Digital SAT FAQs (article) | Khan Academy (2024)

College Board, the maker of the SAT, is introducing changes to both the content of the test and how the test is administered in order to better fit the needs of students and educators. Most notably, the test will transition from being taken with paper and pencil to being administered via a digital assessment platform accessed by computer.

While the transition to digital will bring a number of student- and educator-friendly changes, many important features of the SAT will stay the same. The SAT will continue to measure the knowledge and skills students are learning in school that matter most for college and career readiness. The digital SAT isn’t simply a digital version of the current paper and pencil test — it will be easier to take, more secure, and more relevant.

To see more detailed information on the digital SAT scoring, format, and day-of test questions, go to College Board’s site.

Which version of the SAT you take depends on when and where you take it, since the transition to the digital version of the SAT will occur gradually over the next two years.

• Starting in 2023, students taking the test outside the United States and its territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands) will take the digital SAT.
• Starting in 2024, the digital SAT will be taken by all students.

So, if you’re taking the SAT in 2023 and

• You’re taking it outside of the U.S., you should prepare for the digital SAT only by using Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep.
• You’re taking it in the U.S. (or its territories), you should prepare for the paper-and-pencil test using Khan Academy’s Official SAT Practice.

If you’re planning to take the SAT in 2024 or later, regardless of location, you will be taking the digital SAT and should prepare with our new Official Digital SAT Prep.

For more information on the rollout of the digital SAT, please check out College Board’s site.

Changes have been made to both sections of the SAT in the digital version. These changes are outlined below.

Digital SAT Math:

• Calculator use: Calculators are now allowed throughout the entire Math section. A graphing calculator is integrated into the digital test experience so that all students have access.
• Question word count: The average length of Math word problems has been reduced. In-context questions are still a big part of the test, but they’re not quite so wordy.

Digital SAT Reading and Writing:

• One test for Reading and Writing: While the pencil-and-paper SAT tested reading and writing in separate test sections, the digital SAT combines these topics.
• Shorter passages (and more of them): Instead of reading long passages and answering multiple questions on each passage, students taking the digital SAT will encounter shorter passages, each with just one follow-up question.
• New question types: With a greater number and variety of passages, the digital SAT includes new types of questions, with new prompts that require new strategies.

To learn more about the digital SAT and how the test will be administered, please visit College Board’s site.

The only official digital SAT Prep lives here on Khan Academy!

Created in partnership with College Board, the creators of the SAT, Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep includes over a thousand digital SAT Math questions and hundreds of digital SAT Reading and Writing questions. Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep is loaded with insightful lessons and explanations written by Khan Academy’s test prep experts.

We recommend two steps to best study for the digital SAT:

Take full-length practice tests: Full-length practice tests give you the best idea of what test day will be like because they test your skills and allow you to become familiar with the testing platform.

• Starting with a practice test will help you diagnose the areas where you need the most practice.
• After taking each practice test, you can review your performance and read answer explanations for the questions you missed.
• You can take full-length practice tests using College Board’s Bluebook app.
• We recommend taking full-length practice tests at set intervals throughout your test prep journey. Doing this will help you gauge your progress, refine the focus of your skill practice, and build endurance and experience for test day.

Use our Official Digital SAT Prep to practice your skills: Skill practice involves exploring the different types of SAT questions, learning strategies for answering those questions, and practicing the skills those questions test.

• The best way to practice individual skills is to explore both the digital SAT Math course and the digital SAT Reading and Writing courses on Khan Academy.
• In these courses, you can read articles and watch videos that cover each skill, practice those skills, then test yourself in the related exercises. As you become proficient in more skills, you’ll become more prepared for test day.

We recommend that you take at least one practice test (or more, if time allows) to get familiar with the contents of the exam, as well as timing and pacing, before test day. You can take full-length practice tests using College Board’s Bluebook app.

Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep offers two courses of study: the Math course and the Reading and Writing course. These courses allow you to prepare for every section of the digital SAT with guidance from Khan Academy’s team of math, reading, and writing experts.

• The Math course is organized into 37 math skills and features three levels of difficulty in each skill.
• The Reading and Writing course is organized into 11 skills and covers the full range of questions on the exam.

As you work through the material in the courses, you'll level up your Mastery and learn test-taking tips and strategies while reviewing hints and explanations, reading articles, and watching videos created by Khan Academy's test prep experts.

As you become proficient in the skills covered in the Math and the Reading and Writing courses, you’ll become more prepared for test day.

Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep covers every type of question you might see on the test and all the skills you are expected to know for both the reading and writing and math portions of the digital SAT.

You will want to start by taking a practice test on College Board’s Bluebook app to diagnose where you should focus your studies. The results from your full-length practice test will help you identify which sections of Khan Academy’s Official Digital SAT Prep will be the most useful.

The Math section of the digital SAT is designed to test students on the math topics that are most important for college and career success.

Those topics can be split into the following four categories:

• Algebra: Analyze, fluently solve, and create linear equations and inequalities, as well as analyze and fluently solve systems of equations.
• Advanced Math: Demonstrate attainment of skills and knowledge central for successful progression to more advanced math courses, including analyzing, fluently solving, interpreting, and creating a variety of equation types.
• Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: Apply quantitative reasoning about ratios, rates, and proportional relationships; understand and apply units and rates; and analyze and interpret one- and two-variable data.
• Geometry and Trigonometry: Solve problems that focus on perimeter, area, and volume; angles, triangles, and trigonometry; and circles.

Questions on the digital SAT Math test come in two formats:

• Multiple-choice: Questions offer four possible choices from which students must select the answer.
• Student-produced response: Questions require students to produce their own answer, which they then enter into the provided field.

To get the most benefit out of the digital SAT Math course and use your time most efficiently, we recommend using the course as follows:

• Taking the course challenge: By attempting 40 questions from different lessons throughout the course, you can get credit for the skills you’ve already mastered and identify the skills where you could improve. You can also get credit within individual units by attempting unit tests.
• Working from top to bottom: The course takes all the math skills tested on the SAT and splits them into three difficulty levels: Foundations, Medium, and Advanced. By working through the course from top to bottom, you’ll encounter each skill at each level, keeping your practice balanced and ensuring no skills fall through the cracks.
• Taking quizzes and unit tests as you go: As you progress through different skills, you can take quizzes and unit tests to prove your mastery of the content. The more units you master in the course, the more prepared you’ll be for test day.

To learn more about the Math section of the digital SAT and about Khan Academy’s digital SAT Math course, visit this article.

The Reading and Writing section of the digital SAT is designed to test students on reading comprehension, rhetoric, and language use by having students engage with academic and literary texts. Skills on the Reading and Writing test can be split into the following four categories:

• Information and Ideas: Use, locate, interpret, and evaluate information from various texts and infographics.
• Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of high-utility academic words and phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make supportable connections between multiple related texts.
• Expression of Ideas: Use revision skills and knowledge to improve the effectiveness of written expression in order to accomplish specified rhetorical goals.
• Standard English Conventions: Use editing skills and knowledge to make texts conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.

To get the most benefit out of the digital SAT Reading and Writing course and use your time most efficiently, we recommend using the course as follows:

• Work from top to bottom: The course takes all the reading and writing skills tested on the SAT and organizes them by focus. By working through the course from top to bottom, you’ll encounter each skill in turn, keeping your practice balanced and ensuring no skills fall through the cracks.
• Try exercises more than once: Because the digital SAT Reading and Writing test is new, there’s not as much content available for practice as there is for the SAT Math test. While we hope to expand this course in the future, we encourage you to squeeze every last bit of practice you can from the presently available materials. So, even if you’ve tried (and passed) an exercise before, you can get extra practice by attempting it again!

To learn more about the Reading and Writing section of the digital SAT and about Khan Academy’s digital SAT Reading and Writing course, visit this article.