Transitioning to a Digital SAT - Ensuring Tests and Scores Are Valid, Reliable, and Fair - In Summary

Sep 22, 2026

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Transitioning to a Digital SAT focuses on how the digital SAT will measure college readiness with the same rigor as the current SAT. The document explains that digital scores will share the same meaning and 1600-point scale, removing the need for a concordance table while ensuring comparability across administrations and students. It describes a research-driven approach using rigorous pretesting, multiyear studies, and multistage adaptive testing to support validity, reliability, and fairness. It also outlines delivery timelines and key design elements in reading and writing and math content domains.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

Transitioning to a Digital SAT

Ensuring score reliability, validity, and fairness

Four key design elements

Transitioning to a Digital SAT Ensuring Tests and Scores Are Valid, Reliable, and Fair In Summary • The digital SAT® will continue to measure the skills and knowledge that research shows are crucial to college readiness and success and at the same level of rigor as the current SAT. • Digital SAT scores will have the same meaning and will be measured on the same scale as current SAT scores, meaning that no concordance table will be necessary. Digital scores will be comparable and reliable within and across test administrations and among students. • Our test development and psychometric methods and research are built on well-established, deeply researched assessment science and design, including rigorous pretesting. • We are conducting a robust, multiyear research program to ensure that the digital test questions and format are valid, reliable, and fair, and we will share detailed test information and research results publicly. College Board will begin to administer the SAT digitally in spring 2023. The SAT will be delivered digitally internationally beginning in spring 2023 and in the U.S. in spring 2024. The PSAT/NMSQT® and PSAT™ 8/9 will be delivered digitally in fall 2023. Going digital allows us to give every student a unique test form, so the digital SAT will be far more secure. The digital SAT will also be shorter-about two hours instead of three with more time per question, and will feature more texts, topics, and authors that reflect the diversity of our students. And if a student doesn’t have a device, we’ll provide one on test day. While the transition to digital will bring great benefits for students taking the SAT, many important things about the test won’t change. The SAT Suite will continue to measure the knowledge and skills that students are learning in high school and that matter most for college and career readiness. The SAT will still be scored on a 1600-point scale, and educatorsand students can continue to track growth across the SAT Suite of Assessments over time. The assessments will continue to be administered in a school or in a test center with a proctor present—not at home. Students will still have access to free practice resources on Khan Academy® . And students taking the SAT Suite will continue to connect to scholarshipsand the College Board National Recognition Programs. Ensuring score reliability, validity, and fairness In consultation with higher education members, we are designing the digital SAT so that a score on the digital SAT will represent the same level of achievement in math and reading and writing as the corresponding score on the current SAT. This will allow current SAT and digital SAT scores to be evaluated side-by-side without a concordance table, facilitating a seamless transition from considering scores for the current SAT to the digital SAT so higher ed users have the same confidence in using digital SAT scores as one of many factors taken into consideration in a holistic admission or placement process. Four key design elements will ensure that the scores on the current SAT and digital SAT will carry the same meaning. 1. First, the content of the current SAT and the digital SATis highly congruent and comparable. 2. Second, we pretest digital SAT questions to establish that those questions are comparable in difficulty and other psychometric properties to questions on the current SAT. 3. Third, the multistage adaptive testing (MST) model employed in the digital SAT means that we are able to assess students on specific knowledge and skills in a manner highly comparable to that used for the current SAT, with shorter yet still highly reliable tests. 4. Fourth, College Board has conducted or planned numerous rigorous studies for the digital SAT prior to launch in 2023 that are comparable to the studies performed for the current SAT, including a series of concordance studies to confirm the direct relationship between digital SAT and current SAT scor

FAQs

How will digital SAT scores remain comparable to current SAT scores?

Digital SAT scores will have the same meaning and be measured on the same scale as current SAT scores, enabling evaluation side-by-side without a concordance table.

What process is used to ensure the digital SAT questions match the current SAT in difficulty?

The document states that digital SAT questions are extensively pretested so they are comparable in difficulty and other psychometric properties to current SAT questions.

Will the SAT be taken at home after switching to digital?

No. The assessments continue to be administered in a school or test center with a proctor present, not at home.

Sep 22, 2026

Upload by Skyler