At PrepScholar, we've written the largest set of high-quality SAT guides available, covering pretty much everything you need to know to improve your score on the digital SAT. They're all free and online, right here on our blog, and we think they beat any book you can purchase.
This guide, our Ultimate SAT Prep Study Guide, combines our most important SAT guides on one page. If you master all of the concepts linked to on this page, use them in your own practice and studying, and stay motivated to work hard, you'll have an amazing shot at improving your SAT score. Essentially, you'll have a huge advantage over students who don't know this information and lack the motivation to employ it in their own studying.
First, we'll cover how to use this guide. We'll then go through, section by section, what's important for you to know. Here's an outline of what's coming next:
- How to Use This SAT Study Guide
- Intro to the SAT
- The Right Mindset for SAT Prep
- SAT Content and Strategies
How to Use This SAT Study Guide
This guide contains the information we believe is most important for all students taking the SAT to know. It's ordered roughly in the sequence we recommend reading the articles in.
This guide also serves as a launching point for further reading. Many of these links will direct you to pages with more links, and you should explore the resources we link to that you find helpful.
There's a lot to read here, and you probably won't be able to do it all in one sitting. If you find this guide helpful, bookmark this page or email it to yourself to remind yourself to come back to it later.
You'll notice as you read further that we cover a lot more than just test content, which is where most students tend to focus too much of their time. Rather, we also cover test strategy, mindset, behavior and motivation, and planning in the context of college admissions.
If you're serious about improving your SAT score, you need a lot of information. It's not just about SAT test content—you also need to master test strategy so that you can apply your foundational knowledge to the specific format of the digital SAT. You need to have the right mindset as you approach the test and understand the perspective of the College Board, the SAT's creator. You need to stay motivated to be able to push through the dark days when you don't feel like doing SAT prep. You also need to consider what your college goals are, find an SAT score target that's right for you, and plan the logistics of taking the SAT.
I encourage you to even read the guides about subjects you feel like you already know. In the worst case, you'll just spend 10 minutes refreshing important concepts. In the best case, you'll learn a new aspect of SAT prep that can have a big impact on how you study.
Intro to the SAT
If you're a beginner in SAT prep, it's important to understand the format of the SAT, what's tested on it, and how the exam works as a whole. This section will give you a strong foundation to help you understand the test more deeply.
What Is the SAT? A Complete Explanation of the Test
If you really don't know much about the SAT, this is the place to start. Get a quick overview of the history of the test, why people take it, what it covers, and more.
The Ultimate Guide to the New Digital SAT Format
The Ultimate Digital SAT Study Guide: Tips, Plans, and Practice
The SAT underwent a huge transformation in 2023/2024, becoming a digital exam, so it's important to know the basics about the test and its format. What kinds of sections are on it? What do questions look like? Start building your foundation here.
What's Actually Tested on the SAT Reading and Writing Section?
What's Tested on the SAT Math Section? Topics and Practice
Next, learn what's specifically tested on each of the two main sections on the SAT: Reading and Writing and Math. Each of these guides covers the format of the section, question types, and the skills you'll need to do well.
How Is the SAT Scored? Scoring Charts
SAT Score Range: 3 Steps to Understanding Your Score
You know that your SAT score will likely be an important part of college admissions. But how is the test graded to arrive at a final score out of 1600? What happens when you skip or miss questions? How is each section scored out of 800? Learn here in these two guides.
What Is the Average SAT Score?
SAT Percentiles and Score Rankings
It's helpful to get a sense of what SAT scores are considered good on a nationwide scale. These guides tell you the average SAT score overall and for each state, and your national percentile for your score.
Is the ACT Easier Than the SAT?
ACT vs SAT: 11 Key Differences to Help You Pick the Right Test
If you're trying to decide between focusing on the SAT or the ACT, it's important to understand exactly what the differences are and how to decide which test to take. Here's a clear breakdown of each test with strategies for figuring out the right test for you.
The Right Mindset for SAT Prep
What many students don't appreciate is that doing well on the SAT is as much about good planning and your mental mindset as it is about understanding the stuff that's actually tested. This section contains concepts that are critical for all students to understand before they spend any time doing even a single test question.
What Is a Good SAT Score? A Bad SAT Score? An Excellent SAT Score?
This is a question on nearly every student's mind. You've likely heard from other students, your parents, or teachers about what a good SAT score is or isn't. If they've given you a specific number without any reasoning or logic behind it, they're dead wrong.
The truth is, there's only one SAT target score that's good for you and your personal college goals. It's not what your friends think you should get, and it's not what your parents keep telling you to aim for. Figure out what your target SAT score should be in this guide.
How to Prepare for the SAT: 10-Step Guide
Starting out on your SAT prep can feel intimidating at first, so allow us to lend you a hand. With this guide, you'll learn every critical step needed to prepare for the SAT, from registering for a specific test date to pinpointing your biggest weaknesses and learning essential strategies.
How to Build an SAT Study Plan: 4 Sample Schedules
One of the first steps you take before even beginning your SAT prep is to come up with a schedule that works well for you and will give you a high probability of meeting your score goal. This helpful article goes over how to build your own SAT study plan, step by step.
How to Beat Procrastination in Your SAT Prep
A common problem in pretty much everyone's life is procrastination. We put off unpleasant tasks for later because we're pretty sure we'll get around to them—and watching YouTube videos feels so much better right now.
This is a huge problem for a lot of students and their SAT prep. Studying isn't nearly as fun as texting or Snapchatting, and the test seems so far away. It's often really hard to sit down for five hours a week and commit to working through problems and improving your SAT skills.
So we wrote a practical guide to beating procrastination. You'll learn about why people procrastinate and how this problem applies to SAT prep, too. More importantly, we share specific strategies you can use to stop procrastinating in your test prep.
How to Get a Perfect 1600 SAT Score, by a 2400 Expert Full Scorer
If you're aiming for a high SAT score, this is a must-read guide. Even if you're aiming for any score above 1200, I recommend reading this guide.
I've gotten perfect scores on two versions of the SAT: back in 2004 when it was (originally) out of 1600, and later when it was out of 2400 (now the test is back to the 1600 scale). My perfect scores didn't magically happen—they took a lot of hard work.
In this perfect score guide, I've put every important concept that I believe you must understand to get a super-high SAT score. This guide doesn't contain any actual test content; it's more about the mental game of understanding why your score is low, where your weaknesses lie, and strategizing focused attacks on your weaknesses to improve your score.
SAT Content and Strategies
By reading the guides above, you'll have a strong mental framework for understanding what the SAT is and how you can do well on the test.
Next comes the part where you'll be spending most of your time—mastering the concepts and skills tested on the SAT. Section by section, we'll go through the most important guides you need to read.
Overall SAT Test Strategy
The Best Way to Review Your Mistakes for the SAT
A lot of driven students prep for the SAT by doing a ton of practice questions without any insight. They churn through practice tests mindlessly without reviewing their mistakes or understanding how to improve. Why? It feels great, and it feels like progress.
This is a critical mistake—it's like pounding your head against the wall. If you don't do practice problems and review them with the right perspective, you'll be wasting hours of your time. In this guide, we teach you how to use every mistake you make on the SAT to identify your weaknesses and improve your prep.
The 22 SAT Tips and Tricks You Must Use
This comprehensive guide goes over the most important tips to know for both the SAT as a whole and each individual section. Read this, and you'll learn how to approach the test systematically and effectively.
Complete Official SAT Practice Tests, Free Links
The Best SAT Online Practice Tests and Questions
A Massive Collection of Free SAT Practice Tests
By far the best resources you can use in your prep are highly realistic (ideally, official) SAT practice tests and questions. Take an official practice test using the designated SAT time constraints and in a quiet room; this will give you a fairly accurate indicator of your baseline score, or where you're currently scoring, which you can use later on in your prep to see how you're improving.
Are you a self-studier who plans to study for the SAT using books alone? We've reviewed the best books currently available for SAT prep in this guide. We talk about the top books for overall studying and for each section, as well as books you should avoid. Even if you're being tutored or taking a prep class, this article is still useful to read as it'll tell you whether there's anything you can supplement your studying with.
The Best SAT Prep Websites You Should Be Using
If you prefer to study online, then this list is for you. It contains all the best SAT websites, from strategy guides, to study tips, to high-quality practice questions for all sections of the SAT. Websites are a great way to do some quick studying and are a handy alternative to carrying around a prep book.
The 5 Best SAT Apps & How to Use Them Effectively
Some people like to study with their phone on the go. Now, you can do this for your SAT prep, too (though this shouldn't be your main mode of studying!). Our guide goes over the pros and cons of the best SAT apps and offers tips on how to use apps in your own prep.
SAT Reading and Writing Prep Guides
The #1 Critical, Fundamental Strategy of SAT Reading and Writing
If there's only one guide you read for SAT Reading and Writing, make it this one.
On SAT Reading and Writing, do you ever find yourself waffling between two or three answer choices that all seem plausible? Do you throw up your hands and just guess on one of them?
Nearly all students suffer from this problem. That's because they don't understand the #1 critical rule about SAT Reading and Writing: every question has only one unambiguously correct answer, and every other answer is unambiguously wrong for specific reasons.
In this guide, you'll learn this concept in detail and get strategies for identifying incorrect answers on SAT Reading and Writing questions.
The Ultimate Study Guide for SAT Reading and Writing: Strategies, Tips, and Practice
This guide contains everything you need to know about SAT Reading and Writing in one place. We cover every single question type, with custom strategies on how to attack each one. Every great SAT Reading and Writing prep guide we've created can be found on this page!
The Best Way to Study SAT Vocab Words
262 SAT Vocab Words You Must Know
Vocabulary isn't a huge part of the SAT anymore, but you'll need to how to study it if you're aiming for a perfect or near-perfect Reading score. My strategy teaches you how to memorize SAT vocab words so that you use your prep time effectively.
How to Improve Your SAT Reading and Writing Score
Are you scoring below 600 on SAT Reading and Writing? The first thing you should do, then, is aim to break 600. The strategies you'll need to use are quite different from the ones you'd use if you were aiming for 800. For example, we recommend spending less time on harder questions to help you maximize your score in the short amount of time you have.
The Complete Guide to SAT Grammar Rules
Don't forget about grammar rules on SAT Reading and Writing. Subject/verb agreement, pronoun usage, and writing style are all tested in this multiple-choice section. Read our extensive guide to learn every grammar rule you'll need to know for the SAT.
How to Get 800 on SAT Reading and Writing
Aiming for a high score on SAT Reading (above 600)? This guide covers everything you need to understand to give yourself a great shot at a perfect score. We teach you how to pinpoint your biggest weaknesses, give you strategies to fix them, and explain the mindset you'll need when practicing for SAT Reading and Writing.
SAT Math Prep Guides
Algebra: Key Strategies for SAT Math
3 Key Strategies for Advanced Math Questions on the SAT
Problem Solving and Data Analysis: Key SAT Math Concepts
These guides not only give you an overview of the kinds of problems you can expect, but also offer expert tips for attacking math questions effectively.
The Ultimate SAT Math Prep Guide: Tips, Formulas, and Practice
We've written a ton of content about SAT Math, and it's all available here in this guide. We cover every major math concept tested, from integers and rational numbers to advanced algebra and solid geometry. Read this guide to get the rundown of every critical idea you need to know for a great SAT Math score.
The Complete Guide to SAT Math Word Problems
Many students find word problems to be the trickiest problems on SAT Math, and since they make up about 25% of math questions, you need to know how to tackle them. This guide explains how to approach and simplify word problems so they're less intimidating and can be answered easily.
7 Most Common SAT Math Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Don't let little mistakes keep you from getting the SAT Math score you want on test day. In this guide, we go over the most common mistakes test takers make on the Math section, such as forgetting formulas and solving for the wrong value, and teach you how to avoid making them.
How to Improve Low SAT Math Scores: 9 Strategies
Are you scoring in the 300-600 range on SAT Math? This guide shows you how to think about the Math section correctly and how to apply test strategies to give yourself the best chance at improving. In particular, we discuss how to avoid getting bogged down by questions that are too hard for your level and how to use your study time effectively.
How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer
Aiming for a high score on SAT Math (above a 600)? You'll learn the key strategies you need to use to master every math concept tested and to analyze your mistakes. We also cover how to eliminate careless mistakes—a common problem for people aiming for those last points—and how to put yourself in the right mindset for a perfect score.
SAT Logistics and Planning
A major part of doing well on the SAT is higher-level planning strategy. When should you take the SAT? How many times should you take it? How long should you study? These are all important points to consider when structuring your SAT prep time and preparing college applications.
When Should You Take the SAT? Best Test Dates
Planning out your SAT testing schedule is really important to doing well. If taking the SAT more than once (which we recommend), you'll need ample time to prep in-between test dates and hopefully improve your score.
In this guide, you'll learn a solid SAT-test-date strategy that works well for most students. We'll also bust a common myth about SAT test dates and curves.
SAT Test Dates: Full Guide to Choosing
Here's a list of every SAT test date available this school year, including registration deadlines and when you can expect to get your scores. Use this to look ahead and start planning your schedule.
How Long Should I Study for the SAT? 6-Step Guide
This is a key question on most students' minds, and the answer is that it really depends on your personal goals, where you currently are in your prep, and your potential to improve. This guide breaks down what you need to understand to reach your SAT score target in a timely manner.
How Many Times Should You Take the SAT?
If you don't hit your goal score the first time you take the SAT (and many students don't), you have the possibility of taking the test again, or even several more times. This guide explains how many times you should take the SAT to reach your highest score yet not make colleges concerned that you're taking the test too often.
Which Colleges Superscore the SAT?
SAT Superscoring is the practice of combining your best section scores from different test dates to create a Superscore. (The College Board's technical term for this is "SAT Score Choice.") A lot of schools now allow it, which has huge implications for your test strategy. In short, the more times you take the SAT, the greater your chance of increasing your score will be. This detailed guide gives you a list of all colleges that currently Superscore the SAT.
Concluding Words to Our Ultimate SAT Study Guide
Congratulations on making it to the end! By now, you should have clicked on at least a few of the dozens of guides listed here. Read them, see if you like the advice we give, and then use them as launching points to even more guides.
You might not get through all this information in one sitting, so bookmark this page or email it to yourself as a reminder to come back later.
There's a lot to learn out there—that's the first step. The hard part that comes after, though, is actually applying the knowledge you've learned and putting it into action. It won't be easy, but it'll definitely be worthwhile for your future. Soldier on!
What's Next?
Need help with your SAT prep? Allow us to give you a hand. Our customizable online SAT prep program supplies you with realistic practice questions and targets your biggest weaknesses to help you achieve the scores you need for college.
Taking the ACT instead of or in addition to the SAT? Then you'll benefit greatly by taking a look at our ultimate ACT guide. Like this guide, we give you tons of free links and resources so that you can have a successful test day!
