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In spring 2024, the new digital SAT will replace the traditional paper and pencil SAT we’ve known for years. You might be wondering how the digital SAT will be scored and how this will affect you. Is the scoring more difficult, easier, or the same? And how is the digital SAT score calculated? 

The short answer is that while the content and skills tested on the SAT will remain the same, scores will be calculated slightly differently from the traditional SAT. This is because the digital SAT will use the new adaptive testing model. So let’s review what that means and how it plays a part in the scoring of the digital SAT. 

What Is Adaptive Testing and How Does It Affect Scoring? Adaptive testing means that as you answer questions on the SAT, the questions you continue to receive will adapt to the difficulty level that’s best for you. As you work through questions in Module 1 in the first subject, are you only able to answer easy questions, or are you demonstrating you can answer difficult questions as well? Based on the number of easy, average, and difficult questions that you answer correctly, module 2 will adjust to deliver you questions at the level of difficulty that matches your content mastery and skill level. 

For the first time, the new scoring method takes into account the level of difficulty of the questions you are able to answer. The greater the number of difficult questions you answer successfully, the better your math score. 

Let’s imagine another scenario. This time you are working through the math problems and you are able to answer more difficult questions in Module 1. Module 2 will then present you with difficult questions, which if you answer correctly, earns you a higher subject score in math. 

This is the biggest change to the new digital SAT scoring method and means that you should try your hardest from the beginning to the end in order to earn the highest score possible. 

However, there are some differences you need to be aware of. 

While the same subjects are covered, the Reading and Writing sections have been combined into one for purposes of scoring. The second section is Math. Within each of these sections, there are some additional differences. 

● First, the Reading section has changed. Long reading passages have been replaced with shorter passages, so you should be able to read through them much more quickly. And rather than asking 10 questions per passage, the digital SAT asks only one question per passage. 

● Next, let’s look at Math. This subject used to be divided into two sections: one in which you used a calculator and one in which you didn’t. On the digital SAT, however, you may now use a calculator throughout both math sections, something many kids are excited about! 

As we talked about earlier, how you answer in the first module will determine the level of difficulty in the questions you receive in the second module. The level of difficulty will be a determining factor in the algorithm College Board uses when it converts your raw score into a scaled score.