It’s been nearly a year since our first digital SAT student, and we’ve worked through all the sample tests with students at various levels. It’s fair to say that the test is a radical departure from previous iterations of the SAT. The Reading and English sections bear some resemblance to previous tests, but a new challenge they present is an emphasis on measuring students’ ability to process large amounts of information, which can overwhelm their capacity to retain it all. The Math section is also superficially similar to older tests, but the questions are notably more challenging. To offset the greater degree of difficulty, the SAT offers students additional time to answer the questions, as well as a powerful graphing tool known as Desmos.
Rather than share broad generalizations, I will highlight some of the questions and explain how they present novel challenges, as well as how Ivy Tutor recommends overcoming them. Finally, I will share why I believe this new approach reflects the novel challenges we face in the information age.
Reading Question Example: A New Emphasis on Reading Bandwidth
In this first question I will share, students are given shorter passages. In moving away from the long-form passages, one would assume these questions would be less of a burden on one’s working memory. However, because the paragraphs are so dense and fully understanding each sentence is crucial for answering them, students can get easily overwhelmed. Let’s take a look at an example.
Question: “Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?”
This question draws on several abilities, but two in particular stand out. From simply reading the question, you may notice that it draws on verbal reasoning. The text features complex sentence structure and a heavy use of metaphorical language. Parsing the individual sentences can be a challenge. However, many students are capable of these individual tasks. For example, they might recognize that “life-blood” refers to the sap. But as students dive deeper into the paragraph, they will find that each new idea and new challenge strains their ability to remember multiple elements they must keep in their heads simultaneously. Let’s list the key ideas:
- The writer is recalling how women from his trip harvested maple syrup when he was a child.
- The text then explains the process, using an em-dash to convolute the sentence: women would strike the trees to test for the presence of sap.
- The text introduces the sentence in question, which is metaphorical: the trees are personified. Some are more forthcoming than others, but in this case, it’s not about their feelings, but rather their sap contents.
- The text then goes on to describe the physical process and mechanics of harvesting the sap.
Notice that I’ve already excluded information that won’t be needed to answer this question, a skill that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Now, with this information, I need to determine the function of the underlined sentence. We recommend that, where possible, students predict the answer so they aren’t misled by a tempting answer choice.
Prediction: The sentence shares the process for assessing the presence of sap.
The answer that most closely matches my prediction is D) “It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that women evaluate.” My diligent process made matching my prediction fairly easy, but I can imagine students choosing B.
I chose this question because students tend to struggle with it but also to show a clear case where students must keep many ideas in their head while they process new and difficult information. Some students might have the gifts to take an intuitive approach: to read the question, reflect on it and identify the answer. Most, however have to mentally distill these ideas into the useful nuggets that enable them to process the logic that leads them to identify the purpose of the sentence.
Math Question Example: Rewarding Conceptual Foundations and Resourcefulness
For the Math section, I will share another question that I believe exemplifies the SAT’s new paradigm. This question is not particularly difficult for a student who has placed into a rigorous precalculus class, but it shows the extent to which students can quickly determine an answer through a theoretical understanding and the capabilities of Desmos
This question can be done the math-teacher-approved way, in which a student will substitute for y and use the discriminant in the quadratic formula to determine the value of a that offers one solution. I’ll let ChatGPT explain this time-consuming approach.
This question can be done the math-teacher-approved way, in which a student will substitute for y and use the discriminant in the quadratic formula to determine the value of a that offers one solution. I’ll let ChatGPT explain this time-consuming approach.
However, savvy students will understand that if there’s one solution, that parabola will be tangent to the x-axis. In moments, they can determine the value of a by using the slider feature in Desmos to manipulate the function until a has one solution. This is not to say that knowing a few Desmos tricks is a substitute for understanding the concepts. Rather, hard questions will reward students who understand the concepts and can think of ways (even if unconventional) to use Desmos to their advantage.
A New Test For New Times
I often take a cynical approach to these tests. I understand that the test makers run large organizations that rely on a large base of students willing to sign up for the tests, ideally multiple times. I initially assumed that these question types were chosen because they effectively differentiate students, a quality that helps shorten tests. However, as I worked with the questions, I realized that this is a test for the information age. The reading questions ask students to distill large amounts of information into the ideas useful for determining an answer. In an age flush with information, eliciting the crucial ideas is a skill worth rewarding.
As for the Math section, with so many tools available to us, connecting the tools we have with the problems we face is as valuable as knowing how to answer the question without the assistance of technology. As the test makers innovate the tests, we must also innovate our teaching methods. We now teach students important skills for distilling dense passages and understanding how to leverage Desmos for assisting in answering complicated questions, though never as a replacement for understanding the concepts.
