Studying for the SAT is a crucial component of SAT prep for every student, even those who are good test-takers in their regular classes. The SAT is unlike any other test you’ve likely taken in your high school career. Taking the SAT is itself a skill you need to learn, just as much as the material within the test. How do you achieve both of these things? With a proper study strategy, you can prepare for the SAT in a matter of weeks to months to ensure you get the best possible score.
Developing an Effective SAT Study Guide
The best way to understand your specific SAT struggles, needs, and solutions is to develop your own study guide. Using example study guides as frameworks is a good idea, but any study guide made by a stranger is unlikely to suit your exact needs.
Instead, taking an active approach to your studying will be much more effective for many reasons, including:
- Really understanding what aspects of the test questions you struggle with most. Instead of just thinking “I am bad at math!” you can recognize, “I struggle with nonlinear equations,” and practice those types of problems.
- Skip using resources that don’t work for you. If you know reading a book will only bore you, ignore it. Watch a tutorial video and take practice tests instead.
- Feel more focused, in control, and decisive. Taking the initiative in creating your own personal SAT study prep syllabus means you’ll feel organized and level-headed.
The bottom line: find advice, techniques, and study guides created by others and use them as a starting point in developing your own personal study plan.
Read on to begin building your personal SAT prep plan.
You were born to win. But to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win.
Zig Ziglar, American author
Assessing Your Starting Point
Set aside a 2.5-hour block and complete one official practice session for free provided in the College Board Bluebook testing app to get a baseline understanding of your SAT readiness.
The Bluebook app will simulate a real SAT exam, timing you and preventing you from navigating away from the test.
Notice:
- Which types of questions did you struggle with the most?
- Which types of questions did you get wrong the most?
- Did you struggle particularly in the Reading and Writing section or the Math section?
- Did you struggle to complete all the questions in the allotted time limit?
- Were you feeling overly stressed (and therefore unfocused and panicked)?
Using these data points, you can now move forward to tackle one strategy for improvement at a time.
Register for the SAT a few months in advance to secure your place and allow enough time for preparation.
Identify your weaknesses in taking the SAT so you can find techniques and practice questions to target those exact skills.
Setting Realistic Goals
Setting incremental goals is better than setting the goal: “I’ll get a 1600 on the SAT.”
The truth is that very, very few people score perfectly on the SAT. While you should aim to score as high as possible every time you take the test, setting an impossible goal might just make you feel demotivated if you can’t reach it.
Instead, set progressive goals during your study period and for your SAT tests.
For example, your goal progressions might look like this:
3 months before test date
Take baseline SAT practice test
2-3 months before
Study 4 hours per week
Use resources like Khan Academy, College Board, and books.
2-3 months before
Take another practice exam one or two times
See how you're improving from your first try.
2-3 months before
Focus on specific question types
Practice more of the types of questions you struggle with the most. Improve your reading comprehension and vocabulary.
1-2 months before
Repeat study and testing methods
1-30 days before
Simulate real test conditions in a practice test
Make sure you will not be disturbed, take the 10-minute break in between sessions, and avoid using your phone or other unauthorized items.
1-30 days before
Keep studying to stay sharp
Test day
Take the SAT with confidence
Luckily, you can always take another exam (it's recommended to take 2-3) to boost your score or superscore.
Creating the Study Guide and a Study Schedule
Now that you have an outline of what you want to achieve and by when, you can build a comprehensive SAT study plan.
Find all the resources you think you’ll want to use and keep them easily accessible (download apps, bookmark web pages, gather the books, etc.). Plan to use a mixture of practice tests, book resources, and other sources to find the things that help you the most.
Bluebook currently has 6 different practice SATs. If you need more practice tests, you can use the 2 available practice PSATs, and other resources such as Khan Academy and DigitalSAT.ai. All of these tests are free!
Create a schedule for studying. Using a paper planner or digital resource like Google Calendar or Notion Calendar, add your study time to your schedule.
One hour every other day, beginning 3 months in advance, is likely more than enough time for you to gain enough practice and experience for test day.
Every other week or once per month, schedule a 2.5-3 hr session free practice test.
Re-evaluate your study resources and schedule every week or two weeks to make sure it’s actually working for you, and make changes as needed.
SAT Test Taking Strategies
There are only a few tried-and-true strategies for getting better at the SAT. How you come to understand and incorporate them can look different for everyone, but at the core of it all are the same general ideas.
Review these techniques, tips, and strategies, and decide how you'll implement them into your plan.
Taking Practice SATs (with Simulated Test Conditions!)
The one thing you absolutely must do when prepping for the SAT is to take practice tests. This is the only way you’ll get a feel for what the test will really be like.
Get familiar with the Bluebook testing application by downloading the app on your computer/device (you’ll need to do this anyway before test day) and taking several timed tests.
Take your free practice tests with the same constraints as the real test: no interruptions or distractions, no phone, no getting up, etc.
SAT questions are different both in how they are worded and how the answers are worded from any other test you’re likely to have taken. Getting a feel for their format is vital for scoring well in the actual DSAT. The Reading and Writing section tends to cause more confusion.
The advantage of full length practice tests is that you get immediate feedback, complete with explanations. Review which answers you got wrong and study those concepts more.
Take the PSAT
Prepare even more by taking the PSAT (Preliminary SAT). This proctored test is essentially the SAT, but a little bit easier, designed for students in 10th or 11th grade (versus 11th and 12th grade for the SAT).
The PSAT is usually taken by students in 10th or 11th grade. It is only offered in October, so be sure to plan accordingly. You can take the PSAT in October and then take the SAT in the spring.
Part of SAT Test Day nerves comes with not knowing what the real test environment will be like. The PSAT gives you a chance to practice registering, getting all your documents together, studying, and attending a proctored version of the exam, making the SAT less intimidating.
The PSAT is also the NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). You can take the PSAT even after the SAT to obtain certain college scholarships.
Learn How to Prioritize Questions
You’ve heard this advice before: “Skip the hard questions and go back later.”
The more you complete practice questions and tests, the more you’ll get a feel for what questions are hard for you (which is unique for each student), and you’ll be able to quickly identify which ones to skip.
The digital SAT gives more points for harder questions (in theory; the exact scoring method has not been released). Right now, it seems that most questions are worth between 10-20 points on average. If you spend too much time on one 20-point question, you might miss out on answering five 10-point questions and hurt your chances of a better score.
Dr. Barbara Oakley’s method, which she calls “diffuse mode,” is traditionally applied to learning, but can also be utilized while test-taking. Read the basics of a hard question and then move on to let the ideas brew in the back of your mind. When you go back, you might find that the question isn’t as difficult as it was before.
Study with Books and Online Resources
The best way to study for the SAT is with proven resources. You’ll want to learn the academic test material, meta-test-taking strategies, and practice with real example tests and questions.
Bluebook app, College Board SAT Suite Question Bank (CB SSQB), Khan Academy, The College Panda’s books, DigitalSAT.ai.
Khan Academy, The College Panda’s books, Erica Meltzer’s books.
"The SAT Prep Black Book" by Mike Barrett and Patrick Barrett, "The Official SAT Study Guide" by the College Board.
Use Practical Study Techniques
Use study techniques that improve your retention, active recall, reading comprehension, and other skills that enhance your studying and test-taking abilities. Find a lesson or two on YouTube to understand more about these concepts.
Sharpen your skills regarding understanding concepts in context, comparing and contrasting texts and ideas, and key notions within a passage.
Read articles in publications like the New York Times, Aeon, and The Smithsonian to get exposed to advanced vocabulary. Study prefixes, suffixes, and roots of words.
Learn how to use your graphing calculator's programs and download ones that will help you solve math problems faster. Watch a video on how to download and access programs to make it easier.
Flashcards are an effective way to improve your active recall. Use them to ingrain vocabulary words, math formulas, and more, so you can quickly bring them to mind during the test.
Here are some examples of flashcards for common SAT vocabulary words you need to know.
Join a Study Group
Learning in a group is a boon for some. Groups can help you focus better with body-doubling, group discussion about SAT questions and answers, and general peer support.
The biggest advantage in a study group is being able to dissect the answer key. If you’re given the answer but still don’t understand why it’s the answer, asking other people who get it can help you get better at the SAT.
Study with a Private Tutor for SAT Prep
Outsourcing some of your focus to a private tutor can help you make even more progress in your SAT studies. With a mixture of private tutoring lesson and self-study, students typically increase their SAT scores by a substantial amount. With Superprof, you can find the perfect SAT prep tutor to support your studies via video call or face-to-face sessions.
They can assist you in realizing where you’re making mistakes as well as how to rectify them. They’ll select which problems to drill you on and provide lessons to help you understand the concepts you’re having trouble with.
Having a lesson scheduled in advance (and paid for) means you’re more likely to stick to your study schedule. Your tutor keeps you motivated by being a source of accountability and a voice of recognition in your improvements.
It’s best to begin studying 3-4 months before your SAT, but even if you only have 2-3 weeks to prepare, that’s still better than not studying at all. You don’t want to over-study, which can make you feel burnt out before you even take the test. Find a healthy balance of getting familiar and prepared without overdoing it.
Remember, comprehending the actual content of this college entrance exam is only a portion of the challenge. Knowing how the test makers design questions and understanding how to avoid falling into their traps, getting used to taking a timed test, and mitigating the stress of it all are equally important.
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