Beginning spring 2024, students taking the Scholastics Aptitude Test (SAT) will hear the click of laptop keys instead of the scratch of pencils. In the past, the paper-and-pencil test caused students to face “the race against the clock.” However, the new digital format lessens the threat of running out of time, which research suggests will combat gender disparity in test scores, according to The New York Times. Although written exams generally promote stronger brain activity, the new digital SAT gives students more time per question, which reduces test anxiety and allows the College Board to assess methodical thinking. In light of this advancement, high schools should shift toward a less time-centered approach to evaluating academic proficiency.
The most significant change of the new digital SAT is the increase in time per question. Through experimentation, the College Board discovered that 97 percent of students finished every question on the digital SAT with approximately seven minutes to review, according to The New York Times. Mr. David Coleman, the College Board’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commented on the nature of the written SAT’s infamous time issue.
“Too much to cover and not enough time to do it,” Mr. Coleman said, according to The New York Times.
This time-focused structure causes test anxiety to rise, which disrupts the brain’s cognitive processing. Moreover, the predominant issue with time-pressured tests is that they do not measure “true” intelligence. Instead, time pressure favors students who think with a shallow and fast lens rather than a deep and methodical one, according to The New York Times. Students should not have to answer complex questions that stump the human brain in a constructed amount of time. Instead, educators should assess intelligence by a student’s ability to answer challenging questions critically.
The digital SAT leans in favor of deep thinkers. Because the College Board divides each section of the digital SAT into two modules, students who answer easier questions correctly in the first module receive more difficult questions in the second module, according to satsuite.collegeboard.org. This makes the test adaptive, demonstrating that it grants an advantage to students with strong complex-thinking abilities. This new model of the SAT focuses more on the nature of a question rather than the speed at which a student can answer it.
In addition, women often face more difficulty solving problems under time scrutiny than men due to the omnipresent effects of gender stereotyping, according to psycnet.apa.org. Under the ticking clock, women doubt their abilities to perform, which obscures their knowledge and causes them to make careless errors, according to The New York Times. Not only does the digital SAT benefit the general population, but it also shrinks the gender disparity of test scores.
The digital SAT is a step in the right direction regarding standardized testing. Yet, its lessened fixation on time pressure does not decrease the focus on timed classroom tests, which are becoming a more important factor in college admissions. Every day, teachers across the US test students’ knowledge with timed examinations. For a substantial change, educators should follow in the footsteps of the College Board and amend their assessments by giving students more time per question. This transformation will help the US education system break down the walls of gender stereotypes and create a more egalitarian approach to college admissions.
Featured Image by Emily Shull ’25
