A four-week SAT® study plan
Most study plans tell you to “review your weak areas”, which is advice you already had. Every session here names a page to open and a thing to do on it, so a week can be followed rather than interpreted.
4
weeks
24
sessions
15.3
hours total
About 3.8 hours a week. If you have longer, repeat weeks two and three with the difficulty filter set to Challenge; if you have less, week one alone is still worth doing.
Find the gap
Stop guessing what to work on. By the end of this week you should be able to name the two skill areas costing you the most.
- Day 1 30 min
Take the diagnostic
Twenty-four questions, three from each skill area. Do not look anything up. The result is only useful if it reflects what you can do unaided today.
Open the page - Day 2 30 min
Read the two weakest guides
Take the two lowest areas from the diagnostic breakdown and read their method sections. Do not do questions yet; the point is to have a routine before you practise one.
Open the page - Day 3 35 min
Ten questions in your weakest area
Work them with the guide closed. Reveal each explanation only after committing to an answer, and note which of the traps you fell into.
Open the page - Day 5 35 min
Ten questions in your second weakest area
Same routine. Two areas worked properly beats eight areas skimmed.
Open the page - Day 6 70 min
Sit mock exam 1
A full paper, both sections timed, before you have practised anything. It is uncomfortable and it is the only honest baseline you will get — the area breakdown at the end is what weeks two and three are planned around.
Open the page - Day 7 30 min
Retake the diagnostic
A second run one week later shows whether the two areas moved. It is a check on the method, not a score.
Open the page
End of week 1: You can name your two weakest skill areas and describe, in one sentence each, the routine for working them.
Build the Math routine
Cover all four Math areas once, with the formula reference open only when you genuinely need it.
- Day 1 45 min
Algebra: method, then twelve questions
Algebra carries more questions than any other area. Read the method, then work through the Algebra set, naming the requested quantity before solving each one.
Open the page - Day 3 45 min
Advanced Math: recognition drill
Work the Advanced Math set twice: once for the answer, once asking which recognition would have saved you the algebra. The second pass is where the speed comes from.
Open the page - Day 5 40 min
Data analysis: read for the quantity
The arithmetic here is easy and the reading is not. Before computing anything, write down which quantity the question asked for.
Open the page - Day 6 40 min
Geometry with the formula sheet
Work the Geometry set with the formula reference open. Notice how many of the formulas you reached for are supplied during the real test.
Open the page - Day 7 15 min
Speed Round, Math only
Three runs, Math filter on. This is a recognition check: the questions you stall on are the ones whose setup is not yet automatic.
Open the page - Day 7 35 min
Two Math reasoning sets
Each set is one scenario with several questions that depend on the answer before them. This is where a method that works on single questions gets tested: if the first reading is wrong, the rest go with it.
Open the page
End of week 2: You have worked all four Math areas and know which formulas the test supplies.
Build the Reading and Writing routine
Cover all four Reading and Writing areas, with particular attention to answering in your own words before reading the choices.
- Day 1 45 min
Information and Ideas: evidence discipline
For every question, name the phrase in the passage that supports your choice. If you cannot point at one, you are inferring past the text.
Open the page - Day 3 40 min
Craft and Structure: supply your own word
Cover the choices, say what belongs in the blank, then look. This single habit is most of the area.
Open the page - Day 5 40 min
Expression of Ideas: read the goal sentence
Underline the sentence that names what the writer wants before reading any choice. Accuracy is necessary but not sufficient here.
Open the page - Day 6 40 min
Conventions: subject and verb first
The most learnable area on the test. Identify the subject and the main verb on every question, even the ones you find easy.
Open the page - Day 7 15 min
Survival, Reading and Writing only
Three lives, rising difficulty. Where the run ends tells you which tier your accuracy falls off at.
Open the page - Day 7 35 min
Two Reading and Writing reasoning sets
A passage or a pair of texts with linked questions. Holding one reading across four questions is the thing single questions cannot rehearse, and it is most of what the harder items ask for.
Open the page
End of week 3: You have worked all eight skill areas and can say which tier you reliably clear.
Consolidate
Turn the method into something automatic, and spend the remaining time on what is still weak rather than on what is comfortable.
- Day 1 50 min
Every Challenge-tier question you have not seen
Filter both subject pages to Challenge. These are where the remaining marks are, and there are few enough to work in a sitting.
Open the page - Day 3 25 min
Re-read the two guides from week one
The traps section reads differently once you have met the questions. Most readers recognise at least one mistake they are still making.
Open the page - Day 4 60 min
Work the printable pack on paper
Screens make it easy to skim. Working on paper, with the answer key closed, is the closest this site gets to test conditions.
Open the page - Day 5 70 min
Sit a second mock exam, strictly timed
A different paper from week one — no paper shares a question with another, so the comparison measures you rather than your memory. Keep to the section clocks even if it means leaving questions blank.
Open the page - Day 6 20 min
Formula reference, memorise column only
Ignore everything marked Given. Spend the time on the formulas the test does not put on screen.
Open the page - Day 7 30 min
Final diagnostic
The same twenty-four questions as week one. Compare the area breakdown, not the total; the shape is what tells you whether the four weeks worked.
Open the page
End of week 4: Your weakest two areas from week one are no longer your weakest two.
Start with the diagnostic
Week one depends on it. Twenty-four questions, three from each skill area, and a breakdown at the end that decides what the rest of the month is spent on.
Take the diagnostic