Where to Find the BEST SAT Practice Tests
If you’re looking to take an SAT practice test, you’ve come to the right spot. Taking a practice test is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for test day. However, it’s also important to prep with high quality materials to mimic what the actual test is like. In this article, I’ll show you where you can find the highest quality practice tests and prep questions so that you can ace the SAT!
College Board / Khan Academy Practice Tests
The College Board Blue Book (also known as The Official SAT Study Guide) contains a wealth of practice tests created by the official SAT test maker themselves — the College Board. These SAT practice tests are the closest thing you can get to the real thing (besides for actually taking the test). In addition, a majority of these tests are actually previously administered exams, making them even more effective to prep with!
What some people may not know is that these tests are also available online, completely free of charge. Due to the College Board’s partnership with Khan Academy, all eight of the tests from The Official SAT Study Guide are available on Khan Academy as part of their SAT prep program! You can find the tests on your Khan Academy SAT Dashboard using this link. Note that you’ll have to log in with you Khan Academy account to access these tests.
If you don’t feel like going through the hassle of logging in, or want to print these tests to take them on paper, I’ve uploaded the PDFs here for you to access through my site!
- SAT Practice Test 1 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 3 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 5 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 6 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 7 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 8 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 9 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 10 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
You’ll notice that practice tests 2 and 4 are no longer available on Khan Academy. Per the College Board’s recommendation, these tests have been removed from the standard set of practice tests. However, they are still a great resource to practice most concepts with, and you can always use them to supplement your prep. The links to those tests are located below:
- SAT Practice Test 2 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
- SAT Practice Test 4 – Questions – Answers – Explanations
SAT Released Tests (QAS Tests)
The SAT “Released Tests,” otherwise known as the Question-and-Answer Service (QAS) tests, are arguably one of the best resources you can use as SAT prep material. Every year, the SAT releases a full copy of the exact administered tests from most March, May, and October test dates (some school-day QAS also come from April). This includes both the questions and the answers, so you can both practice and score yourself.
Remember when I said that the College Board practice tests “closest thing you can get to the real thing?” The QAS tests are the real thing. Once again, these are quite literally SAT tests that have been administered to millions of students nationwide.
You can access these tests on my website using the links below. These will likely be your best resource for SAT prep. Just be sure not to blow through all of them too quick!
- March 2018 QAS – Questions – Answers
- April 2018 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2018 QAS – Questions – Answers
- March 2019 QAS – Questions – Answers
- April 2019 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2019 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2019 Intl. QAS – Questions – Answers
- October 2019 QAS – Questions – Answers
- March 2021 QAS – Questions – Answers
- April 2021 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2021 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2021 Intl. QAS – Questions – Answers
- October 2021 QAS – Questions – Answers
- March 2022 QAS – Questions – Answers
- April 2022 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2022 QAS – Questions – Answers
- May 2022 Intl. QAS – Questions – Answers
- October 2022 QAS – Questions – Answers
Some of these QAS tests are the same as the College Board / Khan Academy tests. In fact, the College Board wrote practice tests #1-4 from scratch, and designated the following QAS tests to serve as practice tests #5-10:
- May 2016 QAS (Same as Practice Test #5)
- May 2016 Intl. QAS (Same as Practice Test #6)
- October 2016 QAS (Same as Practice Test #7)
- January 2017 QAS (Same as Practice Test #8)
- October 2017 QAS (Same as Practice Test #9)
- October 2018 QAS (Same as Practice Test #10)
Though there are many of these QAS tests available to study from, they don’t have the same answer explanations as the official Khan Academy / College Board tests. For this reason, you should be sure to vary your prep depending on where your skill level is at. Also, you can disregard the essay section of any test, as the new SAT no longer contains the essay portion.
How to Utilize These Tests to Maximize Your Prep
What’s the best way to prepare for the SAT? Well, it depends. Of course, you’ll want to go through practice tests under simulated test conditions, score yourself afterwards, and go through your missed questions thoroughly to understand your mistakes. However, there’s still the question of what order to go through tests, or if it really matters at all.
Small study habits can make a big difference.
If you’re a student who has never taken an SAT practice test before, or you struggle to figure out where you went wrong after reviewing your answers, I would stick to the official SAT practice tests from the College Board / Khan Academy. These will be your best bet for beginners, as they contain answer explanations in addition to scoring. You’ll get a great indication of what your starting score is, and you’ll be able to easily figure out what mistakes you could have avoided with the guidance from the answer explanations.
On the other hand, if you’re a student who is well-versed in taking SAT practice tests, I would recommend you move on to the QAS tests. These tests typically lack answer explanations, but are a wonderful resource to simulate a real test. Just be sure not to blow through all of the College Board tests – you’ll likely want to save a few just so you can get an accurate score indication. Some QAS tests contain the answers to each question, but are missing the scoring, which means you won’t always get the typical 400-1600 score that you get with the Khan Academy tests.
Furthermore, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your prep, you should take the test as close to test conditions as you can. This includes things like…
- Printing the test and answer sheet
- Waking up early on a Saturday morning to take the test
- Following the allowed time at the top of each section
- Taking short breaks between sections as permitted
- Keeping the test-taking session to one continuous sitting
But wait! You’re not done with prep after taking the test. In fact, it would be a big prep mistake to simply take the test and score it without reviewing your answers afterwards. Reviewing your answers is crucial for understanding why you made a mistake and what you can do to avoid such a mistake in the future. Be meticulous about retrying each question that you missed, using answer explanations to aid you if needed. By the end of your review, you should be able to solve each and every question from that test unassisted.
TL;DR
Practicing for the SAT takes time. You’ll want to use high quality resources to make sure you’re simulating the real thing as best as possible. Having a set of SAT practice tests at your disposal makes things a lot easier.
Newer students can stick to the College Board / Khan Academy tests for the answer explanations, while more experienced test takers can move to the QAS for even more prep material.
If you’re struggling to solve these tricky SAT problems on your own, or the answer explanations aren’t quite making sense, you can always consider hiring a private tutor like me to help you out.
In either case, good luck with your test prep journey, and wishing you best of luck in achieving your dream score!
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