Complete Guide to the Digital SAT® Format

The new digital SAT exam comes with some fundamental format changes to both the English and math sections, including changes to the question types, number of questions, time allowed, and question topic distribution. Let's go over each of these in detail.

Overview of the Digital SAT Format

Information derived from College Board

	Questions	Time Limit
Reading and Writing Module 1	27 questions	32 minutes
Reading and Writing Module 2	27 questions	32 minutes
10-minute break
Math Module 1	22 questions	35 minutes
Math Module 2	22 questions	35 minutes
Total	98 questions	2 hours 14 minutes (excluding break)

The digital SAT has two main sections: Reading and Writing and Math. The exam takes a total of 2 hours and 14 minutes to complete, a significant reduction from the previous pen and paper test.

Each section is split into two modules of equal length with a 10-minute break in between. The first module contains questions of varying difficulty, and the second module's difficulty is determined by the student's performance on the first, a process known as adaptive testing.

As with the pen and paper SAT, there is no penalty for guessing or getting incorrect answers on the Digital SAT, so make sure to answer every question!

Reading and Writing Section

Read our in-depth SAT Reading and Writing section guide

The Reading and Writing section evaluates comprehension and logical reasoning through detailed analysis of texts across various subjects. It also gauges skills like evidence interpretation, idea articulation, and adherence to standard English grammar and punctuation rules.

Question Types

The Reading and Writing section consists of questions categorized into four distinct content domains:

Information and Ideas: This domain evaluates your comprehension, analysis, and reasoning capabilities. It tests your skill in identifying, interpreting, evaluating, and integrating information from textual content as well as informational graphics like tables, bar graphs, and line graphs.
Craft and Structure: This area measures your understanding of vocabulary, as well as your ability to analyze, synthesize, and reason. The focus is on comprehending the usage of high-utility words and phrases in a given context, assessing texts from a rhetorical perspective, and linking texts that are related by topic.
Expression of Ideas: This domain aims to gauge your ability to revise written content to enhance its expressive efficacy and to achieve particular rhetorical objectives.
Standard English Conventions: This segment tests your proficiency in editing written material to align with the foundational conventions of standard English, encompassing sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.

Questions in a particular domain are further divided into subcategories called skills. Different skills usually have distinctly-worded questions, but a single skill may take the form of multiple question types. The following table highlights the Reading and Writing skills:

Domain	Skill	Distribution
Information and Ideas	Central Ideas and Details Command of Evidence (Textual) Command of Evidence (Quantitative) Inferences	≈26% (12-14 questions)
Craft and Structure	Words in Context Text Structure and Purpose Cross-Text Connections	≈28% (13-15 questions)
Expression of Ideas	Rhetorical Synthesis Transitions	≈20% (8-12 questions)
Standard English Conventions	Boundaries Form, Structure, and Sense	≈26% (11-15 questions)

To minimize the need for test-takers to switch contexts, questions testing similar skills within the domains of Craft and Structure, Information and Ideas, and Expression of Ideas are grouped together. Moreover, these questions are ordered from least to most difficult, helping test-takers manage their time more effectively and showcase their abilities.

In contrast, questions in the Standard English Conventions domain are sorted solely by difficulty, irrespective of the specific rule being assessed.

For more information on the question types go to College Board's Digital SAT Assessment Framework.

Math Section

Read our in-depth SAT Math section guide

The Math section features both multiple-choice and open-ended questions, and calculator use is allowed for the entirety of the modules. It tests proficiency in algebra, problem-solving, data interpretation, handling complex equations, geometry, and trigonometry.

Question Types

Like Reading and Writing, the Math section also contains questions split into four domains:

Algebra: Assesses the capability to understand, solve, and construct linear equations and inequalities, as well as systems of equations.
Advanced Math: Evaluates readiness for higher-level math by testing understanding of various types of nonlinear equations, including but not limited to absolute value, quadratic, and exponential equations.
Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: Tests quantitative reasoning skills, particularly in dealing with ratios, rates, unit rates, and data interpretation
Geometry and Trigonometry: Focuses on geometric calculations involving area, volume, angles, triangles, and circles.

Each test module includes questions from all these content areas, arranged in ascending order of difficulty to help test-takers optimally showcase their abilities. Once again, questions in a particular domain are further split into skills:

Domain	Skill	Distribution
Algebra	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	≈35% (13-15 questions)
Advanced Math	Equivalent expressions Nonlinear equations in one variable and systems of equations in two variables Nonlinear functions	≈35% (13-15 questions)
Problem-Solving and Data Analysis	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	≈15% (5-7 questions)
Geometry and Trigonometry	Area and volume Lines, angles, and triangles Right triangles and trigonometry Circles	≈15% (5-7 questions)

Scoring

Questions are marked as either right or wrong, and students are not penalized for guessing. The final score for each section, ranging from 200 to 800, takes into account both the difficulty level of each question and the student's performance.

The total SAT score ranges from 400 to 1600 and is the sum of scores from two sections. The exact methodology and algorithms for calculating the score are proprietary to the College Board and are different for each exam.

To get estimate score ranges from raw scores, you can try our Digital SAT Score Calculator.