In late fall 2022, The College Board released four full-length digital and adaptive SAT practice tests, and ever since then, our experts have been hard at work analyzing those tests to generate a unique test prep curriculum and share insights on how to prepare with our Private Prep families. Below, you can find detailed information on the content and structure of the upcoming digital SAT!

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Built-In Tools

The digital version of the SAT comes with several critical tools to ensure all students are equipped to succeed. To be perfectly honest, we wish all of these tools were available on the paper SAT!

• Digital Timer
• In-App Calculator
• Reference Sheet
• Elimination Function
• “Mark for Review” Function
• Annotate Function

See more details on all of these tools below!

Digital Timer

An onscreen timer will ensure more accurate and consistent timing. Students no longer need to rely on a proctor to time them correctly or worry about bringing the right type of watch on test day.

 

In-App Calculator

A graphing calculator is built into the testing app, ensuring everyone has access to the same functionalities. We still recommend students plan to bring their own graphing calculator so they can save time and use something they’re more familiar with on test day, but if they don’t have access to one or they forget their calculator on test day, it’s good to know this is here.

 

Reference Sheet

The same math reference sheet that used to appear in the opening pages of the paper SAT is available on the digital SAT.

 

Elimination Function

By toggling the elimination button in the top right corner of the question, students can visually eliminate answers that are obviously wrong and hone in on the top contenders.

 

“Mark for Review” Function

Nervous that you can’t draw stars next to questions you want to come back to? Never fear. The digital SAT includes a “mark for review” feature, allowing students to flag questions they want to review later and easily navigate back to these questions.

 

Annotate Function

On the paper SAT, some students like to jot down notes next to Verbal questions. On the digital SAT, there’s an “Annotate” button to preserve that capability, allowing students to write quick notes-to-self about main ideas or key words or phrases.

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Reading & Writing

Unlike the paper SAT, which includes two Verbal sections — one more focused on reading comprehension, and one more focused on grammar — the digital SAT has one Reading & Writing section, in which questions centering on a variety of verbal skills are mixed together.

Each question is accompanied by a passage that ranges in length from a single sentence to a full paragraph. Here are some of the types of questions you can expect to see on the Reading & Writing section of the digital SAT.

Vocab-in-context

These questions ask students to select the most logical and precise vocabulary word to fill in a blank, based on knowledge of the words themselves and the context of the passage.

 

Paired passages

These questions ask students to analyze and compare the points of view of the authors of two different passages.

 

Purpose

These questions ask students to identify the purpose and impact of a single sentence in a larger passage.

 

Character

These questions ask students to analyze and summarize information about certain characters based on the information provided about those characters in a passage. Some passages include many characters, requiring students to avoid distractions and focus on the character that the question identifies.

 

Main idea

These questions ask students to synthesize the main idea or primary purpose of a passage. Students must understand how to discern more extraneous details from a passage’s central themes.

 

Reading graphs & charts

As in the paper SAT, the verbal section of the digital SAT includes some questions that combine reading comprehension with more quantitative skills. Questions like these test a student’s ability to correctly interpret graphs and charts and apply that information to a written passage.

 

Grammar

These questions test a student’s grasp of grammatical concepts like punctuation, parts of speech, and proper sentence structure.

 

Transition

These questions ask a student to select the transition word that most closely reflects the relationship between two sentences or clauses.

 

Relevance

These questions ask a student to identify the most relevant information in a list of loosely related pieces of information, based on a stated goal.

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Math

On the paper SAT, the two Math sections (Calculator and No-Calculator) are further subdivided into multiple choice questions and “grid-in” questions (on which students write in their answers rather than selecting from provided options). Math on the digital SAT will be different in two crucial ways. First, calculators will be allowed on the entire section. Second, the section includes a mixture of multiple choice questions and free-response questions.

That being said, the content areas covered by the digital SAT seems extremely similar to the content areas covered by the paper SAT! Here are some of the content areas you can expect to see on the Math section of the digital SAT.

• Exponents & Radicals
• Exponential vs. Linear Growth
• Expressions
• Manipulating & Solving Equations
• Systems of Equations
• Word Problems
• Lines
• Quadratics
• Triangles
• Circles
• Trigonometry
• Probability
• Statistics

See more detail on each of these content areas below!

Exponents & Radicals

 

Exponential vs. Linear Growth

 

Expressions

 

Manipulating & Solving Equations

 

Systems of Equations

 

Word Problems

Lines

 

Quadratics

 

 

Triangles

 

Circles

 

Trigonometry

 

Probability

 

Statistics

 

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