geometry and Trig together comprise 15% of the test, so Geometry is only about 10% of the whole test.)
Your Next Steps
So now that you've heard all the pros and cons of the Digital SAT, isn’t your next move to knock the test completely out of the park and get a 1600? Won’t getting a perfect score help you get into your dream college?
Well…sometimes, but not always! Read last week’s post to find out why. Or, if you’d like help developing a study plan that fits YOUR needs—perfect score or otherwise!—reach out here to learn about working with me individually.
