In early 2022, College Board announced it will no longer be administering the paper format of the SAT. December 2, 2023, marked the last paper and pencil SAT administered by College Board. The Digital SAT will be the only offered version of the test in 2024 and beyond. 

The Digital SAT, coined DSAT, will be administered on approved testing devices through College Board’s Bluebook application. The application cannot be downloaded by students on district-issued devices and instead will be installed by administrators of the device. 

Bluebook is also used by College Board to administer AP exams.

In addition to the previously acceptable calculators, students will have access to Desmos, a web and app-based calculator, for the entire math module. 

Consequently, the PSAT has begun to transition to digital along with the SAT. In Fall 2023, the first digital PSAT, the 2023 PSAT 8/9, was administered.  

P-CEP’s tentative plan to administer the DSATs Spring 2024

In regards to when P-CCS starts to plan for administering the SAT, Salem High School Assistant Principal and SAT Coordinator Derek Southwick said, “We always start prepping right after the prior year’s test, but we knew this year was going to be different because they announced last year that that was going to be the last paper pencil year and they were going to be virtual this year. So there wasn’t much prepping we could do until we knew what that meant.” 

P-CEP juniors are currently scheduled to take the DSAT in April of 2024. 

The plan is to conduct the DSAT as the National State Merit Qualifying Test was administered in October 2023, with Bluebook installed in all three P-CEP media center computer labs.

Southwick said that over the years there has been a decline in the number of upperclassmen students who elect to have district-issued Chromebooks, so the decision was made for the DSAT to be administered on Chromebooks in the media center.

As of now, the PSAT 9 is slated to be conducted on Chromebooks. Planners believe freshmen will likely be the class with the highest turnout of students with district-issued Chromebooks. The district plans to survey the freshmen to determine the status of their district-issued Chromebooks.

The ACT WorkKeys assessment, a paper test for 11th graders designed to access and measure workplace skills, must be administered on April 11, 2024. The current plan is to administer the Digital PSAT 10 on the same day as the juniors take the ACT WorkKeys. 

Sophomores taking the Digital PSAT 10 and juniors taking the Digital SAT in the media center will be scheduled to test in alphabetical order of last names over three weeks in April with one session a day due to the length of the school day at P-CEP. 

There is currently no plan in place for students with testing accommodations, but Southwick ensures that one will be created by the time of testing. 

This plan is susceptible to change and only once it is approved by the school board will it be set in motion.

Current Plan

• 9th graders are expected to take the Digital PSAT 9 on their district-issued Chromebooks in designated classrooms around campus. Bluebook will be installed on the district-issued devices by the administrators prior to the test date. 
• 10th graders are expected to take the DPSAT 10 in the media center computer labs. Test dates will be spread out in the span of a few weeks.
• 11th graders are expected to take the DSAT in the media center computer labs. Test dates will be spread over a few weeks. 

For more information about the Digital SAT, check out the FAQ section on collegeboard.com