SAT practice tests: where the official ones are, how to take one properly, and what to do with the score (the error log by skill)

The official SAT practice tests are the College Board's full-length digital tests in its Bluebook app, which match the real exam's two adaptive sections, timing and scoring. Take one in a single sitting under the real conditions, then spend the week after it on the skills you missed, logged by skill, not by question, before taking the next. A practice test is a diagnosis; the score moves in the week between tests, not during them.

Where the official SAT practice tests are

Three official sources, all the College Board's, and the addresses are in the sources at the foot of this page.

• Full-length practice tests in Bluebook. Bluebook is the app the real digital SAT runs in, and it carries several full-length practice tests with the real adaptive modules, the real timing and official scoring when you are signed in. These are the tests to use for the diagnostic and for every full retake. The number available changes, so count them before you plan: each one is a full test you can only take fresh once.
• The official question bank. Single questions sorted by skill, for the week between full tests, once the error log has told you which skills to drill. Do not use it before the first test; a question bank is for drilling, not diagnosing.
• The paper practice tests. The College Board also publishes its practice tests as printable PDFs. They are the same tests as the digital ones, so they are not extra tests, and they lose the adaptive format. Use them only if you cannot run the app.

Why official first: only the test-maker's tests use the real adaptive format, the real difficulty and the real scoring. A prep company's "SAT practice test" is a model of the exam built from the outside. Models are fine for extra practice questions once the official tests are used up; they are the wrong instrument for the diagnostic, because a model's score is the company's estimate of your score, and the official tests are free.

The digital SAT in one paragraph

Since March 2024 in the United States, and March 2023 elsewhere, the SAT is a digital test. It has two sections, Reading and Writing first and then Math, and each section is split into two timed modules; how you do on the first module decides whether the second module you see is harder or easier. The Reading and Writing section is 64 minutes for 54 questions, the Math section 70 minutes for 44 questions, and there is a ten-minute break between them, for about 2 hours 14 minutes of testing. Each section is scored from 200 to 800, so the total runs from 400 to 1600. The reading passages are short, with one question each. A graphing calculator is built into the app and allowed for the whole Math section. Those are the College Board's own facts about the test, described in our words; check its current pages before test day, because the details can change.

How to take a practice test properly (an SAT mock test that tells the truth)

The first full test is the SAT diagnostic test: take it early, before any drilling, so the error log is built from what you actually know.

1. One sitting, the real timing, the official break. Do not split it across two evenings. The last module is where fatigue shows, and you want to see it.
2. The device and set-up you will use on test day. The same laptop or tablet, a charger, the same calculator habits. A test taken on a phone teaches you the phone.
3. Phone in another room. Not face down on the desk; in another room. The procrastination guide has the reason it has to be out of reach.
4. Morning, after breakfast, at the real test's start time if you can manage it. You are measuring how you do at 8 am, not at 10 pm.
5. No pausing to look things up. A paused test is two tests, and a looked-up answer is a miss you have hidden from yourself.
6. Flag every question you guessed. Write the question numbers on a scrap of paper as you go. The log needs to tell a guess that landed from a skill you own, because a lucky guess is a miss in disguise.
7. Score it with the official scoring the same day, while you remember what you were thinking.

What to do with the score: the error log by skill

The score is one number. The log is the list of skills, and the list is what you can act on. This is the practice-test method from the exam-prep hub, applied to the SAT's two sections.

For every miss, and every flagged guess whether it landed or not, write the skill it tested, the kind of error and the fix. Use skill names a drill can use. These are the sixteen Math skills and twelve Reading and Writing skills our SAT packs use, which is why they are the names in the table below.

Math: linear equations in one variable; linear functions: slope, intercept and tables; systems of two linear equations; linear inequalities; quadratic equations and functions; equivalent expressions, exponents and radicals; exponential growth and decay; function notation and composition; percentages and percent change; ratios, rates and proportions; one-variable data: mean, median and spread; probability and two-way tables; area and volume; lines, angles and triangles; right triangles and trigonometry; circles in the coordinate plane.

Reading and Writing: central ideas and details; inferences from a passage; command of evidence; words in context; text structure and purpose; transitions; concision and precision; subject–verb agreement; pronouns: agreement and case; punctuation: commas, semicolons, colons and apostrophes; verb tense and form; modifiers and parallel structure.

The kind of error is one of three: did not know (the skill is missing), slipped (the skill is there and the hand or the eye failed), time (ran out, or guessed to move on). Each needs a different fix. A skill you did not know needs a worked example, a cold redo and a sibling problem. A slip needs the step written out in full, slowly, five times tonight. A time problem needs a timed set of eight questions, not more study.

Section	Skill	Error kind	Fix	Retest
Math	Systems of two linear equations	Slipped (3 misses)	Five mixed systems tonight, written out	7 days
Math	Percentages and percent change	Did not know (2 misses)	One worked example, redo cold, sibling	7 days
Math	Right triangles and trigonometry	Flagged guess (1)	Hold for next week	14 days
Reading and Writing	Transitions	Did not know (3 misses)	Name the relationship before the word	7 days
Reading and Writing	Punctuation	Slipped (2 misses)	Rule cards: semicolon, colon, comma splice	7 days

Rank the skills by misses times their weight on the test, drill the top three for a week with retrieval practice and mixed sets, then retake a full test and compare the same rows.

Worked example: one Math log, one Reading and Writing log

Math. The student above missed three systems questions, two percent-change questions and flagged one guess in trigonometry. Systems go first: three misses, and linear equations and systems carry a large share of the Math section.

One of the systems misses, worked (our problem, not an SAT item): 2x + y = 7 and x − y = 2. The y terms have opposite signs, so add the equations: 3x = 9, so x = 3. Then y = 7 − 2(3) = 1. Check: 3 − 1 = 2. Answer: (3, 1). The student subtracted instead, got x + 2y = 5, and lost the thread. Error kind: slipped. Fix: five mixed systems tonight, each written out, with "add or subtract?" said aloud before the first line.

One of the percent misses, worked: a price rises from $80 to $92. The change is 92 − 80 = 12. Percent change is the change over the original price: 12 / 80 = 0.15, so 15 %. The student divided by the new price, 12 / 92, which is about 0.13, or 13 %, and chose that. Error kind: did not know (the rule about the denominator). Fix: write the rule on a card, "percent change = change ÷ original", redo this problem cold, then do a sibling: a price falls from $92 to $80, which is 12 / 92, about 13 %, because now 92 is the original. The two problems together are the whole lesson: the same 12 dollars, two different percentages, decided by which price you started from.

Reading and Writing. Three misses in transitions, two in punctuation. Transitions first. The drill: for each pair of sentences in a practice set, write the relationship between them (contrast, cause, example, sequence, addition) before you look at the answer choices, then pick the word that carries that relationship. The misses almost always come from reading the choices first and picking the word that sounds right; the relationship has to be named before the word is seen. The punctuation slips get three rule cards, written as cards that force recall: when a semicolon joins two sentences, when a colon introduces, and what a comma cannot do on its own.

How many tests, how far apart (the SAT prep calendar)

Eight weeks is a comfortable plan: four full tests about two weeks apart, with the week after each test spent drilling its top three skills and the second week on mixed sets that keep the earlier skills alive. Four weeks allows three tests. The week between tests is for drilling, not more tests. The last full test should be no later than five days before the real one, so there is time to act on it, and the last two days are light: the last week has that plan day by day, and chapter 9 of the free playbook is the same seven days as a printable calendar.

Two pieces of research are the reason for the shape. Cepeda and colleagues (2006) reviewed 254 studies and found that study spread over separate days produced better recall than the same time massed together, which is why the drills sit between tests rather than piled up before one. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that recalling material produced better recall a week later than rereading it, which is why each full test, and each cold drill between, is doing more than measuring. Taking the tests under the real conditions is also what steadies the nerves: the test-anxiety guide has the evidence.

Section by section: what the drills look like

SAT math practice. A skill's problems done cold and mixed. Take a skill from the log, read one worked example slowly, cover it, redo it from the question alone, then do four more problems from the same skill shuffled in with problems from two other skills. Mark line by line, not just the final answer, and every wrong line goes into the error log with the right line beside it. How to study math has the marking rule. Rohrer and Taylor (2007) found that students who practised problem types shuffled did worse during practice and better on a later test than students who practised them in blocks, and the SAT shuffles them.

SAT reading practice. The reading skills are "find the line that proves it". For every question about a passage, before choosing, underline the words in the passage that the right answer must rest on. An answer you cannot point to a line for is a guess, and it goes in the log as one. Words in context is the skill, not a vocabulary list: the question asks what a word means in this sentence, and the drill is to replace the word with your own word before looking at the choices. Memorized word lists are a small part of the current test.

SAT writing practice. The grammar skills are rules you can state and apply. Write each rule on a card in your own words (agreement, pronoun case, the four punctuation marks, verb tense, parallel structure), recall it, then apply it to ten sentences cold. The transitions drill above is the same shape: name the relationship, then choose.

The method, on one screen

1. Official tests first. The College Board's full-length tests in Bluebook; the question bank for drills.
2. Take it properly. One sitting, real timing, real device, phone away, guesses flagged, scored the same day.
3. Log by skill, with the kind of error and the fix.
4. Drill the top three for a week. Cold, mixed, marked line by line.
5. Retake and compare skill by skill. The score moves between tests.