The Best SAT Reading Practice Tests and Questions

The Best SAT Reading Practice Tests and Questions SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When preparing for SAT Reading, it’s crucial to use high-quality practice materials that accurately reflect the content of the real test. In this article, I will go through the best resources for SAT Reading practice materials, both online and in printed prep books. Why Are High-Quality SAT Practice Materials So Important? If you practice with low-quality materials, you’ll end up with low-quality results no matter how long you spend studying.Many test-prep companies release their own versions of SAT questions that are supposedly comparable to questions on the real test.DO NOT use these questions exclusively for practice! The SAT creates questions in a very specific standardized format, and if you’re not used to it, you could be in for a rude awakening on the test.Additionally, using mostly unofficial practice materials will invariably give you a skewed sense of your expected SAT score.You don’t want to think you’re scoring at a certain level and then be faced with a nasty surprise when your scores on the real SAT are much lower. For the Reading section, it’s doubly important to find practice materials that are high quality because there are always two components: the questions and the passages.Even if the questions are in the same format as questions on the real SAT, if the passages aren’t at the same difficulty level, you won’t be getting great practice (and vice versa). On top of using high-quality materials, you should also use realistic time constraints when you take practice tests.If you don’t time yourself accurately, you will not be able to reliably predict your scores on the real test.Time is a huge factor on the SAT, and learning to manage it properly is key to earning a high score. For the SAT Reading section, you'll have 65 minutes to answer 52 questions. In the next couple of sections, I'll list some of the best resources for SAT Reading practice materials. Free Printable Official SAT Reading Practice Tests This first set of printable official practice test PDFsaccurately reflects the material currently covered on the SAT: Practice Test 1:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 2:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 3:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 4:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 5:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 6:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 7:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 8:Questions|Answers|Answer Explanations Practice Test 9: Questions | Answers| Answer Explanations Practice Test 10: Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations You also have access to four other printable tests that are from before the 2016 SAT redesign. You can still use those if you run out of materials, but keep in mind that the test has changed significantly. Stay familiar with the most up-to-date format and content even if you use some passage-based reading questions from these old tests for practice. Note that Sentence Completion questions are no longer part of the Reading section, so you should skip over them if you're using older practice materials. Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2013-14:Questions|Solutions Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2012-13:Questions|Solutions Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2007-08:Questions|Solutions Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2004-05:Questions|Solutions Online SAT Reading Practice This section goes over the best SAT Reading practice you can find online. It includes both official and unofficial sources. The College Board Official College Board questions are the best way to practice for the SAT, so their online resources in terms of practice questions are the best ones you can find.The website gives you immediate feedback on whether you answered a question correctly as well as answer explanations (though these explanations are not always as thorough as they should be in terms of explaining why wrong answers are wrong). The automatic scoring is great, but it isn’t a substitute for taking a real timed practice test with pencil and paper,so make sure you supplement with printable tests as well. Khan Academy Khan Academy has partnered directly with the College Board, so they useofficial SAT questions to help you practice. That means the materials are some of the best you can find outside of the College Board website itself. You cansign up for a free account here. One negative for this website is that thetotal number of practice questions is limited,so you will probably have to supplement it with other resources. It's especially sparse on Reading questions for the time being. It also doesn't include test-taking strategies, and its lessons and answer explanations aren't quite as in-depth as they should be for students who don't understand the questions. However, it does include multiple videos, which some people find more helpful than written explanations. You canread more about the pros and cons of the Khan Academy program in this article. PrepScholar Not to toot our own horn, but toot.We offer a free five-day trial of our test-prep program.The program will assess your strengths and weaknesses and give you practice questions to fit the specific areas where you need improvement.Basically, it does all the hard work of SAT studying (analyzing your problem areas and zeroing in on where you make the most mistakes) for you! The downside of this is that the questions are technically unofficial, and you do have to pay to sign up for PrepScholar after the free trial. However, our test experts have worked very hard to make the questions as similar to material on the real SAT as possible, and you'll get your money back if you don't improve by 160 points or more. CrackSAT.net There are a ton of free SAT Reading practice tests on this website that you can download. It will give you answer keys along with PDFs of the tests so you can print out, take, and score everything yourself.This means you’re going to have to rely on your own hard work to understand your mistakes, which takes a little more time, but it’s rewarding in the end. Ivy Global Test-prep company Ivy Global offers two full-length unofficial SAT practice tests. Although these tests weren't made by the College Board, theystrongly resemble official SAT practice tests in both form and content.This is a great resource to use if you exhaust all official practice tests but still want some additional SAT Reading practice. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! SAT Reading Prep Books You can find further practice tests and materials in SAT prep books, although they can also get expensive. The Official SAT Study Guide ("Blue Book") The old edition of this book includes10 official SAT practice tests. If you get that version, you can practice your skills with the passage-based reading questions, which are still relevant today. The version of The Official SAT Study Guide thatwas released for the current SAT(pictured above) is not quite as helpful- it has eight practice tests, but they're already all available online for free. SAT Prep Black Book, Second Edition This book doesn't include its own practice materials, but it's full of great strategic advice for the SAT. The Black Bookreferences questions in the first four official SAT practice tests, so if you buy this book you should also download those four official SAT practice tests (for free!). The Black Book is particularly helpful on the Reading section, with a list of particular meanings of words like "anticipate" or "counter" that you'll need to know to answer Reading passage questions. Itwill also give you in-depth answer explanations for all the sections and insightful tips on how to get around the tricky wording of the questions. The Complete Guide to SAT Reading by Erica Meltzer This book is consistently one of our top picks for SAT Reading prep work.It breaks down the types of questions you’ll see, teaches you the skills you’ll need, and shows you how to consistently eliminate three out of four answers on every question.The sample passages in the book are also high quality, closely resemblingwhat you’ll see on the real SAT, so they’re great for practice! How to Get the Most From Your SAT Reading Practice Tests Now you know where to get the best SAT Reading practice tests, but you also need to know how to use them properly. Below are three tips to help you get the most out of your SAT practice tests and quizzes. Use Strict Timing It'simportant to follow official SAT time limits on practice tests. If you give yourself even just two extra minutes on the SAT Reading section, it could raise your section score significantly. Because you have more time to answer questions,your practice SAT Readingscore becomes inflated and doesn't give you an accurate indicator of your actual ability. The SAT Reading section lasts 65 minutes. That gives you about 75 seconds to answer each of the 52 Reading questions. Stick to this timing when you take practice tests! Review Your Mistakes Practice tests aren't just good for learning the format of the SAT Reading section- they're also great for helping you learn from your mistakes. For every practice SAT Reading section you take, spend time reviewing both questions you got wrong and questions you got right. If you don't know why you missed a question, don't just skip it and move on; doing so will keep you from learning what kind of mistake you made, raising your risk of making it over and over again. This habit can hamper your score pretty drastically. It's better to take three Reading sections with detailed review than 10 sections withoutreview. Don't Forget to Take a Complete SAT Although this article is specifically for SAT Reading practice, you'll want to take at least two complete SATs(and ideally four) during your study program so you'll be prepared for every section and know how well you hold up after several hours of testing. Check out our guide for free and official SAT practice tests. Summary: How to Use SAT Reading Practice Tests In preparing for SAT Reading, it's so important to use the best possible practice materials available to you.This means materials that most closely resemble what you’ll see on the real test. The best way to do this is to use mainly official SAT questions that come directly from the College Board.You can access these through a number of free printable PDFs of past full-length tests, SAT practice websites such as Khan Academy, and official prep books.If you want even more practice, you can use unofficial Reading questions, as long as you understand that these will not be as accurate as official questions. If you work on understanding your mistakes on questions that closely resemble the ones on the real test, you’ll be on your way to a great SAT Reading score! What's Next? Now that you have all these practice resources, read this articleto get some of our best tips for boosting your score on the SAT Reading section. More of a science and math person who's worried about the reading section? Take a look at my article on how to do well on SAT Reading for science- and math-oriented students. Also, read my article on the fundamental strategy of SAT Reading to learn about the #1 rule to keep in mind when answering each Reading question! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Reading lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial: