The Digitized SAT: here’s all you need to know:
The SAT has finally done away with the paper-pencil format.The much-awaited, much-anticipated digital version of the SAT is finally here! The Digital SAT (DSAT) is the MOST Popular assessment test used by universities worldwide for admitting students to undergraduate programs. Thus, a good score on the DSAT is essential for you to get into your chosen program in your dream university.
At ILM Prep, we have already started making our students practice questions and papers based on the DSAT Format in order to ensure that our students are fully prepped and ready for acing the Digital SAT. Our test prep experts have prepared practice content to reflect the pattern and level of questions being tested on DSAT so that our students are fully test ready.
GMAT Test Format | ||
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Section Name | Number of Questions | Duration (in Minutes) |
Reading and Writing Modules 1 and 2 | 54 | 64 |
Math Modules 1 and 2 | 44 | 70 |
Total | 98 | 134 |
Total Score | 800 | 800 |
Here is a quick look at the Digital SAT Structure
Digital SAT | ||
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Format | Reading and Writing (RW) Section | Math Section |
Number of Questions |
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Number of modules | 2 Modules | 2 Modules |
Time per stage | 44 | 35 |
Math without Calculator |
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Total number of questions | 54 Questions | 44 Questions |
Total time allotted | 64 minutes | 70 minutes |
Question type(s) used | Four-options multiple-choice | Four-option multiple choice (≈75%) and student-produced response (SPR) (≈25%) |
Now that we have seen the new digitized SAT structure, let us delve deeper into the two sections in the digital SAT.
Reading and Writing: As we mentioned above, in the new SAT, the Reading and Writing
sections have been combined into ONE section. But that is NOT all in terms of the changes.
Main changes in the New SAT Reading and Writing Modules:In the Digital SAT, the reading passages have become really short. Each passage is accompanied
by one question. The questions can test vocabulary, standard English conventions, transitions,
or structure. There are 27 questions in total, which means that there are 27 short passages that
students need to read to be able to answer the questions.
Math: In the Math Modules, students will have access to an online calculator throughout the exam. They even have the choice to bring their own (officially approved) calculator to the test center. Students also do NOT have to worry about memorizing Formulas that were earlier printed on the test booklet. In the digital format, important formulas, (such as how to calculate the circumference of a circle or the volume of a cone), would pop up in the form of a reference window whenever the student needs them for his/her perusal. There will also be an online notepad to aid students in making notes or doing calculations during the Math modules. The word problems in Math will become more concise and pointed as well, saving students a lot of time and effort going through long, rounded texts.
Prominent student-friendly features on the DSAT:
- ‘Mark for Review’ option that allows a student to skip a ‘hard’ question and come back to it if time permits as long as they are in same module.
- ‘Strikethrough’ option that allows students to strike out some options which they know for sure are wrong and mark that question for later review if they are not sure about the answer to a question. Once they come back to the question, they do not have to waste time considering all the choices but instead make an informed guess between the remaining choices.
- Quicker score delivery: The scores for the digital SAT come out much faster, in about fourteen days, as opposed to about three weeks in the old format.
SAT Test Preparation options available at ILM PREP.
SAT Classroom Coaching |
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SAT Live-Online Small Group Tutoring |
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SAT Live-Online Private Tutoring |
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Here are Answers to some FAQs
On the Digital SAT, students can bring their own device or request for a device to College board. Students will be required to download a customized exam application (the Bluebook app) in advance of test day. And the good part is that the online test is designed to operate despite internet outage issues. So if a student’s internet connection is lost in the middle of the test, he/she can continue to take the exam seamlessly, without losing any of their previously done work or losing any testing time.
The digital SAT is going to be a multi-stage adaptive test; this implies that the test will keep adapting to the student’s performance, not for each question though, but rather for each module as a whole. What that means is a student’s performance in Module 1 of the Reading and Writing section will determine the level of difficulty of the questions that he/she will get in Module 2. The same holds true for Math Modules 1 and 2 as well.
The total score will remain the same as the previous format- 800 for English and 800 for Math, with a total score of 1600.
The new SAT is considerably shorter than the old format, with fewer questions in each of the sections. The new SAT spans for 2 hours and 14 minutes while the older format was 3 hours long.
In the new format, there will only be TWO sections, instead of Three as in the previous one. The Reading and Writing sections, which were tested separately in the paper pencil format, have been merged into ONE section in the New Digitized version. Similarly, the math non- calculator and calculator sections will also be combined into ONE section. Each section will have two modules, making it a total of 4 Modules. In this regard, the new SAT is the same as the previous paper-based version, which also had 4 sub-sections- 1 Reading, 1 Writing, 1 Math no-calculator, and 1 Math with-calculator segments, also making it 4 sub-sections in all.