How Long To Study for the SAT

There are a lot of pieces involved in the college admissions process, including your involvement in extracurriculars. If you are involved in activities like sports, band, or student government, you’ll need to carefully consider where you want to schedule your study time. If you know you don’t study well at night after practice, you might want to consider scheduling most of your study time on the weekends. However, if you’re a night owl who appreciates your  down time on the weekends, you may want to spread out your studying during the school week.

You can locate the SAT scores of accepted students at the colleges and universities you’re planning on applying to by searching their admissions websites. The “median” score is often listed, and it represents the general score of accepted students. That median score means that fifty percent of their admitted students had a lower score and fifty percent of their admitted students had a higher score. While the median score provides a baseline, your odds of acceptance will increase the higher you can push your score. More competitive schools will have higher median scores than local or state universities, so it’s best to plan accordingly.

As you (and your parents) know, college is a big financial undertaking. Many students are searching for ways to make college more affordable, and scholarships are one of the main ways that students can save money while going to school. A lot of students across the country are hunting for good scholarships, and some scholarships will require you to have a certain SAT score. A higher SAT score can open up more scholarship opportunities for you, such as fully covered tuition or tuition with room and board. If you’re looking at applying for big, nationwide scholarships, a higher SAT score could make you more competitive. The same goes for scholarships or aid given directly from the college or university you will be attending.

One of the best things you can do early on in your studies is take a practice test to see where your starting point is. If you have a strong baseline score, you may not need to put in as many hours towards preparation as you might have expected. However, if you want to make a big score jump, you may have to spend more time working on practice exams and reviewing some of the content that’s tested on the SAT. While you can compress study time by studying for multiple hours a day, it’s always better to pace yourself. Understanding your score goal can help you plan out how many hours you’ll need to devote to studying for the exam.