How to Prepare for the SAT I: Reasoning Test
The First Step before Taking the College Entrance Exam
May 3, 2008
You're registered to take the College Board SAT I: Reasoning Test, but now what? The test is weeks away and you haven't thought about the SAT since taking the PSAT last year. What should your first step be to prepare for the SAT?
The Official Website
Visit the College Board's official website to get the most basic and up-to-date information about the SAT.
Find out how long the test is (just over four hours), as well as the math and reading skills you need to succeed. The College Board website also has a free practice test and free practice problems.
Practice Problems
Next complete all the free practice problems available on the College Board website. Check the answers and read the solutions carefully to find the strategies; think carefully about the strategies and if they can be applied to similar questions.
If your guidance counselor offers free SAT practice questions use them. Once you've completed all the free practice questions, move on to completing free practice test sections.
Practice Test Sections
After completing all the free practice SAT questions you can find, move on to practice test sections. Practice test sections are available online from the College Board and some local libraries offer free online practice tests as well.
SAT Practice sections should be taken just as the official SAT would be.
- Use a stopwatch or timer to follow section time limits precisely. (Some online tests do this for you.)
- Complete the entire practice test section in one sitting.
- Do not consult outside sources.
Once the practice test section is completed review the answers. Even for questions answered correctly, read the answer explanations to make sure you are using the most efficient solving strategy possible.
After you have successfully completed several practice test sections, move on to taking full-length practice SATs.
Full-length SAT
The College Board offers one free practice test on its website. Searching for "free practice SAT" on Google also provides several other sites offering the same service. Use the official College Board practice test first as those questions come directly from old SATs.
Free practice SATs should be taken under strict conditions just as the official SATs are:
- Use a stopwatch or timer to follow section time limits precisely.
- Once finished working on a section do not look back at previous sections.
- Do not use extra time at the end of a section to work ahead.
- Complete the full-length practice SAT in one sitting taking only one break between sections 4 and 5 for five minutes or less.
- Use only No. 2 pencils.
- You may use a graphing calculator on the math sections.
Again, review the answers and answer explanations. Try and discover a pattern of what strategies are used most frequently so that you can begin to use those SAT question solving strategies more frequently.
Score your full-length practice SAT. Give yourself one point for every question answered correctly, subtract a quarter point for each question answered incorrectly (except for those in the student-produced responses on the math sections), and do nothing for questions that you did not answer. Use this raw score and the scaled scoring sheet that should accompany the full-length practice SAT to find your score.
Use this practice test score to set a personal goal for yourself and then begin using other resources to prepare for the SATs. Bookstores have a huge selection of SAT prep books and by knowing your practice test score you can better select a book that will help you achieve your personal goal.
More SAT Test Prep
After visiting the official College Board website, completing practice SAT questions, practice SAT test sections, and a full-length practice SAT, it is important to continuing preparing for the test. After the free SAT test resources have been used to their fullest choose an SAT workbook.
If the idea of taking the SAT is still a bit nerve-wracking, learn techniques for calming SAT testing anxiety.
