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Course: College admissions > Unit 2
Lesson 4: Standardized tests- Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy
- Facing the standardized tests
- Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy
- How to register for the SAT
- Deciding whether to retake the SAT
- Overview of the ACT
- Deciding whether to retake the ACT
- Preparing yourself for success on the tests
- Student story: Standardized tests
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Preparing yourself for success on the tests
Getting into the college of your dreams can be stressful, and for many students, the most daunting part of the process is taking the SAT or ACT. These half-day exams, typically first taken in junior year of high school, often feel like they take an outsized role in the admissions process.
The good news is that you’ve already begun your preparation! In large part, the SAT and ACT are meant to be tests of what you have learned in high school. The very best way to prepare for these tests, then, is to take challenging classes and work hard to understand the content. So ask those questions in geometry, revise that paper for English one more time, and sign up for that AP History class even if it sounds like a lot of work. Taking your studies seriously, more than any test prep tricks and gimmicks, will ensure that you are primed for success on both the SAT and ACT.
Let’s be upfront though - you can study for the SAT and ACT, and you can improve your score. There are several important steps in the preparation process:
1. Take the PSAT/Aspire
One important practice opportunity for the SAT is the PSAT, offered through most school districts each October. It contains content that is slightly less complex than the real SAT; however, it allows you to become familiar with the format and types of questions that are ultimately asked on the real SAT. You can take the PSAT once per year in high school, and scoring in the top 1% of your state in your junior year could also allow you to qualify for prestigious National Merit Scholarships.
On a similar note, the ACT offers the Aspire, a chance to practice with ACT-like content in real test conditions.
2. Use released practice tests to study
At the start of your junior year, it’s time to focus on the real ACT and/or SAT by taking an official practice test. Both the SAT and ACT websites offer a free official practice test. For additional practice, you can access released versions of previous tests inexpensively by purchasing prep books released by the makers of SAT and ACT. Khan Academy offers free Official SAT Practice where you can link your PSAT scores and receive personalized practice recommendations.
Make sure you treat this practice test seriously—time yourself and take it in a quiet place. This will allow you to see what you would actually score if you took the test, and it will give a benchmark for measuring your progress as you continue your test preparation.
3. Score your test, identify weaknesses, and make a plan
Go back through your results and identify what type of questions you consistently missed. Was it algebra? Grammar? Sentence structure? Did you miss mostly easy questions because you weren’t paying attention, or were there specific content areas where you struggled? Once you notice patterns of mistakes on a particular type of question or in a particular section of the test, make a plan for what you want to cover. Purchase a book with practice questions and explanations on these topics, or use one of several resources available for free online such as Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy. Regardless of which resource you use to study, the most important thing is to be targeted, focusing your energy on specific areas of weakness.
4. Track your progress
Start by focusing on improvement within a single section of the test. When you feel you’ve made substantial progress on preparing for that section (math, for instance), get out a new practice test but only take the math section. Take this practice section of the exam alone and under true test conditions.
Compare the score you achieved on the section to your initial results. How did it go? Are you happy with your results? If so, congratulations - you are ready to move on with your preparation for another section of the test!
When you have put in the necessary time across all sections and are feeling confident, take a new practice test (one you’ve never seen before!) and measure your progress against your initial benchmark. If you’ve made improvement, then give yourself a pat on the back, because you are well on your way to preparing for success on the SAT and ACT!
Want to join the conversation?
- Can you guys make a course just for the ACT please?(156 votes)
- A company called Shmoop for Schools already created one; just create an account for that website and you'll be able to access something similar to the Khan Academy SAT Prep, but tailored specifically for the ACT. Most of the ACT Prep is free.(1 vote)
- what does ACT and SAT stand for(11 votes)
- ACT(Academic centralized Test) and Sat(Standard assessment test)(6 votes)
- As a ninth grader, I took the official ACT and got back pretty good results. However, it is still not my goal that I would like to get by junior/senior year. Will colleges be able to see the score for my freshman year, or can I control that?(14 votes)
- As always, it will depend on the college. Some take averages of all your tests, while others will take the best score you got. This site here (http://www.freetestprep.com/blog/resources/list-of-colleges-and-universities-that-superscore-the-act-test/) seems to be accurate about which colleges use which system, but it is more accurate to check the admissions sites of colleges you are interested in. Best of luck.(19 votes)
- Can you add some ACT Practice materials here?(16 votes)
- Hi,
Because of an agreement that Khan Academy made with The College Board, they will not be adding any ACT prep to their website. However, Prepscholar.com wrote an article on how to use Khan Academy to help prepare yourself for the ACT. Here is a link to the article:
https://blog.prepscholar.com/khan-academy-act-prep
(Warning: Link goes off KA)(7 votes)
- Hi do you have prep courses for ACT?(8 votes)
- You can't practice for the ACT on Khan Academy, because of their alliance with the College Board, but you can (for free) at
https://www.prepfactory.com/
and
https://academy.act.org/(5 votes)
- Is it advisable to take both ACT and SAT or to just take one?(8 votes)
- Extremely late reply, you might have even graduated by now, but here's my take: It all depends on which one you feel suits you the best- for example, on the ACT, there's a science portion that's not on the SAT. All schools require only one test, either the ACT or SAT. I'll say take only one test though. If you're not sure which one you want to do, just take practice tests on Khan Academy and other websites!(4 votes)
- Please consider offering test prep for the Praxis Exam. Thank you.(7 votes)
- The ETS organization, that manages/owns the PRAXIS, has created a PDF that maps helpful Khan Academy videos to the PRAXIS core math concepts: http://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/khan_academy.pdf
I hope that helps!(6 votes)
- Where can I get more SAT practice tests besides the 8 that are available here on Khan Academy?(4 votes)
- Try borrowing some SAT prep books from the library. Those almost always have practice tests, and they're free.(5 votes)
- What if your preparing for the ACT and you know that your weak in English, Reading, and Math? How can you improve in these areas?(3 votes)
- there are many apps available to help, there are practice questions, and you can challenge others to check your progress. and its free.(5 votes)
- What's the purpose of taking the SAT and ACT exams? I know one tests you on a high school level and the other one tests you on college level, but what is the necessary goal here?(3 votes)
- When colleges look at applications, they see an incredibly wide range of high schools and grading policies. Every high school calculates GPA differently and an A at a high school may not necessarily translate to the same quality of education at a different high school. The SAT and ACT are a way of making sure that students can all be compared under one common standard (that's why they're called standardized tests). Everyone takes the same test, which allows colleges to look at students on a level playing field.(6 votes)