Many of you are aware that the College Board has canceled the May 2nd SAT. The College Board is promising to provide future opportunities to take the SAT in place of the canceled tests. As of now, the June 6, 2020 SAT test is still being held as planned. This leaves a lot of students wondering about the best ways to stay ready for the SAT at home so that they are prepared once they are able to take the test.

Luckily, there are many official free resources available online. Here are some steps to take to begin studying or to stay ready for the SAT at home: 

• Become familiar with the format of the test by reading the guides and watching the videos located on the College Board website.
• Download the official and free daily practice app from the College Board that sends a question and answer explanation each day.
• Take one of the free practice tests available online from the College Board and use the free scan and score feature available on the daily practice app to create an instant score report with a personalized summary of how you did on each question. Make sure to time yourself on each section and take the test in one sitting.Your scores are tracked over time so that you can monitor your progress. 
• Check out these tips on how to understand your score report. Look at each question that you missed and the correct answer to target areas you need to work on. It is important to use the practice test as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes instead of just skipping over them. This is what helps you to improve your score.
• Connect your College Board and Khan Academy accounts to get customized practice based on your PSAT or official SAT test results. Here are some directions that show you how.

When you are making a study plan, the goal should be hit and try to exceed 20 hours of practice. Studies by the College Board have shown that students who complete 20 hours of active practice improve their score by an average of 115 points from the PSAT to the SAT. When you find areas where you are stuck in your at-home practice, make a note of them so that you can ask a teacher. If you are one of our students at Parrish Learning Zone, please make a note of any missed questions or areas that you don’t understand so that you can work with your tutor on these question types during your tutoring sessions. If you find that you need some extra help, we are currently offering online live-streaming individual and small group SAT tutoring sessions with experienced SAT tutors. All of our tutors are licensed high school English and math teachers. Our June group starts next week. Click here to find out more.

~Nina