so you want a better sat score…
you’ve taken the sat — or maybe even just a practice test — and you’re not so happy with your score. so what did you do? you googled! well…that’s not a bad start — it may have led you here!
lucky for you, here at magoosh we’re ready to guide you towards the study strategy that will be most effective for your unique test-taking skill set. so maybe googling wasn’t so bad after all! 🙂
how much is it possible to raise your sat score?
the amount and rate at which you can raise your sat score depends on how willing you are to change the way you study — and they way you take the test. here are some general factors that will influence what kind of improvement you can expect to see:
- how much time you have to prepare (more = better).
- how much dedication you have to improving (again, more = better).
- the higher you’re already scoring, the less dramatic your improvement is likely to be.
so let’s start talking numbers. for every 50 points you want to raise your overall sat score, you will need to pick up roughly 4 or 5 more questions on the test.
in the official sat statistics published by the college board, the average sat score improvement on a retake is around 40 points. that makes a 150-point improvement pretty darn good. a 300-point improvement is incredible. and improvements of 500 points would be incredibly, incredibly rare, but not entirely unheard of for students who are not natural test-takers, but prepare at length for the exam (maybe a year or more).
how to improve your sat score by 300 points
- only use high quality study materials
- stick to a study schedule
- take practice tests (make sure to include as many digital ones as possible)
- optimize your studying techniques
- defeat your mental blocks
so your sat goal is a 300-point overall score improvement — it can be done! on average, you’re trying to pick up 150 points in each section (reading & writing and math) and make no mistake, this is going to take a lot of work.
let’s say you’ve scored similarly across the board. in that case, you’ll want to focus on each sat section more or less equally. however, if one of your sections was much weaker than the others, that’s definitely where you should direct more attention.
it’s time to take a look at some concrete strategies for how to improve your sat score by 300 points. we’ll start with a few things that will benefit you across all parts of the exam, and then get more specialized in later sections of this post.
strategy #1: only use high quality study materials
unfortunately, doing well on the sat is not just about how much you know about math, reading, and writing. your final score will depend largely on how much you know about taking the sat. this is an exam that follows some very specific sets of patterns. if you don’t know the question types, you’re going to have some trouble. luckily, how to take the sat is a skill you can totally learn — but to do this, you must study with realistic sat materials. if you don’t, you’ll develop bad habits and learn the wrong skills.
i (of course) recommend magoosh’s sat prep. our experts know the sat inside and out, and they make sure that the difficulty and types of questions match those on the actual test. plus, the materials are constantly being updated to match the newest versions of the sat, and we’re a lot more affordable than the other test prep resources of our caliber.
if you choose to go with a different study resource, just be sure that whatever materials your using are extremely high quality. if you see bad reviews, or you’re not 100% sure about a company, don’t use their materials!
strategy #2: stick to a study schedule
it’s basically impossible to effectively study for the sat without a schedule. there are a lot of areas to cover, and you need to break things up into bite-sized chunks, so that the information isn’t just going in one ear and out the other. luckily, there are a lot of free sat study schedules available to keep you on track. just pick the schedule that best fits how much time you have before the exam, and follow it!
strategy #3: take practice tests
taking the sat is a lot like running a marathon. it’s long, and if you don’t train for it you might not make it to the end. the absolute best way to prepare for test day, is by realistically simulating what the test will be like (ideally more than once). taking realistic practice tests will not only familiarize you with the format of the sat, but also increase your stamina so you can make it through the big day. our study schedules include a number of realistic practice tests, but worst-case scenario, make sure that you at least take the official sat practice tests that are put out by the college board — you can be confident that those tests are the real deal.
magoosh also has a free sat practice test updated for the adaptive digital sat.
strategy #4: optimize your studying techniques
most high schoolers have a super demanding schedule. whether it’s sports practice or band practice, homework or friends (or you know, occasionally sleep), you probably just don’t have that much extra time to study for the sat. so you better make the time you do spend studying count for as much as it possibly can.
at this point, the most efficient way for you to improve will be to identify and understand your weaknesses — and learn from them. your goal is to find the areas where you have the most room for improvement and really go after those.
don’t just buy an sat book and read it cover to cover. that’ll be a drag, and also a waste of your time, i promise.
here’s how to study smart:
- take a practice test. as you go through it, mark every question that you don’t feel super sure about.
- after the test, grade yourself. then go back and review every question you marked — even if you got them right — and every incorrect question.
- as you review, write down the general idea of each question, why you missed it, and how you could have gotten it correct.
if you do this, you will start to see patterns in what kinds of questions you’re missing…and learn how to stop missing them! this is the key to improving your sat score.
strategy #5: defeat your mental blocks
it can feel like a lot is riding on this test, which is pretty scary. and while some of us work better under pressure, most people will not find *fear* to be the optimal mindset for taking a timed-test. so what do you do?
to ward off fear and stress, work on developing a more positive attitude towards the sat. it sounds corny, but learn to treat every mistake as a learning opportunity. after all, every time you make a mistake it gives you a tiny clue on how you can improve.
of course, you’re still allowed to stress, just not so much that it gets in the way. the sat can be intimidating, but once you understand that you can do well on it if you study, it can start to look a bit more like an opportunity to show everyone what that you have what it takes to work hard. and that’s cool.
strategy #6: optimize for the harder second module on the digital sat
if, like most students, you’re taking the digital sat now, you won’t be able to achieve a section score higher than 700 unless you are get the harder second module of the adaptive test. so if your goal sat score is over 1400, you’ll need to break the barrier into the harder module.
in order to get served the harder module, you need to get around 2/3rds of the questions right in the first module, so as you are practicing, work on your pacing and accuracy to comfortably hit this mark.
how to improve your sat score by 500 points
as i’m sure you realize, 500 points is a lot. that’s 250 points per section, which would be an impressive overall improvement, let alone an improvement per section.
whether it is realistic (or even possible) for you to improve your sat score by 500 points depends enormously on several factors:
- what score are you starting from?
- have you done test prep already?
- how much time are you able to commit to studying?
if you scored very low in each section, you didn’t do any sort of preparation before taking the sat, and you’re willing to commit 6 to 18 months to consistently studying with some sort of test prep program or class — then it might be possible for you to see something in the ballpark of a 500 point improvement on your next sat.
however, my advice is to just focus on making progress, rather than on getting a specific point improvement. if you follow all the advice in this article, your sat score will improve…maybe a lot!
how can you improve your sat reading & writing score?
there are many areas that students tend struggle with on the sat reading & writing section…which means you’re about to get a lot of advice. so, to avoid confusion, i’m going to break down the sat reading & writing strategies into two categories: how to study better and how to work faster. that way you can focus on the area you’re having the most trouble in.
how to study better:
beyond the strategies we’ve covered already (better study materials, defeating mental blocks, etc.), the best tip i can give you for the sat reading section is to read more!
i can hear you rolling your eyes already, but stay with me. students who score poorly on the sat reading section typically aren’t comfortable with the types of reading passages that appear on the sat. this can all change if you start actively reading the kinds of non-fiction that the college board likes.
i would suggest reading the new yorker magazine and scientific american on a weekly basis. if you stick to this schedule, you will not only seriously improve your critical reading skills, but you’ll also learn a lot of cool stuff!
for the writing questions, know your grammar rules! our free guide to grammar and punctuation on the sat can help.
how to work faster:
1) always practice with a timer.
this one is pretty straightforward. it goes back to our idea of studying with realistic materials; this is a timed test, so you need to study using time limits, or at least keeping track of how fast you’re going.
2) skip hard questions (but guess)!
while reading & writing questions are not ordered from easy to hard in the entire section, they are ordered by difficulty within each of the four question types (craft and structure, information and ideas, standard english conventions, and expression of ideas). as you practice, you’ll get familiar with these question subsections, and know that the easier questions come first. since easy questions are worth exactly the same number of points as hard questions, you don’t want to get bogged down with the hard stuff and end up running out of time before you get to some questions that you could have breezed right through. if you can’t answer a question within 30 seconds, skip it.
the sat does not have a wrong answer penalty, which is a big deal! since there is no penalty for getting a wrong answer, there’s absolutely no reason to be leaving questions blank. remember that if you can eliminate even one answer choice on a question you’re not sure about, your chances of guessing correctly go way up. so obviously don’t just randomly select answers, unless you’re down to your very last seconds (and hopefully it won’t come to that).
3) figure out if you should read the passage or question firsthow can you improve your sat math score?
the sat math is a notoriously difficult section for a lot of students. so let’s break things down the same way we did with sat reading & writing.
how to study better (math edition):
everything we’ve talked about as far as identifying weaknesses is completely applicable to sat math as well. so i’m just going to assume that you already know that you need to be taking practice tests and figuring out what you need to work on.
now let’s focus on some good strategies you can use for tackling sat math questions.
strategy #1: plug in values (instead of variables)
the sat math exam is multiple choice. which means the truth is out there! (👽)
one of the answers you’re looking at is definitely correct…you just need to narrow things down. so instead of starting from scratch, pick some values and plug them in to see which one of the answer choices it produces!
this strategy works super well for problems where the answer choices are percentages, algebraic expressions, or variables.
strategy #2: plug in answers
this one is similar to the last strategy, except you take the actual answers and work backwards to see if the answer choice works in the situation presented in the problem.
this strategy works best for complex word problems with numeric answer choices. this strategy is not ideal when the answer choices are given in terms of variables, radicals, or fractions.
strategy #3: estimate!
estimating is a great strategy when you’re dealing with problems that ask you to draw or interpret a diagram, because you’ll be able to visually see that you’re in the ballpark. in questions that have no diagrams, you can also use the given information to sketch your own diagram…this can be a really useful way to get an idea of the approximate value of the correct answer — and if this allows you to rule out even one answer, your chances of getting the question correct go way up!
how to work faster (math edition):
1) always practice with a timer. okay, you know that one.
2) skip hard questions (but guess)!
the sat math section is ordered according to difficulty from start to finish. the hardest questions will always be at the end of each module. if your score goal does not involve getting higher than a 700 on math, you likely will be better off spending more time on easier questions and entirely skipping the hardest questions.
but don’t forget, skipping does not equal leaving blank! fill those bad boys in!
3) learn how and when to use your calculator
a calculator is allowed on both modules of sat math, and you can choose to use your own calculator or an on-screen desmos graphing calculator. if you choose to use the desmos calculator, it takes some getting used to, so make sure to practice with it before test day. knowing how to use all functions of the calculator can save you time on test day, but don’t automatically assume using a calculator will save you time. on many questions, using skills like estimating, mental math, and paper-and-pencil calculations will serve you better, so get good at analyzing each question type and deciding if you should use a calculator or not.
you can reach your sat goals!
for everyone taking the sat, please remember: you got this. if you start to feel anxious, take a few deep breaths and remember that the sat is testing you on things you already know. you may need to brush up here and there, sure, but you’re being tested on high school content. you can totally learn how to improve your sat score, and we’re here to help you.
you got this! 🙂
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