Put down the test paper and pencil, because SAT, the nation’s most used college entrance exam, is going to be completely digital in 2024. The College Board, who administers the SAT, announced this change last month. The digital test will be available to international students in 2023. But rather than saving the test, the SAT and ACT would be better off gone from the future and left in the past. 

For decades, colleges have required students to take the SAT and ACT. But in recent years, the required testing has faded and many universities have begun to drop the requirement altogether. About 2.2 million high-schoolers in the class of 2020 took the exam, but the number dropped to 1.5 million for the class of 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced colleges to accomodate for students unable to take the SAT, there has also been a cultural shift in how we view standardized tests as a means of measuring intelligence. In this new digitized SAT, students will still be required to take the tests at testing centers, but now on a tablet or computer. The three-hour test will also shrink to two hours, with the reading section more closely related to materials that will be read in college. The math section will also be changed so that students can use calculators throughout its entirety. 

Another different thing about the digital SAT is that it will rely on adaptive testing. This means the test will change based on the student’s answers, with a goal of reducing the time students spend answering questions that are too easy or too hard. Priscilla Rodriguez, the College Board Vice President, said that this method “allows for more efficient testing to get the same assessment of the skills and knowledge.” 

The College Board reports that the digital format will be easier to administer, because there will be no need to ship the test papers and booklets, hence students will get their test scores back in days as opposed to weeks. Rodriguez has also said the College Board’s decision to switch to a digital format wasn’t driven by the test-optional movement. The company’s goal is to create a test that is flexible and accessible, so students who want to can take it and decide if they want to use the score. Money also plays a big part in this. The SAT being completely online reduces the cost needed to administer the test. 

The fact that 75% of all the nation’s four-year universities are test optional for 2022 applicants is showing that College Board is struggling to keep the SAT alive, especially through the pandemic. And for good reason. Not only is the test expensive and unnecessary, it also favors wealthy students who have the time and resources to take test prep courses and take the exam multiple times. The SAT costs $55 to take once, and when there was an essay it was $68 all together. Critics from The Washington Post have said that SAT and ACT results always follow a pattern of students from lower income families do worse than students from wealthy families. The test is also ineffective at determining the success of students, as it has shown biases in terms of gender, language, and special education students. 

Perhaps as a symptom of this change, the UC (University of California) system won’t allow or look at any test scores. The testing agencies are defending the integrity of their exams now more than ever. College admissions tests have always played an important role during the college ac-dents take one or two exams each year, earning millions of dollars for the “nonprofit” organizations. The College Board argues that the test still plays a vital role in holistic admissions, and by going digital, the organization hopes that the SAT will stay relevant. 

With the digitization of SAT, we can expect less and less people taking the test. Hopefully colleges in the near future will drop the requirement of standardized testing altogether.