Starting in Spring 2024, every student who takes the SAT will take a new, digital version of the exam. The digital SAT will be different from the paper version…which means your SAT prep routine will be a little different too!
With this big change coming up, how should you handle digital SAT prep? What’s the best way to study for the digital SAT?
In this article, we’ll answer all of your questions about how to prep for the digital SAT, including:
Let’s get started!
The College Board is moving to a new, digital SAT format! Starting in Spring 2023, all international students will take the digital SAT, and starting in Spring 2024, all US students will move to the new format.
By Spring 2024, every student who takes the SAT will take the new, digital version of the exam. The paper version of the SAT will no longer be offered.
Since the new SAT is digital, students will access and take the exam using a digital device that’s been approved by the College Board. The following digital devices are approved for taking the digital SAT:
Students will download the College Board’s custom testing app, called Bluebook, to take the test. Through Bluebook, students will be able to download their SAT exam, take and submit the exam on test day, and access SAT prep and study materials (more on this later!).
The digital SAT is different from the paper version in regards to length, structure, and how exam questions are assigned . Because of these differences, it’s important to prep with a study plan that’s tailored to the new, digital exam. We’ll cover how to make a digital SAT study plan below!
To make a good digital SAT study plan, you're gonna need some tools. (But probably not these.)
With a little forethought and planning, putting together a solid digital SAT study plan is a piece of cake. To help you get started, follow our three step guide to creating the best digital SAT study routine for you!
The first step in a solid digital SAT study plan is setting your goal score . Your goal score is the score that’s most likely to get you accepted to all the schools on your college application list.
To figure out your goal score, start by finding out the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for each school you’re applying to . These scores represent the middle 50 percent of scores for students accepted to a given school. In other words, a school’s middle 50 percentile scores represent the average scores for recently admitted students.
For instance, if you score in the 75th percentile, you’ve scored higher than 75 percent of applicants to a given school. If you score in the 25th percentile, you’ve scored higher than 25 percent of applicants. The higher your score percentile, the better your chances of getting accepted!
So how do you find the middle 50 percent SAT scores for a school? First, do a Google search for “[School Name] PrepScholar.” Then, click the link to the school’s admissions requirements page, where you’ll find a table listing your school’s 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores.
For instance, if you go to the University of Texas’s PrepScholar admissions page, the table will look like this:
As you Google the 25th and 75th percentile scores for each school you’re applying to, add those scores to a chart, like this pre-made chart . Simply fill in the name of all of your schools, then add up-to-date SAT score data as you find it online.
Once you’ve completed your score chart, find the highest 75th percentile score on your sheet. This represents your goal score. Why? Because as the highest score in your chart, the highest 75th percentile score is the most likely to get you accepted to all the schools on your list!
One thing to keep in mind is that most of the middle 50 percent SAT scores you’ll find online through 2024 will be for the old, paper SAT . At this point, we can’t know for sure how much average SAT scores will change when the exam goes digital. However, the College Board currently states that average scores should stay relatively the same. We’ll update this article with average scores when they become available for the digital SAT.
For now, your best bet is to use the score data that schools have currently available and set your goal score based on that.
Once you’ve determined your goal score, it’s time to download the Bluebook app to your digital device. Remember: Bluebook is the College Board’s official testing platform. You won’t be able to take the digital SAT if you don’t have this app.
But Bluebook also provides digital SAT study materials, including four official digital SAT practice exams ! This is all great information that can make studying for the digital SAT more effective. You’ll need these prep materials to move on to Step 3 (below).
To download Bluebook to your device, follow this link on the College Board’s official website.
Now that you can access practice digital SATs through Bluebook, it’s time to find out your baseline score. A baseline score is the score you’d earn if you took the digital SAT right now before you’ve started studying!
Your baseline score also tells you how much you’ll need to prep for the SAT in order to achieve your goal score. To find your baseline score, take an official SAT practice exam through Bluebook .
You might be wondering if you can take an old, paper SAT to find your baseline score. According to the College Board, it’s best to use new, digital practice SATs for all of your exam prep . Here’s why: the digital SAT tests your skills differently than the paper SAT by using adaptive testing .
Adaptive testing changes the difficulty level of exam questions based on each question that a test taker gets right or wrong. As a result, no two digital SAT exams will be exactly the same.
Since the digital SAT uses adaptive testing, you need to take a digital, adaptive SAT in order to get an accurate baseline score.
To get an accurate baseline score, try to recreate real testing conditions to the best of your ability. If you can, take your practice test using the type of digital device you’ll use on exam day (e.g., iPad, Chromebook, etc.), follow the official time limits, and test in a quiet room.
Once you’ve taken your practice digital SAT, Bluebook will generate your score report. This score report will break down your score on each section of the exam (Reading and Writing and Math) and add those section scores together to calculate your composite score. Your composite score on the practice exam is your baseline score .
Now that you’ve got your goal and baseline scores, you can use that info to calculate approximately how many hours you need to study to raise your baseline score to your goal score.
You can do this by subtracting your baseline score from your goal score. Then match the difference you get to the numbers below:
