Welcome to the mother of all free SAT prep resources. This page contains video tutorials, tips and more to raise your score in a meaningful way, making you a more competitive college applicant. We're going to give you free tips, videos and even links to free SAT practice tests. Dig in!
Tests reading comprehension, reasoning and information finding ability. 52 Questions65 Minutes400 Points
Tests grammar skills and your ability to identify effective writing. 44 Questions35 Minutes400 Points
HOW TO RAISE YOUR SAT SCORE
Raising your SAT score isn't like finding a four-sided triangle or picking a lottery number. It's more like a puzzle. If you approach it in a methodical way and give a consistent effort, you'll be successful.
You hear a lot of people talk about little tricks that can massively raise your score. Don't buy into it. The big gains come from getting better on the actual grammar, algebra, etc. that is tested.
There is no substitute for putting in the time, and you should spend this time on official practice tests. The good news is that there are a lot of free official practice tests
Based on your practice test results, you should know where you are weak and where you are strong. Make a list of your biggest weaknesses and move through the relevant content in a methodical way. Rinse and repeat.
A good plan is one that leads you up to a specific test date and also features weekly goals for the amount of time you should spend on prep. Use your practice tests to track your progress toward your goal and determine where this time should be spent.
The SAT reading section is the first section you will see on the test. At 65 minutes, it is the longest section on either the SAT or ACT. You'll see five passages and 52 questions, and those questions will test your ability to find information, reason with that information, apply arguments and ideas from the passage and recognize the best evidence for your answers.
FOUR SAT READING NINJA TIPS
A lot of your improvement will come from analyzing questions and answers better, but in order to have time to do that, you need to read efficiently. That means reading closely enough to get the main ideas and know where to find things, but that's it.
Analyzing questions and answer choices better is the key tobig improvements. The SAT is asking exactly what it means to ask, so having a precise understanding of the question and each answer choice is one of your most important tasks on this section.
Doing practice passages out of official practice tests is probably more important on the reading section than any other section. This is about skills, not just knowledge. Like any other skill, you get better the more you do it. Be sure to dig into every question you miss!
Most students can read the passages and then answer the questions and still finish on time. If that's you, there's your strategy. If not, try reading the first sentence of each paragraph and skimming the rest before going to the questions. Figure this out before test day!
STRATEGY #1: READING PASSAGES BETTER
Why do we bother reading SAT passages at all? That sounds like a question with an obvious answer, but think about it for a second. There really are only two things we need to accomplish when reading an SAT passage. First, we need to pick up on the main ideas. You really look back at a passage to quickly see what the main idea of the entire passage or even the main purpose of the third paragraph was, so we need to know those things before moving on to the questions. Second, we need to know where to find all of the other stuff. That's it! We don't need to do an incredibly close reading of these passages. The key is to read well enough to be able to answer big picture questions and find everything else quickly.
STRATEGY #2: ANALYZING ANSWER CHOICES BETTER
For most students, a lot of improvements come from analyzing answer choices better. The SAT has all sorts of tricks it likes to use, but the good news is that these tricks are often predictable. Let's take a look:
We believe the SAT Writing section is the easiest section to get better at. Why? It is so straightforward! The recipe for success is pretty simple, and it all stems from how the test is designed. The majority of questions in this section are grammar questions. Fortunately, these grammar questions can be broken down into thirteen different question types, or grammar rules. If you get better at these thirteen grammar rules, your score will go up. We are going to look at the three most important rules here.
GRAMMAR RULE #1: SUBJECTS & VERBS
GRAMMAR RULE #2: RUN-ONS & FRAGMENTS
GRAMMAR RULE #3: COMMAS
WHAT NOW?
Imagine you are a baseball player and your coach has just given you new tips for your swing. What is the next thing you need to do? You need to practice! Unless English is your second language, you've probably been speaking English for fifteen years. Old habits die hard. Watching one video isn't going to rid yourself of habits that you've had for years, so practice these skills on some official SAT practice tests.
SAT WRITING FAQ
Below are some common questions about the SAT Writing section and the best methods of prepping for it.
The SAT Math section is a broad, vast section that can test you on anything from basic math you learned in sixth grade to graphing quadratics. To make matters worse, it likes to add an extra bit of math reasoning into questions, so these problems often don't look or feel like high school math problems. We can break the questions down into three main categories:
This section covers a lot of algebra without exponents, so you'll see linear equations, systems of equations and graphing.
This is the SAT Math section that mirrors high school math the least. It involves modeling, data sets and statistical surveys.
HOW TO RAISE YOUR SAT MATH SCORE
To score better, you need to get better at two things: math content and math reasoning. Unlike high school math, SAT math doesn't lend itself well to memorizing steps. The problems simply vary too much. In addition, you are going to be presented with novel scenarios that force you to be creative with the information you are given in an effort to get where you need to go. The difference between easy SAT math problems and hard SAT math problems is often a matter of reasoning, not actual math content. That doesn't mean that actual math skills aren't important -- they are. In fact, for most students, the best way to get a higher SAT math score is to get better at math content. Just make sure that you're also doing plenty of practice out of official SAT practice tests.
SAT MATH TOPIC #1: LINEAR EQUATIONS
Linear equations are equations that don't feature any exponents (at least no exponents other than "1"). This means they make straight lines on graphs. This is the single most important skill for SAT Heart of Algebra questions, and it might just be the most important skill on the entire SAT Math section. Let's take a look:
SAT MATH TOPIC #2: TRINOMIALS
Trinomials are a special form of polynomial that is frequently tested and will form parabolas on a graph. We typically factor them in order to solve them, and you should be very comfortable with them in both equation and graph form. Let's take a look:
SAT MATH TOPIC #3: EQUIVALENCIES
Equivalencies are frequently tested, and they can range from very easy problems to very hard problems. Fortunately, there is a shortcut method that works every single time for these problems, and we recommend that you use it. Let's take a look:
SAT MATH FAQ
Below are some common questions about the SAT Math section and the best methods of prepping for it.
The SAT essay is a separate section that is scored outside of your normall 1600 score. It is optional, and you should only take it if you are considering colleges that require it or recommend it. If you are not considering any such colleges, there's no reason to take the essay.
SAT ESSAY SCORING
SAT ESSAY: THE MAGIC FORMULA
You don't need to write a Pulitzer-worthy essay to get a perfect score. In fact, College Board (the makers of the SAT) have done a pretty good job of telling you exactly what you need to do in order to get the best score possible. They've given sample essays that have been scored, and we can learn a lot by looking at the perfect-scoring example essay. And guess what? There's good news! You can follow a simple formula and still get a perfect score. In fact, we highly recommend following this formula. Let's take a look.
For most students, yes. This goal is more realistic if you aren't starting with a 1300+, of course. However, raising your SAT score significantly requires time, hard work and a good plan. If you are willing to do those things, you can raise your score.
Unless your strengths are so strong that there isn't much room left for improvement (i.e., you are scoring a 750+ on math), you should spend some time on both. However, for a lot of students, the biggest gains in the shortest time often come from getting better at their weaknesses.
This of course various, but a lot of students could get real improvement by spending four hours per week for eight weeks on SAT prep. That time should be split between reviewing content and doing practice tests. No matter how much time you spend on SAT prep, remember that quality time is more important than anything else. Treat every practice question like it's a test question, and have a plan that guides how you will spend your time.
If you get the score you need, once is enough. Okay, that's a cop-out. There isn't an inherent advantage in taking the test a lot of times unless you underperformed on it, and you should know whether you underperformed because you should have already taken some official practice tests. If you've been scoring an 1150 on practice tests and you score about an 1150 on test day, you shouldn't expect to do better just by taking it again. Instead, you'll need to do some prep and actually get better at the SAT in order for your score to go up. If, however, you have been getting an 1150 on practice tests but scored just a 1040 on the real thing, take it again whether you do additional prep or not.
Very! Different colleges weight test scores differently, but it's hard to overstate the importance of the SAT for college admissions. Your GPA/class rank and test scores are, by far, the two most important factors that will determine the colleges you get into.
For the most part, no. There are some little tricks, but they aren't going to give you 50+ points on the test. There is no substitute for doing actual work to get better at the algebra, grammar, etc. that is tested. Good SAT tutoring revolves around resolving content weaknesses first.
For most students, it doesn't really matter. The vast majority of students do about the same on both exams, and there is no difference in how the exams are viewed by colleges. Your goal is to get the highest percentile score possible, regardless of which test it happens on. In general, the ACT is more a of a time crunch and gives less weight to math, but it is also a bit more straightforward. It also includes a science section, but this section has little correlation with ability in high school science class.
Probably linear equations. Math makes up half of your score, so the most important math content area is probably the most important area overall. Knowing how to solve and graph linear equations as well as work with the slope formula are fundamental skills on this test. Outside of math, subjects and verbs are extremely important.
