How to Take a Great Practice SAT

Nobody performs their best on a complex challenge like the SAT without practice. When you really want to excel, not just any practice will do. As legendary coach Vince Lombardi said, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” So make sure that every practice SAT (or PSAT) you take is perfect by following these steps:

BEFORE THE TEST
1. Find a full-length digital adaptive SAT practice test. The ones offered through the College Board Bluebook app are the best possible tests, as they best represent official test content on the official test platform. However, since College Board has only released 6 (as of October 2024) official tests, you may have to use third party tests.
PRO TIP: If you plan to take many practice tests, save the Bluebook tests for practice closer to your official exam.

2. Make sure you have your fully charged approved device ready and loaded with your practice test. For College Board tests, you must be logged into your account.

3. Prepare your environment.
PRO TIP: Test early in the day to mirror the official start time. Let other people in your household know you need quiet, and turn off your phone for the full duration of the test!

4. Assemble everything you’ll need in advance, including scrap paper.
PRO TIP: Practice testing is the ideal time to test small but influential factors like what you’ll wear and what snacks you’ll eat during your break. No detail is too small to experiment with.

DURING THE TEST
Take your test exactly as indicated all in one sitting. Use your full time (but no more) for every section and break. Try your best.

AFTER THE TEST
1. Give yourself kudos for putting in the work. No matter how you scored, your commitment to deliberate practice will make a massive difference in your ability to earn your best scores when it counts.

2. Find out how you scored.
OTHER TESTS: Follow provided instructions.
COLLEGE BOARD TESTS: Log into https://mypractice.collegeboard.org/ (not Bluebook) using your College Board credentials.

3. OPTIONAL: If you are prepping (and, obviously, you should be), make sure you have your results ready for review.
OTHER TESTS: Follow provided instructions.
COLLEGE BOARD TESTS: In your practice dashboard, look for the link to the test you took. Select Score Details to open a page with the full list of the questions from the practice test, the correct answers, and your answers. Right click on a blank space on the document and select ‘Print’ from the popup menu. Select ‘Save as PDF‘ as the printing destination and save. This is the file you’ll want to send to your tutor or bring to a test review session.