Understanding the Digital SAT and PSAT/NMSQT: A Comprehensive Guide for Educators

Navigating this Guide

2-3

Overview: The Five Ws

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Test Breakdown : The Move to Adaptive

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The Bluebook Testing Platform: Core Features for Students to Master

11-12

13-14

How Students Should Plan to Score Their Best on the Digital Test

The Digital PSAT and National Merit

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Comparing: Digital SAT And Paper ACT Colleges and Universities – How Will They Treat the New Digital Test vs Paper?

15 17-19

Considerations Before You Host a Digital PSAT/SAT on Your Campus

Digital SAT® and PSAT/NMSQT® Overview The Five Ws

For the first time in its history, the SAT is moving away from the printed page and into a digital format. That’s a huge deal –and potentially a significant opportunity for students. Let’s review the five core questions to make sure we’ve got the basics down:

What is changing about the test?

You can read about all the changes in more detail in the articles provided in this guide, but here are the most notable differences:

The test is now given on each student’s laptop or iPad a secure testing application called “Bluebook.”

• The test has been shortened by 45 minutes – down to approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes in total length.

• The test is now adaptive and will change its difficulty in response to student performance during the testing experience.

• In the Reading & Writing section, the test no longer uses lengthy passages, and each question has its own short (<100 words) passage.

• In the Math section, students will be provided a built-in digital graphing calculator. They can now use a calculator on all questions previously there were some questions where a calculator was not allowed.

When does it roll out, and Who is affected?

• For students in the U.S., the first digital test will be the Digital PSAT in October of 2023.

• This means that current sophomores, the class of 2025, are the first to be affected by the change, and current juniors and older will not be impacted by the Digital SAT or PSAT.

• The first Digital SAT administration for U.S. students will be in March 2024, and once the test moves to a digital format, there’s no going back to the previous pencil-and-paper format.

• For students taking the test outside of the U.S., the SAT will move to a digital format a full year earlier – starting in March of 2023.

Why is the College Board changing the format?

Where will students take the new test?

• The Digital SAT will be administered at testing sites across the U.S., typically local high schools, in a similar fashion to the current paper test.

• Seven test dates will still be offered for students to take the Digital SAT, and we anticipate that the test will be available during the same months that are currently offered (March, May, June, August, October, November, December.)

• Each student’s high school administers the digital PSAT in October every year.

• Student-friendliness: With the expansion of test-optional policies, the College Board has seen a considerable decline in the number of students taking the SAT. By putting the test in a digital format and shortening it significantly, they’re looking to reduce the friction and appeal to more students.

• Test security: The current paper format is much more vulnerable to the theft and distribution of test content, and the College Board has had to deal with significant breaches outside of the U.S. Moving to a digitally encrypted and adaptive test format will reduce the likelihood and feasibility of cheating.

Test Breakdown : The Move to Adaptive

The Digital SAT is almost 30% shorter in duration – and making the test adaptive is the only way the test makers can make that change without sacrificing accuracy. This has several implications for students that are important to understand.

Let’s start with an overview of the structure:

Digital SAT/PSAT

For each module, there are two questions that are unscored, experimental questions that the College Board is testing to get student response data. These questions won’t count toward the student’s score, but it won’t be indicated to the student which questions are experimental.

The Adaptive Modules

For each student taking the Digital SAT/PSAT, their Module 1 will be an even distribution of easy, medium, and difficult questions. Within that set of questions, students can move freely forward and backward, skipping questions and returning later like a regular test.

Once they complete the first module, the testing application will evaluate their performance. Based on how well they performed, they’ll be sent to one of two different Module 2s. It’s important to note that students won’t be notified as to which path they’re on—this determination happens behind the scenes in this way:

Module 2 “More Difficult”:

If students do well enough on Module 1, they’ll be sent to a Module 2 that features a more difficult mixture of questions. This will unlock the ability to finish with a score between the high 400s and an 800 on that section (Reading & Writing or Math).

Module 2 “Less Difficult”:

For those students who don’t perform as well on Module 1, they’ll receive a Module 2 composed of an easier mix of questions

Students sent to this version of Module 2 will be limited to a score in the mid-500s at best on the section of the test.

Module 1

Students are given a broad mix of easy, medium, and hard questions.

Module 2

Students are given a targeted mix of questions of varying difficulties based on their performance in Module 1.

Student’s Score

Not All Questions are Created Equal

As opposed to the current paper SAT and ACT, the new Digital SAT/PSAT will be using a more sophisticated form of scoring, called Item Response Theory (IRT). Under IRT, each question can have a different weighting on the student’s scoring, and also whether they’re sent to the harder or easier Module 2.

This methodology is well-researched and proven – if you want to dive deep, this paper is a good technical summary (https://support.sas.com/resources/ papers/proceedings14/SAS364-2014.pdf). While this methodology has the advantage of being a more accurate way to assess student ability, the downside is that it will feel much more mysterious for students, since they won’t know how much each question has contributed to their overall score.

This Test is My Test, That Test is Your Test

In the current paper format SAT, PSAT, and ACT, students are administered a test where they likely experience nearly identical sets of questions. With the adaptive nature of the new Digital SAT/PSAT, two students sitting for the same administration will each have a unique set of questions.

The digital test draws on a large pool of questions and creates a unique set for every student. This means there’s minimal possibility of peeking over the shoulder of another test taker and seeing the same content. It also means that students won’t have access to review the questions they took after the test is over. This is because the test makers plan to re-use those questions for other students on different test dates. For students looking to improve, this puts a greater priority on taking practice tests, as that will be the only way to do a detailed debrief and drive focused improvement. Revolution Prep offers students a Digital SAT and Digital PSAT practice test, which includes a detailed score report that will allow students to drill down into their personal areas of opportunity.

Why is the College Board Changing the SAT to a Digital Format?

More Student Friendly

• Today’s teenagers are “digital natives”

• The test length has always been a major pain point for students

• Students want to get their scores back sooner

Address Test Security Issues

• Paper tests are a major vulnerability for cheating

• Several major incidents in the past few years

• Digital testing allows for more secure encrypted delivery

More Flexibility in Testing Delivery

• Timing built in to test platform means students don’t have to start at the same time

• Over time, can allow for different venues for student testing

The Bluebook Testing Application 3 Key Features

To deliver the Digital SAT/PSAT, the College Board has developed their own proprietary testing application, called Bluebook. It’s available now for students to experience by logging in to their College Board account.

The Desmos Graphing Calculator

What is it?

A full-functioned graphing calculator with an easy-to-use interface, the Desmos calculator has been used by millions of students worldwide—and now it’s integrated in the Digital SAT/PSAT test. Students can graph any number of equations simultaneously, zoom in and out and get discrete solutions, and use it to help solve all manner of math problems on the digital test.

How can students leverage it to their advantage?

One of the core challenges to scoring well on the Math section of the Digital SAT/PSAT is the ability to select the quickest path to an accurate solution. There are multiple options for every math question, but for a well-prepared student, visualizing the math is typically one of the quickest. Students should familiarize themselves with the built-in calculator, or their own physical calculator they plan to bring, and be ready to use it strategically to help get to the right answer more quickly.

2 Passage Annotation / Highlighting

What is it?

For any passage text that students are given on the Reading & Writing section of the Digital SAT/PSAT, students can use a built-in annotation tool to either highlight specific portions, or take notes.

How can students leverage it to their advantage?

Students who score highly on the Reading & Writing section of the test are strong active readers who are able to understand the basic meaning of the text, as well as to tease out higher-level details. One of the most commonly used strategies for active reading is to continually “ask questions” internally about the main idea of a text, the author’s intent or use of evidence. Using this built-in tool to take notes on these questions can be a powerful approach.

3

Question Flagging / Review Page

What is it?

During each Module in a given section, students don’t have to answer every question in order – they can choose to skip a question and come back to it later. In the Bluebook application, they’ll be able to flag a question for further review, and then use the Review Page to get an at-a-glance look at all the questions in the section. This view shows them which questions they’ve answered, which they haven’t, and any questions they have flagged.

How can students leverage it to their advantage?

For most students, the path to a successful section score isn’t linear; they won’t necessarily answer each and every question in order. If a student is initially confused or uncertain about a question, it can make sense to skip it and return later. With the built-in tools in Bluebook, it’s a lot easier to track this, and for a student to successfully return and review/re-attempt every question before time runs out.

Comparing the Digital SAT® with the ACT®

As students move into the 2023-2024 school year, the classic “SAT or ACT?”question will take on a new dimension. In March 2024, the SAT will move into the new digital format, and it’s important for each student to make an informed decision on which test makes the most sense for them.

Let’s review the similarities and differences, and talk about how to best make this decision:

Making the Decision: Basic Strategy

Despite the digital format change for the SAT, the basic approach to determining which test a student should focus on remains the same: Take a full-length practice test of each, and compare the results.

Specifically, using this October’s Digital PSAT and a full-length ACT is a convenient approach for most students. Once these scores are in hand, students can use concordance tables to see if there’s a statistically meaningful advantage for one test or the other, and act accordingly.

If there’s no notable difference in scores, which is quite common, it’s often best to go with the test that the student finds more comfortable.

For the Class of 2025, a Unique Consideration

Each student’s testing plan should reflect their individual constraints and needs. In particular, this impacts the timing of when students will take their first official exams and plan for any needed re-takes of the SAT or ACT.

For those students that have meaningful time conflicts in the spring of their junior year – a sport season, a commitment to direct a play – tackling standardized testing during the first half of that school year can sometimes make sense.

In that situation, the current class of 2025 should note that the SAT will still be in paper format through the December 2023 test date, and then transition to digital in March 2024.

For students who do intend to complete their standardized testing in the first half of junior year, there may be some advantage to focusing on the ACT as it won’t see any change in format during their preparation timeline. This dynamic won’t apply for students who are on a more typical timing for their first official test in spring of their junior year.

What About Playing it Safe with the ACT, Which isn’t Changing?

Anytime there’s a significant change in test format for one of the two major tests, it’s fair to consider a riskavoidance position which sticks with the option that isn’t changing. In this case, the ACT is well positioned as a “safety choice.”

That being said, the amount of research and development that the College Board has invested in the new digital test is staggering, and the stakes are high for a successful launch. Our take at Revolution Prep is that the choices they’ve made in the design of the testing application do minimize the risk of mishaps or errors during proctoring.

With the ACT’s format remaining constant, it is reasonable to assert that the amount of preparation materials and time-tested strategies for that test will be greater than the new Digital SAT, but the similarities in question content and type between the paper and Digital SAT mean that it’s not a complete re-invention. Reputable test preparation firms will be well positioned to support students with curricula and strategies for the new Digital SAT, and as such our overall position is that the new digital test should not be dismissed outright for risk-avoidance reasons in favor of the ACT.

How Students Should Plan to Score their Best on the Digital SAT/PSAT

For almost every student, the question of, “How can I improve my score?” is central to their thinking around the admissions tests. And while every student will have a unique set of challenges and opportunities, there are some common approaches that work in most every case.

It’s important to acknowledge that, as ever, there are no shortcuts to meaningful improvement. Students should plan on spending significant time and effort to see an increase in scores on the Digital SAT/PSAT.

Here are four areas to consider in developing a preparation plan for the Digital SAT/PSAT:

Review and Master the Test Content

For many students, the fact that the Digital SAT/PSAT covers many years’ worth of skills and conceptual learning in math, reading, and grammar is a great opportunity for score improvement. Typically, students are used to tests in school that cover a more narrow collection of recent learning, so going back over the skills they’ve been taught since middle school is a great start.

In doing this review, it’s important to reference accurate information about what’s covered on the test. This can come from the College Board’s own test blueprints, from a reputable test preparation firm, or via the free resources available on Khan Academy.

Learn to Apply Effective Strategies

The Digital SAT/PSAT are administered on a new digital testing platform, Bluebook, which features a variety of useful tools that students need to understand and master to score their best. (We’ve got another section in this guide that covers three important ones!) Students should plan on spending time familiarizing themselves with the testing application, but with the specific intent of attaining correct responses as quickly as possible while minimizing errors.

With that in mind, we at Revolution Prep have developed a new battery of digital-specific strategies that can help students optimize their score. These range from the right ways to use the provided scratch paper while testing digitally, to the best way to leverage the answer elimination and flagging tools, to approaching the new short-passage format for the Reading & Writing section.

Managing the Time Available

The new Digital SAT/PSAT gives students slightly more time per question on average. For most students, this is still less time than they’re used to from exams and quizzes in school. This can lead to anxiety and rushing while testing, which often leads to inaccuracy and lower scores.

Students do have the ability, within a given module, to skip a question and return later. They should build comfort with the approach of quickly identifying whether a question “fits their eye,” and if not, flagging it for review and coming back later. One of the most common time management pitfalls for students on standardized testing is getting too bogged down in an individual question, thus reducing the time available for the other questions in the module.

Develop Cognitive Endurance

Despite the 45-minute reduction in length on the new Digital SAT/PSAT, the test experience still clocks in at two hours and 15 minutes, which is significantly longer than the typical tests that students are given in their high school classes.

A student’s ability to focus and bring their best thinking to each individual question is deeply affected by the length of sustained time that they take a test. The good news is that this is something they can acclimate to and become more capable of high performance even when experiencing fatigue.

The best way to do this is to take full-length practice tests under timed conditions that simulate the real test. The College Board offers four full-length practice Digital SATs that any student can access for free using their collegeboard.org account. Revolution Prep also offers a free full-length testing experience for the Digital SAT and PSAT.

The Digital PSAT & National Merit

For students based here in the U.S., the first incarnation of the new digital test is the PSAT this October 2023. For this fall’s juniors, the Class of 2025, this will also be a required component for consideration in the National Merit Scholarship competition, which is a chance to earn recognition and monetary awards toward attending college.

Earning those highest accolades is never easy – only the top 1% of test-takers in each state will earn semi-finalist status. Previously, the National Merit competition used a specific methodology to calculate their Selection Index, which was the benchmark used to determine qualification for the various levels of recognition. They used the test sub-scores, which are no longer available on the new Digital PSAT with its move toward an adaptive format.

At the College Board Forum in October 2022, we learned that College Board is advising the National Merit organization on the development of a new way to do this selection index, and that information will be released in Spring 2023. It’s reasonable to speculate that they will use scaled section scores instead of sub-scores, and potentially continue to double the weighting of the Reading & Writing score as they did before. Many parents inquire about the right ways to prepare their

student for the junior-year PSAT, and those questions may be amplified with the new digital format change. The reality is that most students will not be within a realistic range of achieving semi-finalist status on the test, so it’s important to make a preparation plan in consideration of that fact. As a test that doesn’t count directly for college admissions, the junior-year PSAT is still generally best used as a practice run and baseline for a future Digital SAT.

How Will Colleges and Universities Treat the new Digital SAT?

The primary utility of the Digital SAT for any student is its potential weight in the admissions process—so what do we know about how those admissions departments will view the new test format?

Will they favor the paper format over digital, or vice versa?

From all indications, admissions departments will view the new Digital SAT as interchangeable with the previous paper SAT.

As part of their research & development of the new Digital SAT & PSAT, the College Board has done significant field testing to ensure that the new test format is equivalent to the current paper-and-pencil format. This includes having over 10,000 high school students take both the new digital test and the existing paper test within a one-month span.

These efforts to ensure that the new test equates to the existing format are aimed at reassuring college admissions professionals that despite the changes, the new test culminates in identical student results. Based on conversations we’ve had with admissions professionals, the College Board is succeeding at that goal.

What about superscoring between the two test formats?

Yes, it appears likely that most, if not all, colleges and universities that allow superscoring will do so across the current paper format and the new digital format.

Superscoring is a policy employed by the vast majority of colleges and universities, whereby a student’s highest individual section scores from different test dates are combined into a single score. This allows students to present their most optimal “high-water marks” in each portion of the SAT or ACT.

At this point, we expect most institutions to allow superscoring between the current paper format and the new digital format. As policies evolve and become announced, this information may change.

Considerations Before You Host the Digital PSAT this October

For schools that host the PSAT and SAT, the routine has become second nature after years of the paper-and-pencil format. Now, everything’s going to be a bit different, and it’s important to prepare for the digital switchover.

The College Board hasn’t yet released all of the detailed proctoring instructions, but there’s enough information available to begin the process of informing yourself on what will be needed to successfully host students taking the Digital PSAT & SAT.

The College Board’s web home for school staff overseeing digital testing is here: https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/technology

Testing Coordinators should plan on conducting realistic pre-testing sessions prior to the October Digital PSAT.

On the next page, we’ve noted the key areas to consider when you prepare for this:

Devices

The College Board’s digital testing application, Bluebook, is available on Windows laptop or tablet, Mac laptops, an iPad, or a schoolmanaged Chromebook. The detailed device requirements are viewable here: https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/students/download-bluebook

The default is that students will be using their own device to take the Digital PSAT, but you should make sure to have extra devices available, just in case. If these are school-managed devices, work with your IT department to ensure they have the Bluebook application installed.

For any students that know they won’t have a reliable device, the College Board will have a formal device lending program. They’ll release more information on this soon, but students will need to make a request well in advance of the test date, and meet similar requirements to the fee waiver in order to borrow a device.

Installing the Bluebook Testing Application

Prior to the administration of the Digital PSAT, students will be given instructions by College Board to download and install the Bluebook app on their device and ensure they can log in to their College Board account. Schools should also familiarize themselves with the app, in the event there are students who require support during testing.

Consider any administrator settings on school-issued devices that may prevent students from installing the application themselves. In these cases, make sure to refer to College Board’s page to ensure that your IT team is installing the newest version: https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/technology/updates

Power/Charging

For standard time administration of the Digital PSAT, the College Board’s current position is that students should not need to plug in their devices during testing.

They will be required to bring their devices fully charged.

As some students may not follow this guidance, or have devices with batteries with degraded ability to hold a charge, it’s a good idea to consider how you can supply outlet power to most/all seats in the testing room(s).

For students receiving extended time accommodations, the College Board requires the testing room to have outlet power for students to plug in.

Internet/Wifi

The most comprehensive resource for preparing your school’s network connectivity is here: https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/technology/networks/prepare

For the Digital PSAT, the bandwidth requirements are 200kbps upload and 200kbps download for each student concurrently.

Conduct your testing during the same time of day as the PSAT administration to get a realistic sense for network load.

Ensure WiFi access point(s) can handle the number of students who will be simultaneously testing. If your planned PSAT administration is in a room which doesn’t typically service students all using their devices, this is one of the most important things to test and consider.

We’d also recommend stress testing your network by hosting a practice Digital PSAT or SAT on campus with the same amount of students you expect to take the test on official test day.

Testing Room Setup

In terms of desks and spacing, the College Board has not yet released their final guidance. That being said, the existing PSAT proctoring guidelines will likely remain the same, or similar, for digital testing.

Although the test is delivered digitally, you’ll need to provide scratch paper for students. Final guidance is coming from the College Board, but estimate five sheets of paper per student.

Those can be found here: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/psat-nmsqt-coordinator-manual.pdf

FAQ for Test Day

The best resource for any other questions you may have about test day is here: https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/technology/help/bluebook-troubleshoot