Son is going to be taking ACT and I signed him up for the digital version without giving it a second thought, the PSAT was digital, his state sponsored SAT was digital, his APs are digital, school tests are digital, etc. However I recently was talking to some other parents who said a tutoring service they used strongly advised against the digital version. The reasoning has merit (copying math problems to scratch paper increases chance for error and takes time, can’t draw on science charts and graphs, reading/scrolling on a screen) but given I’d now need to pay the huge change test fee I wanted to see if others who’ve done the digital vs. paper have found that to be a real concern, especially since this age group has already become used to digital testing.
Wouldn’t the same concerns apply to the PSAT, SAT, AP tests? If so, did your student find such concerns to be a problem on those tests?
A couple of the larger test prep companies, including Applerouth and Compass prep, recommend sticking with ACT paper for now, and cite some of the reasons you have. You can google their recommendations and read their articles to help you/your D decide what to do.
Sharing our experience. D26 took the full digital version of the ACT spring of junior year for state mandated testing (IL switched from SAT to ACT mid-year). Her scores from the ACT did not seem to reflect our knowledge of her abilities, particularly English & Reading. D26 is a voracious reader but her reading is mostly done using physical media. We had her retake using the paper version and her English & Reading scores increased dramatically, from sort of high 20s on the digital version to a 36 & 35, respectively. Probably some contribution from a bit more prepping and fewer sections (no Science or Writing) but for her, I think the ability to see things in a form she’s used to, plus able to mark on the paper directly was a clear positive.