Top Universities Bring Back the SAT: How the 2025 Rule Shift Impacts Your Application

The SAT is surging back in 2025, and this time it is almost entirely digital. According to the College Board’s newly released SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report, more than 2 million students in the high-school class of 2025 sat for the exam—an achievement not seen since 2020—and 97 percent did so on laptops or tablets under the new digital format. Why the rapid rebound? Three factors stand out: 1. School-day testing convenience. Nearly 1.36 million students took the SAT on a weekday at their own schools, eliminating weekend travel and fees. 2. A shorter, student-friendly exam. The digital SAT trims testing time to just over two hours and features briefer Reading and Writing passages, plus an on-screen graphing calculator, changes that the College Board calls “less stressful and more relevant.” 3. Shifting college policies. Elite institutions such as Yale and Dartmouth have reinstated standardized-test requirements, while many public systems still accept scores for placement and scholarships, motivating students to keep testing. Key numbers every applicant should know • Average scores: 521 Evidence-Based Reading & Writing, 508 Math—slightly higher than last year but still below pre-pandemic levels. • Benchmark readiness: 39 percent of test-takers met both college-readiness benchmarks, compared with 45 percent in 2019, confirming ongoing learning loss from the pandemic. • PSAT pipeline: 3.4 million sophomores and juniors completed PSAT exams, signaling another large SAT cohort on the way. What the digital SAT means for 2025 applicants Speedier score releases (within days, not weeks) allow seniors to target test-optional deadlines more strategically. Adaptive questioning tailors difficulty to each student, so strong performance can now be demonstrated with fewer items. And because the exam is administered in a month-long window, states and districts can align testing with local calendars, driving higher participation. Should you retest? With colleges weighing GPA inflation concerns and reinstating score use for merit aid, a single extra SAT sitting can still boost an application. The College Board reports that 1.4 million seniors had SAT results that equaled or exceeded their high-school grades this year—evidence that a strong score remains a differentiator. Preparing for the new format Students should shift their practice to digital-adaptive mock tests, emphasize calculator-based math strategies, and drill quick-read comprehension passages. Free Bluebook practice sets mirror the live interface, and third-party platforms have updated question banks to reflect shorter sections and multi-stage adaptivity. Bottom line The SAT’s comeback—driven by a streamlined digital experience, rising school-day availability, and renewed admissions relevance—means that the three-letter test is once again a pivotal keyword in the college-admissions playbook for 2025.