The SAT
has been around in one form or another since 1901. Through all its changes, probably the most helpful one for you is the rise of
free online practice questions
and
guides
covering every aspect of the test.
Rather than having to carry around 400-page practice books like the students of yesteryear (i.e., the 90s), you can use these online resources to
prep from anywhere with the Internet.
To help you discern high-quality resources from low-quality ones, this guide will break down the SAT prep websites you can use to review content, learn strategies, and find practice questions.
Disclaimer: Free SAT Resources at PrepScholar
This article is one of many detailed guides offered (for free!) by
PrepScholar
. By exploring our other articles, you’ll find in-depth information and analyses of all aspects of the SAT and ACT, from suggested
study schedules
to
how to read passages
to how to
choose your test dates
. Plus, we like to keep on top of those high-profile
cheating
scandals
that often result in SAT score cancellations across the globe.
I personally think PrepScholar offers the most
insightful, high-level guidance around every step of the testing process.
Our customized
online test prep program
tracks your progress and does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. That’s why I’ll link to our
various guides
when appropriate in order to give you a sense of the different areas we cover and
continue to add to every day.
At the same time, there are several other sites with highly useful information for your SAT prep. Rather than listing them in a row, I’ll organize them by the testing steps you’re looking for,
starting with test registration and followed by guides for scheduling, test-taking strategies, and practice questions.
Official SAT Website: The College Board
If you’ve heard of the SAT, then you’ve probably heard of the
College Board
. This group administers the SAT and sends your score reports to colleges.
To
register for the SAT
,
you must create an account on the College Board website and upload a picture of yourself.
You can then use this site to register for the SAT, learn about AP tests, and
research colleges
across the country.
But this isn’t all the College Board does. For one, it
breaks down the SAT’s overall format and skills:
you can go ”
inside the test
” to see what concepts are tested on the
Reading
,
Math
, and
Writing
sections. Some descriptions are a bit wordy and confusing, so you’ll have to look elsewhere if you want to
learn about the test in more accessible language
.
This website also offers
free prep material
, including
SAT practice questions
and
eight full-length practice tests
. SAT questions from the test makers are the
gold standard when it comes to test prep.
You can access dozens of sample questions for
Reading
,
Writing
, and
Math
, and you’ll get to see all correct answers and answer explanations.
Because the full-length tests are the same as those in
The Official SAT Study Guide
(plus two extra tests
not
included in the book), I advise printing them out on your own rather than buying the book. Make sure to
time yourself as you take the practice tests,
and spend ample time correcting your answers with the answer keys provided.
Best SAT Websites for Content and Strategy
What concepts are tested on the SAT? What are the different skill sets you need for Writing and Reading? What kinds of tricks can you use to keep yourself from running out of time?
One key part of your SAT prep that you won’t find much of on the official SAT website is
strategy.
The College Board doesn’t want you to know that questions follow certain standardized templates, or that
you’ll usually find the same kinds of wrong answers on Reading questions meant to distract you from the correct one.
Nor will it give you strategies for reading passages quickly and efficiently or managing your time on tricky math questions.
So what resources should you use instead? The following SAT websites are the most useful for
learning the content and format of the SAT and getting down critical test-taking strategies.
PrepScholar Informational and Strategy SAT Guides
Our SAT blog offers
in-depth coverage of each section of the test.
Read about what’s tested on each of the four sections, learn every detail of the
SAT structure
, and get a comprehensive look at the most recent SAT data, including
average scores
and
percentiles
.
Unlike the College Board, whose SAT-ACT comparison charts clearly favor the SAT, our
breakdown of the two tests
has no agenda for you to choose one college admissions test over the other!
Some of our best guides to help you understand the
content and format of the SAT
are as follows:
-
What’s Tested on the SAT Math Section?
-
What’s Actually Tested on the SAT Reading Section?
-
What’s Tested on the SAT Writing Section?
-
Complete Comparison Charts: SAT vs ACT
I also suggest exploring our
General Info articles
for information on topics such as
test dates,
scoring
,
sending scores
, and the
best books for SAT prep
.
Although learning about the content and format of the SAT is relatively straightforward,
finding effective strategies for answering questions and saving time on it are fewer and further between.
The following list contains 10 of our
most useful and popular SAT strategy guides.
You can find more under the
SAT Strategy
category as well:
-
How Long Should I Study for the SAT? 6 Step Guide
-
Should You Guess on the SAT? 6 Guessing Strategies
-
The 28 Critical SAT Math Formulas You MUST Know
-
How to Get an 800 on SAT Reading: 11 Strategies by a Perfect Scorer
-
The Complete Guide to SAT Grammar Rules
-
The Best Way to Review Your Mistakes for the SAT
-
Choose Your SAT Test Dates: When’s a Good Time For You?
-
How to Study for the New SAT
-
How to Get a Perfect 1600 SAT Score, by a 2400 Expert Full Score
This is just a small sampling of the SAT strategy guides we offer. In addition to these, we’ve written tons of guides specific to Math, Reading, and Writing for students in
grades 9
through 12, and for
middle schoolers
who are starting prep early or taking the SAT to qualify for talent competitions.
Erica Meltzer’s The Critical Reader
Erica Meltzer’s blog
is extremely useful for prepping for the
SAT Reading and Writing sections.
Over the years, Meltzer’s blog has evolved from covering standardized testing to addressing many issues facing students today. That means you will probably have to dig through the site’s extensive archives to find SAT prep articles. Many of those posts cover general topics, like
learning vocabulary in context
and
comma usage
. Additionally, some of her
SAT Reading tips
have been merged with ACT Reading tips since the tests are so similar these days.
That said, Meltzer offers several useful posts and will most likely continue to add to them.
Here are some of her posts that are definitely worth checking out:
-
Using the introduction to get the big picture
-
General vs. specific in Critical Reading answer choices
-
Finding the point
-
The importance of transitions
-
What parts of speech can be subjects?
I suggest exploring the blog for more tips for the verbal sections. Although her posts are engaging, Meltzer ultimately leaves it up to
you
to seek out examples and sample questions when trying out her advice.
Erik the Red
While Meltzer’s blog focuses on verbal skills,
Erik the Red
is all about SAT Math.
This website lets you
download PDFs containing critical math facts, formulas, strategies, and vocabulary.
However, it’s important to note that this website is even less updated for the SAT than Meltzer’s blog is. The math resources here have remained unchanged since the old (pre-2016) SAT and thus
don’t reflect the current SAT format, question types, and skills tested.
I decided to keep this website on this list because many of the math concepts explained here—especially the algebraic ones—are essential to your performance on SAT Math.
The PDFs Erik the Red has are still useful review for content areas like linear equations, nonlinear equations, functions, quadratic equations, and graphs. You could use them as review, but be sure to focus on the
skills that will actually appear on the SAT
(and leave out the ones that are less important). For instance, you don’t have to focus too much on geometry since it’ll only show up in about 3-5% of SAT Math questions.
Ask the Dean on College Confidential
If you have general questions about the form or content of the SAT that aren’t answered in the resources above, try
College Confidential
. This website offers several
student and parent discussion threads about the SAT,
which you can peruse or even comment on.
The
Ask the Dean forum
in particular has some helpful advice about how many times to take the SAT. It suggests three—that’s more than what the College Board says to do and
about the same as what we recommend doing
(depending on your circumstances and goals).
If you have questions about the logistics of the SAT, read up on the test on College Confidential before
signing up for a test date
.
Best Websites for Free SAT Practice Questions
The College Board isn’t the only website that offers an assortment of free, high-quality SAT practice questions. Below are our top three picks for the best online resources for practice questions for the Reading, Writing, and Math sections. Some of them even offer
full-length tests!
Khan Academy
Khan Academy has designed a scaffolded
SAT prep program
that diagnoses your level and takes you through practice questions, step by step. It was developed in collaboration with the College Board, so all of its practice questions are official and realistic. Its combination of
video and written explanations
will also appeal to different learning styles.
On Khan Academy’s interactive site, you can
set up an account
and
take diagnostic tests
on each section of the SAT.
Then, Khan Academy will suggest what level you should focus on and, much like our own customized approach, present you with targeted question types to help you improve.
The site breaks down each section into subtopics and gives you helpful tips on how to structure your prep schedule. Because it
keeps track of your progress,
you can log in from anywhere to pick up where you left off.
In addition to SAT practice questions, Khan Academy offers
resources that explain the structure of the SAT
.
The website also contains a helpful
glossary of SAT terms
that go over what terms like “percentile” and “raw score” mean. If you’re tired of reading about the SAT and prefer to watch explanatory videos, then Khan Academy is your best source for
video explanations
of what’s on the SAT.
Though its SAT material is thorough,
the limited number of practice questions and lack of test strategy
mean that Khan Academy, while incredibly useful, shouldn’t be your only source of practice problems.
PrepScholar Collection of Old and New Official SAT Practice Tests
We’ve compiled PDFs for all
ten official SAT practice tests
,
which you can download, print, and take on your own. In addition, we’ve collected
four old SAT practice tests
(using the 2400 system) and
four very old SAT practice tests
(using the old 1600 system).
While these tests use old versions of the SAT, they can still be useful for your prep as long as you
focus on relevant question types and skip the ones no longer tested
(such as Sentence Completion).
You’ll have to score these tests on your own as well as take the time to
understand your mistakes
and analyze your answer choices.
You can also try out a
5-day free trial
of PrepScholar’s online test prep program. For these 5 days, you’ll have access to the entire program and can try out whether this approach to test prep works for you. PrepScholar helps break down your SAT prep into manageable goals, tracks your progress, and
customizes your studying so you’re focusing on the practice problems where you need the most improvement.
If you enjoy this approach to test prep, then you can continue on with the entire program. If not, then you can call it quits after your 5-day trial.
CrackSAT.net
Like PrepScholar,
CrackSAT.net
offers free, official, old SAT practice tests (with answer keys) that you can download for free as PDFs. While the site does have some resources for the New SAT, there aren’t very many. Having said that, even old SAT practice tests are great resources for practicing test-taking strategies to maximize your time…and your score.
Like some of the other resources we’ve mentioned,
you’ll have to score these practice tests yourself.
Be sure to set aside time to understand and analyze any mistakes you made. Also, this website is a bit tough to navigate, but once you wind your way through it, you’ll have access to plenty of SAT practice questions.
Altogether, this collection of websites and blogs can give you a ton of information about the SAT, from its content and form to strategies and official practice questions. Read on to learn
the steps you should take to best use these online SAT resources in your prep.
How to Use SAT Websites Effectively
In order to get the most out of the websites listed above, you’ll need to know how to approach and use SAT websites effectively.
For both the College Board and Khan Academy, you’ll want to
make an account and keep track of your usernames and passwords.
To post on College Confidential, you’ll also need to register on the site to connect with community of students and parents going through the same college application process as you.
For our own SAT strategy guides and Erica Meltzer’s blog, you can just read through the different articles to answer any questions you might have or to learn new tips. You can then
try out the various strategies
you’ve learned on official
SAT practice tests
.
Although the College Board is the official site for all things SAT, I recommend
against
taking all of its advice as definitive. The College Board’s resources don’t focus on test-taking strategies, which are the key to making sure you’re scoring as high as possible.
In the end, your best shot is to
search for high-quality strategies and insights into the SAT on these other websites,
and then try them out on official practice questions or during
our free, five-day SAT prep program trial
. By combining strategy and content readiness with official SAT practice questions, you’ll be able to improve your score a great deal across
all
dates you take the SAT!
What’s Next?
I gave you links to some of our most popular SAT articles—but these aren’t our
only
SAT strategy guides
.
Browse our blog to get more tips on the Math, Reading, and Writing sections of the SAT. Many of our articles cover crucial test-taking approaches like
managing your time
,
guessing effectively
, and
using the process of elimination
.
For more information about the college admissions process,
check out our
complete guide to applying to college
. We also have individual guides on how to get into the best colleges in the nation, including
Harvard
,
Yale
, and
Princeton
.
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