A common proverb holds that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and this is certainly true of your personal test prep journey! Before you even start walking down the road that ends in an AMAZING Digital SAT or the ACT score (and admission to your favorite college!), there’s one thing you need to do first: figure out where your CURRENT abilities lie. In other words, you need to know what score on the ACT or SAT you would earn, were you to take the test today!
Why Should You Take a Diagnostic Test?
Glad you asked! The answer is fourfold….
You likely need to first figure out WHICH test—SAT or ACT?—you should put your (sizable) efforts towards. After all (to continue our hiking metaphor), you don’t want to start walking South when you should be walking North, right? So take my one-stop Which Test Should You Take? Quiz. And then….
You need to understand what your baseline score is, so you can properly assess how much further you need to go before you hit your Target Score.
You need to have a clear starting-point so you can notice and REJOICE in any improvements you make beyond that status quo. Reveling in your small victories will give you much-needed morale boosters during the marathon of test prep! And finally…
You need to determine where your testing strengths and weaknesses lie, so you can focus on improving your weaknesses and don’t waste time on reviewing topics you are already great at.
That’s a long list of “need-to’s,” but happily, there’s a reliable method of achieving ALL of this in one fell swoop. What is it? Well, you might have guessed from the title that I feel this way, but…
You need to take a diagnostic SAT or ACT test!
And sure, you might already know that diagnostic testing is a good idea! However, there are actually a lot of little things that you can do wrong during your diagnostic test that gives you an inaccurate score, making the whole endeavor a waste of time...or, even worse, gives you an INACCURATE idea of where you’re already “at” with your test of choice.
But that’s not going to happen to YOU—because you have a seasoned test prep wizard in your corner to make sure you do it the right way, to get information you can trust and base your junior and senior year testing timeline on!
So without further ado, here are the DOs and DON’Ts of diagnostic testing.
Tips for Using Diagnostic Tests
DO take an official practice test. I’ve linked all those tests for you in one handy place, right here! In the case of the ACT, what you’ll be taking is a real, previously administered test, made available by ACTStudent.org.
In the case of the Digital SAT, the College Board has NOT yet made old tests available, but it HAS written four brand-new practice tests, and you can take them on your own computer by downloading the BlueBook App. (Yes, the College board also published a physical book of practice tests, but the four tests in there are the SAME that appear in BlueBook! They just alternate between giving you the "harder" and "easier" second modules for each section. As for the "Linear (nonadaptive)" practice tests on the College Board website: about 65% of the questions are directly from the 4 official tests, with about 35% new questions. That said, if you take them all, you definitely will have spoiled the real tests in BlueBook.)
DON’T take a test written by a test prep company (e.g. The Princeton Review or Kaplan). They may be modeled off the genuine article, but they AREN’T the real thing! The balance of “easy” and “hard” questions might be off, and the scoring curve is only a guesstimate, not a real score curve.
(Note: if you go the BlueBook / Digital SAT practice test route, you ALSO won't exactly know how your performance stacks up again a real past grading rubric…because it isn’t a real test that real students took en masse! But you’ll still be using the best possible approximation of real test questions and conditions, issued directly from the horse’s/College Board’s mouth.)
DO take a full-length ACT and/or SAT, with all the sections, in order.
DON’T take a shortened version of the ACT or SAT. This is like cycling a mile and then assuming you’d complete the Tour de France at the same pace per mile. These tests evaluate your content knowledge and grasp of strategy, sure, but they also measure your stamina and your ability to be accurate when you’re tired and bored!
DO take your diagnostic SAT or ACT in the morning to simulate real testing conditions.
DON’T take your diagnostic SAT or ACT in the afternoon or evening. This isn’t when you’d take the real one, and your alertness can vary drastically at different times of the day! It’s not a fair comparison to take a diagnostic at, say, 2pm when you might be at your best...and then assume you’d do just as well at 8am (if you tend to feel foggy and slow in the mornings).
DO time your diagnostic SAT or ACT...in accordance to your time allotment! If you have regular time, you’ll follow the directions on the test. If you have “extended time” (time and a half), double or triple time, you’ll time yourself according to your specific requirements. (If you need more help, check out this full explanation of SAT and ACT timing.)
DON’T take your diagnostic tests untimed! This will not reflect your true ability AT ALL!
DO get a parent, sibling, or friend to time you if you’re taking the ACT…or if you don’t have a Bluebook-compatible device and so have to take a paper (aka Linear or Non-adaptive) SAT practice test. If you live close to a testing center, you may even be able to pay to take a diagnostic test and have a proctor keep time for you.
If you’re taking one of the four Digital SAT practice tests on BlueBook, that app times you automatically, so no need for a third-party timer!
DON’T time yourself (if you’re taking a diagnostic ACT or Linear/nonadaptive SAT)! It can be surprisingly nerve-wracking simply having someone else holding the stopwatch and yelling “TIME!”….and we need to replicate those same nerves to get a sense of how test anxiety might affect you. Better to know now that you freeze like a deer in the headlights than to find out in the middle of the ACTUAL exam! (And if you feel like test anxiety might be impacting your score on the SAT/ACT or school tests…I just released a Testing Confidence course designed to help you become a way calmer, more accurate test-taker.)
DO complete the entire test in one sitting...unless you have a special accommodation that allows you to split up your test over multiple days (and then, follow THOSE rules as closely as possible).
DON’T split up the test and take a section or two today and a section or two tomorrow, etc. Remember, it’s not about how well you do the Science section...it’s about how accurately you do the Science section AFTER you spent hours doing English, Math and Reading!
DO take breaks exclusively when you’d take a real break on the real test. (The BlueBook app will administer these breaks automatically; for other tests, I include a breakdown of exactly when you’re allowed official on my diagnostic test page.)
DON’T take breaks whenever you feel like it.
DO take your diagnostic test under physical conditions resembling the real ones as possible: quiet environment, no distractions/screens, no talking, sit at a desk or table, no food or drinks.
DON’T take your diagnostic test in a “comfortable” environment—this will be NOTHING like the real test, so it won’t get you to mimic your actions on the real day. So, NO lying on your stomach in bed to take the test, NO eating or drinking, NO interruptions to take breaks, NO phone, NO screens, NO talking.
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Phew! That’s quite a list, right? I hope it gives you a sense of how to make the most productive possible use of the diagnostic tests available to you—remember that they are a LIMITED resource! For now, use these tips to launch you into your SAT and ACT prep—because a diagnostic test, when you take it right, is the best start you can possibly give yourself!
Thirsty for more info about diagnostic testing? I provide you with full instructions AND access to the official diagnostic tests for both the SAT AND ACT on my diagnostic testing page.
And if you need help fine-tuning the details of your diagnostic test—or help setting up the testing game plan or timeline that sets you on the path to success and your dream school—you can reach me here.
