The College Board changed things up once again to accommodate the modern age. Starting with International tests in March 2023, the SAT has gone digital! The news does not mean that the test will remain the same but just be administered online, however. The structure of the SAT has changed once more.

“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, more secure, and more relevant,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, Senior Vice President of College Readiness Assessments at College Board. “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. We’re listening to educators and students and we’re adapting to meet their evolving needs.” ("Digital SAT Brings Student-Friendly Changes to Test Experience")

The digital SAT is 33% shorter, about two hours rather than three. Along with the duration, the number of questions have also been reduced, allowing students more time on each question than did the paper-based SAT.

Reading and writing passages are shorter, with one question tied to each. The Reading and Writing sections of the test are no longer separate but united under the same English section. There no longer are separate no-calculator and calculator sections for Math either. Students will be able to use their calculators in the entire Math section. They will be able to bring their own calculators or use the graphing calculator built into the testing app.

The digital SAT will be administered on Windows laptops and tablets, Mac laptops, iPads, and school-managed Chromebooks on the Bluebook app https://bluebook.app.collegeboard.org/. Students will be required to bring their own devices to test centers and sign in using their College Board accounts to download the SAT on test days at test centers. Students needing to borrow a device may apply for one from the College Board but will not be guaranteed one.

Students and test professionals alike give the digital SAT favorable reviews after it has been piloted with thousands of students globally. In addition to being easier to take and administer, the digital SAT also comes with 2 more international dates each year, bringing the total up to 7, the same number as US test dates.

The transition from paper-based tests to digital has been done in phases. Starting with the March 2023 date, all international tests have been in the new Digital SAT format. By Spring 2024, all SATs have become digital worldwide.

References
"Digital SAT Brings Student-Friendly Changes to Test Experience." College Board, 25 Jan. 2022, newsroom.collegeboard.org/digital-sat-brings-student-friendly-changes-test-experience.
Accessed 10 Jan. 2023.