How to Take Practice SATs
When you take a practice SAT, you should try to make it feel as real as possible. If you treat it as just a practice situation, you may not try as hard as you would on the real test, making the score that you get on a practice exam hard to interpret.
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Instructions
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Take your test in a quiet area with no distractions. Treat it just like the real SAT. Give yourself breaks between sections, but focus on the test while you're working.
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Take a paper practice SAT, rather than a computer-based test. Typing answers can skew your time, and you might not want to get used to reading questions from a computer screen instead of a booklet.
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Time yourself or have someone else time you. Since the real SATs are timed, your practice test should be timed too, so that you understand the sort of pressure the time crunch will put on you.
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Complete the whole test, even if you have questions left after the time is up. However, when you grade your test, do not count the questions that you finished after time was called.
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Grade your answers and determine your score.
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Go over your wrong answers to see what you did wrong as well as to check whether there are any consistently weak areas you can identify.
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Work on your weak areas before you take the real SAT. If possible, take several practice exams before your scheduled test date.
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Tips & Warnings
Take several practice tests to boost your skills and help your SAT score.
A number of factors can affect your test-taking abilities, from tiredness and illness to mood. Get plenty of rest before taking practice and real SATs.
Some practice SATs simply use questions from old tests while others use questions specifically written for practice exams. Since the SAT changes from year to year, use newer questions to optimize your preparation for the test.
Don't become overconfident if you score well on a practice test. Since SAT scores are standardized, the score you get on a practice test may differ from what you will get on the actual SAT.
