Adaptive by Section: the new SAT
Beginning this October, the PSAT will move to a digital format, and the SAT will follow suit next March. You may already know of some of the prominent new features of the digital SAT: it will be delivered on a laptop or a tablet; it will be shorter; it will have less reading; and it will allow calculators on every math question.
The College Board intends to maintain the classic 400-to-1600 point scale (the score is the sum of the student’s Reading/Writing score and Math score). That the scale will remain the same, though, belies an important alteration to the underlying scoring structure of these digital tests.
The current SAT weighs every question within a given section equally: easy questions and hard questions carry the same value. Savvy students become maximally efficient with time and effort as they focus on questions that will yield good outcomes and bypass questions that absorb time but offer little reward.
On the digital PSAT and SAT, however, this underlying scoring system will change. The new tests will offer “adaptive by section” scoring, in which the questions that a student receives will vary depending on that individual student’s performance in the first sections (called “modules” on the test) of Reading/Writing and Math. Your first module in a given area will have a mix of difficulty, and the results from that module determine the difficulty of the second module.
Think of it this way: the test meets you during the first module and forms an impression of you. If you cruise through the first module, the test will regard you well and reward you with a challenging second module. Even if you struggle at times in the second module, you made a strongly positive impression in the first module and will receive a relatively high score. If you struggle in the first module, though, the test will offer you an easy second module which can return a relatively low score for you.
It’s important to understand, though, that the test is adaptive by section rather than by question: the test bases the content of the second module on the overall score of the first module. If a student misses an easy question or two in the first module but gets the other questions right, the test will reward that student with a hard second section. In other words, don’t fear that the result of one question will make or break you—what matters is the aggregate for that module.
So what’s the wise approach to adaptive-by-section testing? I offer 3 quick suggestions: first, pay careful attention to details and strategies in the first modules to maximize your points; second, be cognizant of using your time wisely, and do not expend time and energy on fruitless questions; and third, never leave questions blank.
Look for future posts with more insights into the new tests!