As students grow more, so does standardized testing. For decades, schools across the globe take the SAT to see how ready and prepared they are for college.
Over the years, students have constantly complained about the SAT; saying that it is difficult and stressful to the average-junior mindset. There are many assists that are given to students for preparation before the SAT, like Khan Academy. But, even the majority of juniors do not pass their original scores from years before.
This is when College Board conjures the idea of a digitalized SAT. A standardized test taken on school laptops, instead of paper. College Board believes this idea could benefit all students in test taking.
“I think it went really well, actually,” principal Youngblood said. “Especially, managing all the supplies, putting all the tests booklets, shipping it back to College Board and it is just the biggest pain in the butt. But, this year, we don’t have to do any of that.”
He believes that the SAT went very well, in terms of cleaning supplies and shipping back tests.
“Honestly, I think I’m more of a traditionalist in many ways,” Youngblood said. “Going forward, the beauty of it is that we should get our test scores quicker. Even with a pencil and paper, it’s not going to disappear. When the internet goes down or someone opens another tab, then it’s a problem.”
Youngblood acknowledges the different scenarios that might happen if schools continued to do Online SAT testing. He believes that hand-written SAT test-taking is better for the student mind.
“I believe the biggest benefit of the new format is actually for everything behind the scenes,” counselor Jordan Triner said. “This goes from College Board creating the test, counselors coordinating it, and teachers administering it, which in turn leads to a smoother process that can benefit both students and teachers.”
He agrees that taking care of supplies and organization for the test is easier now that it is not on paper.
“If you ask the staff, I think they would say now or next year,” Triner said. “It’s one of those situations, where there are going to be learning curves that makes the process uncomfortable, but we really didn’t know what it would be like until we did it.”
Triner says that having an online SAT is a better idea now, because we are in a more modern age of technology.
