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Course: Digital SAT Reading and Writing > Unit 1
Lesson 1: What is the new digital SAT?About the digital SAT Reading and Writing test
An overview of the content and format of the digital SAT Reading and Writing test.
What’s on the digital SAT Reading and Writing test?
The Reading and Writing section of the digital SAT is designed to test students on reading comprehension, rhetoric, and language use by having them engage with academic and literary texts. Skills on the Reading and Writing test can be split into the following four categories:
- Information and Ideas: Use, locate, interpret, and evaluate information from various texts and infographics.
- Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of high-utility academic words and phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make supportable connections between multiple related texts.
- Expression of Ideas: Use revision skills and knowledge to improve the effectiveness of written expression to accomplish specified rhetorical goals.
- Standard English Conventions: Use editing skills and knowledge to make texts conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.
Each of these categories is made up of a number of different skills, and all of those skills are covered in Khan Academy’s digital SAT Reading and Writing course. As you work through the course, you’ll encounter each skill in turn, complete with articles and videos to help you learn, as well as exercises to practice and test your knowledge.
What has changed?
The SAT Reading and Writing test has seen substantial changes in the transition to digital. Changes include:
- One test for Reading and Writing: While the pencil-and-paper SAT tested Reading and Writing in separate test sections, the digital SAT combines these topics.
- Shorter passages (and more of them): Instead of reading long passages and answering multiple questions on each passage, students taking the digital SAT will encounter shorter passages, each with just one follow-up question.
- New question types: With its greater number and variety of passages, the digital SAT includes new types of questions, with new prompts requiring new strategies.
How should I use this course?
To get the most benefit out of the digital SAT Reading and Writing course and use your time most efficiently, we recommend using the course as follows:
- Work from top to bottom: The course takes all the reading and writing skills tested on the SAT and organizes them by focus. By working through the course from top to bottom, you’ll encounter each skill in turn, keeping your practice balanced and ensuring no skills fall through the cracks.
- Try exercises more than once: Because the digital SAT Reading and Writing test is new, there’s not as much content available for practice as exists for the SAT Math test. While we hope to expand this course in the future, we encourage you to squeeze every last bit of practice you can from the presently available materials. So even if you’ve tried (and passed) an exercise before, you can get extra practice by attempting it again!
- Don’t forget to take full-length practice tests! Full-length practice tests are a useful benchmark for your progress and an essential tool for building experience with the digital testing platform. You can take them using College Board’s Bluebook app.
Good luck! You’ve got this.
Want to join the conversation?
Please when is more practice test materials coming?(44 votes)- Same question, please uplod more practice material. The current material is just not enough for the March attempters(27 votes)
- Please recommend some dSAT books as the practice material here is too short!(20 votes)
Unfortunately, there aren't any other Digital SAT Practice Books yet as this test is new. But, this is why khan academy says to do the exercises in order to get the hang of it.(7 votes)
- is the digital SAT going to include the essay?(12 votes)
No. dSAT doesn't include the essay(15 votes)
- I’m a student outside of USA, The university that I'm applying have mentioned that they don’t count the points of written test on SAT. But here mentioned that 'One test for Reading and Writing: While the pencil-and-paper SAT tested Reading and Writing in separate test sections, the digital SAT combines these topics'
In this case how my uni can separate writing points?(10 votes) 
will practices be similar to the actual thing(7 votes)- I'm an american citizen outside US. Do I have to take my passport for sure while attempting the test?(6 votes)
- is there a list of vocab word to memorize ?
i have a problem with the choices meanings(5 votes)- No, you don't have to memorize any words. But it is best if you expand your vocabulary in order to better understand the various texts in the SAT.(3 votes)
- How many questions are there on the SAT?(4 votes)
for digital SAT I guess its 98(3 votes)
Is the writing the essay compulsory?
Also...what is the benefit of writing the essay?(4 votes)
There is no more Essay in the DSAT(3 votes)
- In Pakiatan Is there a digital SAT or pencil and paper SAT(2 votes)
