Let’s say you’re taking the Digital SAT soon (or even not-so-soon) and are hoping to get the highest score possible. Who isn’t, right? But that being the case, there’s something you need to wrap your head around that your ACT-taking friends don’t need to worry about. And that “something” is: how to make the most of the 7 Digital SAT practice tests that the College Board itself gives you access to.
It might sound like a minor thing, the proper usage of practice tests. But as an SAT-taker, you actually face a challenge that current format ACT takers don’t: there are only a handful of official practice tests available for you. And these rare, maximally realistic tests are the best way to figure out your weaknesses, timing, and many other factors before your actual test day!
You can learn a ton from your practice tests. But a lot of students make the mistake of burning through those rehearsals….without spacing them out the way they should, and without taking away the right insights. We don’t want that to be you! And it won’t—because I’ve written this guide that will empower you to use these tests strategically.
Article Contents
1. Video version of this article
a. The changing number of Digital SAT practice tests
b. Which DSAT practice tests are available right now?
3. Is it ok to use unofficial practice tests?
4. The best strategy/schedule for SAT practice tests
5. How not to use them: the seven most common practice test mistakes
6. Conclusion
Watch this article as a video:
Current SAT Practice Tests
Back before the SAT was redesigned in 2016 (and then went digital in 2023), there were oodles of past tests in circulation.
Not so for the SAT in its current form! For today’s Digital SAT takers, official SAT practice tests are a very limited resource, and you’ve got to make the most of the ones you have.
Nowadays, you have seven College Board practice tests to work with to get your target SAT score.
Newly Released Digital SAT Practice Tests
The number and type of College Board-issued Digital SAT practice tests have gone through a lot of changes in a relatively short amount of time. When the SAT changed over from paper-based to digital, back in 2023, we initially had only four official practice tests to use for our prep. Kind of a rough situation!
Then, about a year ago, the College Board released practice tests #5 and 6. Still not a ton, but better than four!
But in February of 2025, just a month ago, we had a curveball thrown at us: the College Board retired Blue Book practice tests 1, 2, and 3….but also released practice tests 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Which DSAT practice tests are available now?
So, the current stable of available practice tests looks like this:
You can still access practice tests #4, 5, and 6.
#7 is a totally new test.
#8, 9, and 10 are also new, BUT they recycle some of the questions that were in the now-retired practice tests #1, 2, and 3.
So if you're just starting your test prep now, you've got seven practice tests total to work with.
Please don't thoughtlessly burn through these precious, limited resources: once you've used them all up, they're gone.
Should You Use Unofficial Practice Tests?
I can hear the objections now: “But Kristina! What’s so magical about these official practice tests? There are mountains of other, unofficial prep exams out there, and they’re made by companies like the Princeton Review or Kaplan—can’t I just use those when I run out of the real deal?”
I get this question a lot from new clients! And it is true that any test prep company that creates practice tests will try their best to make those practice tests just like the real SAT.
But the problem is: even their “best” isn’t the same as the real thing, and that difference can mess up your efforts to figure out exactly how much progress you’ve made with your prep….and how far you still need to go, what exactly you should study, etc.
These unofficial practice tests will always differ from the real DSAT in ways that make them less useful for your content and strategy prep plan. I've analyzed all of the official Blue Book practice tests, and these are some of the differences I’ve noticed:
Non-College Board practice tests might not have the right proportion of question difficulties.
The real Digital SAT is computer adaptive: if you do well on the first module, you're going to get the harder second module, and vice versa. But on a test prep company’s practice test, the difficulty level of those questions might not actually be divvied up properly between, say, medium, medium-hard, and difficult Qs.
Non-official tests often scramble the correct order and distribution of certain question types.
The Blue Book tests tend to ask questions in a certain sequence, especially in the Reading and Writing module. This is a subtle choreography that’s tough for a test prep company to reproduce precisely. So, you might get one “Logically Completes” question in one module, but then on another you get two or none. An unofficial test might overdo it with the Sentence Completions and underdo it with the "Claims" questions. In the Math section, a fabricated practice test might give you too many Problem-Solving and Data Analysis problems and not enough Advanced Math topic Qs. Etc., etc.
The passages on non-official tests might be too hard or too easy (or too wordy or not wordy enough!) compared with the real thing...because, by their very nature, they’re NOT the “real thing”!
Finally, the curves of made-up tests, even when they’re excellent guesses, will simply not be 100% reliable. As you may know, the Digital SAT is scored so that a score always correlates to a particular percentile, which makes it impossible for a test prep company to know exactly what a certain number of correct answers would give you score-wise, IRL. By contrast, the College Board are the ones who actually make the real SAT and then dole out your real score based on the number of questions you got right per module and per section of the Digital SAT. So, they would know!
In short, it’s like hearing a tribute band singing “Pink Pony Club” in the style of Chappell Roan. While you’ll recognize the song and maybe even bob your head along, you’ll also know: it’s just not the real deal! And when you’re training for a milestone as important as the SAT, you don’t want to mess around with an imitation.
I hope that gives you a sense of why it’s important to work with the official Digital SATs, limited though they may be. Now it’s time for the more empowering stuff: I’m going to share my secrets for how you can get the very most out of these seven actual practice tests!
The Best SAT Practice Test Strategy
Here’s what you’re going to do, friend.
Use Bluebook SAT Practice Test #4 as your diagnostic test to understand where you are NOW and what you need to work on. Consult this post for guidance on how to take that diagnostic in lifelike testing conditions.
You’re going to take two to three (really, no more than three!) mock tests during the 4-5 weeks before your first actual SAT sitting. These will need to be done under realistic testing conditions (whether you pay for a mock test at a testing center or recreate them in your own home). Since we’ve already used test #4 as our diagnostic exam, we’re looking at College Board practice tests #5, 6, and 7 for your next two or three mock tests.
Before your second try at the Digital SAT—which, remember, most students end up taking at least twice!—you will take two more mock tests during the month before test day. Again, these are going to be timed, and taken under testing conditions. Of the three or four practice tests left at this point, you’re going to use tests #8 and 9. I would space them out such that you take #8 three or four weekends before the actual test date, and #9 two weeks or one week before.
If you need to take the SAT a third time to hit the numbers (or that add up to the Super Score) that satisfy your Target Score, you should still have Practice Test #10 (if not both #9 and 10!) remaining. Goody! You’ll probably take this practice test about two weeks before you actually head to the testing center.
Now you may be wondering, “Kristina, if I’m only using the Official Practice Tests for either diagnostic or mock testing, what do I use when it comes to test prep homework/drills?”
Again, I’m so glad you asked! See, since we clearly have each official test earmarked for a special spot in your study plan, you’ve rightly identified that you should NOT use these gems for ANYTHING other than a timed diagnostic or mock test!
Common SAT Practice Test Mistakes
Here are the wrong ways to use those extremely endangered species, practice tests:
To “just try out some math problems.”
To “just do a section for homework.”
To “try out” a Reading strategy—let's say a sentence completion strategy, or a tactic for working through a double passage or a poetry question.
To do only part of a module.
To do any portion of the test untimed.
To do a couple modules today and the rest tomorrow.
In short, to attempt any of these tests NOT in testing conditions!
It’s making me want to cry just THINKING about people wasting their precious SAT practice tests in any of those ways!
Instead, the seven items on that list are what those test prep company practice tests are for. If you want to do a practice section or practice module, or just want to attack some assorted math problems, go ahead and knock yourself out with Barron’s or Kaplan or PR or whatever NON-College Board book you want!
Make sense? Good!
Conclusion
As always, it’s been a pleasure to let you in on my tried and true methods for getting a stellar score. If you want (way) more personalized help with the process, please either contact me or book an Ace the Test: Game Plan. With the latter, I’ll do the big-picture thinking and make a customized plan to get you to your target score…so you can focus on the studying itself!
