Tue Jan 25, 2022, 12:30 PM

Pencils down: College Board announces the SAT is going digital

The SAT, once viewed as a critical step to getting into college, will be shorter and administered online amid a major shift in its format brought on by the pandemic and the test's growing irrelevance.

The paper test currently takes roughly three hours to complete, but the digital version will be cut down to about two hours with more time given in between questions, the College Board announced Tuesday.

“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at the College Board, said in a news release.

The test will start online in the U.S. in 2024, and internationally in 2023.

The College Board, which administers the SAT, PSAT and other college-entrance exams, announced a number of other changes to the test.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sat-will-shorter-going-digital-college-board-announces-rcna13451

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12 replies	Author	Time	Post
Pencils down: College Board announces the SAT is going digital (Original post)	Jilly_in_VA	Jan 2022	OP
more relevant to WHAT?	elleng	Jan 2022	#1
I wonder what the cheating potential will be?	Throck	Jan 2022	#2
They should get rid of these exams.	madaboutharry	Jan 2022	#3
My high-school grades would not have been an accurate indicator of college performance....	lastlib	Jan 2022	#5
You graduated summa cum laude, and with honors?	rsdsharp	Jan 2022	#7
Summa cum laude was just for GPA....	lastlib	Jan 2022	#11
Wouldn't that incentivize students to take easy classes and/or schools to inflate grades ?	MichMan	Jan 2022	#9
Not all GPAs are created equal.	madaboutharry	Jan 2022	#10
This message was self-deleted by its author	MichMan	Jan 2022	#4
So still has to be taken in person, just no longer with a pencil	MichMan	Jan 2022	#6
My Take As Well	ProfessorGAC	Jan 2022	#12
SAT/ACT basically test how well you take tests	Jilly_in_VA	Jan 2022	#8

Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 12:32 PM

elleng (121,967 posts)

1. more relevant to WHAT?

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Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 12:37 PM

Throck (2,422 posts)

2. I wonder what the cheating potential will be?

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Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 12:43 PM

madaboutharry (38,571 posts)

3. They should get rid of these exams.

They exist to make these companies money.

It has been found that grades in high school are a more accurate indicator of college performance.

And that is not discussing the fact that the SAT was established in the 1920's for the sole reason that the president of Princeton University came to believe that there were too many Jews at Princeton and wanted to establish a biased exam that would lower the admission of Jews.

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Response to madaboutharry (Reply #3)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 01:00 PM

lastlib (20,083 posts)

5. My high-school grades would not have been an accurate indicator of college performance....

I was so bored with most of my high school classes that I barely bothered to do the work in them. (When I did the work, I excelled.) Barely made the top half of my graduating class. I graduated college summa cum laude, and with honors, top 10 in my class. I only got into college there because my ACT and SAT scores were off the charts.

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Response to lastlib (Reply #5)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 01:40 PM

rsdsharp (6,810 posts)

7. You graduated summa cum laude, and with honors?

So you graduated with highest honors, and with honors?

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Response to rsdsharp (Reply #7)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 03:00 PM

lastlib (20,083 posts)

11. Summa cum laude was just for GPA....

To actually graduate with honors, you had to do a special project, or thesis, in your major. It was a BEAST to pull off--I don't recommend it, wouldn't do it again. Mine was 400 pages in four drafts, all done on a clunky manual typewriter. My fingers still have issues from doing it!

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Response to madaboutharry (Reply #3)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 02:11 PM

MichMan (8,551 posts)

9. Wouldn't that incentivize students to take easy classes and/or schools to inflate grades ?

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Response to MichMan (Reply #9)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 02:49 PM

madaboutharry (38,571 posts)

10. Not all GPAs are created equal.

Colleges and Universities look closely at the curriculum you take. The quality of courses is as important as the grades you receive.

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Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)

MichMan This message was self-deleted by its author.

Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 01:01 PM

MichMan (8,551 posts)

6. So still has to be taken in person, just no longer with a pencil

Not that big of a change

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Response to MichMan (Reply #6)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 03:26 PM

ProfessorGAC (56,836 posts)

12. My Take As Well

Just a different medium to answer questions.
Not sure how this is pandemic driven, which was implied earlier in the article. If people have to show up anyway, don't see the difference with now, in terms of safety.
Seems a modest change.

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Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)

Tue Jan 25, 2022, 01:50 PM

Jilly_in_VA (7,404 posts)

8. SAT/ACT basically test how well you take tests

So do the mandatory state tests. They're BS as far as I'm concerned and should count for no more than one-fourth of your college admission score, if even that. I mean, how many college instructors give multiple-guess tests?

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