The Digital SAT Suite:

What’s staying the same?

The digital SAT Suite will continue to measure the skills and knowledge that students are
learning in school and that matter most for college and career readiness. The suite will
continue to be scored on the same score scale as the paper and pencil tests they are
replacing (for example, the SAT will continue to be scored on the familiar 400–1600 scale),
and the SAT and PSAT-related assessments will continue to be linked through a vertical score
scale that allows students and educators to meaningfully track growth across the suite.

The two sections of the digital SAT Suite—(1) Reading and Writing and (2) Math—also
measure largely similar knowledge and skills as their paper and pencil predecessors,
including:

§ Use of reading/writing passages across a range of academic disciplines and text

complexities.

§ Required demonstrations of command of evidence, both textual and quantitative.

§ Emphasis on high-utility words and phrases in context.

§ Focus on revising and editing writing to improve the effectiveness of expression, achieve
specified rhetorical goals, and demonstrate command of core conventions of Standard
English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.

§ Continued focus on the math that matters most for college and career readiness and
success.

§ Math problems in (and out of) context.

§ Use of both multiple-choice and student-produced response question formats in the

Math section.

College Board remains strongly committed to the validity and fairness of our assessments—
ensuring that our tests measure what they’re intended to measure and that the tests afford
an equal opportunity to all test takers to show their best work. As with the paper-based
suite, test fairness considerations are at the foundation of the design, development, and
administration of the digital SAT Suite.

The digital SAT Suite will retain strong alignment to state academic standards. And while
the digital SAT Suite will simplify the test-taking process and be an easier experience for
students and educators, it will maintain the rigor of the current paper and pencil tests.

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 The Digital SAT Suite:
What’s changing?
While we’re preserving many important features of the SAT Suite, we’re not simply creating a
digital version of the current paper and pencil tests. The digital SAT Suite tests will be more
flexible exams that are easier to take, easier to give, more secure, and more relevant.

Suite-level changes
§ The digital SAT Suite assessments are substantially shorter than their paper and pencil
predecessors—lasting 2 hours and 14 minutes instead of 3 hours.

§ Test takers have more time, on average, to answer each question, meaning that, more
so than ever before, the digital SAT Suite tests are measures of students’ skills and
knowledge, not test-taking speed.

§ Students and educators will receive scores faster—in days instead of weeks.

§ In addition to the many ways that the current SAT Suite connects students to
opportunities they’ve earned through their hard work, digital SAT Suite score reports
will connect students to information and resources about local two-year colleges,
workforce training programs, and career options.

§ The tests will be more secure. Currently, if one test form is compromised, it can mean
canceling scores for whole groups of students. Going digital allows us to give every
student a highly comparable but unique test form, so it will be practically impossible to
share answers.

§ States, schools, and districts will have much more flexibility for administering SAT
Suite tests.

Section-level changes
READING AND WRITING
§ The digital assessments have a single Reading and Writing section instead of separate
Reading and Writing and Language Tests. This shift allows us to measure English
language arts and content area literacy knowledge and skills more efficiently while
acknowledging the reciprocal, mutually reinforcing nature of reading and writing skills
and knowledge.

§ The digital SAT Reading and Writing section will feature many shorter passages instead
of a few long texts, meaning students will see a wider range of topics that represent
the kinds of works they’ll read in college. At the same time, these shorter passages
maintain the level of rigor of longer reading passages in terms of text complexity and
grounding in academic disciplines.

§ A single (discrete) question is associated with each passage (or passage pair)
instead of having several questions associated with a small number of long passages.

The Digital SAT Suite of Assessments Specifications Overview 9

 MATH
§ Calculators are allowed throughout the Math section. A single Math section replaces
the separately timed no-calculator and calculator-allowed portions of the paper and
pencil SAT Suite Math Tests. This change allows the Math section to more accurately
reflect how calculators are used in schools and in the real world. It also eases test
administration by eliminating separately timed test portions with different rules.
Students may continue to use their own approved calculator on test day or take
advantage of the graphing calculator built directly into the testing application.

§ The average length of in-context questions (“word problems”) has been reduced. In-
context questions still serve a valuable role in the Math section, as they assess whether
students can apply their math skills and knowledge to both academic and real-world
situations. However, College Board has listened to feedback that longer contexts posed
barriers that could inhibit some students, often but not only English learners, from
demonstrating their core math achievement.

Multistage adaptive testing

The digital SAT Suite will utilize a multistage adaptive testing (MST) methodology. Adaptive
testing has been used for large-scale digital standardized assessments for nearly 40 years.
Being adaptive means we can fairly and accurately measure the same things with a shorter
test while preserving test reliability.

Figure 1: Digital SAT Suite Multistage Adaptive Testing Model

Student’s
Module 1 Module 2
Score
Students are given Students are given a targeted
a broad mix of mix of questions of varying
easy, medium, and difficulties based on their
hard questions. performance in module 1.

In a multistage adaptive SAT Suite test, each test section (Reading and Writing; Math) is
divided into two equal-length and separately timed stages, each composed of a module
of questions. As illustrated in figure 1, students begin each test section by answering the
set of questions in the first module. This module contains a broad mix of easy, medium,
and hard questions that allows students to demonstrate their achievement before moving
on to the second module. The questions in this second module are broadly targeted to the
test taker’s achievement level based on how they perform in the first module; questions are
either (on average) higher difficulty or lower difficulty than questions in the first module. This
means that the test “adapts” to present questions that are more appropriate to a student’s
performance level.

MST testing benefits students in several ways. First and foremost, it results in shorter
tests that retain the precision and reliability of longer (linear) tests. This is because
question difficulty in the second module of each section is personalized based on student
performance in the first stage, resulting in a more efficient assessment and a more tailored
experience for each student. Second, unlike in most question-by-question adaptive testing

The Digital SAT Suite of Assessments Specifications Overview 10

 models, students taking one of the digital SAT Suite tests can navigate freely through a given
module’s questions, previewing upcoming questions or marking earlier questions to return to
as time permits.

Section breakdown and timing

Each assessment in the digital SAT Suite is composed of two sections: Reading and Writing
and Math. Students have 64 minutes to complete the Reading and Writing section and 70
minutes to complete the Math section.

Each section is composed of two equal-length modules of test questions. Each Reading and
Writing module lasts 32 minutes, while each Math module lasts 35 minutes. Each module is
separately timed, and students can move backward and forward among questions in a given
module before time runs out. When time runs out on the first module of each section, the
test delivery platform moves students to the second module. When students complete the
Reading and Writing section, they are moved to the Math section after a 10-minute break
between the sections. A small number of indistinguishable, unscored items are included in
each section to aid with the test development process.

Total testing time for the digital SAT Suite is 2 hours and 14 minutes for each assessment
(SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and PSAT 8/9).

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 Content Specifications
Reading and Writing
The Reading and Writing section of the digital SAT Suite assessments is designed to
measure students’ attainment of critical college and career readiness in literacy. The section
focuses on key elements of comprehension, rhetoric, and language use that the best
available evidence identifies as necessary for college readiness and success. In this section,
students answer multiple-choice questions requiring them to read, comprehend, and use
information and ideas in texts; analyze the craft and structure of texts; revise texts to improve
the rhetorical expression of ideas; and edit texts to conform to core conventions of Standard
English.

Reading and Writing content domains

Questions on the Reading and Writing Section represent one of four content domains:

§ Craft and Structure: Measures the comprehension, vocabulary, analysis, synthesis, and
reasoning skills and knowledge needed to understand and use high-utility words and
phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make connections between topically
related texts

§ Information and Ideas: Measures comprehension, analysis, and reasoning skills and
knowledge and the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, and integrate information and
ideas from texts and informational graphics (tables, bar graphs, and line graphs)

§ Standard English Conventions: Measures the ability to edit texts to conform to core
conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation

§ Expression of Ideas: Measures the ability to revise texts to improve the effectiveness of
written expression and to meet specific rhetorical goals

Questions from all four domains appear in each Reading and Writing test module, beginning
with Craft and Structure questions and then continuing through Information and Ideas,
Standard English Conventions, and Expression of Ideas questions. Questions within the
Craft and Structure, Information and Ideas, and Expression of Ideas content domains that
test similar skills and knowledge are grouped together to reduce the need for context
switching and arranged from easiest to hardest. This makes it easier for students to budget
their time and allows each test taker the best opportunity to show what they know and
can do. Questions in the Standard English Conventions content domain are arranged from
easiest to hardest regardless of which specific convention is being tested. Table 2 provides a
breakdown of question distribution by content domain.

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 Table 2: Digital SAT Suite of Assessments Reading and Writing Section Content Domains
and Question Distribution

Operational
Content Domain Skill/Knowledge Question
Domain Description Testing Points Distribution

Students will use

comprehension, vocabulary,
analysis, synthesis, and Words in Context
reasoning skills and
Text Structure ≈28% /
Craft and knowledge to understand
and Purpose 13-15
Structure and use high-utility words
questions
and phrases in context, Cross-Text
evaluate texts rhetorically, and Connections
make connections between
topically related texts.

Central Ideas
Students will use and Details
comprehension, analysis, and Command of
reasoning skills and knowledge Evidence ≈26% /
Information
and the ability to locate, 12-14
and Ideas
interpret, evaluate, and integrate § Textual questions
information and ideas from texts
and informational graphics. § Quantitative

Inferences

Students will use editing

skills and knowledge to Boundaries
Standard ≈26% /
make text conform to core
English Form, Structure, 11-15
conventions of Standard
Conventions and Sense questions
English sentence structure,
usage, and punctuation.

Students will use the ability

to revise texts to improve Rhetorical Synthesis ≈20% /
Expression of
the effectiveness of written 8-12
Ideas Transitions
expression and to meet questions
specific rhetorical goals.

Math
The Math section of the digital SAT Suite assessments is designed to measure students’
attainment of critical college and career readiness knowledge and skills in math. The digital
SAT Suite Math section focuses on key elements of algebra, advanced math, problem-
solving and data analysis, and geometry and trigonometry (except for the PSAT 8/9 which
does not test trigonometry) that evidence identifies as necessary for college and career
readiness and success. Over the course of the Math section, students answer multiple-
choice and student-produced response (SPR) questions that measure their fluency with,
understanding of, and ability to apply the math concepts, skills, and practices that are most
essential for readiness for entry-level postsecondary work.

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 Math content domains
Questions on the Math section represent one of four content domains:

§ Algebra: Measures the ability to analyze, fluently solve, and create linear equations and
inequalities as well as analyze and fluently solve equations and systems of equations
using multiple techniques

§ Advanced Math: Measures skills and knowledge central for progression to more
advanced math courses, including demonstrating an understanding of absolute value,
quadratic, exponential, polynomial, rational, radical, and other nonlinear equations

§ Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: Measures the ability to apply quantitative

reasoning about ratios, rates, and proportional relationships; understand and apply unit
rate; and analyze and interpret one- and two-variable data

§ Geometry and Trigonometry (SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10)/Geometry (PSAT 8/9):

Measures the ability to solve problems that focus on area and volume; angles, triangles,
and trigonometry; and circles (NOTE: PSAT 8/9 doesn’t include trigonometry questions.)

Questions from all four content domains appear in each test module. Across each module,
questions are arranged from easiest to hardest, allowing each test taker the best opportunity
to demonstrate what they know and can do. Table 3 provides an overview of the question
distribution by content domain.

Table 3: Digital SAT Math Section Content Domains and Question Distribution
This table shows information for the SAT. Tables for the PSAT-related assessments are broadly similar and can be
found in the full Assessment Framework document.

Operational
Content Domain Skill/Knowledge Question
Domain Description Testing Points Distribution

Linear equations
in one variable

Students will analyze, fluently Linear equations

solve, and create linear in two variables
equations and inequalities ≈35% /
Linear functions
Algebra as well as analyze and 13-15
fluently solve equations Systems of two questions
and systems of equations linear equations
using multiple techniques. in two variables

Linear inequalities in
one or two variables

Students will demonstrate the Equivalent

ability to progress to more expressions
advanced math courses,
Nonlinear equations ≈35% /
including demonstrating an
Advanced Math in one variable and 13-15
understanding of absolute
systems of equations questions
value, quadratic, exponential,
in two variables
polynomial, rational, radical,
and other nonlinear equations. Nonlinear functions

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 Table 3: Digital SAT Math Section Content Domains and Question Distribution
This table shows information for the SAT. Tables for the PSAT-related assessments are broadly similar and can be
found in the full Assessment Framework document.

Operational
Content Domain Skill/Knowledge Question
Domain Description Testing Points Distribution

Ratios, rates,
proportional
relationships,
and units

Percentages

One-variable data:
distributions and
measures of center
and spread
Students will apply quantitative
reasoning about ratios, rates, Two-variable
Problem- ≈15% /
and proportional relationships; data: models and
Solving and 5-7
understand and apply unit scatterplots
Data Analysis questions
rate; and analyze and interpret
Probability and
one- and two-variable data.
conditional
probability

Inference from
sample statistics
and margin of error

Evaluating statistical
claims: observational
studies and
experiments

Area and volume

Students will solve problems Lines, angles,

and triangles ≈15% /
Geometry and that focus on area and
5-7
Trigonometry volume; angles, triangles, and Right triangles and questions
trigonometry; and circles. trigonometry

Circles

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