You check your backpack on test day for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to make sure you have everything you need. Pencil. Check. Eraser. Check. Laptop? Check.
This routine will soon become commonplace for high school juniors, as the College Board has announced that the SAT “will be taken digitally … beginning in 2024 for U.S.-based students.”
As of March 2024, Liberty will be making this change, switching from paper tests to online ones.
“Students will use their school laptops, and it will be very similar to the online PSAT,” Assistant Principal Danielle Zelinski said.
Most students at Liberty, including junior Jonathan Chiu, think that the switch to online will be better for them.
“I stare at my laptop screen for most of the day anyway,” Chiu said.
Based on his experience with the online PSAT earlier this year, Chiu claims that the online test provides more streamlined questions than a paper test would, allowing him to work at a faster pace. This means that not as much time has to be spent taking the test.
“The test should definitely be easier and faster now that they’re online,” Chiu said. “The questions are easier for me to read.”
Additionally, the online SAT reading passages will provide a wider range of subjects for the test-takers to analyze, according to Abagail Johnson Hess, a reporter for CNBC.
Along with a wider range of topics, the SAT will have less questions, since they have combined the reading and writing sections of the paper SAT.
“The online SAT will be much easier to access,” Zelinski said. “Students will enjoy that the test is now two hours long instead of three.”
However, the new way of testing could present difficulties to users.
“Technology is great,” Zelinski said. “But with any technology component, you’re always waiting and hoping that there aren’t any issues.”
If a student is scheduled for an online SAT, but they experience any technical difficulties with their laptop, then the only option is to find a new laptop. Failing that, the student will have to reschedule their exam, as the school will not provide a paper alternative.
Despite the small kinks in the system, Zelinski has high hopes for this new method of testing.
