Is The Real Sat Harder Than The College Lath SAT Practice Tests?

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You want to know if you're scoring a 1400 on higher lath saturday practise tests, will you score a 1400, a 1300, or a 1500 on the real SAT test.

Curt answer:

You'll do worse on the existent SAT than on a Sat do examination.

Will yous score 10x worse? Admittedly not.

Y'all'll probably exercise about 7% worse: your 1400 will come up in around 1300.

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  1. Two Reasons Students Score College On The College Lath Sabbatum Practise Tests
    • 1. College Board SAT Practice Tests Aren't Taken In Realistic Settings
    • 2. Students Revert To Old Habits When They're Stressed
    • How To Solve The No-Figurer Section of Saturday Exercise Exam one
  2. Higher Board Exercise SAT Examination FAQ
    • How can I score as high on the real Sabbatum as I did on the do SAT?
    • Where can you download the Higher Lath SAT Practice Tests?

Two Reasons Students Score Higher On The Higher Board SAT Practice Tests

"They must be cheating…"

"The practice tests must be easier in content…"

"They must want y'all to neglect…"

No. These are lazy reasons that we run into all likewise often. Students love to get to the existent SAT test and blame weak exercise tests or a sneaky College Board for the gap in scores.

This is completely errant. It'due south tempting logic because it is simple, and it takes the blame abroad from the examination taker, but it's not accurate.

In reality, there are two primary reasons for score-to-score disparity betwixt the practice tests and Saturday test performance.

RELATED READING: What's meliorate, a 35 Human action Score or a 1550 SAT Score?

1. College Board Saturday Do Tests Aren't Taken In Realistic Settings

student taking SAT practice test
Have your SAT practice tests in a realistic setting.

As I said, students do not take do tests in realistic settings. On one terminate of the extreme, students will take practice tests with many long breaks between sections, in the belatedly morn after a night of good sleep, in the comfort and tranquillity of their home, where nutrient and drink is plentiful, the bathrooms are close and clean, and ambient stress and racket is negligible.

On the other paw, the actual Saturday is proctored at 8 AM in a strange classroom where y'all're surrounded past strangers. You can't have a coffee on your desk and you need to inquire to use the restroom which is god-knows-where. Every bit if that wasn't enough of a challenge, the guy next to y'all is breathing heavily and the person in front end of you mumbles when she reads.

You tin't quite see the clock, but information technology's analog anyway. The Sat Proctor started the time somewhere between viii:52 and 8:55—35 minutes plus viii:55 is something like 9:xxx, you think. That means you've been going for 5 minutes so you peradventure have 25 minutes left, but you lot can't really focus on that.

If you can primary your method awarding and you're practicing in exam-like environments, then the bodily Saturday examination should experience very natural to yous.

Why? Because it'due south so cold and the low-cal above you is flickering. You're pretty hungry because your sugar levels just crashed, and you tin can't take a snack till the showtime break which is when once again?

So, you must take your practice tests in uncomfortable settings: think Starbucks (noisy, busy, distracting, uncertain bathroom situation) at 8 AM on a Saturday.

RELATED READING: When to have the SAT: Ideal Timeline

2. Students Revert To Old Habits When They're Stressed

I've mentioned this paradigm multiple times but here are the basics:

The Saturday math is not new math.

You've seen it before, in high school, and you lot learned a very methodical, long-handed way to come to a correct reply. What a adept tutor teaches you is a improve, more efficient, and less error-prone manner to come to the aforementioned correct answer.

student stressed about SAT practice test
Don't revert back to old habits when taking the Sat test.

Now the method the tutor gives you volition be a little foreign to yous. It'll be similar using the mouse with your opposite hand at first, and and then with practice, it becomes completely natural.

When you get to the test you'll have two methods:

  1. the old method
  2. and the new method

The new method even so might exist a fiddling unfamiliar, then in the stress of the SAT test yous might revert dorsum to the original method—the slower more error-prone one. If this happens your score will become down from what it was when you took the College Board SAT practise tests, and you lot'll be tempted to blame it on the actual SAT test instead.

How To Solve The No-Figurer Section of Saturday Practice Test 1

In this video, Powerful Prep tutor, Lauren, walks the states through questions 1-20 of the Saturday Practice Test 1.

Learn how to solve the no-calculator portion of the exam with ease. Head over to the web log post to download a copy of the Sat Practise Examination ane and work through the answers along with Lauren in this super helpful video.

College Board Practise SAT Test FAQ

Will y'all get accepted?

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Volition you get accepted?

Find out how likely yous are to get accepted based on your GPA, examination scores, and even extracurricular activities. And so, get custom recommendations for how to improve your odds – completely for gratis on CollegeVine.