Every year, high school students prepare for a rite of passage: their college entrance exams. A lot has changed with the ACT and SAT over the last 20 years. The SAT changed the format of the test in 2005, and again in 2016, and again in 2024. The ACT introduced an optional Writing section in 2005 and had minimal changes up until this year.
As COVID wreaked havoc on the world in 2021, the College Board moved its annual AP testing to the computer, and we quickly learned what it was to take tests online. The trend of digital standardized testing has persisted, and now the SAT is a digital adaptive test, with the ACT kowtowing behind with its own version of a digital (non-adaptive) test released on April 5th, 2025.
The Digital SAT
The SAT went digital at the beginning of last year on January 1st, 2024… in the middle of a school year. If you were a junior at the time, you had no choice but to switch gears and learn the format and strategies of a new test. As a private educator, I was appreciative that the College Board had at least released four legitimate practice exams beforehand. The content was more or less the same, but the differences in format were large enough that many students struggled to obtain a similar or greater score to what they had achieved on the previous paper version of the SAT a couple months prior.
The SAT transition was a mess. The first test was offered in March 2024, and students complained about how much harder the exam was than the practice exams offered. The complaint was so loud that the College Board released two new practice exams that “represented the actual test” in a week. Students reported that the following test was wildly easy. And the difficulty fluctuated erratically throughout the year, as the College Board found its balance with difficulty and scoring.
Most students will take this test 2 to 3 times before reaching their goal score. The rebalancing of the new test doubled this expectation. Students that had prepared early were still trying to take the test in August before their senior year. To make matters worse, complications started to surface regarding IT complications (e.g. wifi down, internet down, not enough computers, app crashing), tests canceled shortly before the exam date (sometimes the day of), and waiting times to get into the exam site.
Even with our students at HelloCollege, I received this type of news regularly. One student mentioned that they waited to be admitted to the proctoring site for over an hour. Another student said that they sat at their desks, and the proctor announced, “If we can’t get the WiFi up and running before noon, we’ll just send you home.” Keep in mind: students often spend months preparing for this exam; the exam is approximately two and a half hours of sitting time; and students are supposed to start between 8:30–9:00am.
The issues seemed widespread, but none of this was widely reported until recently, when Forbes reported on the March SAT Test Crisis. On March 8th, 2025, first SAT of the year, the digital SAT platform was set to submit tests at 11:00am local time, regardless of where the student was in the test. For any students whose exam started later due to any of the aforementioned issues, their exam ended early. For any students with accommodations, their exam ended early.
The College Board’s response waffled between extremes, until they finally capitulated and gave students an option to retake the exam. To be clear, the next SAT is in May, during the two weeks of AP exams. The following SAT is at the beginning of June, typically right before or after finals. And the next one is in August, right before senior year.
Issues like this only extend and complicate the standardized testing journey for students, especially those that are getting ready to submit their college applications.
The Digital ACT
Now the ACT is set to change—shorter test, more time per question, optional Science section—making the test more approachable to students. The ACT seems to have learned by watching the SAT’s mistakes the year prior. The digital test moves to the new format in April, and the paper test will change over in September, providing students a transitional period to adjust to the changes. Though the format is changing, the content is more or less identical. All good things!
However, the ACT only released a single practice exam (with no scoring) prior to the reveal of its “enhanced” test. Even the updated Official ACT Prep Guide, according to Amazon, isn’t set to be released until the beginning of May, nearly a month after the reveal of their new exam. Perhaps this decision, too, was intentional, but with little content to work off of and no understanding of how the scoring will change, students again approach another standardized test with uncertainty.
Why Take Digital Standardized Tests?
So, it begs the question: with all of the challenges in digital standardized testing, why take these tests at all?
Grade inflation. Grades (GPAs) have steadily increased while standardized testing scores have steadily decreased. The NAEP High School Transcript Study reports that the average GPA in 1990 was a 2.68, and by 2019, it had increased by ~0.4 points to a 3.11. A recent analysis from UIUC professor Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider of the data from Big Ten Schools showed the following:
“The proportion of students with a 3.75 GPA or higher increased from less than 40% of the incoming freshman class in 2005, on average, to over 70% in 2023; the average incoming freshman high school GPA similarly increased from 3.58 to 3.84 from 2005 to 2023.”
Meanwhile, standardized test scores have steadily declined over the last couple years, starting even before COVID. The ACT national average in 2018 was a 20.8 and in 2024 was a 19.4. The SAT national average in 2017 was a 1060 and in 2024 was a 1024 (the lowest average since the test changed in 2016).
While unweighted GPA continues to be one of the most important factors in college admissions, the ACT and SAT still hold a strong footing in the college application process, combating grade inflation and demonstrating college preparedness. For highly-selective colleges and competitive majors, standardized testing isn’t necessarily optional (even when the school has a test-optional policy). Students who achieve their target scores submit them; those who fall short, or prefer not to prepare for these tests, often choose not to.
Final Thoughts
Through consistent preparation, students can achieve good scores, and that’s really the whole point. The process with the current digital standardized testing may be frustrating, but learning to navigate novel challenges is a big part of being prepared for college. For this reason, I still recommend students take these exams in preparation for college.
As with anything in life, we adapt to the changes and learn along the way. The digital standardized testing process needs to be improved, but we need to stay positive and continue pushing forward. Just as students dedicate months of tedious preparation for these exams, I hope testing organizations will show the same level of commitment to better supporting our students by improving their processes.
If you or your student need help navigating the transition to digital standardized testing, working with an expert test-prep tutor at HelloCollege can make all the difference. Contact us today for a free consultation.
