Improving SAT Scores: Tips for Repeat Test Takers

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Retak­ing the SAT allows stu­dents to address weak areas and achieve high­er scores, which can strength­en col­lege applications.
• Review­ing the first test expe­ri­ence helps iden­ti­fy mis­takes relat­ed to tim­ing, con­tent gaps, or ques­tion pat­terns, enabling tar­get­ed study.
• Reg­u­lar full-length prac­tice tests and effec­tive study sched­ules improve time man­age­ment and confidence.
• A pos­i­tive atti­tude, men­tal prepa­ra­tion, and effec­tive test-day strate­gies play cru­cial roles in achiev­ing suc­cess on the SAT.

Did you know the SAT remains the nation’s most exten­sive­ly uti­lized stan­dard­ized assess­ment for col­lege admis­sions? Although numer­ous uni­ver­si­ties now adopt test-option­al poli­cies, achiev­ing robust SAT scores can sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­en your application.

Why? Because SAT scores are often instru­men­tal in deter­min­ing your pre­pared­ness for col­lege-lev­el aca­d­e­mics. More­over, they can com­pen­sate for oth­er aspects of your appli­ca­tion, such as a below-aver­age GPA or less notable extracur­ric­u­lar involvement.

Con­cerned about under­whelm­ing results on your ini­tial attempt? Don’t be. The SAT offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty for retakes, allow­ing you to refine your score as often as needed—though exceed­ing six attempts may sig­nal a lack of readiness.

Many stu­dents retake the SAT to enhance their scores, and you’re no excep­tion. Below, you’ll find effec­tive SAT score improve­ment tips to opti­mize your next attempt, includ­ing lever­ag­ing prac­tice tests and fos­ter­ing con­fi­dence for success.

Relat­ed:

• Earn­ing Col­lege Cred­it Through AP Exams
• Fast and Afford­able Edu­ca­tion: Acces­si­ble Degree Pro­grams for Every Learner
• Open Enroll­ment Online Universities
• 2025 Emerg­ing Online Degree Programs

Evaluating the First Test Experience

The first step in how to retake the SAT suc­cess­ful­ly is to assess your first test expe­ri­ence. We rec­om­mend giv­ing it time and ener­gy, too. An hour or two will suf­fice, but remain focused on the task at hand.

You must also be objec­tive about your mis­takes instead of mak­ing jus­ti­fi­ca­tions. Don’t be frus­trat­ed about your mis­takes, too — it hap­pens even to the best and brightest.

Identify your weak areas.

Your SAT score report pro­vides detailed feed­back on your per­for­mance. Exam­ine it for:

• Sec­tion scores in Evi­dence-Based Read­ing and Writ­ing & Math
• Sub­scores in spe­cif­ic areas like Words in Con­text and Com­mand of Evidence
• Cross-test scores tied to social stud­ies and sci­ence questions

Pin­point where your scores were weak­est to pri­or­i­tize those areas in your study plan.

Analyze your mistakes.

Com­mon issues for first-time test tak­ers include:

• Tim­ing: Run­ning out of time due to an inef­fi­cient pace
• Pat­terns: Miss­ing recur­ring ques­tion types, like qua­drat­ic equa­tions or infer­ence-based questions
• Con­tent gaps: Lack­ing famil­iar­i­ty with spe­cif­ic material
• Mis­un­der­stand­ing: Mis­in­ter­pret­ing instruc­tions or answer choices

Acknowl­edg­ing these mis­takes is the first step toward address­ing them.

Set a target score.

Research the SAT score ranges for your tar­get schools. Use these SAT score improve­ment tips to estab­lish a clear and achiev­able goal for your next test.

Building a Better Study Plan

Boost­ing SAT scores after a retake also means adopt­ing bet­ter study habits.

Focus on your weak areas.

Instead of allot­ting equal time to all areas, focus on the areas where you can make the most improve­ment. If Math was your weak area, then focus on math con­cepts where you strug­gled the most.

Take full advantage of high-quality resources.

Go straight to the offi­cial resources because these are the best SAT prep for repeat test takers.

• Bar­ron’s SAT Prep
• Offi­cial SAT Study Guide by Col­lege Board

Create a study schedule.

Be con­sis­tent in fol­low­ing it, even if it means sac­ri­fic­ing playtime.

• Start as ear­ly as pos­si­ble. Give your­self at least eight weeks before your SAT retake for study time.
• Set dai­ly and week­ly SAT study goals. You may assign spe­cif­ic days to work on your read­ing, writ­ing, and math skills.
• Adopt short study ses­sions, such as 1–2 hours a day only.
• Mix it up by alter­nat­ing between tak­ing prac­tice tests and review­ing content.

Improve your study habits as you go, too.

Practice Makes Perfect – Effectively Using Practice Tests

You may get sick of prac­tice tests but it’s the most effec­tive of all study tips for high­er SAT scores.

Complete full-length practice tests.

You can take as many prac­tice tests as you want. This way, you can work on your tim­ing issues and weak con­tent areas.

• Aim to com­plete one or two full-length prac­tice tests per week.
• Adopt SAT’s time lim­its as follows: 
  • Read­ing: 65 minutes
  • Break: 10 minutes
  • Writ­ing and Lan­guage: 35 minutes
  • Math (With­out Cal­cu­la­tor): 25 minutes
  • Break: 5 minutes
  • Math (With Cal­cu­la­tor): 55 minutes

Take prac­tice tests in a qui­et envi­ron­ment, too.

Analyze your practice test scores.

When you do so, you’ll learn more about your weak areas. Be sure to track your progress with every prac­tice test completed.

Adopt effective time management strategies.

Tim­ing issues are com­mon among first-time takers.

• Adopt a good pace. Keep the allot­ted time for each sec­tion in mind.
• Pri­or­i­tize the easy ques­tions. Then, return to the more dif­fi­cult ques­tions if you still have time.
• Choose the best answer through a process of elimination.

Of course, prac­tice won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly result in per­fect SAT scores. But it sure will result in high­er scores.

Test-Taking Strategies for Success

Keep these test-tak­ing strate­gies for the SAT in mind dur­ing your full-length prac­tice tests, too. With prac­tice, these become sec­ond nature to you.

Answer every question.

There’s no penal­ty for wrong answers and guess­es. You must then answer every ques­tion on the SAT. There’s always a chance that your answer was correct.

• Take your best guess or make an edu­cat­ed one.
• Mark dif­fi­cult ques­tions and return later.

Use the process of elimination.

Get­ting the hang of the process of elim­i­na­tion takes prac­tice. But once you get it, the results can be amazing. 

• Remove the obvi­ous incor­rect answers and distractors.
• Choose from the remain­ing choic­es. Again, make an edu­cat­ed guess if needed.

Pace yourself.

Tim­ing issues are eas­i­er to address when you can pace your­self dur­ing the SAT.

• Know the allot­ted time for every sec­tion. Then, divide it by the num­ber of ques­tions in every sec­tion. In gen­er­al, you have about 45 sec­onds for every ques­tion in the Writ­ing section.
• Keep track of the time as much as pos­si­ble. But nei­ther dwell on the remain­ing time too much nor on spe­cif­ic questions.

Relax and remem­ber that it’s a test, not exact­ly a race.

Mental Preparation and Mindset

Even the most effec­tive SAT study tech­niques will be of lit­tle use with­out the right mind­set. This is also true when com­plet­ing sev­er­al prac­tice tests for SAT improve­ment. You must also pre­pare your mind and adopt a win­ning mindset.

If you’re unsure of your abil­i­ties dur­ing the test day, it will show as nerves. You’re less like­ly to answer ques­tions cor­rect­ly because you’re unsure of your­self. In con­trast, if you believe that you’re more than pre­pared, you’re more like­ly to choose cor­rect answers.

Overcome your test anxiety.

• Prac­tice relax­ation tech­niques 1–2 hours before the SAT. The calmer you are, the clear­er your mind works. You’re then more like­ly to choose the cor­rect answers, even if these were edu­cat­ed guesses.
• Visu­al­ize your suc­cess, too. Sit down, close your eyes, and imag­ine your desired sce­nario while in the test­ing room. You should feel calm and con­fi­dent when you’re answer­ing the ques­tions. What your mind can imag­ine, it can achieve.
• Be your cheer­leader. Believe that you’ve done your best in your SAT prepa­ra­tion for a score increase.

Build your confidence.

• Focus on what you did right instead of your mistakes.
• Avoid mak­ing com­par­isons between your­self and your peers. There’s no point in it.

Adopt a positive attitude.

But don’t go into tox­ic pos­i­tiv­i­ty, either.

• Acknowl­edge that you’re ner­vous, but also be pos­i­tive that you’re prepared.
• Focus on things in your control.
• Embrace the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a sec­ond chance.

Indeed, there’s pow­er in men­tal readiness.

Effective Test-Day Practices

All these steps to improve SAT scores will be put to the test on the actu­al test day. Here are steps to be suc­cess­ful at it.

Prepare in advance.

• Pre­pare the nec­es­sary test mate­ri­als the day before the SAT. These include your admis­sion tick­et, valid pho­to ID, approved cal­cu­la­tor, and sharp­ened pen­cils, among others.
• Con­firm the test loca­tion and start time. Prac­tice at least once dri­ving or com­mut­ing to the test loca­tion. Leave ASAP to avoid delays, such as traffic.
• Get a good night’s sleep the night before the SAT. Don’t study any­thing, either.

Get on a healthy routine on test day.

• Eat a healthy and bal­anced break­fast. Avoid sug­ary foods and a heavy meal.
• Drink water. Stay hydrat­ed through­out the test, too. 
• Engage in gen­tle stretch­ing exer­cis­es before get­ting into the test room.

Manage your test-day nerves.

• Deep breaths will calm your nerves when you’re feel­ing over­whelmed dur­ing the test.
• Focus on what’s in front of you and what you can control.
• Stretch dur­ing your breaks and relax.

Additional Resources for SAT Prep

Here are more use­ful SAT score improve­ment tips to remember.

• Con­sid­er SAT-spe­cif­ic in-per­son or online tutor­ing services.
• Use online prac­tice tools offered by Khan Acad­e­my, The Prince­ton Review, and Prep­Schol­ar, among others.
• Join a SAT prepa­ra­tion class. Check with your high school and local com­mu­ni­ty centers.

Conclusion

The best SAT score improve­ment tips use a com­bi­na­tion of effec­tive study plans, timed prac­tice tests, and men­tal prepa­ra­tion. Address weak­ness­es with tar­get­ed effort, main­tain a pos­i­tive mind­set, and refine your approach through prac­tice. Progress may be grad­ual, but per­se­ver­ance will bring results. By com­mit­ting to improve­ment, you can reach the scores need­ed to achieve your aca­d­e­m­ic aspirations.