SAT tests going entirely online from 2024

College admission tests will ‘easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant’, administrators say

SAT tests are going fully digital (Associated Press)

The SAT exam will move entirely online from 2024, the College Board has announced.

They will also become much shorter, with reading, writing and math tests being cut from three hours to two.

The shift to digital from the traditional pen and paper exams will boost its relevancy as more colleges make standardised tests optional for admission.

Students will be allowed to use their own devices but will still have to sit for the test at a monitored testing site or in school rather than at home.

Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at the New York City-based College Board, said of the Tuesday announcement that the digital SAT will be “easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant”.

“We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform. We’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible.”

The format change is scheduled to roll out internationally next year and in the US in 2024.

The College Board, a non-profit which oversees college admission testing, had previously scrapped plans to offer an at-home digital testing because of concerns about internet access.

The new digital SATs will offer an autosave function, so students won’t lose work if they are disconnected from internet or power.

According to a the College Board, students who took part in a global pilot of the digital SAT in November said the test experience was less stressful than the current paper and pencil test.

Natalia Cossio, an 11th grade student from Fairfax County, Virginia who participated in the digital pilot, said: “It felt a lot less stressful, and whole lot quicker than I thought it’d be.

“The shorter passages helped me concentrate more on what the question wanted me to do.”

Agencies contributed to this report