As an SAT Prep instructor who worked in the Socal region for 4 years, I’ve compiled some of the basic techniques on how to improve your SAT score fast.

In my four years, I’ve managed to increase scores from 1300-1700 in just about 5-6 weeks (For the 2400 scale, of course) and from 800 -1200 in the same amount of time (for the modern 1600 scale). The techniques I’m providing aren’t really anything very special. It’s actually more of a combination of having the right materials, and having the right mindset to train yourself consistently.

You’re going to need the right books. Some books can work just fine for the SAT. But the topic of this article is on how to improve your SAT score fast. As such, I’m going to recommend the books that I’ve used for my students in the classroom.

Table of Contents

1. In what order you should practice the SAT sections
2. How often should I practice the SAT?
3. How do I practice for the SAT?

In what order you should practice the SAT sections?

When practicing, you should have MASTERED the section PRIOR to moving to the next section. This ensures you get better at everything in a consistent manner and you’re not scattered. So once you get a high score in one section, move to the next one. 

1. Grammar
2. Math
3. Reading (No Vocab)
4. Essay
5. Reading (Vocab Part)

How often should I practice the SAT? 

It’s important to be practicing EVERY DAY in SMALL AMOUNTS. This is the best way to get better because you can guarantee consistent improvement without yo-yo-ing back into procrastination mode. 

Try to practice once a day for 30 minutes to 45 minutes. 

Here’s what I did to go from a 1350/2400 to a 1750/2400 in 5 weeks: 

1. Wake up at 6AM in the morning
2. Force myself to get up and wash my face. It’s especially important to wash your face so that you wake up for good.
3. Eat some small piece of protein. (I used dry salami and cheese) 
4. Go for a walk for about 30 minutes in the cold morning.
5. Come back when you’re done and practice the SAT materials. I used “Grammar Girls Ultimate Guide to Grammar” + “Princeton Review’s ecourses“. 

How do I practice for the SAT? 

Practice by simply studying and UNDERSTANDING WHY a certain section of the question is right or wrong. Test yourself and figure out what was right or wrong and WHY. 

1. For grammar: look up a list of the rules and figure out what the grammar rules are such as parallelism and semicolons. Master those by practicing online and figuring out how to make sentences with those rules. 
2. For math: same for grammar, but this is more of a numbers game. You have to practice them enough and see enough variations of the questions to get good at it. 
3. For reading: you have to take this section slow. I would recommend reading the practice articles in the SAT with NO timer. Just read them and try to understand and comprehend each word before you begin to answer the questions. This will force you to comprehend the text at your own pace so that you can learn to read faster whilst still understanding it.
4. Essay: you need to practice the essay enough by simply looking at resources of successful essay writers. You can simply try to emulate them in order to make your own papers match what makes a high scoring paper. 
5. Definitions and Vocab: practice Vocab last, especially since the Vocab part is the one everyone forgets how to do. Do this by memorizing only a select few quintessential and versatile SAT words, then spreading out to learn the other ones. A few things you could do are this. One, try to understand the definition of the word by writing sentences using the word appropriately until you feel you can use it in everyday life. Second, practice your root words such that you can guesstimate what the right answers for the questions will be. 

Got burning questions on how to improve your SAT score fast? Concerned that you won’t be able to increase your score before the test date? Talk to us and we’ll help you in whatever way we could!