March 2024 didn’t mark the world’s first digital adaptive SAT–that took place in March 2023. This year’s first SAT was, however, the inaugural U.S administration, which meant that exponentially more eyes were on the exam and its implications.
As the President of the National Test Prep Association, I facilitated a conference to bring 70 educators and counselors from around the globe to crowdsource observations from tens of thousands of students after March scores were released. Here are some of the major conclusions:
1. The official test is harder than the Bluebook tests.
Based on reports from students who have been taking digital SATs outside the US, we anticipated that the Bluebook exams might not adequately prepare test takers for the highest difficulty items on the test. Even the newest additions to Bluebook–tests 5 & 6–more closely resemble the practice tests than the official tests.
How did this disparity in difficulty manifest? Many students scored substantially lower on the official SAT than they did in practice.
2. Difficulty is based on complexity rather than unexpected content.
The Bluebook tests present a thorough overview of the reading, writing, and math content necessary for SAT success. What’s missing is an accurate depiction of how difficulty ramps up quickly on the harder modules as well as the ways in which questions are made more challenging:
- heightened emphasis on critical reasoning and problem solving
- longer reading passages and answer choices
- conceptual math problems that require more than calculator skill
3. Take care of your tech issues in advance.
Test takers encountered a number of avoidable issues on test day where they failed to run necessary updates or log into Bluebook before arriving at the test center. Take care of everything you can in advance: you don’t want to be that person that holds up a room of anxious test takers because you forgot your Bluebook password!
4. Little things matter a lot during the test.
A digital adaptive exam offers plenty of benefits, but the format also places certain demands on test takers. For example, you’ll only start with one piece of scrap paper, and you may only ask for one more piece. Your name must be on both pieces, which will be collected in their entirety at the end of the test. Manage your paper well, and don’t tear pieces off for any reason. Also, don’t try to click out of the Bluebook window: your screen is locked, but efforts to escape the testing window might be perceived as cheating.
All in all, the March SAT confirmed expectations that the exam will evolve over time the way all previous versions of the test have. The Bluebook exams are solid resources for preparation, but students should be careful not to expect direct correlation between their practice test scores and official results. If anything, strive to exceed your target scores in practice to reach them on test day.
Mike Bergin