How to Prepare for the SAT

Preparing for the SAT® is the first step in paving the way for college admissions, scholarships, career exploration and academic courses. 

Equip yourself with insights about your PSAT/NMSQT® scores or full-length practice test scores, learn to set your personal SAT Target Score, and enhance your confidence with free SAT practice resources.

Review Your Practice Scores or PSAT/NMSQT Scores

If you took the PSAT/NMSQT, you should review your results to understand your strengths as well as areas you need to improve on.

Get to Know the Digital SAT

If you didn’t take the PSAT/NMSQT, you should take a full-length practice test to set a baseline for your progress. 

The Full-length practice tests in Bluebook™ the most accurate way to measure your skills for the actual test. They introduce you to the Bluebook app, used for both practice and test day. Your practice scores will be available in My Practice, and target areas for improvement.

Set an SAT Target Score 

With insights about your knowledge and skills, you can set your own SAT Target Score. This is your personal goal and gives you more ownership of the outcome, rather than striving for what you may perceive as a “good’ score. 

Learn how to stay on track by setting your own SAT Target Score. 

Here are a few simple steps to setting your target score: 

1. Create your college list. Researching the colleges that interest you on BigFuture® can help you identify the score range you should aim for. Average score ranges have been changing lately, and colleges are still adjusting to new test-optional policies, but the SAT score range listed is a good place to start. This will help you create your college list. 
2. Understand your most recent test score. If you took the PSAT/NMSQT or a practice SAT, you’ve already established your baseline. Now you can dig into your score report to understand how your score compares to others and what areas you should focus on to practice and improve. Look at the number and types of questions you got wrong. See how many more of those questions you would need to answer correctly to raise your score.
3. Determine a realistic target score for you. Based on where you are now and where you want to end up, you can decide your own goal.

Official DigitalSAT Prep with Khan Academy

We partnered with Khan Academy® to create Official Digital SAT Prep. This world-class test practice is free to all students, so there’s no need to spend a lot of money on test prep courses. It’s personalized just for you to show you the areas in which you excel and what areas need more work.

When you click on the Practice Specific Questions link, My Practice gathers a tailored set of questions from our Student Question Bank based on your performance on the practice test. These questions are specifically designed to help you build your skills at a level that's right for you.

Test-Taking Tips

Having the right strategies can instill you with confidence as you approach test day. Here are 10 test-taking tips to help you navigate the assessment and maximize your score. They’ll give you guidance on how to pace yourself, focus on your practice, and use built-in tools. These tips will set you up for success. 

Review Frequently Asked Questions about SAT Testing.