If you’re an upperclassman, you’ve likely started thinking or are already thinking about taking the SATs — and scoring well on them. While many colleges are still test-optional, having a good SAT score can really boost your application and make you stand out from the other applicants.  What is most difficult about the SATs is motivating yourself to actually prepare and finding the best strategies to study. With the October 2022 SAT in just a few days, I’ve compiled a list of responses from students who have scored a 1500+ on the SAT in the past:

“Honestly, there’s not much you can do about reading except just expand your vocab (read books). Writing is more about knowing the rules in a sentence. Math is a whole different story though. You can improve math by memorizing equations in a SAT equations sheet. This will help you out tremendously. I would also take at least one full SAT test a week and make sure to time yourself how the actual SAT is timed. Pacing is extremely important to learn. For example the reading section is 52 minutes and there are 5 excerpts so I would make sure to finish an excerpt’s questions in ten minutes.” – Kaileb Kim

“To improve my score, I focused on my weaknesses. After taking the SAT once, you get a feel for what you struggle with the most. For me, that was time management and the reading portion. Before I took the SAT again, I specifically focused on these two weaknesses, so I could maximize my score. Also, bring an approved watch! It is very helpful in managing time.” – Romina Farzaneh

“Take practice tests! This is super helpful for getting the timing down and learning what works for you. I struggled with timing on the reading section so I found that when I read the prompt slowly, I understood it better and was able to answer the questions quicker. I also found that marking the line numbers from the questions where they appeared in the text and answering them as I read helped cut down on time. Again though, different approaches work for different people so it’s really just a matter of getting a feel for the test. This also just makes you more comfortable with the test which I found helped (to an extent) to ease my nerves in test day :)” – Anonymous 

“I prepared for the test a month in advance, using Khan Academy’s test prep. During my practice time, I would start out by taking a full length test and practicing the skills I missed afterward. I also found that for the writing section, if you learn all of the rules for sentence combination, which punctuation does what, and concision, the writing section will be easier. For math, I found that I needed help with the geometry part because my recent math classes have been Algebra and Calculus, so I remembered almost nothing from Geometry.” – Anonymous