The Scholastic AptitudeTest (SAT) and the Practice Scholastics Aptitude Test (PSAT) are scheduled for Apr 10; however, these standardized tests will look a little different this year.
In past years, the (P)SAT has been taken with pencil and paper but in Jan. 2021, the College Board announced that the “SAT Suite of Assessments will be delivered virtually.” A global pilot was conducted the previous fall with both student and educator participants reporting an easier testing experience.
In Oct. 2023, FHS students were given the option to take the PSAT to give them another opportunity to see material that could be on the SAT. Not only did they get the opportunity to review, these students also got to see what it was like to take these tests virtually.
In contrast to the global pilot, I was one of the students that tested virtually in the fall of 2023 and this test did not go as planned for me.
About 75% of the way into the reading portion of the PSAT, all of my previous answers were deleted and it looked as if I hadn’t started. Because there was no way to retrieve my answers, I had to go through and re-answer all of the questions that had been cleared. This took up a lot of my testing time and left me feeling rushed to finish.
In addition to the issue with my answers during the test, I have also experienced an issue receiving an accurately-reported score from College Board.
Because these standardized tests will be given online, the questions will be “section adaptive.” According to collegeexpress.com, every student will start with a section of moderate difficulty. Those who perform well will go on to a more challenging second section and those who do not perform well will see an easier section, which will change the outcome of their score.
In addition to adaptive questions, the reading section will also look different.
According to PrepScholar, the digital SAT will be much shorter then the paper exam. There will be one multiple choice question per passage instead of answering numerous questions about the same passage. The articles will also be shorter then they have been in past years.
Many students take PSAT and SAT tests very seriously; changing the format of the test may negatively impact their scores and further complicate things.
