The Digital SAT, section by section

Two sections, in a fixed order: Reading and Writing first, then Math. Each is split into two modules that are timed separately, and you cannot go back to a module once its time is up. Within a module you can move freely between questions, mark any of them for review, and change an answer.

The test is section-adaptive, not question-adaptive. Everybody sits the same Module 1 in a section, and how you do on it decides which Module 2 you get: a harder set or an easier one. It is a single decision per section, made once, on your performance across the whole first module.

This is the part that surprises people. The easier Module 2 does not lead to the top of the scale — the score range reachable through it is limited, which is what makes Module 1 the half of each section that decides most of your score. A question you rush in Module 1 costs you more than the same question in Module 2.

Nothing on screen tells you which module you were given. The two look identical and the routing is invisible while you are sitting it.

Every question is self-contained: one short passage of roughly 25 to 150 words, then one question about it. There are no long passages with a set of questions hanging off them, which is the largest single change from the paper SAT. Passages run across literature, history, social science and the sciences, and some come with a table or a graph you have to read.

Questions are grouped by content domain and, inside each group, run roughly from easier to harder. So difficulty resets a few times as you work through a module, and a sudden jump usually means a new domain has started rather than that you are struggling.

Information and Ideasabout 26%

Central Ideas and Details · Command of Evidence · Inferences

Craft and Structureabout 28%

Words in Context · Text Structure and Purpose · Cross-Text Connections

Expression of Ideasabout 20%

Rhetorical Synthesis · Transitions

Standard English Conventionsabout 26%

Boundaries · Form, Structure, and Sense

About three quarters of the Math questions are multiple choice with four options. The rest are student-produced responses: you type the answer instead of picking it, there are no options to eliminate, and a question can have more than one acceptable answer. Fractions and decimals are both accepted, and a negative answer is possible on some.

A calculator is allowed on the whole section — the Desmos graphing calculator is built into the test app, so there is nothing to bring, and the reference sheet of geometry formulas is available on every question. Both are worth practising with rather than discovering on the day: the graphing calculator solves several question types outright if you know how to set them up.

Algebraabout 35%

Linear equations in one variable · Linear equations in two variables · Linear functions · Systems of two linear equations in two variables · Linear inequalities in one or two variables

Advanced Mathabout 35%

Equivalent expressions · Nonlinear equations in one variable and systems of equations in two variables · Nonlinear functions

Problem-Solving and Data Analysisabout 15%

Ratios, rates, proportional relationships, and units · Percentages · One-variable data: distributions and measures of center and spread · Two-variable data: models and scatterplots · Probability and conditional probability · Inference from sample statistics and margin of error · Evaluating statistical claims: observational studies and experiments

Geometry and Trigonometryabout 15%

Area and volume · Lines, angles, and triangles · Right triangles and trigonometry · Circles

The test app gives you the same small set of controls throughout, and every one of them is worth being fluent with before test day:

• Answer eliminator. Cross out options you have ruled out, so a second pass does not re-read them.
• Mark for review. Flag a question and jump back to it from the question list, which shows what is answered and what is flagged.
• Highlighting and notes. Mark up a passage and attach a note to what you marked.
• The countdown timer, which you can hide. It reappears when the module is nearly over.
• The graphing calculator and the reference sheet, in the Math section.

The interface here reproduces all of these, because knowing where they are is itself a few points: nobody wants to be learning what the eliminator is called while a clock runs.

Each section gives a score from 200 to 800, and the two add up to a total from 400 to 1600. Raw counts are converted through a table, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer — which means there is never a reason to leave a question blank.

Official scores come back in a matter of days rather than weeks, and you choose which colleges receive them. The scoring this platform uses is documented in full, including its conversion tables, so you can see exactly how a practice number was produced.

Most of what makes the digital test feel different is structural rather than academic: the modules are timed separately, the routing decision is invisible, the Reading and Writing questions come one passage at a time, and the tools are on screen instead of in your hand. Those are all things you can get used to in advance, and a practice test you sit under the real timing is worth several you work through at your own pace.

Sit a timed practice test in this format, without an account, or read the frequently asked questions.