How to Use Your SAT Score Report to Make a Study Plan

The March 11th SAT Scores were made available this past week and, for students who intend to take the SAT again, the analysis of the score report is an important way to stage their study.

First, it's important to analyze the score report to identify areas of weakness. One way to do this is to manually circle the question types you got wrong. From there, students can use that information to identify the types of questions to practice.  Practice and repetition based on question type and later by difficulty level and length of time, have been shown to positively impact score results.

Once you know the question types, the next step is to find material that uses the same abbreviation for a certain question type and defines the question in the same way as College Board. 

The College Board has an open-source resource called the "SAT Skills Insight" report, which provides a breakdown of a student's performance by category and question type. Using this report, students can identify the specific question types they struggled with and target their practice accordingly. Once students know which question types to practice, they can turn to resources like UWorld, PrepScholar, SATACT Self Study, and Khan Academy to find practice material with the same tagging system.

PrepScholar, for instance, offers a guide to SAT question types to help students focus on their specific areas of need. SATACT Self Study provides a quiz-builder where students can auto-generate questions based on the common abbreviations mentioned above. UWorld offers a comprehensive SAT prep course, including over 2000 practice questions, detailed explanations, and progress tracking.

In addition to these resources, students can also turn to Khan Academy to practice specific question types they got wrong on the actual SAT. Khan Academy offers a wealth of free SAT prep resources, including full-length practice tests, interactive practice questions, and video lessons. By focusing on the types of questions they struggled with on the actual test, students can hone their skills and improve their performance on the next SAT.

It's worth noting that seeking out in-person tutoring can also be a helpful option for some students. Any competent tutor will be able to walk you though the score report and may even offer to give you a free consultation to help you get started.  Here are some of our vetted tutors approved by TPAPT. 

By combining the analysis of the score report with using trusted resources like UWorld, PrepScholar, SATACT Self Study, and Khan Academy, and potentially seeking out in-person tutoring, students can build confidence for test day.

References:

College Board. (2022). Skills Insight. Retrieved from https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/understanding-scores/skills-insight

Khan Academy. (2022). SAT Prep. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/sat

PrepScholar. (2021). SAT Question Types: A Complete Guide. Retrieved from https://www.prepscholar.com/sat/blog/sat-question-types/

SATACT Self Study. (2023). Pricing. Retrieved from https://tpapt.mykajabi.com/offers/7YX3SVG3/checkout

UWorld. (2021). SAT Prep. Retrieved from https://www.uworld.com/sat/sat_home.aspx

Wyzant. (2021). Find a Tutor. Retrieved from https://www.wyzant.com/find-tutors