Hey everyone,

If you took the May SAT, your scores should be out now. Some of you got the scores you needed, while others may want a retake. Regardless of how it went, though, I wanted to provide a little insight from the side of a tutor and perfect scorer. Let's get right into it.

Insight #1: Reading/Writing got MUCH harder this time around.

This is something I've seen consistently reported, not just from the students I tutored 1-on-1, but from Reddit discussions as well. Many students reported feeling squeezed by the timing and unfamiliar vocab words, as well as these super lengthy, verbose passages. It wasn't just a Module 2 thing, but in fact BOTH modules that felt super hard, whereas Math felt much easier in comparison.

If you fell into this camp (RW much harder than Math), I would definitely spam the SAT question bank or Adaptilearn filtered by "Hard" questions on RW. But remember, if you can bring up Math to a 770-780, it greatly reduces the strain on your RW score. Many people were also worried they got an easier Math Module 2 because the difficulty was so much lower, but even the "Hard" Module 2 can vary in difficulty and appear slightly easier, without necessarily being the "Easy" module.

Insight #2: Bluebook Practice Tests are good, but not enough.

This is particularly true for students in the 1400-1500 range. Whereas most of my students in the 1000-1100 range improved their scores up to 200 points, the students in the 1400 range stayed stuck. Why? Well, at the upper score range, the "hardest" questions between the practice tests and the actual test differ wildly.

If you only practice with the question bank or Bluebook tests, you can get a false impression of the difficulty of the real thing. The SAT is always adding new questions, so it's best to focus on the more recent tests (like Test #11) and the most recent additions to the question bank. Otherwise, you might get stumped with a question pattern you've never seen before (and exactly the reason I recommend using something more realistic like Point One Prep).

Insight #3: Prepare for "Desmos-Proof" Math and "Logic Gap" RW Questions

Even though the Math section felt easier for some, the College Board is increasingly moving away from Desmos-able questions. The "predator and prey" Math question that came up at the end of Module 2 required careful consideration of percent rules - something that takes real human cognition rather than brute force plug-and-chug into Desmos.

On the Reading/Writing side, transition questions are evolving. Instead of just choosing a transition that "sounds right", you now (more than ever) need to identify the "logic gap" - the unstated missing premise between two complex sentences. It's likely only going to get harder from here.

If you took the May SAT, how did you feel? Reply and let me know. But if you're taking in June or later, just beware - the test is always changing, so I'd make sure to avoid rote memorization and be sure to practice the hardest question types that come up to build up your cognitive stamina.

Keep prepping,

Dan