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one week sat study schedule

chris lele

november 1, 2024

sat

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 a 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 considerably more prep time.

however, if you’ve already taken the sat, 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.

disclaimer

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. so, pedal to the metal, as they say.

to keep up with this schedule, you’ll be spending 2-3 hours each day. 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).

materials & resources

magoosh sat prep

that’s us! our sat prep includes lessons and questions that you will work through, thereby increasing your sat familiarity. bonus! magoosh’s digital format mimics what you’ll see on test day.

prefer studying on your phone? our sat test prep app makes studying on the go easy for both iphone and android users.

official digital sat study resources

to get as close as possible to the real sat experience, try the full-length practice exams on bluebook, the college board’s online testing platform. these four practice tests let you explore the interface, format, and scoring of the digital exam. bonus! they’re totally free!

another nice thing about the bluebook is that it also includes individual sat questions, helping you get comfortable with the new digital format and the types of questions you’ll encounter.

if you don’t have a personal device and plan to use a school tablet or laptop, ask permission before downloading bluebook on school devices. check in with your school’s test administrator for help.

khan academy official sat practice

this partnership between the college board and khan academy includes an impressive course that helps you understand the skills tested on the digital sat, from math topics (like problem-solving, algebra, and geometry) to reading and writing questions (grammar, argument, and text connections). it also includes diagnostic quizzes and a full-length test to help you get ready for the online exam.

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 2.5 hours commit yourself to the sat.

do the first bluebook practice test or take a practice test through your magoosh account.

after you’ve finished, do the following:

grade the test
figure out your score
review the questions you missed, figuring 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

watch five magoosh lesson videos of your choice. based on your practice test performance, choose an area, or areas, that are weak points. for instance, if your math score was much lower than your reading & writing score, you should focus on math fundamentals.

in addition to the self-guided viewing of magoosh lessons, do the following:

15-20 math questions
10-15 reading questions
10-15 writing questions
deep-dive review of the above, which includes watching any relevant lesson videos

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

15-20 math questions
10-15 reading questions
10-15 writing questions
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 you’ve done today and yesterday. at this point, you should be able to see some trends in the questions you’re missing. use those trends to guide your study. you might also dig into any kahn academy content that relates to your weak points.

day 4

today, you need to really drill down on your weaknesses. that’s why we’re suggesting you do fewer practice questions. no matter what practice materials you’re using, be sure to sift through and find questions that you’ve identified as challenging. if you have a magoosh account, be sure to set up custom practice sessions that align with your weaker areas.

10-15 math questions
5-10 reading questions
5-10 writing questions
spend extra time reviewing your answers to the above, especially if you are still missing questions or taking a really long time to arrive at the correct answer. in addition, either watch a few more lesson videos magoosh lessons of your choosing or rewatch the ones for topics that are still giving you trouble. again, don’t forget the kahn content if you have any additional time to devote to study.

day 5

take your second, full-length magoosh or bluebook practice test!
after you’ve finished, do the following:

grade the test
figure out your score
deep-dive review of the questions, which includes watching any relevant lesson videos

day 6

take your third, full-length practice test! this one really should be from college board’s bluebook
after you’ve finished, do the following:

grade the test
figure out your score
deep-dive review of the questions, which includes watching any relevant lesson videos

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!

eat a balanced meal to fuel your body and mind, avoiding heavy or greasy foods that might disrupt your sleep.
set aside time for light review—focus on key concepts or vocabulary—but steer clear of intense cramming that could lead to stress.
prepare your test materials in advance, including your id, admission ticket, and any required equipment, to avoid last-minute scrambling.
aim for a good night’s sleep by going to bed early, ensuring you’re well-rested.
limit screen time before bed to help your mind unwind, and consider practicing relaxation techniques to ease any anxiety.
finally, set your alarm to allow yourself plenty of time to wake up, eat a healthy breakfast, and arrive at the testing center calmly and confidently. following these tips will help you enter the exam room feeling prepared and focused.

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!

author

chris lele

chris lele is the principal curriculum manager (and vocabulary wizard) at magoosh. chris graduated from ucla with a ba in psychology and has 20 years of experience in the test prep industry. he’s been quoted as a subject expert in many publications, including us news, gmac, and business because. in his time at magoosh, chris has taught countless students how to tackle the gre, gmat, sat, act, mcat (cars), and lsat exams with confidence. some of his students have even gone on to get near-perfect scores. you can find chris on youtube, linkedin, twitter and facebook!

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19 responses to “one week sat study schedule”

muza khan

may 28, 2014

hii, my sat is on 7 june and i just registered for it and i am taking it for the 1st time how much hour should i study to score 2100 or up is it possible.

reply
1. lucas
  
  may 28, 2014
  
  it is possible, yes, but it depends very heavily on your “starting score”—how well you would do on the test now, before preparation. if you took a test today and scored a 2050, then i’d say it is possible to reach above 2100. if you took a test today and got a 1500, it would be basically impossible to make a 600 point increase in 10 days. the sat is a big test that includes a lot of information and different skills; you cannot cram for it in 10 days time and expect a large improvement, i’m afraid. that’s not to say you can’t improve in that time period—you absolutely can—but how much improvement you make depends on how much time you spend.
  
  reply
jaz

june 2, 2014

i got a 1370 on my sat the first time i took it because of little preparation and the fact that i had to study for my ap classes. i’m taking it in exactly a week and if i take studying seriously will i be able to raise it to 1500?

reply
1. lucas
  
  june 2, 2014
  
  it’s certainly possible that your score could go up that much, but one week is really not enough time that i can guarantee an improvement that large; the sat is a very large test! that said, every bit of studying you can do in the next week will help, so it’s definitely worth giving it your best try.
  
  reply
yasmine

november 13, 2015

i got an 1820 on my sat and i’m taking it again on december 5th. is it possible to raise it to a 2150 or higher?

reply
1. rita kreig
  
  november 13, 2015
  
  hi yasmine,
  
  it’s definitely possible! you’ll have to dedicate a lot of time to your sat prep in order to make a jump that big, though, so i highly recommend investing in some test prep that you can do every single day before your exam. check out sat.www.catharsisit.com to learn more about our online test prep options. we have a monthly plan which could be great for you. 🙂
  
  good luck with your prep!! i hope you get your goal score.
  
  rita
  
  reply
mohamed khalaf

november 22, 2015

my sat exam is on december 5
so i have 13 days left
if i finish this schedule, i will have 5 or 6 days left
what should i do in these 5 days ?

reply
munawar khan

january 14, 2016

my sat exam is on january 23, 2016 and i am left with 8 days my actual practice score is 1200 an i want to raise it upto 1800 plz suggest me about how can i raise my score

reply
1. rita kreig
  
  january 14, 2016
  
  hi munawar,
  
  you’re definitely in the right place! our one week sat study schedule is great for last-minute prep. it uses resources from our magoosh sat prep and the college board’s blue book to help you prepare for the exam. if you start today, you’ll even have an extra day to review before your test.
  
  best of luck with your prep!
  rita
  
  reply
shreyas

september 15, 2016

hi my sat is on 1 oct and i scored 1200 in my practice test will i be able to get near 1350 in 2 weeks of study? the new sat…

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  september 15, 2016
  
  going all the way up from 1200 to 1350 in just two weeks is a tall order. doing this would be very difficult, but not necessarily impossible. sometimes students miss a lot of sat questions due to poor multiple choice strategy and not because they still need to learn more academic content. my advice is to focus on sat multiple choice strategies first and academic content second. this is the best way to boost your score as much as possible in a short time. will it get you all the way to 1350? that’s hard to say. but it’s definitely worth attempting. if you have time after the test, come back and let us know how things went!
  
  reply
billizs

october 26, 2016

please i am writing on nov 5th for the new sat how can i improve my score from 1110 — 1300 in 9 days.

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  october 27, 2016
  
  in all honesty, it’s very difficult to boost your score by that much in just 9 days. for the fastest possible score increase, i recommend focusing on test strategies and test skills rather than academic content. strategies and skills can be learned more quickly than specific information about math, grammar, literary devices, etc…. but again, even with a skills-strategy approach, you’re not guaranteed to get all the way up to 1300 int hat short of a time. still, it doesn’t hurt to try. good luck!
  
  reply
varun

october 31, 2016

hey, i already took the sat once and i got a 530 in reading and 740 in math. i really want to improve my reading score with 1 week. as of now i get 35/52 in my reading tests. any advice to improve my sat reading score?

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  october 31, 2016
  
  the first thing i’ll tell you is that there’s definitely a limit on how much you can improve your sat reading score (or your score on any sat section) in just one week. to boost your score as much as possible, i recommend focusing on strategy. test strategy can be learned a lot faster than overall reading skill. focus on multiple choice strategies in sat reading. magoosh actually has a three part post on sat reading multiple strategies that you can check out: sat reading multiple choice strategies, part 1; sat reading multiple choice strategies, part 2; sat reading multiple choice strategies, part 3.
  
  also work on more basic reading skills like skimming (quickly looking at a passage for the main ideas) and scanning (quickly looking through the passage for keywords related tot he questions. these skills can be built up very quickly with a few days’ practice, which can really help you improve your score.
  
  if you focus on test strategies, skimming and scanning for the next week, i’m confident you can improve your sat reading score. exactly how much you can improve your score is a little unpredictable of course. good luck!
  
  reply
hadia fatima

february 4, 2018

i’m taking march sat.i got 920 marks in my first practice test, can i improve it upto 1250.

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  february 7, 2018
  
  hi hadia,
  
  you have a little over a month to prepare for the sat–you can certainly see significant improvement in that time, but you’ll have to study hard if you want to see an increase of over 300 points! i recommend that you check out our one month study plan , which will give you a good idea of what you have to do to prepare over the next month. it’s essential that you use high quality study materials and practice as much as possible. if you are looking for effective and affordable test prep, check out our magoosh premium program, which is on sale now 😀
  
  reply
joan

september 29, 2020

hi, you said we wouldn’t need the the official sat study guide book but you put pages to read. so i’m wondering what i should do in place of reading whatever is on those pages

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  october 28, 2020
  
  hi joan, you can fill that time with additional magoosh practice, reviewing lesson videos, analyzing your mistakes, or coming up with a stress reduction technique to help you prepare for the exam 🙂
  
  reply