Ensuring students are prepared for the all-new, fully digital SAT exams

As students across the country prepare for the changes the new year will brings, they have been anticipating one huge one: fully digital SAT exams.

The standardized test, which has been used for nearly a century and is mainly taken by students planning to go to college, is undergoing some major changes this year, switching to a digital format, and perhaps leaving students more nervous about the exam than ever before.

For its part, the Uniondale school district is assuring students that it is doing everything in its power to prepare them for the changes and will provide them with the tools they need to succeed.

“Our school district is working to ensure that our students are ready for the new digital SAT,” Superintendent Monique Darrisaw-Akil said. “Our students are familiar with taking tests online already, and we are leveraging the technology in our classrooms, and our counselors are conducting push-in lessons on the new SAT format.”

Darrisaw-Akil explained that the district’s curriculum directors will train Uniondale teachers on the new format so they can incorporate the strategies in their classrooms, and offer students online review classes.

Aside from the fact that pencils and paper will be a thing of the past, the new format comes with other changes. The exam will now have only two sections instead of three; it will be an hour shorter; the use of calculators will be allowed throughout the math section; and the test will use computerized adaptive testing, or CAT, technology to adapt the questions in real time, assessing each student’s abilities and providing more or less difficult questions based on their performance.

Students will also get the results much more quickly than in the past, when they waited two weeks to a month for their scores.

“We are still developing strategies to ensure that our students are successful on the new SAT, but we are starting with teacher and staff training so they can integrate those strategies in our daily classroom instruction,” Darrisaw-Akil said, adding that she believes faster turnaround times will allow students to sign up for additional resources if they want to improve their scores.

The PSATs are already reflecting the changes, with districts across Nassau County using practice tests to become accustomed to the new exams.

“It was a shorter test, which was good for the kids,” Richard Schaffer, principal of East Rockaway High School, said. “I think they’re more used to digital platforms for testing now, so it’s not totally brand new.”

The SAT has historically been administered on weekends, so as not to interfere with the regular school day. But the College Board, which creates and distributes the exams, is now requiring schools that host the tests on weekends to be designated “national” testing sites, meaning that any student, from any district, can sign up to take the test at that school alongside its students.

Matthew Sarosy, principal of Lynbrook High School, expressed his frustration with this specific change, saying that it “creates an incredible disruption to the academic process.”

“So what the College Board is forcing us to do is to bring the tests in during the week — because if you do it during the week, then you can test only your own students,” Sarosy added. “We did that for the PSATs, and it created an incredible amount of interruption to instruction.”

Overall, however, the consensus on the new format among school administrators across the county appears mostly positive, and districts are working to make sure their students aren’t just ready for the digital exam, but prepared to knock it out the park.

“Our district has invested in expanding college access to students by creating a College and Career Center to support students and their families through all aspects of the college application process,” Darrisaw-Akil said. “We are committed to ensuring that all students — but particularly our first-generation college students — are well informed and equipped to navigate the college process and new testing format.”