Self-Studying for the SAT during Summer

So I’ve decided to just mainly self-study for SAT, along with weekend SAT tutoring (4 hours a week, not much) and I don’t have any idea on how to work my schedule.

So the place where I’m getting some SAT prep is on Friday, they have testing from 2-6 and on Saturday they have review from 9-1. However, since it’s only a practice test a week and 4 hours of prep, I think I’m going to need to self-study a lot more. I haven’t taken a psat test yet, but if my goal was 1350, how many days a week should I study? How many hours a day should I study? How many practice tests should I take in a week? How many weeks should I study beforehand? How much time should I spend on Khan Academy a week? Should I do all my self studying on the blue book or incorporate other study guides as well? If I incorporate other study guides as well, which do you recommend? How much time should I spend on study guides in a week?

I know that’s a lot of questions, but as of right now I really don’t know what I should be doing, haha.

There are some people who can score a 1350 without any preparation, and who knows, you might be one of them.

My advice to you: At least take a practice test so you know where you stand, where your strengths and weaknesses are, and to get an overall feel for the test. If you’ve never taken a PSAT I assume you’re still early in high school, so I would wait for that in the fall. But if that isn’t an option, at least take a practice test to give yourself a barometer of where you’re at with the test.

And as far as studying; you don’t really know what to study for if you don’t know where your weaknesses are.

Best of luck!

@joyfulmom UWorld is a good source for higher level medical examinations; however, the questions for SAT are not the best in comparison to other third party sources. IMO, the best third party sources are IvyGlobal and IES test prep specifically for practice tests. Questions contained in the prep books by Erica Meltzer and College Panda are also very good.

Of course there is always the standard free Khan Academy questions (with thousands of questions) and College Board practice tests (8). If you have exhausted these resources, then UWorld offers a free 30 day trial that may be useful.

@fearforthefuture Depending on how much time you have my response can be altered:

I wouldn’t focus on doing more than 1-2 hrs of day if you have lot of time (except for the full test days). College Board currently has 8 practice tests so is space those out accordingly. They also have 2 released PSAT’s that you can incorporate in. If the SAT prep company you are going to isn’t working, you may want to try a different approach. Most important is studying right and efficiently.

15-45 mins of Khan Academy a day in addition to other studying should be more than enough.

The blue book is hard to self study from because it mainly only contains practice tests and the instruction doesn’t teach you the in’s and the out’s of the test.

For a more tips and tricks approach. Mike Barrett just recently released the new Black Book. There aren’t many reviews for this edition but from looking through it, I’m sure it will receive all the praise the last edition did for the Old SAT.

For a more thorough approach. I’d recommend using:

Reading: Erica Meltzer’s The Critical Reader

Writing: Erica Meltzer’s The Ultimate Guide to Grammar or College Panda’s Guide to SAT Writing

Math: PWN the SAT Math or College Panda’s Guide to SAT Math

Hope it helps! Tag me in a comment to ask any more questions.