The 5 Best SAT Apps How to Use Them Effectively

The 5 Best SAT Apps How to Use Them Effectively SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You might use apps to take photos of your food and put dog filters on your face, but did you know you can also use apps to prepare for the SAT? It's true! There are a number of apps designed to increase your familiarity with the SAT and get you closer to reaching your goal score. In this article, I'll let you know how you can use apps in your SAT preparation, and I'll name five of the best free SAT prep apps currently available. SAT Apps: An Overview As mobile apps have become more popular, the College Board, SAT prep companies, educational app companies, and individuals have created their own apps to help students prepare for the SAT. Those who have created the apps are trying to capitalize on the popularity of mobile appsand want to make SAT prep material more accessible for students. If you have an SAT prep app on your phone or tablet, you can conveniently study for the SAT wherever you’re at,whether you’re at home, school, or a boring family function.Also, studying on an app is more enjoyable and interactive for some students than is using a traditional SAT prep book. While most SAT prep apps are free,some do cost money in order to use them. Why SAT Prep Apps Are Not Enough SAT apps can be a good study tool, but you probably won’t be able to solely rely on them to hit your target score. If you want help doing that, check out our guides onhow to get a perfect score on the SAT and the best ways to study for the SAT. So why aren't SAT apps enough? Here are some key reasons to be aware of. For one, most SAT apps don't have adequate practice questions.Either there are too few of them or they're not representative of the questions you'll get on the actual SAT. As a result, you'll likely need more real SAT questions or more realistic practice questions to be able to sufficiently drill your knowledge and improve your content weaknesses. Secondly,apps don’t always teach you helpful SAT test-taking strategies.Most SAT apps don’t cover test-taking strategies in detail, such as how to read the SAT Reading and Writing passages. Finally, mostSAT apps aren’t customized to your skill level.To improve your score, you need to focus on improving your personal weaknesses. For example, you might want to get better at time management on the Reading section, or you might need lots of help with linear equations. Generally, SAT prep apps aren’t effective at determining where you’re weak and aren't designed to help you zero in on the areas in which you need to improve your skills most. Sorry kid, you're gonna need more than an app to get a 1600. What Makes a Good SAT App? There are specific qualities you should look for in an SAT practice app. #1: Tons of Realistic Practice Questions The best SAT apps will offer hundreds of practice questions for you to hone your skills. These questions should use the same format as questions that appear on the SAT and should be roughly as difficult as those on official SAT practice tests. Moreover, solid questions will provide you with thorough answer explanationsso you’re able to understand how to correctly approach and answer them. #2: Good User Experience SAT apps should be easy to navigate and use. On some SAT prep apps, the text is hard to read or the setup of the app makes it difficult to identify the functions and navigate among them. #3: Thorough Content Instruction A good SAT prep app will clearly teach you the content you need to know in order to excel on the SAT.After doing a lesson or reading an answer explanation, you should have no lingering confusion about the topic you're studying. A quality SAT app will break down the topic and thoroughly explain it. You should be able to start with limited knowledge on a topic and then, after using the app, understand it well enough to correctly answer related SAT questions. A bad app will provide only brief instruction, meaning you'll continue to be uncomfortable with a content area you struggled with. If you have any unanswered questions about a topic, you'll need more content instruction. Apps aren't always the best teachers. #4: Questions and Lessons Are Divided by Specific Topics A good SAT app will divide practice questions and content instruction by more specific topics than just Reading, Writing, and Math. If you know the topics on which you need extra help, you should know exactly where to go. If you need more help with comma rules, for example, you should be able to easily find instruction or practice questions to help you study that specific content area. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! The 5 Best SAT Apps If you want to use SAT practice apps in your studying, here are five that can provide some benefit to you. All are free of charge! #1: Daily Practice for the New SAT iPhone | Android This isthe College Board’s official SAT prep app.Every day the app offers a new practice question, which can cover any topic. This feature might not help you if it’s on a topic you already know. Since previous questions of the day are archived, though, you can access these instead. These are organized by section and can be sorted by difficulty level or even the date they were posted. The official SAT app also has a function through which you can scan an official SAT practice test you've taken and get it corrected. Unfortunately, many app users have complained that the scanning function doesn't work well, so be aware of this potential issue before using the app. This app is overall solid because it offersCollege Board-approved questions and explanations. However, it doesn’t have thorough content instruction, and the number of questions is limited. #2: Ready4 SAT iPhone | Android This app is definitely one of the best SAT prep apps.Itoffers the following features: Ample content instruction A mock SAT with up to 100 questions Complete answer explanations to questions 60 SAT lessons Hundreds of virtual flashcards 1,000+ realistic practice questions Initially, you take a short diagnostic test of 10 questions so that the app cancustomize a course of instruction for you. However, because there aren’t many questions in this test, the app might not be able to accurately determine your current SAT skill level. Though a great SAT prep app, it's not perfect. First,the content instruction it provides is pretty brief, so it might not be enough if you’re really struggling with a particular topic. The user experience isn't ideal, either. For Reading and Writing, passages and questions are on different screens, and it was a little difficult for me to find the underlined portions of the passages for the Writing questions. Additionally, the app isn't maintained regularly. The last update to the iOS version came in September 2017, which means that the content might be out of date. Additionally, old apps can be unstable and crash often, so your mileage may vary there, too. Lastly, the entire app isn't actually free. While you can access some of its features without having to pay, you'll need to fork out $19.99 for a premium account if you want the full experience. #3: Khan Academy iPhone | Android The Khan Academy SAT prep app offers a portion of the Khan Academy SAT prep website. (The Khan Academy is a partner of the College Board.) With this app, you get quality video instruction that walks you through a number of practice problems related to SAT topics. I enjoyed these videos, and I believe watching them is a good way to improve your content knowledge and ability to tackle SAT questions. Unfortunately, the app doesn't offer actual SAT practice questions for you to do. That's because the Khan Academy app isn't just for SAT prep...it gives users access to all of Khan Academy's lessons. All in all, you might as well just use the website so you can have access to the practice questions and everything else Khan Academyhas to offer. #4: SAT Exam Prep Practice Test / SAT Test Prep Practice Q A iPhone |Android The free version of this SAT app offers 300 practice questions, but if you pay $0.99-$1.00, you'll get 471 total questions, a mock SAT, and access to so-called â€Å"SAT Genius experts.† On the positive side, this app has many realistic Math practice questions and perhaps the best user experience of all apps on this list. Negatively, however, the explanations to the questions aren’t great, and there’s no real content or strategy instruction. Like other SAT apps, the app isn't updated regularly, either. (The last update was in December 2017, which means the app might be out of date and/or unstable.)Also, avoid the Critical Reading, Language Vocab, and Word Knowledge questions altogether- these don't use passages and are nothing like actual Reading and Writing questions on the SAT. #5: SAT: Practice, Prep, and Flashcards iPhone | Android This app, created by Varsity Tutors, offers in-depth study materials for the SAT's Math, Critical Reading, and Writing sections. The two biggest perks of this app are its user interface and its flexibility. First, the app is well designed and easy to use. You can pick subjects, practice materials, and even a flashcard deck quickly and easily from the navigation menu. Honestly, the app is justpretty. In terms of flexibility, the app gives you many different ways to study. Not only does it offer diagnostic and practice tests, you can also study by concept, choose a pre-made flashcard deck, or just answer the app's Question of the Day.It's also easy to focus on your weakest categories because the app breaks its content down by test section and subject areas. Lastly, the SAT: Practice, Prep, and Flashcards app lets you time your practice so you can see how much time you're spending answering different types of questions. On the negative side, this app- like so many others in this category!- isn't updated regularly. While it's stable and usable for now, it's not clear whether that will be the case in the future. Additionally, there's a chance the questions and information are out of date, too. The SAT is constantly updating its question types, which means you need to study current materials to make sure you're ready for the test. How to Use SAT Apps in Your Studying: 4 Tips As previously mentioned, SAT apps can be a good resource, but you shouldn’t solely rely on them for your SAT prep.Here are some ways you should use SAT apps in your study sessions. #1: For Additional Practice Questions In your SAT studying, start withofficial SAT practice tests. The questions on these tests most closely resemble real SAT questions, and the College Board provides explanations for all of them. Use one test to get your baseline score and to figure out how many points you'll need to get in order to hit your goal score by test day. Next, start to gather other crucial SAT resources: buy prep books, hire a tutor, and/or sign up for an SAT prep course. Once you've gathered your primary materials, use SAT apps as supplementary resources. With apps, you can do additional practice questions (once you've used up those in your books and tests) and can continue to drill your basic knowledge. I’d start with the College Board app since it's the only app to offer official SAT questions. #2: To Improve Your Weaknesses If you know the types of SAT questions you struggle with, you can use apps to do more questions related to those topics or to get more focused content instruction. For content instruction, Khan Academyand the SAT: Practice, Prep, and Flashcards app are pretty good. I’d also use the apps that organize questions by specific topics. Be sure to focus on the topics with which you need the most help. #3: To Change Up Your Study Routine If you’re always studying with the same SAT book or website, you can use an SAT app to alter your normal routine. Changing your routine can energize you and give you additional motivation to study. Just make sure you’re using the apps in a way that will be most beneficial to you or you'll end up wasting your time. For example, don’t just drillHeart of Algebraquestions if you’re already getting all those questions right in your prep. #4: To Take Mock Tests A few of the SAT apps offer timed mock tests and diagnostic tests. You can use these apps to simulate the test-taking experience. However, unlike the actual SAT, you'll be by yourself and you'll be doing the test on an app, so it won't be an exact simulation. That said,you can build up your test endurance and check to see how you’re doing with time management under pressure.You can also use these tests as diagnostics to help determine the types of SAT questions with which you’re still struggling. Best SAT Apps: Takeaways and Recommendations SAT apps can help you in your test prep as long as you ultimatelyuse them in conjunction with other high-quality resources, such as SAT prep books, a tutor, or a prep course. SAT practice apps work best once you already have a solid foundation. In other words, you should be familiar with all the content on the SATand be aware of your current weaknesses. Furthermore, keep in mind that you’ll have to learn test-taking strategies elsewhere. If you can afford to pay for a resource, our fully customizable SAT prep program improves your weaknesses,teaches helpful strategies, and provides plenty of high-quality practice questions. What's Next? Are you struggling to find time for your SAT prep? Find out how to balance your SAT studying with school,and learnhow to build an SAT study plan that suits your schedule. Want some more fun ways to prepare for the SAT? Try one of these six SAT prep games! Aiming for 1600 on test day? Learnthe secret to getting a perfect SAT score, written by a real full scorer! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses. We also feature thousands of practice questions, 6 official SAT practice tests, and personal feedback on your essays from an expert instructor. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Important Read This Before You Send SAT Scores to Colleges

Important Read This Before You Send SAT Scores to Colleges SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips No matter how stellar your transcript, no matter how mastered your extracurricular activities, no matter how lyrical your essay- no application is complete without your SAT scores. So how do you make sure your SAT scores are sent properly, at the right time, and with only the scores you are most proud of? Read on for our best advice on the decisions you'll be faced with and what to do in case something goes wrong. In this article,I'll go over the process of sending SAT scores, the ins and outs of SAT Score Choice, when to send SAT scores (and when not to!), and what to do if your scores go missing. I'll also explain the pros and cons of every option and give you my suggestion anytime there are multiple possible ways to proceed. How to Send Your SAT Scores: 2 Methods You can send your SAT scores either when you takethe test or anytime after you get your scores. We'll look at the two methods in more detail below. Method 1: Use Your Four Free Score Reports When you register for the SATand for nine days after you take the test, you can send four free score reports tocolleges and scholarship programs. However, note that you'd be doing this without first seeing your scores. Here's our advice onwhether you should send these free four SAT score reports: Pros: These four score reports are free. A dollar saved is a dollar earned! Cons:You won't know your scores before they get sent out. This means you won't be able to use SAT Score Choice to pick which scores colleges see and which they don't see (more about Score Choice in the next part of this article). Essentially, your scores will be sent out even if they aren't as strong as you'd like them to be. Recommendation:Save some money and time- use your four free score reports to send scores to colleges that want to see all your SAT scores. Note: More and more schools are allowing students to self-report their SAT/ACT scores and only require official score reports if students are accepted. If you're only applying to schools that fall into that category and wait until your acceptances to send an official score report, you'll have to default to method 2, which we'll be covering next. Ben Franklin and his three-pence paper money are proud of your frugality. Method 2: Order Additional Score Reports You can alsoorder SAT score reports through your College Board account anytime after you get your scores. In your account, you can see all of your SAT test dates and scoresand choose which ones to send out. Here's our advice about whether you should send your SAT scores after you see them: Pros:You can see all your scores first, so you can select only your best scores to be sent out (again, I'll address SAT Score Choice in more detail below). Cons: It costs$12 to send a score report to a college, and each report can include a number of test scores on it. In other words, if you want to send three SAT scores to the University of Vermont and two to the University of Hawaii, you'd pay $24. (Students eligible for a fee waiver have unlimited free score reports.) Note that rush reports cost more:$31. Here are our recommendations for when to order additional SAT score reports: Send scores withyour best section results to colleges that superscore the SAT. These schools make a new composite score using your best Math, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW), and Essayscores from any SATs you took. Send your single highest score to colleges that neither superscore norrequire all your scores,to SAT scholarship programs,andto the NCAA if you plan to playcollege sports. Can You Send Old SAT Scores? To send scores from an SAT you took more than a year ago, you must request them from the archives. Each report costs$31, and each rush report costs an additional $31. You can order old SAT scores in one of two ways (note that youcannotorder them online through your College Board account): Fill out the Archived Score Report Order Form and send it to the following address: SAT Program PO Box 7503 London, KY 40742-7503 Call the College Board at (866) 756-7346.Be aware that there is an additional $15 fee for ordering scores over the phone. Pro Tip: You might run across QA websites that tell you to simply mail or fax a copy of your printed SAT score report to colleges as a way of sending scores for free. Don't listen to these! Most colleges only look at official score reports sent directly by the College Board. You can't simply send schools a copy of your report, even if your deadline is approaching. Faxed a copy of your scores? Might as well have sent them this note. Can YouChoose Which SAT Scores to Send? You can now decide whether you want the College Board to send all your SAT scores to colleges or whether you want to use a program called Score Choice. SAT Score Choice lets you pick which scores you send to schools.You can select individual test dates, but not test sections. In other words, you pick the date of the SAT you want to send, and the College Board will send out scores from that test and that test only. Say you tookthe SATthree times, and the second time you were nursing a fever and just generally having a bad day. Score Choice lets you send only the first and third test scores to colleges- so you can go ahead and consign that second one to the dustbin of history. Score Choice also applies to SAT Subject Tests.You can pick which Subject Test score to send to your target colleges. Here are the pros and cons of the SAT Score Choice policy: Pros Score Choice is awesome for colleges that don’t requireall of your SAT scores. It's also perfect for colleges that superscore- you can send them the test dates that have your highest section scores. It's great forany SAT Subject Tests you’ve taken multiple times,since you just want colleges to get your highest score. Finally, it’s the best way to send your best single SAT score to scholarship programs and the NCAA. Cons You have toread your target colleges' score submission policies very carefully. Failing to send all your scores to colleges that require all of them could land your application in hot water. To make keeping track of different policies easier, check out CollegeBoard's BigFuture site, which lists the SAT score policies for hundreds of US schools. When Should YouSend YourSAT Scores? Now, let's discuss the best timing for sending SAT scores to colleges. In this section, we'll touch on how early to send your scores, when to expect scores to reach your colleges, whether to consider rush ordering your score reports, and finally what to do if you miss a deadline. Should You Send Your SAT Scores Early? The College Board claims that sending scores earlyshows colleges that you're a very interested applicant. If you first take the SAT your junior year, then, should you go ahead and send that score to colleges you're particularly interested in? It's true that some collegesdo sometimes ask to see proof that an applicant sincerely wants to go to their school; this is calleddemonstrated interest.But this is something that usually comes into play after you've turned in your full application, usually as a way to move someone up on a waitlist. Typically, sending SAT scores early does notgive you an edge. Similarly, it doesn't count as demonstrated interest.This is because if you send SAT scores to a college but haven’t applied there yet, the admission staff will simply save them under your name in a general file until your application shows up. And it's not only that. If you send your scores early and are planning to retake the SAT, you won't get the full benefit of Score Choice since you won't be able to compare your early score with ones from later tests you take. Save getting there early for the Harry Potter swag line. When Should SAT Scores Get to the Admissions Office? It will be no surprise to hear that official SAT score reports should get to your schools by their respective application deadline.In order to figure out what this means in terms of when to send your scores, let’s go through the timing of everything that happens after you take the test. Step 1: The College Board Scores Your SAT Scoringusually takes two to three weeks but can take more than five weeks for the June test date. Step 2: Score Reports Are Posted Online and Processed for Sending You can access your SAT score report through your College Board account. If you registered for the four free score reports, these will be sent out to colleges about one to two weeks after your scores appearonline (if you took the SAT without Essay). If you took the SAT with Essay, your scores will be sent out about 10 days after you get them online. As soon as scores are online, you can order additional score reports from the College Board website. Step 3: Colleges Receive Your SAT Scores Most colleges receive test scores electronically through software that files your score with the rest of your application materials. Colleges themselvesselect how often to download new SAT score reports; this is usually somewhere between once per day and once per week(for example, UVA gets SAT scores daily). Remember that there will be a lag between when a college gets your scores and when it adds them to your application file. In most circumstances, the math for ordering SAT score reports goes like this: less than 1 week for ordering scores + 1 week for colleges to get and file scores = order scores at least 2weeks before the application deadline I always hedge my bets, soI’d advise ordering test reports at least three weeks early for safety or, even better, as soon as you're done testing and know which schools you're applying to. Your last possible test date math looks like this: 3weeks for scoring + 3 weeks for ordering tests = take your last test no later than6weeks before the application deadline Should You Rush Your SAT Score Report Order? If you are worried about beating deadlines, youcan pay extra for the College Board'srush service. Here are the pros and cons of doing so: Pros Instead of taking "a few days"to send your scores, the College Boardguarantees SAT scores will be sent out within two to four business days. Cons This service does not speed up how long it takes the College Board to score your test. It also does not speed up how long it takes for colleges to receive your scores. Remember, schools choose the timing themselves, with some getting score reports only weekly. In other words, while your scores are sent sooner, they aren't necessarily going to be seenby schools sooner. Colleges that receive score reports electronically might not view priority reports at all. The service costs $31(but you can rush reports to many schools at once). Recommendation:If your deadline is fast approaching, it might make sense to pay extra to buy yourself a little more time. Just keep in mind that colleges might not see your scores any faster if their delivery preferences aren’t set up for priority reports. Yes, sir- we have our very fastest messenger on it, sir. What If You Miss the Application Deadline? What happens to applications when SAT scores arrive late varies depending on each college's policy. Some schools have a hard and fast rule: late application materials disqualify that applicant. For example, theUniversity of Texas’s policy even overrides the guaranteed admission the school offers to any in-state students in the top 10% of their class. In short, late test scores are a big gamble- you’re essentially betting that your application won’t be considered until further into the process and that therefore your SAT scores still have a chance to get there without issue. For example, here's whatStanford University’s admissions site warns in regard to test scores: â€Å"We cannot delay the review of an application in anticipation of scores that will arrive after the deadline nor can we guarantee that late [SAT] scores will be reviewed." Meanwhile,UVA points out the followingif your SAT scores are late: â€Å"There is a chance that we will have already started the [sic] review your file before those scores arrive. You should still send those scores.... There's a chance that the scores will be seen at some point in the process.† Finally, some schools judge applications on a case-by-case basis.This means that an otherwise excellent application might be put aside until SAT scores arrive, while an application that is clearly not a good fit for the school will be rejected even before scores are received. How Can I Ensure That My SAT Scores Don’t Get Lost? A college is guaranteed to receive your SAT scores either when you select it during SAT registration or when youselect it on the College Board website while ordering additional score reports. Some university systems, such as University of California system, which has many campuses under one umbrella, share scores among campuses. In other words, if you send your SAT scores to one UC campus, your scores will be distributed to all UC campuses. The most likelyreason your target college can’t find your SATscore report is that you picked the wrong school's name on the form.If you registered for the four free reports, check your own score report to confirm that the collegesyou put in are correct. If you ordered reports through the College Board website, log in to your account to double-check the colleges you selected. A good rule of thumb is to wait three weeks after you send your SAT scores to check whether they've been received.Usually, this info is available on the college’s application site, but in some cases colleges will contact you to let you know which application materials aren't in your file yet. If you get a notice from the college that your scores are missing, don’t panic: often, it can take up to a few weeks for received application materials to be logged.Chances are, the school has indeed received your scores but simply hasn’t filed them yet. Feel free to call the admissions office and calmly and respectfully ask them to check whether your SAT scores have arrived or not. If your SAT scores don't turn up- either because they got lost in the mail, were somehow electronically derailed, or were simply misfiled- you can always resend your scores by ordering new ones throughthe College Board website. Can we somehow get the tooth fairy involved with this whole missing-SAT-scores situation? What’s Next? Unsure how to study for your next crack at the SAT? Check out our expert advice and SAT study plan suggestions for taking the test your sophomore and junior year as well as the summer before senior year. Ready to try for a full SAT score? Learn what it takes to get to a 1600 from a perfect SAT scorer. Want to start working on the rest of your college application? Try out our tips on how to craft a versatile one that'll work for many different colleges. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today!