Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 13:35     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,


The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.


If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.

That is NOT how time accommodations work. It's a lot more involved that merely "telling" your school you need more time.


That's literally what it is. You have a disability that requires more time to complete the test.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 13:32     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DD took the digital SAT in November (score 1430) and last weekend. She said compared to the practice tests, the reading comprehension for the science excerpts is the hardest. She said she used strategies from the prep books for these specifically that helped a lot. Also, even though she is an avid reader, the vocabulary is tricky. For example, the choices for the meaning of "optimistic" were words that were not the exact meaning, you had to choose the closest meaning. I can't remember the choices, but they stumped me.

For math, the November test had more difficult free response problems, with "difficult" meaning strange setups different from practice tests. They seem to be testing critical thinking as much as math concepts. In Nov. she left one blank, and although the March test last weekend had them as well, she left none blank. She said for math, time management has been more of an issue than she expected, but she had extra time to work on the free response Qs this time because she learned some speedier tips from the prep book. We'll see next weekend when scores come out!

What prep book(s) did she use?


The newest Princeton Review.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 12:10     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:I thought the analogies were considered the "easy" part. Very straightforward.

Not as involved as some of the reading and math problems.


The analogies were taken out as found socioeconomic disparities in what words and associations being used and understood. Can’t remember all the examples but google old articles on this and some of them would be funny if weren’t so sad.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 11:55     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Different people find different things hard. Duh.


Of course, some will find all sections hard and some will find all easy, but OP question is if there are any sections now that standout like the analogies did. If there aren’t any now with digital test, explains why more students able to get higher scores now. That and testers continue to attempt to take out questions that could favor higher socioeconomic families.



Any evidence for your claim?

DP. This article - which is also over 20 yrs old - explains a bit about the "recentering" process: The Recentering of
SAT® Scales and Its Effects on Score Distributions and Score Interpretations https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED563023.pdf

Moreover, the test has substantively changed three more times since this article was published in 2002.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 11:51     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Different people find different things hard. Duh.


Of course, some will find all sections hard and some will find all easy, but OP question is if there are any sections now that standout like the analogies did. If there aren’t any now with digital test, explains why more students able to get higher scores now. That and testers continue to attempt to take out questions that could favor higher socioeconomic families.



Any evidence for your claim?


DP. This is easy to google. It's just plain true an uncontroversial that average scores are higher now and perfect SAT scores a lot more common. But this has been going on for a while. Even when I took the SAT in the 90's it was easier than the SAT from the 1960s.


More kids prep now, even poor ones.

Could just be Khan Academy. Everything aids in familiarity with the material covered.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 11:51     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,


The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.


If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.

That is NOT how time accommodations work. It's a lot more involved that merely "telling" your school you need more time.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 11:48     Subject: Re:What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Are all SATs digital now? And you can choose between digital and paper ACT?
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 11:43     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,


The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.


If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.


DP. I thought it was for diagnosed LDs?

It is. “I can’t finish the SAT in the allotted time” is not grounds for accommodations.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 10:47     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,


The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.


If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.


DP. I thought it was for diagnosed LDs?
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 10:46     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
I thought the analogies were considered the "easy" part. Very straightforward.

Not as involved as some of the reading and math problems.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 10:21     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Different people find different things hard. Duh.


Of course, some will find all sections hard and some will find all easy, but OP question is if there are any sections now that standout like the analogies did. If there aren’t any now with digital test, explains why more students able to get higher scores now. That and testers continue to attempt to take out questions that could favor higher socioeconomic families.



Any evidence for your claim?


DP. This is easy to google. It's just plain true an uncontroversial that average scores are higher now and perfect SAT scores a lot more common. But this has been going on for a while. Even when I took the SAT in the 90's it was easier than the SAT from the 1960s.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 10:17     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,


The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.


If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 10:15     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Different people find different things hard. Duh.


Of course, some will find all sections hard and some will find all easy, but OP question is if there are any sections now that standout like the analogies did. If there aren’t any now with digital test, explains why more students able to get higher scores now. That and testers continue to attempt to take out questions that could favor higher socioeconomic families.



Any evidence for your claim?
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 10:14     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
It’s not comparable to the test we took. Different format, different types of questions. No long reading comprehension passages.
Anonymous
Post 03/13/2025 09:56     Subject: What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?
Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,


The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.