When we help families construct their students' 4-year roadmap, we remind them that the optimal test approach involves taking the SAT in August between the 10th and 11th grades, and the ACT in September, both ensuring readiness for the October PSAT-11, which qualifies students for National Merit Scholarships.
Families have heard us talk about taking the "Test Trifecta" in the "prior-prior" year of high school graduation.
Trifecta Services: The Two-Step Test Preparation Strategy
Practicing is a two-step process: You sharpen the knowledge and skills required by practicing the content of the tests; and then, you sharpen your test skills by practicing on the tests themselves. These two activities are related but wholly different.
Step 1
You practice content on your own by exploiting free resources: The Khan Academy, the College Board, and the ACT Academy are outstanding resources for practicing content—free and official! Even tutor-learner online sessions are free, thanks to Schoolhouse.world, launched in Jan 2021. We do limited content practice sessions with you (see schedule).
When we assist you in Step 1, our tutors will use the official College Board guide or other resources for questions and practice during our sessions. We are not permitted to use Khan Academy content for IP reasons. However, students should use Khan Academy resources for self-practice.
Step 2
To practice test-taking, both the SAT and ACT offer numerous free official mock tests that were previously administered. More on this below.To construct your schedule, we start backwards from the big test day, always a Saturday for the SAT. There are seven official mock tests offered by the College Board, and nine offered by the ACT.
You take the first official mock test (self-test) and send us the results, including the detailed answer explanations.Then, during the first review session, you would sit with our tutor to forensically diagnose where you went wrong.
That is, when reviewing the detailed explanations for wrong answers, our tutor will help you track if you had more than one wrong answer in a topic area, such as Congruence and Similarity (Math), or Possessive Determiners (English Grammar). If yes, our tutor will take you back to the impacted section (Step 1 above) and review the content with targeted instruction to close any learning gaps.
Many students are too eager to believe that their foundational knowledge is so strong that a remedial review is unnecessary. For well-designed tests such as the SAT/ACT, which pry on tricking students, such over-confidence could impact test-day scores.
Your tutor is trained to zero in on the problem, collaboratively work with you to detect knowledge gaps, help close them during the session, and give you additional homework and practice exercises if necessary so that you are better prepared.
The next week, you take the second official mock test, send us your results, and appear for the second tutoring session. The tutor will again forensically diagnose your answer responses, and apply instructional training to close knowledge gaps. You get the idea.
We repeat the above regimen until test day.
Resources for practicing test-taking
Follow the three links below for resources on how to practice test-taking:Here's the link to the paper tests: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/practice/practice-tests/paper
Equivalent tests are available on Bluebook; this is the digital equivalent of the paper tests:
https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/students/download-bluebook
Here's the official College Board SAT Guide plus test package book. Our tutors use this book for all diagnostics review sessions. It is not necessary to have the latest edition.
How We Can Help
Our SAT/ACT/PSAT-11 product forms the bedrock of our test prep offering. Click here to understand how we are different. This link also contains a parent FAQ.Example 10-week SAT Test Prep Schedule: Test Date June 6
Here is a clean 10‑week SAT plan, including 10 sessions of SAT English Prep and 10 sessions of SAT Math prep. Highlights
SAT test date: June 6
- Work backward exactly 10 weeks to determine first session. (03/28/2026)
Session 10: June 3 (English) and June 4 (Math)
Session 9–3: Each week has
Saturday AM: Practice Test
Saturday PM: Math Review
Sunday AM: English Review
Skip May 2–15 (AP exams); Resume on May 16
Sessions 1–2: content practice on Sat PM + Sun AM
A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions.
Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.
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