Warning: This blog is highly technical and directed to parents who are trying to understand and navigate testing next year. Next month’s blog will address a more universal theme.
You likely already know: The SAT is undergoing significant changes for U.S. students in 2024, changes that will be previewed to rising juniors on the PSAT this fall. These changes will take full effect for that class in the following calendar year, the first sitting of which is planned for March 2024.
The CollegeBoard needed to make some changes. It has been haunted by security violations and by a shrinking market share, as the ACT has gained popularity and as colleges have announced test optional or even test blind status. The Varsity Blues scandal that preceded the pandemic raised suspicions regarding the inequities of testing, too, no doubt damaging the CollegeBoard’s reputation some. The CollegeBoard, therefore, unveiled earlier this year that its test will undergo major changes and go digital. Taken in testing centers and/or schools with a proctor, the new digital SAT will be shorter and adaptive, which means the test will be individualized to the student, based on the answers given. The math sections will be 100% calculator active. The reading sections, while still challenging, will be more concise, and access to the scoring of the entire test will be expedited.
While I appreciate the changes that the CollegeBoard is invoking, I believe that rising juniors should this year, in almost all instances, choose to focus on the ACT instead.
Testing is still a vital part of a student’s college applications, as strong test scores serve to verify an impressive transcript and enable admission committees to compare the academic mastery of students. Students with high scores, above the 50% range for their chosen college, elevate their applications by submitting their scores; accordingly, students without high scores to bolster their applications can be disadvantaged: While they may still get in, a similarly-situated student with high scores on file will often edge out the student who applies either without scores or with low scores. Fair or unfair, scores matter.
And, fair or unfair, test prep works. I have seen it within my own student population, where my students have raised their scores, some dramatically, by learning test strategies and by bolstering their understanding of frequently-tested concepts. One of the reasons test prep works so well is because a good test prep instructor knows what students should anticipate. In essence, I know what concepts are on the test and how those concepts are typically tested, which makes test preparation significantly easier, and my understanding comes from years of working with the tests.
With the new digital SAT, test prep professionals, including me, will struggle to prepare their students as well as they could prepare them for the ACT, because SAT digital test resources are relatively scarce and the reliability of the format is yet unknown. The SAT has released a few adaptive tests through its Bluebook app and a few online nonadaptive written tests, but the available resources are all new and slim compared to those available for the ACT, and I do not expect the CollegeBoard to release more tests for rising juniors. Furthermore, the CollegeBoard does not intend to offer the question and answer booklet option which has been available in the past, intentionally limiting access to prep resources. Therefore, preparing for the ACT will be easier in the coming year than preparing for the SAT.
Another factor that will limit your child’s ability to fully prepare for the digital SAT is its new adaptive format, which adjusts the questions asked based on the student’s performance. In other words, each child should see an individualized test, adapted to fit the student, based on the answers he or she supplies. For example, if your child performs relatively poorly on the first stage (of two stages) of the reading and writing test, the second stage will be adapted accordingly and presumably thereby cap your child’s score. The questions will literally change from student to student based on his or her answers in the first stage. A heavy penalty will likely result for reading and careless errors on relatively easy questions.
Additionally, I anticipate that the SAT will have some technical glitches next year. I certainly do not wish that upon the CollegeBoard or upon the students who take the SAT; however, I do think technical glitches are a strong possibility. Initial reviews of the Bluebook app, which the CollegeBoard is using for student practice, are poor, and I have long found the CollegeBoard website cumbersome and counterintuitive. When AP testing (owned by the CollegeBoard) was initially administered online, it was slammed with technical problems. All of these technical issues may serve as an omen for possible dangers ahead.
Finally, preparing for both tests can rob an already busy junior of a lot of time and energy, in my opinion. While we typically want to ensure that a child prepares for the right test, his or her better test, in this calendar year, it may not make sense to do so.
Again, I recommend that your child prepare for and take the ACT, not the SAT, next year. The only caveat I have, where students may benefit from choosing the SAT over the ACT or alongside the ACT, is for students who are clearly slow test takers and who do not qualify for extra time.
Bear in mind that all rising juniors will still take the PSAT and in its new format, so these students will gain some exposure to the new testing format, even if they do not prepare for the PSAT. Because the CollegeBoard is a business, first and foremost, I believe it will do everything possible to attract students to the test through the PSAT and through marketing. The CollegeBoard will want these students to register for future tests, so do not be surprised if your children say to you that they prefer the new digital SAT after taking the PSAT. Its shorter length will definitely be a draw.
I certainly would not discourage the ambitious student who is curious and patient and who is willing to work longer and harder for a possible payoff from focusing on the SAT as well as the ACT, but for most students who are overwhelmed by an already packed junior year, the ACT is probably the safer choice.