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The All New Digital SAT - changes, paper format and what to expect!

Writer's picture: EduretiXEduretiX

Updated: Dec 23, 2024

The SAT goes all digital. Thanks to College Board. Check out what changed,
The SAT goes all Digital. Thanks to CollegeBoard. Check out what changed.

The CollegeBoard took the entire "high school cinematic universe" by surprise when they decided to go all digital on the SAT at the end of 2023; hence the name DSAT. What seemed like just a modal change, resulted in something entirely new. Adaptive testing, harder and more abstract questions, granularly weighted scoring are some of the major things we have been able to figure out so far as test prep experts, and there is much more to decode. In this article, we explore the paper format, distinctive changes from the traditional SAT and other intricacies of the new Digital SAT format.


What changed in the new Digital SAT format - English Reading and Writing:


Like the previous SAT, the DSAT has the same sections namely, English Reading and Writing, and Math. On the Reading and Writing sections, there is a significant departure from the way the section was structured earlier. Each question on the new DSAT would be associated with its own short passage unlike previous versions where there used to be 5 long passages on reading and 4 long on writing with a set of questions associated to each. The RW section has definitely gotten shorter in this new version of the SAT and the questions now would be more comprehensive than testing skills in isolation. Likewise the preparation strategy for the RW section will also change. Look at the section snapshot below for exact format.

Reading and Writing

Number of questions

Time in minutes

Module 1

27

32

Module 2

27

32

Total

54

64


What changed in the new Digital SAT format - Mathematics:


Similar to the English section, the Math section also gets shorter. The time does not reduce by much and the Math section on the new DSAT is just 10 minutes shorter. The major changes include reducing the number of questions from 58 to 44, allowing the use of DESMOS graphing calculator throughout the Math section, and harder, more abstract questions than before. The new DSAT is going to adopt an adaptive testing strategy, and same will follow for Math. We are going to discuss more about the adaptive testing in the end of this article. Take a look at the Math section snapshot for exact format:

Mathematics

Number of Questions

Time in minutes

Module 1

22

35

Module 2

22

35

Total

44

70

The total length of the DSAT is going to be 2 hours and 14 minutes including a 10 minutes break between the 'Reading and Writing' and 'Math' sections. Students will be answering a total of 98 questions across both sections.


Start practising Digital SAT Math with our dedicated playlists:


Testing style and scoring:


There has been much hue and cry about the new Adaptive testing style adopted by the College Board for the DSAT. The Adaptive style accounts for the student's performance on the first module for each section and referencing the same, provides the second module. The second module will be harder in case the students has performed well on the first module and vice versa. There are multiple versions of the second module (multiple hard and easy versions) that the organisers use for the adaptive testing. This was seen evidently on the Dec 7, 2024 SAT.


Module 2 is going to be hard. Make sure you master DESMOS
Desmos can actually get you through the 2nd module.

Although not much has been made public about the scoring methodology by the College Board, but based on feedback from our test takers so far, we can deduce that the easier questions will fetch lesser marks if one gets them right and lose more if you get them wrong. The harder questions will fetch more marks if you get them right and lose less if answered incorrectly. So as a case analysis, if you do well on your first module and not so well on the second, you could still end up scoring more than a friend who didn't do well on the first module but did great on the second one. Again this isn't concrete information endorsed by the College Board, but just speculations based on actual feedback.


If you are preparing for the digital SAT, make sure you subscribe to our Youtube Channel for regular practice resources. Should you need dedicated 1-on-1 support, you can book classes with me. We are coming out with EduretiX AI very soon, to give you the ultimate test prep. experience!!


EduretiX AI is coming soon to be your ultimate test prep solution
EduretiX AI is coming soon to give you the ultimate SAT Prep experience

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