Will The Digital SAT Change The Role Standardized Tests Play In College Admissions?

In March, the College Board will launch the new digital SAT, a pivotal change in how students approach the key standardized test long associated with college admissions. The digital SAT will be taken on a computer or tablet, has been shortened to two hours from three, and is adaptive, so the questions posed in the latter part of the test will vary depending on how well students perform earlier.

However, more than 80 percent of colleges and universities are currently test-optional, meaning they don’t require applicants to submit standardized test scores, such as the SAT or ACT. The University of California system won’t even consider standardized test scores when reviewing applications. And only around four percent of colleges that use the Common Application system require the SAT or ACT scores for admission, compared with 55 percent in 2019-2020.

So, against that backdrop, will a digital SAT make a difference? Or, more generally, do people still care about the SAT?

The answer, according to some experts, is yes, a certain type of student cares. In fact, those experts say that after a period of seemingly diminishing value of the SAT, there’s been a renewed interest in the standardized test.

“With the test-optional movement, I think students over the past few years feel like they’ve been essentially lied to,” said Hafeez Lakhani, Founder of Lakhani Coaching. “They’ve been told over and over that ‘test optional’ really meant optional. But we’re seeing a significantly higher percentage of students getting into their aspirational schools when they do submit test scores.”

Certainly, for a specific student population, Lakhani added, the removal of a test requirement has been a game changer. “For first generation or low income students, or those applying from school districts with limited means, we’ve seen tremendous acceptances of test optional students,” he said.

But for students with the financial and academic means to apply to highly-ranked universities, taking the SAT might make a difference. “Think of it like extra credit,” Lakhani said.

The pandemic prompted many colleges and universities to become test optional because safety concerns precluded students from going to schools or testing centers to take standardized tests. However, a number of well-regarded universities that went test optional due to the pandemic have changed course and are now requiring scores, including Purdue University and MIT.

“We believe a requirement is more equitable and transparent than a test-optional policy,” MIT said in a 2022 statement when reinstating the prerequisite.

The SAT alone won’t determine a student’s candidacy, experts say. However, a good test score folded into a student’s overall application could be a crucial component, especially in today’s competitive admissions environment.

“If you’re looking at two students who are pretty much identical across the board in academic and extracurricular achievement, and both have interesting backgrounds and profiles, at some point, you’ve got to split hairs,” said Connie Livingston, Director of Counseling at Empowerly, an edtech company that helps students navigate college admissions.

“If one candidate has a strong standardized test score and the other does not, then the student with that score may have an advantage,” Livingston added.

There has been some research indicating that SAT and ACT scores have predictive power for academic success in college, a finding that could support test requirements for applicants. In addition, there is some concern about an overemphasis on a student’s grades, in the absence of other metrics such as a standardized test score. The universities in the UC system, for example, do not accept recommendation letters.

“You’re now distilling the application down to far fewer elements, with the transcript almost carrying a disproportionate amount of weight,” said Lakhani. “Some students are getting stressed out that their transcript is getting almost an overemphasis.”

But, overall, for students who plan to take the SAT, the digital version is likely to be a plus.

The adaptive nature of the test “eliminates the need for a three-hour test, and we all know test fatigue is real,” said Empowerly’s Livingston. “I think that’s a big benefit for students.”