The Digital Shift: Students and staff transition from paper to digital PSATs

Sophomores and juniors took the new fall 2023 Digital Practice Scholastic Assessment Test on Oct. 11. The testing took place on the 5th floor from 7:30 a.m. to noon. 

The new test became available in October and all schools in the nation are now required to use the digital test, unless students with testing accommodations require a paper and pencil test, according to SAT Suite of Assessments.

A week before test day all students registered for the PSAT were required to download the new testing app, Bluebook, and attend a training session through the College Board to prepare for the test and its new digital aspects.

There were some concerns among students about using Bluebook since the site crashed last year when it was used for AP testing. Junior Emory Naylor was worried that the application could also fail during the PSATs. 

“They had to cancel the test and redo the testing,” Naylor said. “And AP European History was supposed to take an online test, but they had to export a bunch of paper tests to us. I was hoping that didn’t happen again.”

However, the testing application worked throughout the majority of the test and there were only minor complications at the beginning — the primary problem being that test administrators were having trouble accessing the test room codes, preventing students from taking the test.

According to English teacher Kristine Tardiff — a moderator during the exam —, there were also some problems with students’ computers being logged out or shut down after they clicked the wrong part of the test or accidentally closed out of their screens. But the technical problems were resolved and once the test started, there were no more issues. 

“I will say that the program is really easy and even if a kid had to restart their computer, they could get right back into the program and start off where they left off,” Tardiff said. “Once we got into the program, it was pretty effortless.”

The digital version was the same format as the paper test, still including the reading, writing and math questions. The majority of the questions were multiple choice, though some of the math questions were student-generated responses.

Unlike the paper test, the digital PSAT provides a set of resources such as an onscreen calculator and a reference sheet that are available for select math problems, as well as annotation and cross-out tools. The passages in the reading and writing section were also shorter, with only one passage per question.

Junior Ishya Bhavsar was one of the students who took the digital test. She’d also previously taken the paper PSAT. Bhavsar found the tools available were useful and helped her move through the test more efficiently. 

“On the math section, you have Desmos, so I didn’t really have to worry about making mistakes with calculations and stuff,” Bhavsar said. “And surprisingly it was helpful to not have to go and bubble answer choices. You actually don’t realize how much time that takes away from you until you take the digital one and you click the answer and you’re done.”

The biggest change with the digital test is that it is adaptive to student performance. The English and math sections of the test are divided into two parts called modules. Students answer a set of questions in the first module before moving on to the next and the questions the students are given in the second module depend on how they performed in the first. 

The test’s adaptability allows it to measure the same core knowledge and skills of students more efficiently, condensing the overall length of the test to two hours and 14 minutes.

Junior Sophie Leonard took the paper PSAT and SAT previously but she found that the shorter format of the digital PSAT was more practical.

“When I realized the PSAT was going to be online I was really frustrated because I always was under the impression that I like paper tests a lot more,” Leonard said. “But I feel like the condensed part of it made it just feel less daunting going in so I’m gonna do the SAT again and this time online because I felt like it was way more manageable.”