In October, sophomores and juniors expressed mixed feelings about various changes presented by the first digital PSAT. The format change aims to help students “familiarize themselves with the digital testing experience before taking the digital SAT,” which is also moving to digital in spring 2024, College Board officials said.
This decision increases “flexibility in terms of when, where, and how often the SAT is given,” particularly for SAT School Days, where the SAT is administered on school grounds, and which is an important factor in helping lower-income or rural students reach college. Despite the switch to a digital format, which eliminated the costs of printing, mailing and scanning tests, the cost of $18 for taking the PSAT and $60 for the SAT has not changed.
Many students noted that the passages were much shorter in the digital PSAT, especially for the reading section. After completing both paper and digital versions, junior Katelyn Gan said she preferred the digital version because “instead of large chunks of excerpts, you get short paragraphs which are way better for focusing and reading.”
Junior Sophia Lin added that she preferred the paper version.
“I feel like they lowered the difficulty,” Sophia said.
The Reading/Writing and Language used to be separate sections but are now combined, with both digital sections appearing to test the same things. This also applied to the math section, as the two sections were very similar. One benefit of the math section was its calculator, which included both algebraic and graphing functions that may be helpful to students who don’t own graphing calculators.
Junior Joyce Rizko pointed out a different aspect of the experience, since digital versions provide different questions for everyone.
“It was a common experience,” Joyce said. “Now you don’t get to discuss [the same questions] after with your peers.”
College Board states that the SAT will also undergo question changes to better accommodate the digital format. Though the new digital format of the PSAT has some benefits such as reducing paper waste, many students have mixed opinions on the changed question format.
