Knowing how to improve SAT scores is one of the most common questions we hear from students and families, and the answer depends a lot less on raw intelligence than most people assume. The SAT is a learnable test, and students who approach it strategically, rather than just logging hours of unfocused practice, tend to see the biggest gains.
This guide walks through the study approach we recommend at Summit Tutors, from when to start and how to use the best free resources, all the way through practice testing strategy and the question of whether the SAT is even the right test for your student in the first place.
Start Earlier Than You Think: Summer Before Junior Year
One of the most consistent pieces of advice we give families is to start SAT prep the summer before junior year, rather than waiting until fall. There are two reasons for this.
The first is the PSAT. Most students take the PSAT in October of their junior year, and strong performance on the PSAT is what qualifies students for National Merit recognition (more on that below). Starting prep in the summer gives students several months to build skills before that test, rather than scrambling to prepare after the fact.
The second reason is timeline flexibility. Students who start early have the option to test in the fall of junior year, get their scores back, and still have time to retest in the spring if needed. Students who wait until fall of junior year often feel rushed, end up testing under-prepared, and then have to navigate retesting alongside the most demanding stretch of the college application process. Starting in the summer tends to make the whole timeline more manageable.
Khan Academy: The Foundation of SAT Prep
Khan Academy’s Official SAT Prep is the single best free resource available for SAT preparation. It was developed in direct partnership with the College Board, the organization that creates and administers the SAT, which means the material, the question style, and the skill focus are all aligned with what the actual test is measuring. That partnership is what sets Khan Academy apart from other free prep resources.
The issue is that most students use it too casually, skimming through videos and moving on before they have actually absorbed the material. The students who see real score gains tend to treat it differently.
We recommend starting with a full-length practice test in Bluebook to establish a baseline and identify weak areas. Review the results in My Practice, then use Khan Academy’s Digital SAT Math and Reading and Writing courses to work through the relevant skills. Khan Academy’s Course Challenges can also help you decide where to focus. From there, work through the lessons carefully, watching the videos and taking notes rather than skipping ahead to the practice questions.
The benchmark worth aiming for is being able to answer the practice questions correctly and explain your reasoning before moving on. If you keep missing the same kind of question, go back and review the relevant lesson before trying again. The SAT tests the same underlying skills repeatedly in slightly different ways, so understanding each concept deeply tends to pay off across multiple question types. Work through the Foundations, Medium, and Advanced material as needed, and use quizzes, unit tests, and Course Challenges to check what you have retained.
UWorld for Additional Practice
Once a student has worked through Khan Academy thoroughly, UWorld is the best next resource. It is a paid platform, but the quality of the questions and the depth of the answer explanations make it worth the investment for students who are serious about maximizing their score.
UWorld’s questions are closely modeled on the style and difficulty of real SAT questions, and the explanations walk through both why the correct answer is right and why the wrong answers are wrong, which is a particularly useful way to build understanding. Working through UWorld after completing Khan Academy helps students get comfortable with the full range of question types they will encounter on test day.
Using Official Practice Tests Strategically
Official Bluebook practice tests are worth using carefully. Take one early enough to understand your starting point and get comfortable with the actual digital format, then save other unused tests for checkpoints later in your preparation. Leave time between them to work on the weaknesses each test reveals.
Older paper SAT questions can still be useful for practicing some underlying reading, writing, and math skills. They do not reproduce the current test’s passage format, module timing, adaptive structure, or digital tools, so they should not be your main way to practice pacing or estimate a current SAT score. Use Bluebook for that. Khan Academy, the College Board’s Student Question Bank, and other carefully chosen practice resources can support the work between full-length tests.
Planning to Test More Than Once
Planning for two or three SAT dates can give students room to retest if needed. That does not mean every student needs all three attempts: the right number depends on the student’s goal, deadlines, practice results, and the time available for further preparation.
A first official test can reveal challenges that are harder to reproduce at home, from the testing environment to the pressure of the day itself. If a student falls short of their goal, use the result to decide what needs to change before registering for another attempt. More test dates are most useful when there is targeted work between them.
Many colleges superscore the SAT, combining a student’s highest Reading and Writing and Math scores from different dates. Check each college’s current policy before planning around that benefit. If the student already has a score that serves their goals, another sitting may not be the best use of their time.
Checking Whether the ACT Might Be a Better Fit
This is a question worth taking seriously, and one that many families do not think to ask until late in the process.
The SAT and ACT cover many of the same underlying skills, but the experience differs. The enhanced ACT is shorter than the older version and gives students more time per question. Its required English, Math, and Reading sections take 2 hours and 5 minutes; Science is optional for national testing and is not part of the Composite score. The SAT takes 2 hours and 14 minutes and uses adaptive modules. It still provides more time per question on average, but the question formats also differ, so timing alone does not tell you which test will fit better.
Our suggestion is to take a full-length, current official practice ACT around the halfway point of SAT prep and compare the experience. Look at the results, the kinds of mistakes, and how the pacing felt. If the ACT feels like a significantly better fit, switching at that point is a reasonable decision, and the reading, writing, and math skills developed during SAT prep will still be useful. Before choosing an ACT test with or without Science, check the requirements of the student’s school testing program and prospective colleges.
The PSAT and National Merit
For students who begin prep the summer before junior year, the PSAT/NMSQT in October is an important early milestone. For students following a four-year high school program, junior year is normally the qualifying year for National Merit. Students must also meet the program’s other eligibility requirements, and a high score is an initial step rather than a scholarship guarantee.
The digital PSAT/NMSQT and SAT measure closely related skills and have the same standard testing time: 2 hours and 14 minutes. Both contain 98 questions. SAT preparation therefore provides a useful foundation, but students should also try a PSAT/NMSQT practice test in Bluebook to become familiar with its level and score scale.
National Merit uses a Selection Index, rather than the total PSAT score alone. Semifinalist thresholds vary by state or selection unit and by year. A prior year’s threshold can be a planning reference, but the qualifying threshold for a student’s own administration is not available before the test; it becomes available the following fall. Students who advance must complete additional requirements to be considered for scholarships. For more on how National Merit fits into the broader scholarship landscape, our guide on how to win merit scholarships at top universities covers the full picture.
Test Scores in the Context of the Broader Application
Test scores matter, and getting into the competitive range for a given school is a meaningful goal. That said, beyond the competitive range, additional score increases tend to have less impact on admissions outcomes than most students expect. Admissions officers at selective schools see many applicants with strong scores, and the parts of the application that tend to differentiate students are usually elsewhere.
Students who reach the competitive score range for their target schools and then shift their energy toward other parts of the application tend to be better positioned overall. For a fuller sense of what colleges are actually weighing, our guide on what top colleges are actually looking for goes into more depth. For pre-med students managing test prep alongside a demanding science course load, our piece on college admissions strategy for pre-med students addresses how to sequence and prioritize across a busy schedule.
Reach Out!
If you’d like to talk through your student’s SAT preparation strategy or get a sense of where they stand, we’re happy to chat! Feel free to reach out through the Summit Tutors contact page. You can also reach us by email at contact@summittutors.org, or by phone at (847) 512-7117.
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