Will the SAT be Offered Online? Here’s How You Can Prepare!

The lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are unknowable and innumerable, but recent events have signaled some changes that may be more knowable than others. One of which is expanded use of computer-based testing for college entrance exams, specifically the SAT and ACT.

Transferring these tests from paper to digital form would be a significant shift, but in the world of standardized testing, not an unprecedented one. Graduate level exams such as the GRE and MCAT have for over a decade been administered digitally. For the past five years I have trained students how to take all four of these tests. The expertise I have acquired in terms of how students prepare for those tests can help inform the adjustments that SAT test-takers will have to make. Slight differences with the interfaces of those exams also speak to the degree to which an online SAT will be substantially different as compared to one on paper. For example, the MCAT makes process of elimination easier by providing a strike-out function, complete with a keyboard shortcut. The GRE does not, and so all process of elimination has to be done by hand. 

Critically, the most significant difference will exacerbate one of the primary weaknesses that students display on the current SAT: not writing down enough information when doing math questions and not annotating reading passages. As a SAT instructor and tutor I am constantly reminding students to "park their thinking on the page," by labeling figures, underlining/circling important information in word problems, and underlining important information in reading passages. Students who resist this advice usually do so to their detriment, and if the SAT goes online, students won't even be able to directly use these strategies. 

Interestingly, the GRE tests many of the same math concepts as the SAT, so elements of the prep that GRE students engage in would be pertinent for an online SAT. Believe it or not, one of the primary things that GRE students practice is well-organized scratch paper. Students need to make sure that there is clear separation of the work being done on different questions in order to not confuse numbers for one question with numbers from another. I also advise students to draw a box around correct answers in order to differentiate them from other numbers on the page. Additionally, for word problems, using a strategy of reading first the final question and then reading it from the beginning while jotting down details becomes all the more important. However, to be clear, neither of these adjustments should be drastically different from how students - ideally - are already attacking the math sections. Students should already be writing down much of the information they are given on math questions. Only the best math students in search of a top score should be doing work in their heads. 

Even after adjusting to this organization, some types of questions will still present a unique challenge, especially geometry questions. When it comes to geometry questions, the biggest challenge SAT students will face is getting used to redrawing figures, even when they are provided. Currently, students are only instructed to redraw figures when they are not to scale or not provided, but a digital administration of the SAT would require a redraw of all figures, even given ones that would normally just need labeling. This is one reason why an online SAT would likely require an increased time limit or a decrease in the amount of questions. 

The biggest section-wide adjustments would probably be on the reading, and the writing and language sections. Obviously, neither requires much "figuring," but both of these sections involve strategies that are heavily weighted towards process of elimination. Those strategies will likely not change, but instead of doing process of elimination in the test booklet, students will have to re-write the letters that represent the answers (ABCD) for each question on their scratch paper. Once again, this is a strategy taken from what GRE test-takers need to do on their tests. The only way a student would not have to engage in this activity is if College Board builds a strike-out feature into the test interface. This would cut down some of the annotation students would be required to do, but would still require some getting used to (more on that later) and students would likely still want to track on paper, process of elimination for "paired" questions that require students to match a correct answer with the lines that support that answer. 

Even if a strike-out function is included, this would not eliminate challenges associated with annotating within a passage for both the reading, and writing and language sections. As for reading, students should already be using a strategy with which they are only reading the portions of the passage that are pertinent to the questions. Currently, when that information is found, students should underline or bracket the appropriate lines of the passage and write in the margin what question that passage relates. This makes important lines stand out in a veritable sea of text. An inability to annotate on an online SAT would require using scratch paper to write down the question number and the important lines associated with that question. 

The bulk of the writing and language test will have similar challenges to reading in so far as process of elimination is concerned. But, for punctuation questions, if students are using a method of separating sentences and checking for whether or not the pieces of the sentence are complete or incomplete ideas, the annotation usually required for that strategy would have to be moved onto scratch paper. Typically, students would mark above the sentence that's printed in the booklet whether or not parts of that sentence are complete or incomplete. But, for an online test, that annotation would have to be done on scratch paper. Students would need to write down the number of the question and next to it a vertical line as a placeholder for the punctuation in the sentence. Then on either side of the line write a "C" for complete if that part is a complete idea or an "I" for incomplete if that part is an incomplete idea. The scratch paper might look something like this:

1. C|C

2. C|I

3. I|C

4. I|I

Clearly, the adjustments that will need to be made during the test will also require adjustments to preparation. It is worth noting that despite the fact the GRE and MCAT are administered with a computer, much of the preparation for those tests still uses a significant amount of book-based material. When it comes to learning how to take a test, online or not, books are still preferred. And while taking a practice test from a book would not be rendered completely useless, students would still have to be sure to mix in plenty of computer-based practice tests as well. Even when students exclusively use scratch paper when taking a paper test, there is simply a contrast in "feel" between the two tests that has to be prepared for. It's probably unrealistic to expect that while preparing, every practice test taken will be online, but at the very least students should take one online test for every two paper practice tests taken.

Potentially needing access to internet in order to prep for the SAT will likely present a challenge for some students and not others. If you do not have reliable internet in your home, you will have to be more vigilant about determining when and where you will be able to take practice tests. For example, hopefully your school or your local library will have weekends that are designated for students to come in and use their computers to take online tests. Importantly, this is an issue that parents should be mindful of as College Board decides what it wants to do with the SAT. 

If nothing else, the prospect of an online SAT should be a call to action for students who have been or might be relying too much on doing work and/or keeping track of information in their heads. Getting comfortable now with techniques such as process of elimination, passage annotation, and the mere act of doing math problems with a pencil and paper will make a transition to computer-based testing that much easier. Still there are open questions about how a digital SAT will look that will impact how students guide their preparation and so students should not prepare for a digital SAT until they know for sure that they will be taking a digital SAT. Right now, staying informed is the best thing to do. Sign up for College Board mailing lists about the SAT and make sure your school will let you know what resources might be made available in case the test goes online. On a related note, in response to uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic, some schools are making the SAT optional for students starting in Fall 2021. It will also be worth paying attention to what colleges may decide to make permanent this new policy.