Years ago, digital tests were a myth. Now, they are a reality.
College Board, the national test provider for the SAT and AP tests, have moved their examinations over to a digital format within the last year, and will continue this way in years to come. With this change, different opinions have come.
The Laker Anchor polled 55 Spring Lake High School students, ranging from freshman to senior, on their preference of digital SAT or paper SAT. Forty-seven percent of students said that they like the Digital SAT, whereas 53% of students said they disliked it.
However, some love the digital format, like Abigail Weis, who said that the digital SAT felt “more efficient and faster.” This was a deliberate design from College Board with a testing time of just over two hours instead of the three-hour pencil-and-paper version. It also features shorter reading sections and calculators permitted on the whole math section.
Amelia Ernzer, a senior, said “I liked that it was adaptive.” The digital SAT gives all students the same module, one for both the reading and math Sections, but depending on how a student does on the first module it will give them an easier or harder module for the second section.
From a teachers perspective it is also more convenient.
“I think it makes the process easier to manage for the proctor,” said English teacher Alex Sinn, who is proctoring the SAT again this year. “It’s very automatic and self-explanatory. Then the proctor can just help students instead of dealing with a lot of paperwork.”
Students that dislike the SAT said on average that the reasoning behind their vote was because they prefer to mark up their tests and don’t like staring at a screen for standardized tests. “I would have preferred the Digital SAT questions, but on a paper test,” said senior Alana Mazurek.
Additionally, certain AP tests have also followed this trend towards digital tests. A majority of AP tests have moved completely online, whereas some have adopted a hybrid format, like AP Calculus.
