Students in America took the newest version of the SAT last month. It was shorter, faster — and most notably, all online.
Given on paper for 98 years, the SAT, or Scholastic Assessment Test, was updated to reflect the experience of a generation raised in an era of higher anxiety, challenged attention spans and remote learning. The change comes as the College Board, which administers the test, and proponents of standardising testing say that the exams still have a place in determining college acceptance and aptitude.
The test has been trimmed, and students have been given more time for each question. The reading passages are much shorter, and an online graphing calculator is built into the application for the maths section, which some see as a way to level the playing field for low-income students.
The tests are also harder to cheat on, with “adaptive” questions that become harder or easier, depending on a student’s performance. Students can bring their own laptops or tablets or use school-issued equipment, but cannot have any other application running in the background. And they must take the test at a public test centre with a proctor roaming the room.
Several students seemed to welcome this new format. Naysa Srivastava, a 17-year-old who took the test in Chicago, found that the brevity of the reading passages and the built-in calculator better reflected her experience as an online learner. “Almost all my classes are digital,” she said.
Elijah McGlory, 18, a senior at Druid Hills High School in Atlanta, said taking the test digitally was “way better” compared with the paper version. “I got more questions done online,” he said.
Danny Morrison, 16, a junior who also tested in Atlanta, found the adaptive maths questions more difficult. But he said he still preferred the new test because on paper, “the reading is just so tedious”.
Sharen Pitts, a retired schoolteacher who has worked for four years as a proctor in and around Chicago, noticed several of her students echoing the sentiment after the test she oversaw. But she added that some “preferred paper because digital was harder on the eyes”.
Critics of the new SAT have said that the shorter exam and reading passages do not help students develop the greater reading stamina they need amid constant distractions from technology.
However, the test’s speed was offset by a range of technical issues.
The start of the exam was set back at some test centres, as students had problems connecting to the Wi-Fi. Some test takers experienced 30 to 45-minute delays because of connectivity issues.
On social media, students and parents reported other glitches, including maths answers that seemed incorrect and frozen onscreen calculations. In New York, Liba Safa, 15, noticed technical issues such as one student needing a charger at her test centre. And she brought her own calculator as backup,
in case the online one felt too unfamiliar.
Priscilla Rodriguez, senior vice-president of college readiness assessments at the College Board, said “a vast majority of students” were able to complete the new SAT.
“As with paper-and-pencil testing, individual student or test centre issues are possible with digital testing,” Rodriguez said. She added that those who had problems with testing would be able to retake the exam if needed.
And students seemed not too bothered by the snags.
Several also liked a function of the test that puts each student on an automatic timer, rather than leaving stop and start times up to the proctor.
“Before, it was your teacher that had to have all the timing right, and you had to wait for everyone to finish to go on breaks,” said Lora Paliakov, 16, of Atlanta.
Schmitt noted that “you could work more at your own pace”. This, some found, made the whole testing experience less stressful.
Nerves, however, were another matter. Safa, who goes to the Razi School, a private Islamic institution, had taken the test on paper in December, and she had a good sense of what to expect. “But I didn’t know about this one,” she said, referring to the new format.
So she leaned on a few home remedies before going into the exam. A light breakfast. A trick she has used to calm her mind — counting her fingers by touching each one to her thumb in order. And a little prayer before opening her MacBook for the test that her maths teacher had taught her.
“To be honest? It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” she said. “I feel like I probably did better this time.”
NYTNS
Last updated on 09 Apr 2024
