I feel dumb

I found Khan Academy to be a really helpful tool in prepping for the SAT. It's completely free, and I just practiced a little bit each day over a period of months until each individual section was at the highest meter (mastered.) If you take it one little bit at a time it is a lot more manageable to retain the information and do well on the test!

Another important factor regardless of preparation is nerves. I didn't do well my first time taking the SAT simply because of nerves, but after retaking it a few times I had better control of my nerves and knew what the setup was like and what to expect in the testing arena, and ended up with a 1510! Don't be afraid to take it many times, it was very helpful for me and might do the same for you too (although this might have been due to my circumstances- I was scoring much higher on practice tests than actual testing scenarios until I got a hold of my nerves.)

I hope this helped- let me know if you have any other questions :)

Hi there @exinne,

There are a few ways you can study for the SAT in a way that can help you get around any fears you may have around test-taking.

To familiarize yourself with the test, you should take a lot of diagnostic tests to get used to the format and flow of the SAT. You can also simulate a testing environment by timing yourself properly, working at a desk, and not taking breaks longer than allotted.

As for the actual content, you should score your diagnostic tests and then really analyze them (by question type, the steps you took to solve them, etc.) to find what types of problems you're weaker in. By identifying and practicing these types of problems, you can study more efficiently.

For more guides on test-taking you can check out our blog posts on studying for the SAT:

This article is a good place to start:

https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-get-a-perfect-score-on-the-sat-essay/

And we have many more guides here:

https://blog.collegevine.com/category/standardized-tests/sat-guides/

Hope this helps!