5 Reasons to Incorporate SAT/ACT Practice into Your Curriculum

Secondary curriculum in most schools and districts is meant to prepare students for university study, but it rarely prepares them for the exams that still play an important role in college admissions. Whether due to time constraints, the perceived difficulty of the material, or the idea that SAT/ACT material is incompatible with other curriculum priorities, SAT/ACT practice is often left to students to do on their own.

In this article, I’ll give you 5 reasons why incorporating SAT/ACT practice into your curriculum is a great idea, whether or not your school separately offers SAT/ACT prep courses or workshops. In a later post, I’ll give you some ideas for easy ways to do so.

1. SAT/ACT Material Goes Beyond Most State Standards, Meaning that You’ll Not Only Cover But Exceed Your Standards

When compared with the Common Core and other state standards, the SAT and ACT require a higher level of reading, language, and math skills. Not every topic or skill you teach will appear on the SAT/ACT, but where there’s an overlap, SAT/ACT questions generally go deeper and require more critical thinking and analytical skills. The reading passages are rich sources of academic and Tier 2 vocabulary. Math questions tend to require greater integration of diverse math skills and more complex problem solving.

2. Skills Tested on the SAT/ACT Are Critical to Success in Higher Education

Before I started tutoring and offering small group SAT/ACT test prep, I mistakenly believed that the SAT and ACT measured mastery of topics and content knowledge. As I began to understand the tests better, I realized that they are actually designed to measure academic skill.

While content knowledge is certainly a big part of doing well on the math portion of these exams, and vocabulary is important for the language portions, content knowledge only gets students so far. The rest comes down to skill: how well do students parse a text for meaning, argument, evidence, and structure? How well can they problem solve? How well do they think and write about a topic? These are skills that are crucial for students’ future academic outcomes.

3. Not All Students Have Access to SAT/ACT Prep or Know How to Prepare

All students are subjected to the same test, but unfortunately study after study confirms that socioeconomic factors play a major role in SAT/ACT scores. Building in some SAT/ACT-type practice to your curriculum is a great way to make sure all students gain familiarity with the test material and format.

4. SAT/ACT Practice Can Make Topics or Skills Covered in Your Curriculum More Relevant and Memorable to Students

I can personally attest to the truth of this one: when I mention to students that a particular math topic is tested frequently on the SAT/ACT, their ears perk up. What may have quickly been forgotten after a lesson or unit ends is now given a place of greater importance and is more likely to be remembered. Not every student will be motivated to pay extra attention to material they know might appear on the SAT/ACT, but many will.

5. SAT/ACT Practice Provides a Great Challenge and Enrichment Opportunity

For consistent early finishers and high achieving students, SAT/ACT practice provides a challenge and an opportunity to test and improve their skills. I love reinforcing crucial academic skills that are relevant to the topic at hand with “SAT/ACT challenge questions.”

I’m a big believer in the idea that all students (not just our self-motivated high achievers) benefit from challenging work that requires higher level thinking and problem solving, with the appropriate support and resources.

Please let me know your thoughts (and whether you include any SAT/ACT practice in your classroom) in the comments below!

The Right Way to Self-Study for the SAT and ACT

I think SAT/ACT self-study can yield great results for students who are disciplined, self driven, and consistent in their approach. For students who need more structure or have a short window before the test, the best option is to take an SAT/ACT prep course or schedule regular tutoring.

This is a general guide to self-study for the SAT and ACT without taking budget or time frame into consideration.

1. Assess

The first step in any SAT/ACT study plan is assessment. Students should take a full length exam and score it (if necessary to manually score) to determine where they stand prior to studying. Simulate real test conditions as much as possible to get the most accurate assessment of performance. The PSAT or Pre-ACT are pretty good predictors of SAT and ACT scores, respectively, but it’s best to take a full length SAT or ACT.

Khan Academy offers full length SAT’s online, plus students can link their College Board account with Khan Academy to input their PSAT and get personalized study recommendations.

2. Understand and analyze results/identify weaknesses

Section scores and subscores will tell a story about students’ current levels of preparedness. For example, a student who takes a full length SAT and gets a 700 in math and a 500 in reading and writing clearly has to focus his or her efforts on the reading/writing sections.

Within sections, both the SAT and ACT provide score information for the different categories of questions. Students should spend some time going over their scores and looking at the specific categories of questions within each section. Students should also spend some time becoming familiar with the test format and how the test is scored.

If other testing issues arose, such as time management, students should take note of them as well.

3. Identify goal scores based on admissions criteria of the schools students plan to apply to.

Determine what kind of improvement is needed overall and across different sections of the test.

If students have a long window to study, score improvements of 300-400 points on the SAT and 10-11 points on the ACT are possible (I’ve worked with students who’ve improved this much!). The shorter the time before the test date, the harder it will be to get large score improvements, but solid score improvements are still very much possible. Set a reasonable but challenging goal.

4. Get SAT/ACT prep materials and extra materials to cover weak areas, as needed.

Get materials with tons of practice problems, and content review materials for any subject areas that were especially weak. Here are the materials that I believe are essential to prepare for the SAT/ACT:

• College Board Official SAT Study Guide 2020 Edition or 2018 Edition

• Official ACT Prep Pack 2019-2020 Edition or Prep Guide 2019-2020 Edition

The College Board and ACT both make free practice questions available on their websites as well. Khan Academy also provides excellent free SAT study materials, including practice questions divided by topic. In addition, there are many other high quality study materials and online courses available, budget permitting.

The large test prep companies such as Kaplan and Princeton Review also offer workbooks and other SAT/ACT prep materials.

I’ve created the following resources specific to SAT/ACT vocabulary, grammar, and math that may be helpful for students:

• Vocabulary for the SAT/ACT with tons of activities for better retention

• Homophones and frequently confused words (often tested on the SAT/ACT)

• Guide to SAT/ACT Grammar

• SAT Math: 100 Practice Questions with Explanations

• Homophones/Frequently Confused Words 1-10 (FREE)

• SAT Math Formulas (FREE)

5. Based on the weaknesses identified, goal scores, and the prep materials available (depending on budget), create a study plan.

First, students should map out the time until the test date and break that time into weeks or months, whatever makes the most sense depending on the time period. Next, they should determine what they think they can accomplish during week 1/month 1 and each additional time period.

For example, students with low math scores would first need to spend a good amount of time reviewing math content. Unless a student scores over a 600 (or 25), he or she should review the content first and then start doing practice. If there’s still a year before the exam, students can spend a month reviewing math and any other content they might need to review. With only a couple of months to study, students can spend a week or two reviewing content.

Within the time period allotted for content review, students should break down the content further into chunks so that they have a day by day and week by week plan.

The ideal SAT/ACT study plan will have students doing something every day, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. The importance of consistency in studying for these tests can’t be overstated.

It’s far better to do 30 minutes a day of practice questions than 3.5 hours one day a week. That’s the same amount of total time spent, but there’s much more bang for the buck with the 30 minutes a day plan. The brain needs time and familiarity to assimilate everything that is learned in preparation for the SAT/ACT, and 3 hours one day and then nothing for 6 days just doesn’t cut it.

6. Practice, analyze answers, and learn from mistakes. As the test date approaches, do more timed practice using the actual SAT/ACT pacing for each section.

After doing any necessary content review, the majority of students’ study time should be dedicated to doing practice questions, analyzing why they got them right or wrong, and filling in any content gaps as necessary.

If there’s a year to study, students might spend a couple of weeks just working on one subject and really mastering it. With only a couple of months, students should spend no more than a few days doing practice questions in just one subject area.

As the test date approaches, students should mix the practice questions so that each test section gets some attention almost every day. The key is not to let any area get rusty before the test date.

7. Within the study plan, map out dates to take timed full length tests.

Students should plan to take as many full length practice tests as they can, with at least a few weeks in between each full length test. Over the course of a year, students can easily take at least 4-6 timed, full length tests. If students have only a couple of months, they should try to take a full length test every 3-4 weeks. Also, they should set aside time to do regular timed sections in any weak test areas.

Why Being a Good Math Student Doesn't Always Equal High SAT/ACT Math Scores

SAT/ACT Math is Harder Than Typical High School Math

SAT and ACT math is deceiving in that it “only” covers topics up to and including typical Algebra 2 content. The ACT and new SAT do include trigonometry (which may or may not be covered in Algebra 2), but trig makes up a tiny percentage of the material on both tests.

Assuming students have taken Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, they’ve covered all or almost all of the math on the SAT and ACT. So why is SAT/ACT math so hard?

The issue isn’t that the content is harder, per se; instead, the way SAT/ACT questions are formulated, the time pressure, the inclusion of questions requiring numbers theory, logic, and imaginary symbols most students don’t have experience with, and the mixing of concepts across different math topics make the SAT and ACT math sections more difficult than the typical high school math content.

Question Formulation

Here are some examples illustrating why the same content can seem much more difficult on the SAT/ACT.

See the difference? The same content is required for both sets of questions, but the way the SAT/ACT questions are formulated is much more challenging.

Time Pressure

While students have undoubtedly dealt with time pressure before on tests, quizzes, and final exams, the time pressure of the SAT/ACT math sections is even more difficult to manage. The ACT gives just one minute per math question, while the SAT gives one minute 15 seconds on the no calculator section and one minute 26 seconds on the calculator section. This requires much faster and more intense work by students than what they’ve typically been required to do in math class.

Inclusion of Numbers Logic/Theory/Imaginary Symbols Questions

The SAT in particular (ACT to a lesser extent) will give questions on topics that are completely unfamiliar to the majority of students. They either involve topics students have seen many years ago (but haven’t been required to think deeply about), such as long division remainders, or rules that students work with but don’t explicitly know. There are also questions that involve imaginary symbols and operations. Chances are, students have the content knowledge and skill to answer them, but are often so thrown off by these unusual questions that they pose a challenge. Here are some examples:

• a @ b = (a + b)(2a + 2b). What is x @ 4y?

• For the equation c = b^3, which of the following statements are true?

  • c can never be negative

  • c > b

  • if b is positive, c is positive

• What is the greatest possible remainder when any odd number is divided by 4?

Mixing of Concepts Across Different Math Topics

In the typical Algebra or Geometry curriculum there’s a bit of cross course material, but not very much and it’s highly teacher/course dependent. The SAT and ACT often mix algebra, geometry, and other areas of math both in the same question and throughout the test, requiring students to be well versed in what content knowledge to apply and when.

For Students: How to Handle SAT/ACT Math

There are two general approaches that I think work well for students to prepare for SAT/ACT math. One is to start by doing a math content review of the topics tested, and then doing practice questions regularly (every day if possible, even if only a few questions per day). I think this works best for students who perhaps have forgotten or never fully grasped a number of areas of math content. These students will need to fill in some content areas first in order to make doing practice questions more meaningful.

The other approach is to get into a routine of doing practice questions and fill in any missing content areas as needed. I think this works best for students who already have a good grasp on most of the test content areas.

I recommend that all students build a formula/rule sheet as they work through practice questions, and review that sheet periodically. If students realize in doing a particular practice question that they don’t know or have forgotten the content necessary to answer it, they should address it by reviewing that topic and adding to their formula/rule sheet as necessary.

For Math Teachers: Incorporate SAT/ACT Questions When Possible

Having kids do SAT and ACT questions in class can be a great way to add rigor and challenge to your math class. If kids can do SAT/ACT style questions on a particular topic, typically they will have achieved a deeper level of mastery and understanding of the topic due to the additional challenges that these questions entail.

When I’ve worked with small groups of students, I’ve found that having them verbalize (or write down) their approaches and solutions (giving guidance when necessary) helps them internalize the analytical process they’ll need to do well on the SAT/ACT math sections. Here are some ideas for how to incorporate SAT/ACT questions into your math class:

1. Give SAT/ACT questions as challenges at the end of class. Have students who get them correct use the board to explain/show how they did them and give guidance as needed.

2. Include topic relevant SAT/ACT type questions as a bonus on quizzes or tests.

3. Have an SAT/ACT question of the day up on the board for students to try to solve during class.

4. Use as early finisher assignments.

5. Assign each student one SAT/ACT math question to solve and create a small presentation/diagram/step by step outline explaining how to solve it.

6. Have students discuss alternate methods of solving SAT/ACT questions (often there are at least 2 different ways of doing a problem), determine which method is most expedient and least prone to error, and explain why that method is the best.

The College Board website has a ton of free SAT practice questions, and the ACT website does as well. I’ve also created this free SAT/ACT math formula sheet and this set of 100 practice questions divided by subject area.