A test that has so much influence over where you go to college is bound to be a bit scary—but how hard is the SAT, really? Despite its fearsome reputation, the SAT isn't as difficult as it seems.
Overcoming the difficulties of the SAT is a matter of spending enough time studying areas that are tough for you and practicing questions that you might find confusing at first glance. Whether or not you find the SAT hard initially, this guide will give you the tools you need to surmount the test's challenges and come out on top.
Is the SAT Hard? An Overview
The SAT can be intimidating if you don't know much about it, but it's far from an insurmountable challenge if you prepare properly and understand the format of the test.
The SAT covers concepts that are typically taught in the first two years of high school, with a few more advanced concepts sprinkled into the mix. That means if you take the SAT junior year, you probably won't run into anything that's completely unfamiliar to you.
The main difficulty lies in understanding the specific way the SAT asks questions and accepting that it's much different from most in-class tests. The best way to overcome the challenges on the SAT is by preparing yourself for the types of questions that will be asked and becoming familiar with the way the test is structured.
Again, the content of the SAT is almost certainly within your abilities. The key to acing it is to spend time getting cozy with the questions and fixing whatever mistakes you make on practice tests.
In the next couple of sections, I'll give you a rundown of a few different factors that might make the SAT more or less challenging. I'll follow up these sections with a final list of tips on how to make the test easier for you.
4 Factors That Might Make the SAT Harder
Here are a few factors that make the SAT a difficult test for many students. These include time pressure, challenging math concepts, difficult reading passages, and a high-stress environment.
Factor 1: Time Pressure
The SAT is a timed test, so even if you understand all the content, time pressure can lead to careless mistakes and excessive anxiety. On the SAT Reading section, for example, you'll have 65 minutes to answer 52 questions, which comes out to 75 seconds per question. This is without factoring in the time it will take to read the passages, too.
That's why developing an efficient passage-reading strategy before you sit down to take the test is critical. On the Writing section, you have 35 minutes to answer 44 questions, which comes out to 48 seconds per question. All Writing questions are also passage-based, so you might have to spend some extra time reading in this section as well.
You won't have much time per question on the Math Calculator and No Calculator sections either, and it's easy to get stuck on problems that stump you. On the Math No Calculator section, you get 25 minutes to answer 20 questions, or 75 seconds per question. On the Calculator section, you get 55 minutes to answer 38 questions, or 87 seconds per question.
Because of these time constraints, a critical skill for the SAT is knowing when to move on if you find yourself struggling with a problem for too long.
Factor 2: Unfamiliar Math Concepts
Although the content on the SAT is unlikely to go far beyond the scope of what you've learned in your high school math classes, there might be some questions that ask about concepts that have since faded from your memory.
The test also has some slightly more advanced concepts, including basic trigonometry. If you feel shaky on any of the topics tested on SAT Math, you'll need to revisit them before you're ready to answer questions in a high-pressure testing environment.
Factor 3: Challenging Reading Passages
Passages on the SAT are all excerpts from real published texts (and at least one historical source text), so they're written at a fairly high level. You'll sometimes encounter language that's a bit old-fashioned and hard to understand.
If you're not a big reader, these passages might take a bit more effort to comprehend. You'll need to spend time practicing your passage-reading strategy before jumping into the test.
Factor 4: High Stress Levels
Finally, a major reason that the SAT is so hard for many students is that they get themselves super worked up about it. It's not hard to see why this happens: colleges do rely heavily on standardized test scores to judge potential applicants, so it sometimes seems like your whole future is riding on this one test. If you obsess too much over how critical it is to do well, you could end up with crippling test anxiety, leading to the opposite outcome.
Learning how to cope with the stress associated with the SAT might be the most important thing you can do to make the whole process more manageable.
Testing anxiety is serious. Maybe not as serious as my concerns about why this child is trapped in what appears to be some sort of burlap sack, but still.
4 Factors That Might Make the SAT Easier
There are also some aspects of the SAT that can make it seem like an easy test compared to some of the exams you've taken in your classes. Here are a few of the most prominent factors.
Factor 1: Predictable Structure and Types of Questions
The sections on the SAT are always arranged in the same order, which is as follows:
- Reading
- Writing and Language
- Math No Calculator
- Math Calculator
This means that you never have to worry about being thrown for a loop on test day regarding the fundamental format of the exam.
You can also predict the types of questions you'll encounter and how they'll be worded if you go through enough practice materials. The College Board writes questions in very specific ways that don't change significantly from test to test.
Factor 2: No Memorization
You don't need to memorize a bunch of content to do well on the SAT. The Math section gives you most of the formulas you'll need to answer the questions. Moreover, questions in the Reading and Writing sections are based on reading comprehension and knowledge of basic grammar. So while it's certainly possible to study for the SAT, it's not the same kind of studying you'd do for other tests.
Factor 3: Almost All Multiple Choice
The SAT is much less labor intensive than a lot of tests you take in high school because it doesn't include any free-response questions in the main portion of the test. Everything is multiple choice except for the grid-in questions on the math sections, of which there are only 13 in total (five on the No Calculator section and eight on the Calculator section).
For the most part, all the answers to the questions are right there on the test if you know where to look.
Factor 4: No Guessing Penalty
There are no points deducted for incorrect answers on the SAT, so you don't have to worry about filling in an answer you aren't 100% sure about. If you truly can't decide between two choices or are totally stumped, just fill in a random bubble. Even if you get it wrong, it'll be no different than if you'd left the question blank, so it's in your best interest to give it a shot.
So many points!
How to Make the SAT Easier for You: 4 Tips
Now that I've covered some of the fixed qualities of the SAT that might make it harder or easier, I'll give you some tips on how to tailor your approach to the test to make its challenges more manageable for you.
#1: Take Plenty of Practice Tests
This is the #1 thing you must do if you want the SAT to be a breeze for you. The main reason students end up confused and overwhelmed by the SAT is that they go into the test blind. When the questions are formatted in a way that's unexpected and unfamiliar, it throws them for a loop (especially with the time pressure)—and they think the test is impossibly hard.
If you take official SAT practice tests, you'll start to see that the content is well within your abilities. You just have to get used to reading efficiently, pacing yourself, and staying calm in the face of questions that initially confuse you.
#2: Learn to De-stress
Taking standardized tests is much easier if you avoid putting an enormous amount of pressure on yourself throughout the process. When you're so preoccupied with visions of the supposedly catastrophic consequences of failure, every question you skip will make you more anxious and less clear-headed.
Learning not to sabotage yourself in this way will make the test much easier. I'd suggest reading up on mindfulness techniques that you can use during the exam to bring yourself back down to earth if you get anxious.
#3: Use the Process of Elimination
Rather than viewing at all the answers for a question as possible options, take a look at them with an extremely critical eye. Try to find reasons to cross out answers that don't make sense or that aren't supported by concrete evidence in the passage. This is a big help, especially in the Reading section where it can be difficult to sort out the answers that are almost correct from the one answer that is completely correct.
#4: Examine and Correct Your Mistakes
You won't be able to fix all your problems just by taking a bunch of practice tests without further analysis. After each test, go over what you missed and figure out how you can avoid similar mistakes in the future. Try to also find other practice questions that test the same skills as the questions you missed so you can learn how to solve them correctly.
With each practice test, you should master more and more of the material until you reach a point at which none of the questions on the exam can stump you.
Don't get stumped. I know this is my second terrible image pun in one article, and I gotta say, I'm not sorry at all.
Bottom Line: Is the SAT Hard? Will It Be Hard for You?
Everyone has a different baseline level of comfort with the format and content of the SAT. In the end, though, the difficulty level of the test depends on how prepared you are for it. Be sure to take plenty of practice tests, address your mistakes meticulously, and learn strategies that can help you decrease your stress levels if test-taking anxiety is an issue for you.
If you do all these things, there's no stopping you from earning an awesome SAT score!
What's Next?
Thinking about getting a review book to guide your SAT prep? Read our reviews for the best SAT prep books released this year.
Should you start studying for the SAT now? Or is it OK to wait a little while? Learn more with our guide on how long you should study for the SAT based on your score goals.
Choosing the ideal test date for getting your feet wet on the SAT isn't always easy. Read this article for advice on deciding when to take the SAT for the first time.
