The Bumpy Rollout of the New Digital SAT Format

Student Reactions to the March 9th Digital SAT

Immediately following the March 9^th SAT—the very first administration of the adaptive, digital SAT in the United States—students took to social media to make their feelings about the new test known. The main takeaway? The test was harder than a lot of students were led to believe from the College Board practice tests. Particularly, for students who received the harder second modules.

The adaptive nature of the digital SAT means that for each section of the test (Reading and Writing; Math) a student’s performance on the first module determines the difficulty of the second module, which will either be easier or harder than the first module. For March 9^th testers who were directed to the harder second modules, that increase in difficulty was, reportedly, exponential.

Students relayed that their second modules featured math concepts they didn’t believe they would be tested on and long Reading passages on complicated Science topics that caused them to run out of time. While we were concerned to hear these reports from our students and the thousands of students posting on social media, 23+ years in this business has taught us a thing or two about reserving judgement about a particular test until 1) scores are released and 2) we get a copy of the test to review ourselves.

The Issue: Harder Questions Without Adjusted Scaling

Often, challenging test forms are given more forgiving scales, meaning that the test creators have taken into account the difficulty of the questions and adjusted the scale so that you can miss more questions without it impacting your score as much. This is part of why we don’t jump to conclusions when we hear a particular test is especially easy or hard. A “super easy” test might have a brutal scale in which missing a single question drops your score considerably. In other words, the test experience for the student is not necessarily indicative of what their final scaled score will be.

The reason you have probably seen a lot of media about the March 9^th SAT after scores were released last Friday, March 22^nd is that scores did not match the scaling expectations, especially for students who were given the harder second modules. Not only were students caught off guard by particularly challenging material in the harder second modules, but also their scores weren’t adjusted for that fact.

Lack of Representative Practice Tests and Detailed Score Reports

The reason this is especially frustrating is that it seems none of College Board’s official practice tests (at the time of the March 9^th test there were only four practice tests available, though College Board has since released two additional tests) adequately reflected either the difficulty of content featured on the March 9^th test harder second module or provided an accurate model of what to expect from the scaled scores. If a student was preparing for the March 9^th test and scoring in the 1500s on the four official practice tests, it is not just upsetting, but frankly, maddening, that that student may have earned a score in the 1300s on the March 9^th test.

What’s worse, for the first time, there is no chance of receiving a copy of the test to review and College Board has revised their score reports to provide very little helpful information. (For more, see our blog The First Digital SAT Score Release: What to Know)

So, without a copy of the test, and with a bare bones score report, what should we make of this first administration of the digital SAT? What are the next steps if your student was one of thousands across the country who did not receive the score they expected?

Lessons from the 2016 SAT Redesign Rollout

First, we take a step back and recall what happened the last time the SAT underwent a major revision in 2016. Even though 2016 feels like a lifetime ago, Academic Approach has the receipts to prove that the first few months following the release of that redesigned 2016 SAT were, quite simply, chaotic.

Some tests were incredibly hard. Others were suspiciously easy. Scales were all over the place. Students were understandably frustrated. The four practice tests College Board had released ahead of their 2016 redesign varied from one another. It wasn’t until 2017 that College Board started reliably releasing SATs that were consistent to one another and had moderate scales. In other words, it took about a year for College Board to find their groove with their new test form.

Of course, just because this is what happened in 2016 does not mean this is what we should expect for this 2024 rollout of the digital SAT. However, the problems surrounding the March 9^th SAT are…not new, and it would be irresponsible not to place them within “historical” context.

Recommendations for Students Unhappy with March 9th Scores

What does all of this mean for your student? If they are unhappy with their March 9^th score, first and foremost they should sign up for another SAT test date. There are testing dates available in May, June, August, and October.

If possible, pick a later test date. This will not only give College Board more time to get their house in order (and based on the media fury they are receiving from the March 9^th it’s quite likely they will get things sorted as soon as possible), but it will give your student more time to study the extremely difficulty content they may see in the harder second modules.

Your student should also sign up to take our complimentary SAT diagnostic, not only to get the extra practice, but because our score reports provide far more information than College Board’s score report, which will help us pinpoint your student’s strengths and challenges.

No matter what, if you are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or unsure what to do next, please give us a call. Our directors would love to talk to you and help answer your questions. As always, Academic Approach will continue to monitor and report any new information.