Students Report Digital Math SAT Module Harder Than Expected

For the first time, the March SAT was completely digital and adaptive. Each student taking the test got easier or harder questions depending on whether or not they correctly answered previous questions. Numerous students who took the test thought the verbal sections were of expected difficulty but that the math questions were significantly harder than the practice questions they were provided by the College Board and Khan Academy.

Tik Tok star Jake the SAT Guru stated that the second SAT math module was “massively challenging”. “The College Board should have made their test materials more in line with the real thing,” he commented. The test was also available as a school-based test (given just to the students of that school during the school day). One student on Reddit, who previously got a perfect math SAT score, had similar feelings about the school-based test: “Math was much harder. Math kids (including me) missed a question or two.”

Andrea Vanzo, who runs an Instagram page “75 Percenters”, a college counseling website, noted that she heard the same thing from many of the students she counsels:

“This pivotal shift [to a digital adaptive format] was not without its challenges, most notably in the second module of the math section, which was widely criticized for its difficulty level. Students across the country reported that the questions were unexpectedly challenging, diverging significantly from the practice materials and previous assessments. This discrepancy not only heightened test-day anxiety but also raised concerns about the fairness and the ability of this new format to accurately reflect students’ capabilities. The fallout from this section underscores the need for adjustments in the test’s design and the provision of more representative preparation resources.”

The scores are graded on a curve, so if the questions were harder, the scores would adjust for that. Given that each student got different questions according to how they were performing, the scoring will also be different than the paper-and-pencil test. The scores are scheduled to be released on March 22. Time will tell if the apparently more difficult math section will affect students’ scores.