Class of 2025 (& Beyond): Meet the Digital PSAT and Digital SAT!

This year’s junior class will be the first (domestically) to take the digital PSAT (D-PSAT) in October and the digital SAT (D-SAT) in 2024.  The digital tests do share the advantage of being shorter than their paper predecessors.  But there’s fewer official practice materials for the digital exams.  This latter fact puts the Class of 2025 at a slight disadvantage during the preparation stage.  (And they should prepare for both exams!)  As a test prep coach for more than 30 years, I recommend that the Class of 2025 prepare for the D-PSAT and D-SAT in the following three stages.

Stage One: Master Content

As a test prep coach since 1991, I’ve always advised students to learn / review content first.  Today’s students can use Khan Academy or a widely available review book; I like the Princeton Review for its clarity.  (I have no financial connection to either.)  Do NOT take an official practice test until you feel like you’ve mastered the content.  Why?  Because they’re in limited supply.  If you take it before you’re confident that you know the material, you’ve wasted that test.  You can’t use it later as a reliable gauge of your score because you will have already seen its questions.

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Stage Two: THIS TEST PREP Coach Begs YOU: Take Practice PAPER Tests first!

I’m not advocating paper because I’ve been a test prep coach since before the digital era.  I suggest this because you can find many official versions of these paper tests. But there only four of the D-PSAT and D-SAT, so you should save the latter till Stage Three.  Use paper tests help you with pacing and to pinpoint weak content areas. 

Take the full, official practice tests on paper under similar conditions in which you’ll take the real test.  Do not take the test in two separate sittings, enjoy longer breaks, or go beyond the printed time maximum unless you have that accommodation on your IEP / 504.  Keep taking practice paper versions of the PSAT and SAT until your score’s consistently increasing.

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Stage Three: Take Digital Versions of the Exam

Only after you’ve taken at least 2-3 official paper versions and seen your score consistently increase should you advance to the official digital versions of the test.  Use step 3 to get used to the digital calculator and the new question types in the Reading Writing modules.  (They’re not harder, they’re just different.)

On test day itself as well as during digital practice tests, make sure you’re calm and focused during the first module of each section, especially if you’re aiming for a top score.  These tests are adaptive, which means that the better you score on module 1, the harder the questions you’ll receive in module 2.  Yes: the second half of each section of the test changes for each student in the room.  Students who score poorly on the first module receive easier questions on the second. Once this happens, it’s impossible to score in the highest echelon.

If you need strategies for maintaining your cool during high stakes testing, be sure to catch my interview with Dr. Ben Bernstein on Thursday, August 23, at noon EDT.  You can register for this webinar for free here.   If you have specific questions that you’d like me to ask “Dr. B.,” please email me here.

You Don’t Have To Take the SAT in March or May

Finally, if you took Algebra II as a sophomore and you’ll be less busy in the fall than you will be in the spring,* take the SAT on paper this fall.  (*Spring athletes and juniors taking even one AP exam fall into this category.)  Why?  First, there are so many more official “paper version” practice tests.  Remember, the test is changing in more ways than simply going digital. (Click here to read a fuller description of the D-SAT’s changes.)

Second, students outside the United States, where the SAT went digital in March 2023, report less than optimal administration of the digital SAT. You have everything you need right now to prepare and do well on the SAT: command of Algebra II, more time than you’ll have in the spring, and loads of official practice tests.  Why would you wait until spring, when Algebra II’s a distant memory, you’re cramming for AP exams (and / or your sport’s in full swing), you have only four official tests to practice – and your school’s delivering a brand-new test in a new, digital format?  Let someone else be their guinea pig!

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Lastly, you have three chances to take the SAT before it goes digital: October, November, and December of 2023.  With regular practice and coaching, you can reach even a score above 1500 by then!

The 2023-24 school year promises to bring lots of new experiences to the Class of 2025.  Whatever challenge your child’s facing, I’m here to help.  Here’s wishing you and them a great school year!