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SAT Study Guide

Welcome to the SAT Study Guide section of our website. Here you will find lots of tips and strategies to help you prepare for the SAT, along with practice problems and detailed answer explanations. Read on and click around to find out how Knewton can help you study.

• SAT Writing Guide

  The Writing sections of the SAT tests grammar rules, such as subject-verb agreement, fragments, and modifiers, as well as word usage and clarity. Test-takers are also asked to write a short essay on a provided topic. Read on to find SAT writing tips & strategies.

• SAT Reading Guide

  The Critical Reading sections of the SAT ask about high-level vocabulary, and ask students to read, comprehend, and analyze written material with which they are unfamiliar. Read on for SAT Reading tips & strategies.

• SAT Math Guide

  The Mathematics sections of the SAT are the most intimidating for many high school students. We'll tell you information about the topics that are tested, the format of the exam, the SAT calculator policy, and more. Read on for SAT Math tips & strategies.

Test Overview

The SAT is a standardized test given to over 2 million students a year. It is a test that is required for most college and university admissions in the United States. Colleges do use SAT scores to get a vague determination of a student's overall level of scholarship and aptitude, but the SAT score is only one part of many that make up the admissions process. The SAT is not a test of logical or abstract reasoning, it is not a test of facts, and it certainly is not an IQ test. The SAT tests the mathematical, reading and writing skills that are part of the core learning process for every US high school student. The SAT is a long test; it takes three hours and forty-five minutes to complete, and contains 10 different timed sections.

• 3 of the sections focus on writing skills. This section includes multiple-choice questions that ask you to correct the grammar and usage of sentences and paragraphs, as well as a short essay about a certain, relatively open-ended topic.
• 3 of the sections focus on mathematical skills; the mathematics on the SAT include arithmetic operations, algebra, geometry, statistics and probability, all topics that should be covered within a high school curriculum. Most mathematics questions are multiple-choice questions, but a small number of test questions require students to fill in answers without choices. Test-takers are allowed to use calculators on the SAT.
• 3 of the sections focus on critical reading skills; there are questions that ask you to fill in the missing word in a sentence, and questions that ask you to read passages about history, art, or science and answer questions that refer to that passage.
• 1 of the sections of the SAT is unscored; unfortunately, it will look like one of the topics tested above, so students must work with it with the same attention as they do in any other section. The unscored section is the method by which the SAT tests new questions to be included on future exams.

How Do I Study for the SAT?

In theory, the SAT is a test that asks students to show off the skills they learned in school. In reality, schools, teachers, and curricula vary quite a bit; students who prepare specifically for the SAT come to realize that the test favors certain topics and ideas above others, and that focusing on the skills that are tested most often is a way to boost test scores considerably. A student whose math teacher spent more time on algebra than geometry should not be punished, but he or she should definitely make sure to study the geometry rules that are included on the test, and take test-like practice questions.

Furthermore, the format of the test is quite unfamiliar to high school students. While almost every student has taken a multiple-choice test, few have taken 10 of them back-to-back, with the topic switching every 20-30 minutes. Furthermore, the question types that the SAT includes are often quite different than those used in typical high schools. As a result, it is extremely important to learn how these question types work, and what the SAT expects of test-takers.

Although schoolwork is an essential aspect of test preparation, test-takers should go beyond their school subjects in order to practice for the SAT. Knewton allows students to target their weaknesses and study exactly the concepts that are most critical for the exam. Knewton also provides a set of test strategies that uncovers the inner structure of the test so students can avoid pitfalls, and answer questions more efficiently and effectively. Reading high-level material, working with math concepts in unusual ways, learning the grammar rules that the SAT tests, and expanding vocabulary are all important aspects of SAT preparation.