Format, Content, and Scoring.
The primary purpose of the digital SAT Suite is to assess students’ preparedness for success in both college and careers. All assessment content is developed based on high-quality research that identifies the knowledge and skills essential for college and career readiness and success. Each test within the suite is designed to collect evidence from student performance to support broad claims about what students know and can do. This aligns with the primary purpose of assessing readiness for college and career training programs.
Format
The SAT is composed of two sections: Reading and Writing, and Math. Students have 64 minutes to complete the Reading and Writing section and 70 minutes to complete the Math section for a total of 2 hours and 14 minutes.
Each section is divided into 2 equal length modules, and there’s a 10-minute break between the Reading and Writing section and the Math section. The first module of each section contains a broad mix of easy, medium, and hard questions. Based on students’ performance on the first module, the second module of questions will either be more difficult or less difficult.
The SAT is administered on College Board's customized digital testing application, Bluebook™. Creating our own custom-built application for the digital suite allows us to prioritize the features that matter most to students and educators.
Students can take the digital SAT Suite tests on a wide range of devices, including their own laptops (Windows or MacOS), iPads, school-owned desktops and laptops, and school-managed Chromebooks. Students will take the digital suite using a custom-built digital testing application that they’ll download in advance of test day.
Students taking the SAT on a weekend who don’t have access to a device can request to borrow one from College Board, and the device will be provided to use on test day. This applies to students taking the SAT on the weekend internationally as well as in the U.S. Students will request a device when they register for the SAT.
Learn more about the digital transition.
Content
The SAT covers a range of topics in both the Reading and Writing section and the Math section.
The Reading and Writing section presents short reading passages (or passage pairs) followed by a single multiple-choice question. Questions on the Reading and Writing section represent one of four content domains—Craft and Structure, Information and Ideas, Standard English Conventions, and Expression of Ideas.
The Math section focuses on the areas of math that play the biggest role in college and career success:
- Algebra
- Advanced Math
- Problem-Solving and Data Analysis
- Geometry and Trigonometry
The Math section includes multiple-choice and student-produced response questions that measure fluency with, understanding of, and ability to apply the math concepts, skills, and practices that are most essential.
Approximately 30% of the math questions are set in context. These in-context ("word") questions require students to consider a science, social studies, or real-world scenario and apply math skills and knowledge, along with an understanding of the context, to determine the answer to each.
Additional resources:
Digital SAT Suite of Assessments Specifications Overview
SAT Suite of Assessments Technical Manual
Scoring
The SAT Suite of Assessments provides detailed information about student learning by reporting different types of scoring metrics. Each assessment reports a total score and section scores. These scores give an enhanced profile of students' skills and understanding.
Total Score and Section Scores
Each of the assessments in the SAT Suite reports a total score that is the sum of the Reading and Writing section scores and the Math section score.
Ranges for Total SAT Scores: 400–1600
Ranges for SAT Section Scores (Reading and Writing, Math): 200−800
Adaptive Testing
The multistage adaptive test design of the SAT and use of Item Response Theory (IRT) methodology allow for precise measurement of students' knowledge and skills with fewer questions in less time than possible with traditional paper and pencil tests. IRT is used by many national assessments, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) suite from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), as well as many state assessments.
Administrations of each digital SAT Suite assessment sample from the same content domains across the same range of skill and knowledge elements, meaning all students have an equitable opportunity to demonstrate their strengths.
A range of section scores is possible, no matter which second module a student sees. Students won't be advantaged just for seeing a higher difficulty set of questions in the second module or disadvantaged just for seeing a lower difficulty set of questions in the second module.
Additional resources: