Writing Will No Longer Be Used On SAT Tests

It was once a rite of passage. That sharpened tip, that small eraser, the nervous feeling, and fear. While students may still feel that nervous feeling, the SAT will no longer require students to take the test with a No. 2 pencil.

By Rick Gonzales | Published 2 years ago

It was once a rite of passage. That sharpened tip, that small eraser, the nervous feeling, and fear. While students may still feel that nervous feeling, the SAT will no longer require students to take the test with a No. 2 pencil. Beginning in 2024, all SAT standardized college admission tests will go exclusively to computers. A tradition, one that started almost one hundred years ago, will be gone.

Now, students will be completing the SAT on a laptop or desktop, one of their own, or a device issue by the testing school. If a student doesn’t have access to either, the College Board will provide one on test day. You’re probably asking yourself since many have dealt with this issue in the past – what if a student finds their laptop or desktop without power? What if the internet decides it wants to crash? There are so many inherent possible problems.

The College Board, the entity that administers the SAT, is preparing for these issues. They said, “The digital SAT has been designed to ensure they won’t lose their work or time while they reconnect.” Well, that’s a definite positive. These changes, technically speaking, are not the only ones that the College Board is looking to make a reality.

For students who can’t sit still for longer than two hours, they’ll be pleased to know that the SAT will be shortened from three hours to two hours. Along with shortening the time, the SAT will also be featuring shorter reading passages with a mere one question each. How quaint. The topics of said reading passages are going to cover topics that will be more representative of what a student may see in college today.

The SAT reading passages are not the only testing material that the College Board plans on giving a facelift. For those who are unable to do math, the College Board will also be allowing students to use a calculator. If that doesn’t beat all.

Another big positive coming from the College Board’s changes is that students will get their SAT results in days instead of having to wait weeks. Teachers won’t have to deal with the muss and fuss as packing, sorting, and even shipping the test materials will no longer be required since it will all be handled digitally.

The College Board has been running a pilot testing program to see how well the new planned system is going to work. What they have seen is that over 80 percent of the students in the pilot program have experienced much less stress. One 11^th grade student remarked to the College Board that “It [the test] felt a lot less stressful, and a whole lot quicker than I thought it’d be. The shorter passages helped me concentrate more on what the question wanted me to do.”

While these new standards appear to be a welcome change, they come at a time when there has been a growing trend of colleges and universities dropping the SAT (and ACT) tests altogether as a requisite for admittance. In fact, the non-profit foundation FairTest says for the Fall 2022 admissions, right around 1,815 schools of higher learning have eliminated the requirement for standardized test scores.

“Schools that did not mandate ACT/SAT submission last year generally received more applicants, better academically qualified applicants, and a more diverse pool of applicants,” noted FairTest Executive Director Bob Schaeffer via Engadget.

This probably explains why SAT test taker numbers dropped from 2.2 million in 2020 to 1.5 million in 2021. Right now, the number sits around 1.7 million for those graduating in 2022. The legitimacy of the SAT has been under fire over the past number of years, which is why many colleges and universities are making the shift to tests optional. “In a largely test-optional world, the SAT is a lower-stakes test in college admissions,” said Pricilla Rodriguez, vice president of college readiness assessments for the College Board, said in a statement. “Submitting a score is optional for every type of college, and we want the SAT to be the best possible option for students.”

For now, though, until 2024, students will not be allowed to use a calculator for their SAT. Tests will remain in the three-hour timeframe. And yes, pencils will still be required.