Nguồn: Blog.prepscholar.com
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 (ie, the 90s), you can use these online resources to prep from anywhere with Internet. To help you discern the high quality resources from the low, this guide will break down the SAT prep websites you need to review content, learn strategies, and of course, find practice questions.

 Disclaimer

This article is one of many detailed guides offered (for free!) by PrepScholar. If you explore our other articles, you’ll find in depth information and analyses of all aspects of the SAT (and ACT), from suggested study schedules, how to read passages, and how to choose your test dates. Plus we like to keep on top of those high profile cheating scandals that keep resulting in score cancellations across the globe.

I personally think PrepScholar offers the most insightful and high level guidance around every step of the testing process (plus its customized online test prep program tracks your progress and does a lot of the heavy lifting for you). That’s why I’ll link out to our various guides when appropriate, to give you a sense of all the different areas we cover and continue to add to everyday. But you should be your own judge.

At the same time, there are several other sites with highly useful information for your test 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 finally practice questions. Starting with registration, what websites do you need to sign up for the SAT?

Websites to Register for the SAT

To register for the SAT, you need to create an account with College Board. But if you want some thoughtful advice about when to register and choose your test dates, you can also check out PrepScholar’s guides and discussion threads on College Confidential.

body_collegeboard-1.jpgCollege Board

If you’ve heard of the SAT, then you’ve probably heard of College Board. They administer the SAT and send your score reports to colleges. To register, you have to create an account and upload a picture. You can also use their site to search for and learn about colleges across the country, as well as access their practice questions and test (which I’ll discuss further below).

College Board has a few short answers to FAQs like, “How can I do my best on the SAT?” and “When should I take the SAT?” Since College Board doesn’t want to give away its secrets, it doesn’t tell you how important test prep is to improving your scores or how valuable taking the SAT several times can be for performing well. While the College Board website is what you need logistically to actually register for the test, send your score reports to colleges, and use ScoreChoice, I wouldn’t recommend it as the best online resource for learning about when to register, how to choose your test dates, and when to take the SAT for the first time.

body_prepscholar.jpg

 PrepScholar

If you have questions about registration beyond the logistics, I recommend PrepScholar’s guides on When to Take the SAT for the First Time and How Many Times Should You Take the SAT? Your choice of test dates might also be influenced by your colleges’ policies towards superscoring the SAT or providing SAT-based scholarships.

All of these considerations are a departure from College Board’s answer to just register for the SAT once or twice. Before signing up, I would recommend reading more about when and how many times to take the SAT.

body_collegeconfidential.jpg

Ask the Dean on College Confidential

In addition to PrepScholar’s guides, College Confidential has several student and parent discussion threads about registering for the SAT, which you can peruse or even join the conversation. This Ask the Dean forum has some advice about how many times to take the SAT. It suggests 3, which is more than College Board, but less than what PrepScholar recommends depending on your circumstances and goals.

You can check out the forums here and PrepScholar’s guides, and then head over to College Board and sign up for your test date. Choosing your test dates and registering is one of the easier parts of prepping for and taking the SAT. Your first step to prepare should probably be learning exactly what’s on the test.

 Websites for Learning What’s On the SAT

What concepts are tested on the SAT? How many questions do you have to answer in how many minutes? What are the different skill sets you need for Writing and Reading, and just how advanced do the math questions get? The following SAT websites are the most useful for learning the content and format of the test and what your instructions will say on test day.

 College Board

College Board is very useful for logistics and straight information about the test – less so for strategy or advice. You can read about the SAT (the section of the website for professionals actually presents this information in the most straightforward way) or watch a video explaining the purpose, history, and format of the test. This chart outlines each section and its number of questions and allotted time.

To learn more about the changes being made to the redesigned SAT in 2016, you can visit the“Delivering Opportunity” section of the College Board website here. To reiterate, the student part is best for graphics and videos, the professionals’ section has clear informational charts, and Delivering Opportunity compares the current and new SAT and offers some sample questions.

 PrepScholar

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I recommend PrepScholar again for its in depth coverage of each section of the SAT. You can read about exactly what’s tested on the Critical Reading, Writing, and Math sections, as well as about the essay. Our full guide to the redesigned SAT in 2016 is here, as well as a more detailed look at how the SAT is scored and average test scores for students across all grade levels. For instance, these are some key guides for understanding the content and format of the SAT.

These are just a few of the guides, and you can explore the SAT General Info articles for more information about topics like content, test dates, ScoreChoice, scoring, score verification, and score cancellation, and the best books for your test prep.

body_testprepbooks.jpg

SAT Prep Company Blogs

A few test prep companies, like Peterson’s, Magoosh, and Princeton Review, have blogs that discuss the content and format of the SAT with varying degrees of thoughness. Peterson’s gives an overview of each section, both what’s on each of them and how long they take. To learn this information from a video, you can check out the Magoosh blog. Finally, Princeton Review gives a quick list of the timing and number of questions in each section.

While learning about the content, format, and instructions of the SAT are relatively straightforward,getting effective strategies for answering questions and saving time are fewer and farther between. I’ll provide you with links to some of PrepScholar’s numerous strategy guides for approaching each section of the SAT, followed by some useful blogs you might not have heard of.

Websites for SAT Strategy

One key part of your SAT prep that you won’t find much of on College Board’s website is strategy. College Board doesn’t want you to know that its questions follow a certain standardized template, or that you will usually find the same kind of wrong answers on Reading questions meant to distract you from the correct one. Nor is it going to give you strategies for reading the passages as quickly and efficiently as possible or learning the most commonly tested SAT vocabulary words.

For the best strategies you can use as you prep for the SAT, I recommend PrepScholar’s detailed study guides, along with blogs by Erica Meltzer, Erik the Red, and PWN the SAT.

 PrepScholar Strategy Guides

The following are ten of the most useful and popular of PrepScholar’s strategy guides on the SAT. There are many more that you can find under the “SAT Strategy” category, as well as new articles being added everyday.

These are just a small sampling of the strategy guides, and PrepScholar has numerous guides specific to Math, Critical Reading, and Writing for students in grades 9 through 12 and even middle schoolers who might be starting early or taking the SAT to qualify for talent competitions. We also keep up with trends and events in the world of the SAT, like with our articles on Do Longer SAT Essays Really Score Higher? and The College Board Made a Huge Mistake on the June 6 SAT. If you sat for the June 6, 2015 SAT, you probably know what we’re referring to.

 

 

body_thecriticalreader.jpg

 

 

Erica Meltzer’s The Critical Reader

Erica Meltzer’s blog is useful for prepping for the Critical Reading, Writing, and essay sections of the SAT. Her posts break down each verbal section of the SAT. Here are some posts worth checking out:

You can explore the blog for more tips on the verbal sections. The posts are engaging, but they leave it up to you to seek out examples and sample questions to try out Meltzer’s advice.

 

body_erikthered.jpg

 

Erik the Red

While Erica Meltzer focuses on verbal, Erik the Red is all about the SAT math. This SAT website lets you download pdfs with math facts and formulas, strategies, and math-related vocabulary.The resources here are useful for both the math section of the SAT and the SAT Subject Test in math.

This site answers some FAQs about how the SAT math section is scored and what math you need to know. Since it’s a static page of information and pdfs, it doesn’t seem to be frequently updated like PrepScholar’s guides or Erica Meltzer’s blog.

 

body_pwnthesat.jpg

 

PWN the SAT

Finally, the blog at PWN the SAT breaks down sections of the SAT and gives you some strategies that you won’t find over at College Board. The posts are written in an accessible style, and you might get a response if you post a comment or question. This blog is also posting sample questions from the new SAT and new PSAT.

You can check out the Math blog, Writing blog, and Critical Reading blog for short tips and tricks, but I wouldn’t recommend these as your only sources of SAT strategies. None of these blogs are sufficient as a comprehensive overview of all the strategies you need to master the SAT.

Now that we’ve discussed where to find SAT strategies, we’ve arrived at the really critical question:where can you find high quality SAT practice questions?

 

Websites for Free SAT Practice Questions

If you’re looking for free practice questions for the current or new version of the SAT, you should definitely create an account with Khan Academy. They recently came out with their practice questions for the new SAT in conjunction with College Board. You can also find online questions at College Board and download practice test pdfs from PrepScholar and CrackSAT.net.

 

body_khanacademy.jpg

 

Khan Academy

Khan Academy uses official College Board SAT questions, so they are high quality practice questions that will get you ready for the test. Their video and written explanations appeal to different learning styles. This interactive site is easy to use and great practice for the SAT.

While the review is thorough, the limited number of practice questions means that it probably shouldn’t be the only resource you use for practice problems, but it should definitely be one of them. You can sign up for your free account here or log in via Facebook or Google.

 

College Board

College Board is another critical site for online practice questions. Official questions from the testmakers are always the gold standard when it comes to test prep. You can find the same number of Critical Reading, Writing, and Math questions you’ll find on a practice test, along with one essay question and sample essays. These are useful, because you can see automatically which ones you answered correctly and which were wrong answers, as well as read an explanation of each question.

The explanations could be more thorough – while they explain why the right answer is right, they don’t give insight into why the wrong answers are wrong or represent “distractor” choices. In order to time yourself while you take a practice test, you could download their sample test and print out for yourself. You can also study their SAT Question of the Day, along with downloading their SAT practice question app to your phone.

While Khan Academy and College Board are great resources for doing online practice problems and having them automatically score and explained, you can also benefit from printable pdfs of official practice tests that you can time and take with pencil and paper as you will the real SAT.

 

PrepScholar

We’ve compiled 8 official practice tests previously administered in the past few years that you can download, print, and take on your own. You’ll have to score these tests on your own, as well as take the time to understand your mistakes and analyze the answer choices.

You can also try out PrepScholar’s 5 day free trial of its 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

This website also has free official SAT tests that you can download, pdfs of both practice tests and answer keys. Again you have to score these yourself and take the time to understand and analyze any mistakes you make. The website is a bit tough to navigate, but once you wind your way through it you’ll have some real SAT practice tests in your download folder.

Taken together, this collection of websites and blogs should give you a ton of information about the content and format of the SAT, strategies to try out, and official SAT practice questions. Read on to learn the steps you should take the best use these online resources for the SAT.

 

body_todolist.jpg

 

Your To Do List for Using SAT Websites

There are a bunch of ways you can connect to these SAT websites online. For some of them, like PrepScholar’s strategy guides and Erica Meltzer’s blog, you can just visit the website and take time to read the articles and posts. For College Board and Khan Academy, you want to register an account and keep track of your usernames and passwords. To post on College Confidential, you also will need to register an account. This can help you connect with a community of students and parents going through the same process, many of whom have the same questions or experiences as you.

While College Board is the official site for all things SAT, I would recommend against taking all of their advice as definitive. They aren’t going to promote test prep too much, as they don’t want anyone to be as much of an SAT expert as the testmakers themselves.

You’ll be better served by searching for high quality strategies and insights into the test on these other websites, and then trying them out on official practice questions and/or during PrepScholar’s 5-day free trial. By combining strategy with content readiness and practicing with official SAT practice questions, you’ll be able to improve your score a great deal across all dates you choose to take the SAT.