No matter what their interests are, most students choose to take the SAT. While their tests, assignments and projects may differ based on their classes and interests, the SAT is an almost universal experience for students. Most of the times preceded by the PSAT, it is a nationwide test used by colleges as an entrance exam. The score is seen by colleges that students apply to, and used for admission decisions.
Recently, however, a change has been made: the test has been made digital.
Traditionally taken on paper, the SAT used to be 180 minutes long, with 154 ELA and math questions. Now, the new digital exams are 134 minutes long, with 98 ELA and math questions to answer. Split into two ELA modules and two math modules, the tests were made adaptive. This means that the first module of each is standard, but the difficulty level of the second module depends on the student’s performance on the first.
To some, this new version of the ELA test is much more manageable than the first. The English module contains short passages that are easier to comprehend. The paper SAT, on the other hand, had older and longer passages on which 10 to 11 questions were based.
Others, however, found it more mentally exhausting. For the 54 ELA questions, there are 54 different passages to read. Switching between topics quickly can be confusing and tiring. Also, according to many, there was a steep increase in difficulty from the first to the second module.
For the math section, students are given the freedom to use a calculator the whole way through the math modules (whereas in the paper SAT, there was no calculator section). The questions are reported to be similar to the paper SAT, but again, it seems that the harder modules for the math sections are extremely difficult for many.
Another feature of this SAT is that the scoring seems to be subjective: points taken off on the scoring depends on the type of question the test taker got wrong, and the difficulty level of it. A question answered wrong could take off 0 points or take off 20 points. The scoring seems to be varied and not at all uniform for this reason.
Overall, the opinions on the new DSAT are mixed, but most seem to be in favor of the advanced, digital version.
