The digital SAT format and how adaptive scoring works
The digital SAT has two sections, Reading and Writing first and Math second, and each section is split into two separately timed modules. The second module you receive depends on how you did on the first one.
The whole test in one screen
Reading and Writing is 54 questions in two 32-minute modules, 64 minutes in total. Math is 44 questions in two 35-minute modules, 70 minutes in total. That adds up to 98 questions and 2 hours and 14 minutes of testing, per College Board's structure page (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/whats-on-the-test/structure).
College Board states that students get one 10-minute break between the two sections (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/what-to-bring-do/what-to-expect). Everything happens inside an app called Bluebook, on a laptop or tablet: no answer sheet, no bubbles, and the countdown for the current module at the top of the screen.
- Reading and Writing: 54 questions, two modules of 32 minutes, 64 minutes total.
- Math: 44 questions, two modules of 35 minutes, 70 minutes total.
- One 10-minute break between the sections.
- Scores: 200 to 800 per section, 400 to 1600 in total.
Reading and Writing: 54 short questions, not long passages
Each question comes with its own short passage, or a pair of short passages, followed by one multiple-choice question with four options. There is no block of ten questions hanging off a single long text, which is what surprises students using older practice books (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/digital/whats-on-the-test/reading-writing).
Each module has 27 questions: 25 operational, meaning they count, and 2 pretest questions that look exactly like the rest but do not affect your score. Across the section that is 50 scored and 4 unscored, per College Board's Assessment Framework (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/assessment-framework-for-digital-sat-suite.pdf).
Four domains appear in both modules: Information and Ideas, Craft and Structure, Expression of Ideas, and Standard English Conventions. The Assessment Framework explains that related skills are kept together rather than shuffled, and that inside each block the difficulty climbs as you go. So when a run of questions starts biting, you are near the end of a block, and the next one may well drop back down.
Math: 44 questions, calculator allowed the whole way
Each Math module holds 22 questions, 20 operational and 2 pretest, per the same Assessment Framework. About 75 percent of Math questions are four-option multiple choice and the other 25 percent are student-produced response questions, where you type your own answer instead of picking one.
The content sits in four domains: Algebra, Advanced Math, Problem-Solving and Data Analysis, and Geometry and Trigonometry (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/digital/whats-on-the-test/math).
A calculator is allowed on the entire Math section. College Board's calculator policy says you may use your own approved handheld calculator or the Desmos calculator embedded in Bluebook, which toggles between graphing and scientific modes. No calculator is allowed during Reading and Writing, when it stays under your desk (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/what-to-bring-do/calculator-policy).
What adaptive actually means here
The digital SAT adapts by module, not by question. Every section opens with a routing module that spreads its questions across the whole difficulty range, from straightforward to demanding, and samples all the domains of that section. Bluebook reads how you did there and hands you one of two possible second modules: in one the average question sits above the difficulty you just saw, in the other it sits below. Neither version is uniform: both still run from easy to hard, just weighted differently (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/assessment-framework-for-digital-sat-suite.pdf).
The two sections route separately, since each one starts with its own routing module. How you did in Reading and Writing does not decide which Math module you get.
Because it adapts in two stages instead of question by question, you keep normal navigation inside a module: preview later questions, skip, come back, change an answer. The limit is the module itself. Once you move to the second module you cannot return to the first module's questions, and once Math starts you cannot go back to Reading and Writing.
The same document reports simulation studies of the routing algorithm: more than 93 percent of simulated test takers landed in the module the researchers expected, and in the cases where someone was sent to the other one, the researchers found no meaningful difference in the resulting score.
How the 400 to 1600 score is built
Each section is scored from 200 to 800 and the total runs from 400 to 1600 (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/understanding-scores). The framework settles the part people get wrong: your total is just the two section scores added together. Nothing else feeds into it, and there is no essay inside that number.
The number of correct answers is not the whole story. College Board's page on how scores are calculated says scoring uses Item Response Theory and accounts for the characteristics of each question, including difficulty, so two students with the same number right in a section can end up with different scores (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/understanding-scores/how-scores-are-calculated).
On that same page, College Board's advice is plain: answering beats leaving a question blank, and that goes double once you have ruled out an option or two. Treat every empty field at the end of a module as a point you decided not to try for.
Bluebook, the app the test runs in
You install Bluebook before test day on a Windows or Mac device, an iPad, or a school-managed Chromebook. Per College Board's device page, a Chromebook counts only if your school manages it, and a phone is not an option at all (https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/students/prepare-your-device/approved-devices).
The tools on screen are worth learning in advance, because each one costs a few seconds the first time you use it. College Board lists a testing timer, the Desmos calculator, a reference sheet of formulas on tests with math questions, highlights and notes, mark for review, a line reader, an option eliminator, a question menu showing what you skipped or flagged, and zoom (https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/students/tools).
Full-length practice tests are free inside Bluebook and use the same multistage adaptive model as the real test (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/practice/bluebook). Take one under real timing before test day.
What the timing numbers mean for pacing
The framework gives the averages directly: 1.19 minutes per question in Reading and Writing and 1.59 minutes per question in Math. They are averages across a module, not a budget for every item, and treating them as a fixed rule per question is how people run out of time.
The usable version: in Reading and Writing, a question that has eaten two minutes without producing a shortlist of answers is one to flag and leave. In Math, 35 minutes for 22 questions is room to set a problem up properly, not to grind one equation for six minutes.
Two consequences of the module design: time does not transfer, since each module is timed on its own, and mark for review only works inside the current module, so your sweep of flagged questions has to happen before that clock runs out. One habit fits both: answer something on every question the first time you read it, even a guess, then flag it.
What it costs to register
College Board lists the SAT registration fee as $68. Students testing outside the United States pay a $43 international fee on top of that, so registering abroad comes to $111 before any extras (https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/registration/fees-refunds/test-fees and https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/registration/international-testing/fees).
The fees page also lists $38 for late registration, $34 to change your test center, $34 to cancel by the deadline and $44 to cancel after it, and says your first 4 score reports are free if you order them within 9 days of the test date. Fees change, so check those two pages before you pay.