Top Tips: Prepare for the Digital SAT

The new digital SAT launches this spring for all international students and NEXT spring in the U.S. I’m sure you can imagine the questions we’ve been receiving on how best to prepare. As we mentioned in our previous post, “What Is the Digital SAT,” for the most part, studying for the digital SAT will be similar to how you study for the paper/pencil version. In fact, it might even be a little easier!

Let’s dig in.

TOP TIPS: DIGITAL SAT PREP

If you started your SAT prep early, only to find out that the exam you were preparing for was going to be phased out, you might be kicking yourself for all that “wasted time.” In reality, though, the skills you’ve been honing are precisely the skills you’ll need to ace the digital SAT. There are just a few changes and exceptions you need to keep in mind.

Phased-Out Content

SAT-preppers, you may all heave a collective sigh of relief knowing that U.S. Founding Documents and Great Global Conversation passages are no longer included in the digital exam. Gone too are the Reading section’s notorious question pairs, which for years plagued many students. Other notable changes are the exclusion of the Writing section’s Frequently Confused Words (hello, discreet vs. discrete) and Conventional Expressions questions, since these questions were found to disadvantage English learners. And good riddance to confusing, mile-long word problems; there will still be word problems on the Math section of the exam, but the College Board is making a concerted effort to pare these questions down, enabling students to focus on math and not on untangling overly-complicated syntax.

Content Add-Ons

On the flip side, there are certain additions to the Digital SAT that students would be wise to incorporate into their prep. This includes poetry, which may make an appearance in the new digital format, and — a throwback to the SAT of yore — vocabulary fill-ins. A tutor can guide you by preparing materials that will build these skills. They might source AP Literature poetry passages, for example, to help you engage with poetic texts, or teach you how to engage with the etymology of unfamiliar vocabulary words, a more efficient approach than memorizing mile-long vocabulary lists.

TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES

A crucial component of preparing for a standardized exam is developing one’s test-taking strategies. Now, these skills shift from exam to exam, depending on factors such as how much time is allotted for the test, whether there is a guessing penalty, and other unique test attributes. Prepping one’s test-taking strategies for the digital SAT is going to look slightly — but not entirely — different from prepping for the paper exam.

On Timing

The digital SAT is, in many ways, a more forgiving exam than its predecessor, prioritizing content mastery over sheer stamina: on the new exam, students have, on average, 1.19 minutes to answer each Reading and Writing question and 1.59 minutes to answer each Math question. This means that students should be mindful of the clock while practicing, but they don’t need to live in fear of it!

On Question (Re)Ordering

Much like its predecessor, the digital SAT allows students to navigate freely throughout each module. Since the exam is largely organized by increasing difficulty level, there isn’t so much of a need to do so. However, should a student decide to jump around, they have the app on their side: the catastrophic mis-bubbling nightmare scenario of the paper exam is made moot on the digital exam, which logs a student’s answers within the app.

On Annotations and the Bluebook App

Students are encouraged to download and navigate through the Bluebook app, which is the app on which students will take the official exam on their designated test date(s), early on in their SAT preparations. Bluebook offers tools such as flagging questions a student may want to return to, providing an alert when five minutes remain in the module, a built-in graphing calculator, a list of common formulas, and special annotation tools which the student is encouraged to make use of. It’s best to get used to these capabilities early on. We recommend students work with a tutor to develop specific annotation strategies, unique to the capabilities of the app. They should also ensure that they understand how to use the app’s built-in graphing calculator should they forget to bring their own on the day of the exam. Getting comfortable with Bluebook’s many tools early on will minimize test-day jitters and maximize efficiency and success.

On Prepping for Distractions

One particular change to the new exam is that students may click the “start” button to begin the exam at staggered intervals, meaning that students may be getting up to take breaks and/or exit the testing center at different times. For students who are easily distracted, it may be worthwhile to complete the occasional SAT prep in a (reasonably) busy environment, such as a library. Getting used to a reasonable level of distraction can help ease test-day jitters and improve focus under a variety of circumstances.

THE TEST PREP COUNTDOWN

As with any major exam, the best advice you can follow is to start early. Introduce yourself to the content of the exam by perusing these sample questions and answer explanations released by the College Board. Once you have your bearings, try your hand at a full-length, diagnostic digital practice test, available on Bluebook. Because the digital SAT is new, there’s a reasonable volume of official test prep materials available, but the volume certainly pales in comparison with the vast supply of paper SAT prep materials available in bookstores, libraries, and online. Luckily, you can still use these materials! The skills tested on the digital SAT are largely consistent with those assessed on the old exam, so use those older prep materials, but do so under the guidance of a tutor who can provide context as to how the materials map to the digital exam.

At Top Tier Admissions, we can help you navigate this new terrain and make sure your scores are in range for your dream school.