What to know:
- If you have a junior or sophomore, they may have just taken the new digital PSAT, which is preceding the nationwide rollout of the dSAT in March 2024. This required every high school administering the test to adjust to a completely new system. We often think about the student experience, but it’s important to remember that part of students’ test-taking experience relies on administrators and proctors—and this is all new to them, too. Once schools are more experienced with administering digital tests, it will undoubtedly be much simpler for all, but we should expect some bumps in the road if digital PSAT feedback on the counselor side is any indication.
- We’re keeping an eye on equity issues surrounding the digital SAT rollout. The College Board has a special task force to support under-resourced schools in gaining access to Wi-Fi and devices they need to administer the dSAT, but this is a major undertaking, and some schools may have to still use the paper version.
- On that note, to close with another quote from Rodriguez: “An 1150 is an 1150” The College Board views the digital SAT as equivalent to paper in terms of scale and scoring. From what we’ve seen of sample score reports, plus the growing self-reporting landscape, the only meaningful differentiator may simply be the test date. But if there is still a critical mass of schools that lack resources to switch to dSAT in March, even the test date may not necessarily reflect paper vs. digital.
