The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the New SAT (3 of 3: The Ugly)

On January 25, 2022, the College Board announced that the SAT will go all-digital in 2024.  In addition, the exam will abe shortened to two hours (down from its current three).  (International exams will kickstart both changes in 2023.)  Widespread adoption of test-optional admissions policies likely catalyzed these changes.  These moves will elicit some “good,” some “bad,” and a few “ugly” consequences.  As a test prep coach and SAT tutor since 1991, I’ve written here about the positive impacts and here about the negative ones.  Let’s continue below with some possibly tragic outcomes.

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Online tutor warns about the impact on digital “have-nots”

Last I heard, the “digital divide” hadn’t yet been bridged.  The College Board is not planning to phase-in the digital shift gradually.  Do we really think that the same school districts that struggled to provide distance learning to students during COVID-19 lockdowns will be ready to give students sufficient practice with the digital SAT by the fall of next year? Students who attend low-income high schools have experienced declining rates of college admission since the pandemic began. Do we want to put yet another obstacle in their path to college?

SAT tutor laments the dearth of practice material

Speaking of practice, in their January 25 announcement, the College Board promised that, “Students will still have access to free practice resources on Khan Academy.” But do their efforts to transition students to the new exam begin and end with Khan Academy?  As an SAT tutor, I’ve seen how many students already struggle to learn math from Khan Academy.  Will post-2023 Khan Academy incorporate training on how to effectively take a digital exam to avoid these mistakes?

 Test prep coach doubts psychological coaching is part of Khan’s plan

Will Khan Academy also prepare students for the psychological shifts they’ll need to make?  An algorithm will alter the difficulty of the second half of the test according to a student’s performance on the first half.  Many student will grow anxious – at a point in the SAT when they’re already fatiguing – when faced with a more difficult second half. As much as I love what Sal Khan’s done with algebra and trig, I’m not sure whether that asynchronous videos can coach a student to make the psychological transition needed to perform effectively on an “adaptive” test like the new SAT will be.  Like so much about the digital divide in the first place, wealthier, suburban students will likely have access to an SAT tutor who can prepare them for the shift in mindset that they’ll need to make to perform well on the entire SAT.  Unfortunately, most poorer, urban, rural, and first-generation students will not.

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 Parents of the Class of 2025: Take note

Finally, there are still lots of questions about the details of the College Board’s recent announcement.  For example, will members of the Class of 2025 (current freshmen) in the U.S. be able to take a PSAT this October that reflects the shorter, all-digital format of their junior year PSAT and SAT, when the stakes are arguably much higher?  Not allowing students in the Class of 2025 to do so would not only not be “student-friendly,” it would likely drive these students and those in the years behind them to the SAT’s competitor, the ACT, while the College Board irons out what will inevitably be lots of kinks with the new plan.