On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, following two hectic years of standardized testing featuring test cancellations and COVID restrictions, the College Board announced that the SAT is going digital and reshaping its anatomy. 

Throughout the pandemic, SAT tests were approved as an optional factor in college admissions by more than 75% of universities in the United States. According to the College Board, “In November 2021, College Board piloted the digital SAT in the U.S. and internationally; 80% of students responded that they found it to be less stressful and 100% of educators reported having a positive experience.” Appeasing the students’ apparent wishes, the nonprofit went forward with slight adjustments to the assessment and announced the shift. 

What’s changing? The SAT, which is currently three hours in length, will be cut down to two hours. There will be more reading passages with one question per passage. This means there will be more time per question. There will also be an elimination of the “No Calculator” section of the math portion of the SAT, meaning students will have access to calculators on the entire math section. While this may seem like a blessing on the surface, there is controversy amongst students.

Shashank Chalamalasetty, a Middletown North senior and valedictorian of the class of 2022, took the SAT during the pandemic and performed well, earning a score of 1480. When asked his thoughts on the test changes, he remarked, “Scores will skyrocket initially with a harder curve as a result of it. Removing the no calculator section eliminates the questions where students can be certain of using tricks to move faster which will be harder for pacing. Also, cheating will become more common online as we’ve seen during the COVID era in online school.”

On the other hand, some students praise the College Board’s radical decision. Michael Kelly, a sophomore who will take the test next year, said, “It helps take a lot of the stress of the test room out of the equation. This way I can focus with less distractions.”

Moving forward, the United States enters a new age of college admissions and standardized testing. Most schools will be test optional and the once-traumatizing standardized testing season may soon be a thing of the past. With the College Board’s decision to remove the optional essay portion of the SAT last year and new online testing approaching, one must wonder if this will be beneficial or a detriment to students who will need stronger extracurriculars to strengthen their resumes when standardized tests become an unreliable filter for admissions.