The SAT Still Measures What Matters

The SAT has been called many things. Too consequential. Too stressful. Too long. But in its 100-year history, no one ever called it easy.

But lately, a claim that the SAT has been “dumbed down” has ricocheted across social media and lit up education blogs. It’s a hot take that makes for an irresistible retweet but ignores a more important truth: The SAT—in its paper-and-pencil past and in its digital present—remains the gold standard for reliable and rigorous measurement of college readiness.

The digital SAT may not look exactly the same as the test many of its current critics took in high school, but it serves the same essential purpose. The SAT was created by College Board a century ago to give college admissions officers a consistent standard for assessing who was ready for college and, most essentially, finding talent regardless of where students learned and lived. In the decades since, as the design and format of the SAT have evolved and the pool of students who take it has expanded, its core purpose hasn’t changed: It continues to measure the knowledge and skills that research shows are most predictive of college success.

The shorter reading passages reflect the same levels of complexity and academic language as did earlier versions of the test. The digital SAT may not look exactly the same as the test many of its current critics took in high school, but it serves the same essential purpose: It invites students to show their academic merit by assessing fundamental reading, writing, and math skills.

The most common argument that the digital SAT is easier centers on its shorter reading passages. But that’s a critique that misses the point.

The shorter reading passages aren’t about reducing rigor; the passages reflect the same levels of complexity and academic language as did earlier versions of the test. Students now read 54 passages of up to 150 words and respond to one high-quality question associated with each. What this means is they now have more time to read each passage closely and engage more deeply with each question, rather than skimming long passages for keywords to help them quickly answer a block of questions.

And if the test truly had become easier, we’d expect to see that reflected in student-performance trends. But the data tell a different story.

The share of students who earn an SAT score above 1400 has been remarkably stable. In 2019, seven percent of test-takers earned a 1400 or higher on the test when it was still in its paper-and-pencil form. Most recently, the share of high-scoring test-takers was the same: Seven percent earned scores of 1400 or higher. Students who earn perfect scores on the SAT remain rare: Just 0.03 percent of test-takers—400 to 500 students—in every graduating class earn a perfect 1600.

Scores on the digital SAT are strongly related to scores on the now-retired paper-and-pencil SAT and other measures of academic strength, such as high-school GPA, PSAT-related test scores, and AP Exam performance. If the digital SAT were truly easier or less rigorous, we would expect those relationships to weaken. They haven’t.

While grades alone do a decent job of providing colleges a picture of a student’s academic foundation and readiness for higher education, the sheer number and variety of American high schools—alongside growing evidence of high-school grade inflation—means the SAT plays an especially crucial role. Even before the pandemic, data from the federal NAEP High School Transcript Study showed that high-school GPAs had been rising steadily. An extensive review last year affirmed the widely observed phenomenon that, even as standardized test scores declined across the country in the wake of the pandemic, high-school GPAs continued to rise. The SAT adds 22-percent predictive power over high-school GPA alone to predict first-year college GPA for students in general and an additional 38 percent above high-school GPA for STEM majors.

The SAT—in addition to its rigor and predictive power—provides colleges with one of the most secure elements of a student’s application. Students take the SAT on a scheduled day and time in a room overseen by a live proctor. The SAT’s digital testing platform locks students’ browsers to ensure they can’t look up answers or give access to external users to take the test for them. Every student receives a unique test form, making the exam more secure than ever. There are no shortcuts to delivering a secure, high-stakes exam; it requires sustained, in-depth investment and best-in-class technology to stay ahead of cheating and ensure fairness.

The SAT—in addition to its rigor and predictive power—provides colleges with one of the most secure elements of a student’s application. Colleges across the country are alarmed about slipping preparedness among admitted students in the years since the pandemic, concern that has helped drive readoption of testing requirements, not just in the Ivy League but in public universities in Georgia, Indiana, and Tennessee. SAT scores verify a student’s readiness to succeed and identify areas where they might need support, and both functions are enormously valuable at a time when AI is radically reshaping education.

In study after study, SAT scores have been highly correlated with future academic performance and later career success. In study after study, including independent reviews from MIT and the University of Texas at Austin, SAT scores have been highly correlated with future academic performance and later career success. That’s exactly what you would expect from a test carefully designed to rigorously evaluate a student’s academic strengths.

The SAT continues to do what it was always designed for: to fairly reflect performance across time and across the country and serve as a searchlight for talented college applicants. It’s an exam for all America because it’s built on a bedrock of commonsense fundamentals—reading, writing, and math—on which success in college and the workforce is built.

In an era of inflated grades, AI disruption, and other major changes to education, the SAT provides a research-backed, reliable, and highly secure common measure across students, schools, and states. Any college entrance exam should be held to that high bar.

Priscilla Rodriguez is senior vice president, College Readiness Assessments, at the College Board.