With the next digital SAT right around the corner, students are beginning to study for the exam using a variety of methods. Some students hire tutors and take extra courses while others prefer purchasing books to learn strategies. However, most individuals take practice tests to gain a better understanding of how they will perform on test day and target their weak points.
Bluebook, College Board’s official SAT app, is updating their practice tests to allow students to better prepare for the exam, with College Board recently announcing that the first three practice exams would be removed from the Bluebook app on February 3. While this may seem unnecessary, Dublin High students, people online, and even I agree that the first three practice tests are too easy and are not representative of the actual exam. In response to these complaints, College Board will introduce practice tests 8 through 10, which recycle realistic SAT questions from exams 1-3 and include brand new questions. Students are encouraged to avoid taking exams 1-3 in order to experience full sets of unfamiliar and challenging questions in the new practice tests, gaining the full benefit of the tests.
“I’m excited for the new practice tests. The first three weren’t very helpful for the November SAT, so hopefully these new ones will help me for the March SAT,” said Arush Kadam, a junior at Dublin High, when asked about the new exams.
Even better, College Board announced on the same day that there will be a brand new seventh test. The timing of this release is an improvement compared to last year’s March SAT when the new practice tests (5 and 6) were released after the exam, 2 days before the scores were scheduled to come out.
However, students and others online still maintain that College Board is not creating enough practice tests to help prepare students for the real SAT in March because the Bluebook tests alone are not enough. In fact, many students who have scored high on the practice tests have been disappointed with their real scores. While the Bluebook exams are beneficial for testing knowledge, it is important that students prepare before taking these exams in order to understand which topics require their attention.
One of the best free resources for the SAT is Khan Academy’s Digital SAT Prep. The course covers the verbal and math sections, with all topics included. For each topic, Khan Academy has videos on how to solve each type of question, along with strategies students can use if they are confused by the question.
“I mainly used Khan Academy to study and then used the Bluebook practice tests after. I struggled on the verbal section, so I used Khan Academy everyday leading up to my test to help,” said Evan Lin, a junior at Dublin High who scored a 1500 on the November SAT.
Khan Academy is also working to release walk-through courses for the new practice tests (7-10) to help students to understand why they get specific questions wrong and allow them to learn from their mistakes. There is no set date for this change, but College Board claims that they will be released by summer of 2025.
College Board’s new practice exams undoubtedly help students prepare for the Digital SAT, but it is important that students find other ways of studying before taking these exams. Remember, it is okay to not get your target score on your first attempt, but it is necessary that you learn from every exam and take notes on why you got certain questions wrong to help you improve. Personally, I never scored above a 1500 on any exams except for my last practice test and my actual score, so remember to keep practicing and keep learning and the scores will work themselves out!
