The Most Helpful Khan Academy SAT Resources
For most college applicants, the SAT is an important part of the college application. While schools have indeed adapted test-optional or test-flexible policies, the great majority of colleges still require all applicants to submit standardized test scores, and these scores tend to hold a significant amount of weight in the college admissions process. It’s easy to see why so many students expend enormous amounts of time and energy on standardized test prep. Until recently though, test prep was an exclusive privilege, limited by its high cost. Many students sought out private tutors or bought costly test prep materials. In a historic move, however, the CollegeBoard (which creates and oversees the SAT) has adopted a formal test prep partner, Khan Academy, and even more exciting—all of the resources there are free. Now, all students can access quality, official test prep materials online for free. Wondering where to begin? We’ve got you covered. Khan Academy is the brainchild of Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. Khan Academy started modestly, as a YouTube channel originally created to share Khan’s math tutorials with his niece. The tutorials blew up in popularity, and before he knew it, Khan was founding the Khan Academy nonprofit, dedicated to the basic premise that “every child deserves the chance to learn.” While Khan Academy itself consists of content across all subject areas from preschool to high school and AP levels, it also has a section dedicated to SAT prep. In 2016, the CollegeBoard and Khan Academy officially partnered to provide the first free and official complete library of SAT prep materials. Keep reading to learn more about our favorite features. As you go through our favorite features of Khan Academy’s SAT prep course, keep in mind that many of these can only be accessed once you’ve created a Khan Academy account. To create your free account, visit the Khan Academy Sign Up page. We at CollegeVine love formative assessments as the foundation of any good study plan, and Khan Academy’s personalized diagnostic test is a great way to get a good idea of where you are starting from. The diagnostic test even allows you to indicate if you’re guessing on a particular question, so that although your score won’t be impacted if you get it correct, the learning plan that is developed for you will take into account the knowledge that you did not have. Even better, if you’ve already taken the SAT, the PSAT, or the PSAT 10, you can import your scores directly from your CollegeBoard account and have Khan Academy interpret these scores to create your personalized learning plan. Once you’ve completed a diagnostic test or imported your scores from prior exams, Khan Academy will guide you through creating your personalized practice schedule. You’ll be prompted to create a regular weekly practice schedule that works for you. Research shows that students who study daily (e.g. 5 days a week) for short periods of time (15-30 minutes) are able to build a more successful habit of practicing for the SAT. Khan Academy will help you to plan out these small chunks of time throughout the week so that your studying is broken up into manageable chunks and you have plenty of time to process new information. Khan Academy even has a field for you to input your intended test date—that way, the program can work backwards to ensure that you have time to meet all your practice goals. In addition to all the video and written tutorials available for SAT concepts, there are also tons of opportunities to put your knowledge to work. Five practice questions are available for each skills focus, along with video examples for each at two different levels: basic and harder. Two quizzes for each section of the test are also available, along with a whopping eight full-length practice tests. Those resources are hard to beat! The Review section of the Khan Academy dashboard automatically imports each question from your practice. Here, you can see any questions that you got wrong, along with detailed explanations about how to solve each question. While Khan Academy offers an entire library of SAT Tips and Strategies, one of our favorite resources is the Test Tips Share Space. In this forum, actual students like you can pose questions or offer their own tried and true advice. This is a great opportunity to connect with students at similar points in their studying, and to get advice from students who have been in your shoes. There are even further subcategories with a Tips Share Space for each section of the SAT. Some of the recent questions posed in the General Tips Share Space include: The Saturday two weeks before your SAT is your Official SAT Practice Test Day. On this day, students set aside time to take a full practice test in the morning to simulate what their real test day will be like. This is a great way to get used to the real time constraints and test anxiety that you might experience on your actual SAT test day. If you’re interested in learning more about a specific section on the SAT, you’ll find our section-specific guides a big help: If you’re getting ready to take the SAT and want to brush up on your general content knowledge or strategy, check out the awesome tips in our SAT prep guides: Want to know how your SAT score impacts your chances of acceptance to your dream schools? Our free Chancing Engine will not only help you predict your odds, but also let you know how you stack up against other applicants, and which aspects of your profile to improve. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to gain access to our Chancing Engine and get a jumpstart on your college strategy!
What Is Khan Academy?
Most Helpful Khan Academy SAT Resources
1. Diagnostic Test or Score Import
2. Practice Schedule
3. Tons of Practice Opportunities
4. Review Your Work
5. Test Tips Share Space
6. Official SAT Practice Day
