Top 10 Test Taking Tips for the Digital SAT

If you’re planning to take the digital SAT, you may be getting messages from test-prep companies and others promising to reveal the “secrets” to getting a high score. The good news is there are no secrets—the SAT isn’t out to trick you.

Here are the top 10 test-taking tips from College Board, the makers of the SAT:
 

1. Pace yourself.

The test has a built-in timer you can show or hide. On the Reading and Writing section, you have about 1 minute and 11 seconds per question. On the Math section, you have about 1 minute and 35 seconds per question. After about 10 minutes, you should have completed around 8 or 9 Reading and Writing questions or 6 or 7 math questions. This doesn’t mean every question will take you the same amount of time to answer, though. And questions can get harder—and take longer—as you go through the test. If you find yourself spending a long time on a question, you can use the Mark for Review tool and go back to it after you’ve finished answering the other questions.

2. Leave yourself a note.

The Reading and Writing section consists of short passages with just 1 question each. As you’re reading the passage, you can use the annotation tool to highlight the text and leave notes to yourself to help you answer the question.

3. Don’t rely on answer choice probability or patterns.

Any question can have the answer A, B, C, or D. You may have 10 As in a row, or no As at all, in any given series of answers. Use the Option Eliminator tool to cross off options you know are wrong to help you narrow down to the best choice.

4. Feel free to move around in each module.

The SAT is adaptive, but once you start a module, the questions are set and won’t change based on your answers to previous questions.

5. Don’t worry about the difficulty level.

Don’t spend time trying to figure out whether each question is easy, medium, or hard. Just do your best on each question.

6. Make educated guesses.

It’s better to guess than to leave a question unanswered, especially if you can eliminate 1 or 2 answer options first.

7. Learn how to use the built-in Desmos graphing calculator

And take time to understand the information on the reference sheets in the Math section. If you’d rather bring your own approved calculator, practice with it ahead of time.

8. Take a full-length practice test in Bluebook™

You can get used to how long the test takes, and you can practice with any accommodations you’ll have on test day.

9. Focus your practice where you need it the most.

Once you take the full-length practice test, use the same login information to go to mypractice.collegeboard.org. You’ll be able to review every question, including an explanation of the correct answer. Then you can review those same questions using Official Digital SAT Prep on Khan Academy® and get detailed lessons so you can improve. You can also use the Skills InsightTM tool for more practice questions based on the question type you need to practice.

10. Try to relax.

Get enough sleep the night before the test, eat a good breakfast, and try your best.

One last thing: If you took the digital PSAT/NMSQT or the PSAT 8/9, you may already have a good idea of what to expect.