Few things fill high schoolers with more dread than preparing for college entrance exams. Your entire academic career is boiled down to three hours of multiple choice and short answer questions, and the results of the test could dictate your college options.

Thankfully, there are free tools you can use to help you boost your SAT score. For example, Khan Academy’s SAT Course offers customized test prep to help you focus on the areas that need the most work.

If you’re preparing to apply for college, and you don’t want to pay for expensive private tutoring, then Khan Academy’s SAT prep course may offer your best chance to boost your SAT score. Here’s how it works.

What Is The Khan Academy SAT Prep Course?

The Khan Academy SAT Prep Course is a free online course that Khan Academy developed in conjunction with The College Board (the company that offers the SAT). You can connect to your College Board account so that Khan Academy’s Artificial Intelligence can analyze past test results. Then it provides a customized practice plan based on your weakest areas.

The course doesn’t merely offer tips for understanding the SAT, it offers specific areas for review, practice questions in your weakest areas, and up to eight full-length practice tests. It’s a robust self-paced course designed to help motivated students who want to dramatically improve their test scores.

What Does It Offer?

Khan Academy offers SAT-focused test prep that includes concept review, practice questions for your focus area, and full-length practice tests.

Tailored Practice Plan

Khan Academy reviews your performance on previous College Board tests (like the PSAT or a previous SAT attempt) to determine the areas that require more focus. Using those results, the course suggests practice questions and concept reviews that will help you shore up your weakest areas. By boosting your scores in your weakest areas, you should see the highest overall growth.

The tailored plan is AI-based, so it’s not the same as customized tutoring offered by PrepExpert or IvyWise. That said, students who are willing to put in the time and effort may be able to get as much out of this free course as they would out of expensive private tutors.

SAT Test Tips and Strategies

The SAT is a 3-hour test, and the question formats can be confusing if you aren’t familiar with SAT questions. The course offers test-taking strategies related to time management, recognizing question types, and finding ways to maximize your score based on your current knowledge. These strategies can be especially helpful for people who have a solid understanding of the concepts being tested by the SAT but have struggled with time management and other related issues.

Eight Full-Length Practice Tests

Practice makes perfect, and Khan Academy’s prep course allows for ample test practice, so you can put your new knowledge and strategies to the test. Simply taking a few practice tests can help you develop more confidence about the types of questions you can expect and the pacing you need to hit to make it through the test. These practice tests also allow you to track progress as you review your weakest concepts.

Recommended Practice Schedule

Figuring out how much to practice for the SAT, and when to fit that practice in can be tough for people applying for college. The SAT Prep course actually maps that out for you based on your planned test date. If you start the course during your Junior year, you may be able to spread your practice over several months, so you only need to spend an hour or two per week on practice. The schedule can help you build an appropriate practice habit as you prepare to excel on the SAT.

Are There Any Fees?

The Khan Academy SAT Prep course is completely free for all users. You still must pay for official SAT tests and PSAT tests. If the fees are a concern, you can speak to your school about fee waivers, or you can ask The College Board directly for the fee waiver.

How Does Khan Academy SAT Prep Course Compare?

Khan Academy offers an incredibly robust SAT Prep Course for no cost. The customizations combined with the full-length practice tests, general tips and strategies, and concept reviews make it one of the most comprehensive courses in the market. Companies like Princeton Review, Prep Expert, and Ivy Wise offer similar material but cost thousands of dollars. The difference is that the companies that cost thousands offer classroom sessions and one-on-one tutoring that can help elevate the quality of your practice time.

The other drawback associated with Khan Academy is that it doesn’t necessarily re-teach foundational concepts. It assumes that you have the foundational knowledge necessary to perform at a high level on the SAT. While the course offers written and video instructions, the content tends to be focused on the specific questions at hand. If you struggled with Algebra or Geometry, you may need individual tutoring on those concepts instead of more SAT test prep.

In general, using Khan Academy’s SAT Prep course during your junior year makes a ton of sense. If you still feel unprepared, or you think you can elevate your score further, consider enlisting an expensive private tutor during the summer between your Junior and Senior years to help you elevate your score.

How Do I Open A Khan Academy Account?

Opening a Khan Academy account is fast and free. You can use an email and password, or you can connect using Google, Clever, Facebook, or Apple. Once you’ve done the basic connections, you have access to all Khan Academy courses including the SAT Prep Course.

Is It Safe And Secure?

Khan Academy uses encryption to protect your personal information (including your practice test results) secure. Data transmitted between Khan Academy and The College Board is also encrypted during transit. While Khan Academy doesn’t collect much personal information from its users, you can be confident that your data will not be sold or transmitted without your specific consent.

The only issue with Khan Academy is that it doesn’t require multi-factor authentication. Once you’ve logged in, you don’t need to verify your identity with a text message or some other form of identification. This isn’t a huge issue, but it could introduce some risk of targeted hack attacks where a hacker steals information from a specific person instead of going after an entire cloud-based server.

How Do I Contact Khan Academy?

Khan Academy is a non-profit, and it doesn’t have a huge customer support team. You can typically find the answers to most of your questions through either the Khan Academy help center or through the community forums. The company also has a chatbot on the main website page for those who are interested in finding answers via chat.

Khan Academy does not publish a customer service phone number or email address.

Is It Worth It?

The SAT Prep course from Khan Academy is absolutely worthwhile, especially for people who have a strong baseline SAT score. The strategies, practice tests and content can help you elevate your SAT score with just 6-20 hours of practice time.

If your score is lower than the 1000s, you may need to review some of the concepts with a tutor or teacher before you embark on a journey to increase your SAT score through intentional practice.

Check out Khan Academy SAT Prep Course here >>

Khan Academy SAT Prep Course Features