Key Takeaways
When Crystal, a high school senior from Great Falls, Montana, changed gears to seriously prepare for the SAT, the best Digital SAT providers online was her first search. She had spoken to college counsellors, friends, and professors, and there was one piece of advice they all gave: focus on full-length practice tests.
In this blog, we’ll compare the significant Digital SAT providers so that you can choose the one that’s best for you.
But before that, we’ll take a quick look at the SAT. Potential test-takers seeking college admissions often ask, ‘Should I take the SAT or ACT?’ We’ll help you answer that as well. Next, we’ll touch upon the benefits of online SAT prep courses.
Finally, we’ll wind up with a short summary of the factors you should consider while choosing the right SAT test provider. So, let’s begin!
What is the SAT?
The SAT is a standardized test whose scores the colleges use to make admission decisions. The College Board is the body that conducts the SAT.
The Digital SAT, which is now the correct name, evaluates a student’s knowledge of math and English. It has been conducted in digital format since March 2024, and the paper and pencil version has been gradually phased out.
The Digital SAT: An overview
- The Digital SAT has two sections.
- The total SAT score lies between 400 and 1,600. Each of the two sections is scored between 200 and 800.
- The first section tests the student’s knowledge of English, while the second section tests the student’s math skills.
- The Digital SAT is an adaptive test.
- Each section has two modules: the base module and the adaptive module. The adaptive module will adapt based on the student’s performance in the base module.
How is the SAT different from the ACT?
Like the SAT, the ACT (originally known as American College Testing) is a college admission test widely accepted by most colleges in the USA. Although both tests evaluate a student’s math and language skills, there are some differences between them.
The SAT awards scores between 400 and 1,600, while the ACT scores range between 1 and 36. The Digital SAT doesn’t have an essay writing section, while the ACT has an option for such a section. The Digital SAT doesn’t test you on science; against that, the ACT has a section that evaluates your critical thinking skills using science. As a result, the ACT is longer; you need about 3 hours for the ACT against the 2 hours and 14 minutes of the SAT.
Finally, the SAT is administered entirely over a digital device (e.g. a laptop or an iPad), while the ACT is a paper-and-pencil test.
Should I take the SAT or the ACT?
Colleges and other institutions use the SAT or ACT scores to make decisions on admissions as well as merit- and need-based financial aid. Remember, most colleges do not prefer one over the other.
As mentioned in the previous section, there are some differences between the SAT and the ACT, but the good news is that these differences aren’t huge.
The best part? Recently, the College Board made some changes to the SAT, so it’s possible to prepare for both tests simultaneously. This also means that the SAT is neither harder nor easier than the ACT.
One of the easiest ways to decide whether to take the SAT or the ACT is to write full-length practice tests for both.
The 9 Best Digital SAT Test Providers
Out of the many online practice tests and providers of online SAT courses, we have shortlisted 8. They offer some of the best SAT practice tests out there. The mock SATs from College Bard and Edison are special because they most accurately mimic the real SAT.
The College Board - Official SAT practice tests
The College Board designs and conducts the Digital SAT. Fortunately, they also offer practice SATs, so you can trust that the questions you'll see on your device on test day will be similar to those in the Bluebook practice tests.
These tests are available for free and don't come with a score improvement guarantee. Yet, because they are provided by the test maker itself, the Bluebook mock tests are an important component of your test prep.
Number of tests: 4
Price: Free
Requirements: Available on select devices like a Windows PC, a Mac, a school-managed Chromebook
Solutions included: Yes
How to use Bluebook tests
You shouldn't miss the Bluebook practice tests because they come from the company that makes the SAT. But how do you make the best use of Bluebook tests?
So here's something that will sweeten the deal further. Once you've taken the practice tests, go to Bluebook insights page. Upload the score card and score details that the College Board has given you.
Based on this, Edison will generate an analysis that's unique for you and your performance. This report will first have a section-level analysis of your performance. Next, it will show the breakdown of your performance topic-wise and tag-wise. This will cut through all the flab and tell you directly where you need to focus and how you can do it.
Once you've taken the Bluebook tests, this is one thing no serious test-taker should miss.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy, founded in 2006, is a not-for-profit online education organization. It has partnered with the College Board and currently offers test prep for the SAT.
What makes Khan Academy special
- Their associate site Schoolhouse lets you have concept-specific help. Need advanced algebra help? Calculus? Geometry? No problem, you'll find concepts, questions, and detailed explanations for all this, and more.
- They regularly conduct bootcamps. For instance, as we write this, there’s a 4-week bootcamp course coming up - and it’s absolutely free.
- After you write the official SAT practice exams, you can log into Khan Academy and get a personalized study plan to help you improve your score further.
- Everything under Khan Academy is free to students since the organization runs on donations.
- As an official partner with the College Board, Khan Academy grants you unlimited access to their entire literature for the SAT.
Other notes
There’s no distinct disadvantage of using Khan Academy to prepare for the Digital SAT. However, there are a few points you might want to keep in mind.
First, unlike the other businesses offering online SAT prep courses, on-demand tutoring is missing. You must set your schedules as per their own. It might work for some students but not for everyone.
Secondly, the SAT prep process is complex, and volunteers from a not-for-profit may have their own challenges cracking this process. There’s a good number of SAT success stories coming out of the Khan Academy, but this challenge hasn’t quite gone away.
Edison
There are two strong reasons students and educators prefer Edison over other companies.
One, their test interface mimics the actual SAT down to the last pixel. As a result, once you write Edison's practice test, you'll be confident in taking the actual SAT.
And two, all the questions in their practice tests not only reflect those found in the actual Bluebook but also follow the exact difficulty-level gradient. As a result, the test-taking strategies that you devise while writing Edison's mock SATs will be fully effective when you write the actual SAT.
What makes Edison special
- Accurate questions: A SAT prep course is only as strong as the extent to which its questions accurately reflect the real test. You probably know this, but Edison’s mock test accurately mimics the Bluebook questions, making it the most authentic mock SAT out there.
- Test-like interface: As the test date approaches, you want to be more sure than ever that you’ve practiced enough on a test interface that perfectly matches the actual exam. That’s exactly what Edison’s mock test gives you.
- Flexibility: If you are a student planning to take the SAT, online prep is probably a great idea because of its flexibility. If you're an education company offering SAT prep services, you want to put your students through the right experience. Either way, Edison is what you need.
- Fully adaptive: It’s designed just the way of the actual test - it’s fully adaptive. Hence, what questions a student gets in the 2nd module in both sections will depend on how they’ve fared in the 1st module.
- Appropriate difficulty: Most test prep companies fail at designing the SAT because their questions are either too easy or way too hard. Edison has built their mock test like a true prep expert, because the difficulty level of every single question matches the difficulty level of the actual SAT questions
Other notes
Edison has helped a big number of edupreneurs and education companies by arming them with rich content and a strong technological platform.
One of the most significant aspects of Edison is their attention to details. They studied the Bluebook questions carefully in order to understand the way in which the College Board arrange questions of various difficulty levels.
Using that as an absolute reference, Edison next sourced questions that would be accurate replicas of real SAT questions. After that, they put together the practice test - a test which matches the actual SAT at every stage, in every question. Now students can stop worrying if their preparations are going in the right direction and spend time focusing on areas they need to improve.
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review offers multiple SAT courses for aspirants. But first, let's talk about their free SAT practice test.
As expected, the test interface mimics the real SAT. There's an added bonus; if you wish to prepare a set of flashcards, you can do so for free.
Important features of The Princeton Review
The test is sectional-adaptive, just like the Digital SAT.
- The format and the interface accurately mimic what you’d see in the actual tests.
- The test has answers with detailed explanations.
- You’ll also see the other tools you’ll use on your d-day.. For instance, you’ll see the desmos calculator and get to use the annotation tools.
- You can mark and skip questions so that you can come back if you wish
- Their self-paced courses start from $499 and can be accessed for one year.
- Subject to their conditions, there’s a score guarantee. Which means if you don’t get a certain minimum score but otherwise fulfill their other conditions, you are eligible for a fee refund.
Other notes
We might as well mention that the screen and layout are a bit cluttered. And because there are many options, your search will throw up results that are not all that relevant.
For instance, we searched for "SAT practice tests". And results we were shown were related, but not hugely relevant. And don't forget these are the top results.
Secondly, we’ve heard from more than one source that some questions on the Princeton Review practice tests are unreasonably hard as compared to the actual SAT. While that might sound like fun to some, it might stress out a lot of other students. And more importantly, it won’t give you a precise idea of the exact difficulty level of the actual tests.
Magoosh
Although Magoosh was founded almost three decades after The Princeton Review, they have grown rapidly.
Their growth, in a great part, owes to their course content team. That's why they appear on our list of digital SAT providers.
Important features of Magoosh
- The detailed explanations at the end of their tests are brief yet quite good.
- They have some interesting study plans. For instance, they have this plan where you improve your score by 100 points after putting in just 20 minutes of study every day.
- They have a database of over 1,750 practice questions. For most students, this should be sufficient practice.
- You get videos for every lesson that you can study at your pace. And there’s a dashboard that will not only suggest what videos you should watch next but also tells you where you stand compared to other students.
- Their sole focus is online coaching; they don’t seem to have in-class courses. So they’ve built their core competency around online coaching..
- Many of their pricing plans are highly competitive. And they, like most other test prep companies, regularly run discount offers. So before buying, be sure to check if there’s a scheme running.
Other notes
There are certainly some advantages for test-takers who choose Magoosh for their test prep.
Against that, we feel that when it comes to SAT strategies, Magoosh has some ground to cover. It teaches general concepts all right, but how do you connect them to the SAT? What kind of strategies do you need? How should I use this concept if the question was turned some other way? There are parts in some videos that don’t clearly address such questions.
Finally, there’s no private tutoring available. So if you need a few one-to-one sessions with a tutor, Magoosh won’t be able to help you there.
Kaplan
This is another major name in the test-prep sector. Any important list of effective SAT courses with practice tests will mention Kaplan.
Kaplan offers a range of courses for students and professionals, so SAT is not their only focus.
Important features of Kaplan
- After you take their full length practice test, you will get a score and a detailed report. This report will tell you about your strengths and weaknesses.
- You also get access to videos and additional practice. These videos and practice material is meant to help you in some of the most important areas of the SAT.
- The test-like interface gives you the opportunity to see what the real test would look like.
- You can purchase the Digital SAT course, which starts at $799. Depending upon what kind of help you need, the courses can also include live teaching, course books, live proctored tests, and other add-ons.
- Apart from the SAT test, they have interesting variants. One is where you get a question every day - technically, that’s like spending just one minute per day on your preps. The other is where everyday you get 12 exam-style questions to be solved in 20 minutes.
- Kaplan regularly conducts bootcamps for SAT prep. That typically includes practice tests and sessions with expert instructors. Currently, the pricing starts at $799.
Other notes
As a company that offers online SAT test prep, with a considerable track record of improving student performance, Kaplan enjoys a significant brand value. However, that also allows them to set prices that appear expensive. So if you have a tight budget, you’ll want to explore Kaplan alternatives.
Secondly, there have been remarks on third-party review sites that say Kaplan’s refund policy is a little too harsh. Finally, Kaplan being a large organization, you can't expect them to be super quick in their tech support when you compare them with smaller companies offering SAT prep courses.
Other digital SAT test providers
We have covered all the major Digital SAT test providers. However, there are three others that are worth mentioning.
Barrons
Barrons is a well-known publisher of test prep books. Their website has different options through which you can prepare for a variety of tests. Not all their online resources are in the digital SAT adaptive format, so be careful using these resources.
Test Ninjas
Another digital SAT practice platform is the Test Ninjas. They claim to have a database of over 10,000 questions that are relevant for the SAT.
Their course is priced at US$ 149.
Rtest
RTest offers a number of SAT preparations alternatives, including one of 7 days (current promotional price $99.99). Plans for individual tests are also available.
How to choose the best Digital SAT test provider
With so many alternatives out there, it's obvious you've often asked yourself a question like 'How do I choose the best Digital SAT test provider?'. The four points mentioned below will help you make intelligent choices.
- Comprehensive: Your test prep provider should be comprehensive in terms of being adaptive, using accurate questions, and choosing the right difficulty level of the questions.
- Accurate: Zero down on only those tests with questions that accurately mimic the actual ones. Anything else is a waste of time.
- Insightful: A test is of little value if it can't help you improve. Go for a provider that generates the most actionable insights and feedback.
- Value for money: Expensive isn't necessarily better. Be sure to choose a service that gives you the best RoI against the fees you pay. And don't settle for the cheapest either. It's your future at stake, after all.
Over to you
At the end of the day, you'll have to make your own decision, so you better start early. Ask friends and teachers. Check out the reviews. Don't be afraid of asking direct, specific questions to any test prep company you speak to. Their answers will provide you better understanding of what to look for.
After all, every student has a different learning style. And based on that, every educator will take a different approach to improve student engagement, teach better, and help students get higher scores. The best place to begin is to take a test and see what you'll require.
Go ahead, take a free practice SAT now. That will be a great place to start. Why not do it now?
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