only one week until the sat? there’s still a lot you can do to boost your score. with that said, though, there are a few things you should know before starting your sat cram session!
this is the crash-course study schedule. i don’t recommend it to those who are scoring in the 1000 range and suddenly want to jump up to the 1300 range. for that, you’ll need more prep time (check out our 3-month study schedule).
however, if you’ve already taken the sat and are taking it again, this one week sat study schedule will be the perfect refresher course/sat cram plan. or, if you are already a 4.0 student who has always excelled at standardized tests but wants a little bit of a “tune up,” then you’ve come to the right place.
table of contents
how this one week sat study schedule is organized
what the test will come down to is the following: knowledge of fundamentals and how well you can remain focused and be near the top of your game for three plus hours. that’s why this one week sat study schedule will have you do many timed practice sections and a full-length practice test. sat cram sheet? try sat cram schedule! this is everything you’ll need to get your score as high as possible in a limited period of time.
there are two things that i want you to do on a daily basis that will end up making a significant difference on your score.
important thing #1
okay, bear with me one second while i make an analogy. a few years ago, i did this crazy obstacle course challenge that involved jumping into a tub filled with ice and wading 20 feet through bone-chilling water.
i hate cold water. like really hate it. i knew i had to somehow build up my tolerance. so, a week leading up to the race, the first thing i did each morning was make my shower as cold as possible and stand under it for three minutes. the first two days i almost died. by the fifth day, though, it wasn’t really that bad. on race day, i remember exiting from the tub, thinking, that was it?
so what’s the cold tub of water in this analogy? the reading passage. the first thing you will do every morning is read a full-length sat passage and complete the questions that follow it. this will take exactly 15 minutes. the first day it will be hellish, but come test day when the first thing you’ll have to do when you open your test booklet is a 65-minute reading section, it won’t be that bad (you might even think, that was it?). think of it as the key to your sat cram plan.
on the other hand, you can skip this part of the one week sat study schedule, but don’t blame me if your brain is still half asleep on saturday morning and drifting off during the 18th century passage about competing systems of democracy.
important thing #2
how to cram for sat math? i’ll spare you an analogy here. instead, i’ll come out and say it: get a mental math app on your phone. (if you are one of those very few armed without a smartphone, then use the internet instead and make yourself an “sat math cram sheet” to practice with).
whenever you have a spare moment, start knocking out some mental math. sure it will hurt at first (cue the cold shower metaphor), but in seven short days you can go from “my brain hurts from 17 + 9” to “bring it on, 17 x 9!”
of course, structure is great. so i’ll slip in some 15-minute mental math prep, starting on day 2.
you’ve got to be pretty amped up to deal with this one week sat study schedule. i’m not going to give you a couple of easy things for you to check off each day, telling you that’ll be enough to see a score increase in one measly week. so pedal to the metal, as they say.
you’ll be spending two to three hours on the weekend and about 90 minutes on weekdays. i’ve set this up so that day 1 corresponds to a saturday, day 2 to a sunday, and so on. day 7 will be the day before the sat (you’ll get a little bit of a study reprieve for that day).
if you can’t finish quite everything on a given day, don’t fret. just do as much as you can in this one week sat study schedule. for the next day, always do just that day’s work. for example, if you don’t finish day 2’s work, on day 3 just do the work for that day. don’t “carry over” one day’s work into another. if you need to cram for sat prep, it’s important to prioritize your tasks, day by day.
materials & resources
magoosh sat prep
that’s us! our sat prep includes lessons and questions that you will work through, thereby increasing your sat efficiency.
you can also study with us on your phone. our sat test prep app makes studying on the go easy for both iphone and android users.
magoosh high school blog
an invaluable (and free!) resource. if you want extra help on a section or general advice, you can search for posts relating to the sat. this section of the blog is completely dedicated to up-to-date information on the sat.
*the official sat study guide (2016 edition)
this is the sat bible that has questions created by the writers of the test (the college board). you’ll have four full-length practice tests, which give you a sense of the actual difficulty and complexity of the test (it’s more difficult than the content found in the other books).
you won’t have to go through all four tests in one week (i’m not that evil!) but, almost everything you’ll need from a practice question standpoint point is found in this book. find it on amazon for under $20.
we also have official sat study guide video explanations to the college board questions. check them out!
official sat practice by college board + khan academy
this is a free resource offered in conjunction with the college board, which is the company that designs the sat. perhaps the best part of the college board/khan academy partnership is that it brings us practice materials that are completely free. these free materials include the same practice tests offered in the official sat study guide. really, the only new things you are paying for when you purchase the official sat study guide are the explanations that come in the back of the book (which aren’t that great anyhow). so…
*unless you like working offline and/or just love the smell of books, you might want to stick to the free practice tests, and not purchase the official guide — which, again, contains the exact same tests found on the khan academy site.
your daily one week sat study schedule
day 1
this is the big day: the start of your sat cram course. turn off all electronic gadgets and for the next three hours commit yourself to the sat.
- do the first test in the official guide, pg. 334-388.
give yourself the exact time for each section. if you finish early, you can move to the next section, but don’t go back. on test day, you won’t be able to move on to the following section until the proctor has called time. this will give you time to rest if you finish early. even if you finish early on this practice test, i suggest resting, but if you don’t finish with much time, avoid the temptation to rest. remember the ice cold shower? this will hurt the first time, but it will be invaluable preparation for the test you take a week later.
after you are finished, do the following:
- grade the test.
- figure out your score.
- review a few of the questions you missed trying to figure out why you got them wrong.
- write down two to three things you’ll do differently for the next test.
- write down a reasonable target score you hope to get on the real test. (shooting for 50-100 points over, given the one-week constraint, seems pretty reasonable).
day 2
- “wake up” reading passage, pg. 119-126
- watch three magoosh lesson videos of your choice. based on your practice test performance, choose an area or areas that you need the most work in. for instance, if your writing score was much lower than your reading score, you might want to focus on writing fundamentals.
- math section, pg. 482-489
- writing section, pg. 468-481
- mental math, 15 minutes
whenever you miss a question, go back and figure out, to the best of your ability, why you missed the question. though you won’t always be able to do this, just trying to work it out will help your performance next time around.
day 3
- “wake up” reading passage, pg. 452
- two more reading sections, pg. 455-463
- math section, pg. 491-503
- watch two to three magoosh lessons of your choice. it might be a good idea to find videos relating to any of the concepts or fundamentals you struggle with during the practice sets.
- mental math, 15 minutes
day 4
- “wake up” reading passage, pg. 466
- writing section, pg. 578-584 (1-22)
- math section, pg. 595-601
- watch two to three magoosh lessons. in general, you can intersperse these videos anywhere, even in the day’s practice questions.
- mental math, 15 minutes
day 5
- “wake up” reading passage
- reading section, pg. 564-569
- writing section, pg. 585-594
- math section, pg. 602-617
- watch two to three magoosh lessons
- mental math, 15 minutes
day 6
- “wake up” reading passage, pg. 572-574
- writing section, pg. 690-703
- watch two to three magoosh lessons
- mental math, 15 minutes
day 7 (the day before your sat)
how to cram for the sat the night before? you can’t! don’t try to shove a ton of extra material into your brain today. instead, keep going with your practice early in the day, then get a good night’s sleep—you’ll perform far better, i promise!
- “wake up” reading passage, pg. 575-577
- math section, pg. 704-711
- mental math, 15 minutes
test day
- no studying!
- eat a full breakfast before leaving home.
- read our sat test day checklist.
- remember to pack:
- several #2 pencils (no mechanical pencils and no pens!)
- your calculator
- a drink and a healthy-but-sugary snack
- no phones allowed!!
all right, you made it through the one week sat study schedule! congratulations, and good luck on your sat! 🙂 don’t forget to let us know how you do.
all magoosh sat prep plans are digital sat ready! start studying today.
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