As the second rendition of the digitized SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) approaches, many students have noticed changes within the structure of the test, specifically in the reading section. Traditionally, the reading section of the SAT and PSAT contained long passages tied to a series of multiple-choice questions, but with the digitalization of the test, the section switched to a variety of short excerpts with a single question each. Because of this, many have wondered why these changes have been made in recent years.
Summit Educational Group cites a simple reason: it’s more applicable for a digital interface.
“This shift to shorter reading is well suited to the digital format of the exam, as you don’t need to scroll to see the whole passage,” Summit said. “Also, each passage is accompanied by only a single question. Anecdotally, we have noticed that the constant switching to new passages may help with short attention spans, but it can also be mentally taxing.”
Students have come to similar conclusions about the reasons behind the shift, such as senior Tanzim Ahsan.
“I think the SAT changed from long passages with many questions to short passages with one question because the attention span of the newer generations is getting shorter,” Ahsan said. “Because of this, the test makers may have wanted to align the test to the test takers so that they would be able to properly gauge the capabilities of the newer generations.”
Many test-makers and students alike prefer the new format because of its simplicity and ease of use.
“The digital SAT on the other hand is much easier because they combined the reading and writing sections into one and the math section became [easy to do on a calculator],” Ahsan said. “This caused the overall time for the things to be lower, and decreased the mental exhaustion, and this led to the test seeming to be easy.”
However, some believe the apparent ease of newer tests will have concerning implications for students in the future, such as Inside Higher Ed’s Ben Paris.
“To some extent, [the changes are] explained by the decision to go adaptive; it’s harder to build an adaptive test with long sequences of related questions,” Paris said. “Even so, the real impetus behind the change is probably the decline in reading—a trend with disturbing consequences.”
Paris continues by explaining why he believes the easier reading sections are a worrying reflection of current students’ skills.
“The people I tutor tend to be far above-average students with sparkling GPAs well over 4.0,” Paris said. “By these measures, they are among the best our system has to offer. If even these students can’t understand what they’re reading, what does that say about the average and below-average student?”
Students such as Tanzim Ahsan, however, believe the inverse; that the prior paper SAT was a poor representation of student knowledge because of the way it was formatted.
“The paper SAT was more lengthy and tiresome than the current online SAT,” Ahsan said. “One of the reasons for that is that each of the individual sections was much longer than what it currently is, causing more exhaustion. In addition, the paper SAT also had questions that were much harder in a sense because you never knew which questions were considered hard and easy, putting on mental pressure.”
Paris has a different theory on what the changes show students and educators.
“The system has lost its ability to self-correct. Now, when students can’t meet a standard, we change the standard,” Paris said. “Check out the syllabus of typical English classes, even honors versions. You’ll see that they aren’t asked to read all that much, and if you ask the teachers why, they’ll probably admit it’s a problem. They’ll explain, though, that you just can’t get kids to read nowadays, so they’re focusing on “close reading” of fewer and shorter works.”
Despite the differing opinions on the returning format, the test is currently implemented and the majority can agree that it is an important tool of education. Summit Educational Group has a positive outlook for the future of the test.
“Overall, although quite a bit has changed in the new Reading and Writing section of the PSAT and SAT, [we are] ready for these changes,” Summit said.
