SAT to be digital in 2024; more students may choose to study abroad

The College Board, a mission-driven organization that works as a not-for-profit entity to bring success in joining colleges to the students, has made a major announcement. The Board has announced that SAT exam will take on a digital form from 2024. The SAT test is a major test for international students willing to study abroad in the USA or other countries including Canada.

The SAT entrance exam is used by most universities and colleges, especially in the USA and Canada. It’s a standardized test, the score of which is considered along with scores in high school, which help students study abroad by joining colleges and universities in various countries of the world.

A higher SAT score improves your chances to join in educational institutions of your choice. It’s currently a 3-hour test taken on paper. The new decision to make the test entirely digital opens to the possibility of many more test-takers in the future. Moreover, the test duration will be reduced to 2 hours.

The advantages of SAT test include the levelling of socio-economic differences and compelling students to perform to succeed in joining universities and colleges the world over. When you have a high SAT score, you prove your excellence in cognitive abilities. You also demonstrate your readiness to join the institutions you aim for to study abroad.

Changes in digital SAT

• Test time reduced to 2 hours
• Inclusion of passages from a broader range of texts of college level
• Reading passages getting shorter with 1 question per passage
• Including calculators for the entire Math section

The maximum scores will still be 1600. The results will be issued sooner, thanks to digitization.

A history of changes to SAT

In 2016, the maximum score was changed from 2,400 to 1,600. Also, wrong answers weren’t penalized. The test shifted focus to evidence-based reading and writing sections, which was more streamlined. There was also the inclusion of a math section with calculator and non-calculator sections. Also, SAT essay section was included, which was optional and scored outside of the 1,600-point score.

The next changes were made in 2021. That year, the College Board discontinued the optional SAT essay section along with the subject tests.

Through the years, there has been an attempt to simplify the exam structure. The time per question also increased due to the changes made in previous years.

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