Official SAT Practice Guidance for Teachers During School Closures

Dear SAT Teachers,

You may be wondering what you can be doing to help your students stay on track with their SAT prep. Khan Academy’s Test Prep team is working closely with College Board to arm you with as much information and help as possible during these disruptions. Our team has put together some answers to your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

I’m Dave, Khan Academy’s Senior Manager of Test Prep Content. Before joining Khan Academy, I ran a tutoring company in New York City for 18 years, and I’ve taught and coached SAT students all over the world, in classrooms and online. I’m honored to be able to share everything I learned in my tutoring career with our learners on Khan Academy’s Official SAT Practice.

We understand that it can be frustrating and disappointing to students when test dates are cancelled. We encourage you to remind your students that the SAT is administered several times every year—SAT prep is a long game, and they’ll have a chance to take the test later on this year. The more they do it, the better they’ll get!

Warmly,

Dave

•   •   •

I’m new to Khan or Official SAT Practice (OSP)? Where can I learn more?

If you’re new to Khan or Official SAT Practice, check out our Khan for Educators “Getting Started” materials here! Those materials have an SAT-specific section that you can focus on after getting your overall bearings on Khan.

What are the best things for my SAT students to do on Khan Official SAT Practice?

We know from research that the following three promising practices are associated with score improvements on the SAT.  

Take recommendations. Official SAT Practice creates personalized recommendations for students based on student performance and skill frequency in the SAT—students who follow recommendations show greater score increases. Note that students will need to have linked their College Board accounts or taken either a diagnostic quiz or full length practice test on OSP to receive personalized recommendations.

Do full length practice tests. Full-length timed practice tests are the best way to build the stamina students need on Test Day. We have eight full-length practice tests available to take online. Students can also print PDFs of the tests to take on paper. Let your students know that they can use the College Board’s Daily Practice app to scan-and-score their bubble sheets, get a score report, and update their practice recommendations!

Learn test-taking strategies while reviewing the questions you get wrong. Each question in our system features step-by-step solutions and in-depth explanations, and we also have hundreds of articles and worked example videos designed to help students move from understanding not only how to do each problem, but also to better understand how to identify opportunities to use specific procedures efficiently on Test Day.

What kind of study schedule should my students follow?

Here is one suggested distance learning study schedule that our team has put together for SAT teachers. We recognize that every classroom is different, so feel free to adapt our suggestions as you see fit.

How do I ensure my students are actually working on SAT Practice?

Khan Academy’s teacher tools allow you to view student activity on Official SAT Practice.

The types of activity you can view include:

• Time students have spent studying
• Number of questions students have practiced
• Percent of questions students have practiced that come from personalized recommendations
• Whether students have linked their College Board accounts 

Please consult this guide for more details about what these capabilities look like (including screenshots), where to find them, and how to enable them.

How can I motivate or encourage my students amidst distance learning?

Office hours: Some teachers have set up a daily Google Meet/Hangout or Zoom meeting that they are calling “office hours”. They share the link with their students, and students can stop by to get help with questions they’re having trouble with from the homework. Top tip: When students share their screens, it makes it easier for you to help as a teacher.

Check-ins: If you’re setting up real-time meetings with students, consider asking students to check-in using a template statement. For instance, you could have a student say “Today on Official SAT Practice, I worked on X, Y, and Z skills and leveled up on X and Y. I think I did a really good job on X skill. I’m looking for help on Z skill. Tomorrow, I plan to work on Q.” 

Leaderboards: You could experiment with a shared spreadsheet to keep your students connected, and to foster friendly community competition. You could update the spreadsheet weekly to include current information from your class’s SAT Practice Activity report, including details like 1) total questions attempted, 2) percent of questions attempted that were recommended, and 3) total time spent. NOTE: We don’t recommend sharing practice test results or levels.  

What should I do if my students don’t have reliable internet or device access at home?

Beyond the Official SAT Practice online product, College Board and Khan provide various offline, printable materials that can help students with their SAT practice. 

These materials include:

• PDFs for eight full-length practice tests - download here
• Study guides for students covering numerous topics across both Math and Reading/Writing, which include sample questions - download here

Please consult with your school or district administration regarding distribution of printed materials. If your school or district has lunch pickups, distributing these materials through those pickups might be one option.

Also note that, as of now, Official SAT Practice works best on laptop browsers and is not optimized for the smaller screen size of phones. Official SAT Practice is accessible via browser, but is not a part of the Khan Academy mobile app.

My students' plans for taking the SAT have changed, how can Official SAT Practice and Khan still be helpful to them?

The topics covered on Official SAT Practice should align with foundational high school Math and English skills. These skills include:

• Math
  • Trigonometry
  • Geometry
  • Linear equations
  • Quadratic equations
  • Ratios, rates, and proportions
  • Interpreting graphs and tables
  • Word problems
• Reading & Writing
  • Grammar practice
  • Effective language use practice
  • Writing practice
  • Reading practice in a variety of topic areas

Khan Academy also offers a wide variety of high school course content beyond Official SAT Practice, which you can access by clicking “Courses” in our navigation menu at the top of every page.