According to College Board, starting in January 2024, the PSAT and SAT will be changed fully to an online test. However, the PSAT that is taken in the fall of 2023 across the country will also be online.
The idea behind making the PSAT online in the fall is to give students a sense of what the new method of testing will be like. Due to the change in the test-taking format many students in the class of 2025 are concerned about how this will affect their testing experience and overall scores, so let’s take a deeper look at the changes you should expect.
Overall testing time will be cut by an hour, meaning the test will go from three to two hours long. The reading and writing passages will be changed from 350-750 words, to 25-150 words. The math section will change from two to one math section that you will be able to use you calculator the whole section. Also time per each question will increase from 1.25 to 1.6 seconds and the test will contain shorter word problems—more or less 50 words.
The most notable change in the online PSAT/SAT is that the new test will be adaptive, meaning the test has two modules and the difficulty of module two is dependent on the students performance in the first module.
There are advantages and disadvantages to the online PSAT/SAT, but when you approach the changes with perspective you can remember that everyone taking the test is out of their element and in the same boat.
