For parents and guardians
SAT study week: a 7-day template
Written for parents to use with their student. Adjust times to your family's schedule. Plan on about 5 hours total.
Before you start (parent, 10 minutes)
- Choose a quiet spot and a consistent time
- Install College Board's Bluebook testing software on the device your student will test on, and find the official practice materials offered inside it
- Have scratch paper and a pencil ready
- Agree on phones away during blocks
Your role
Set the schedule, protect the time, ask "what did you learn?" afterwards. You do not need to teach the content.
The week
Day 1: Baseline (60 min)
- 30 min: untimed warm-up in Reading and Writing
- 30 min: untimed warm-up in Math
- Mark every question that felt shaky
Day 2: Math skills (45 min)
- 25 min: practice on one math topic (e.g., linear equations)
- 15 min: practice using Desmos to graph and find intersections
- 5 min: write 1 thing learned
Day 3: Reading and Writing skills (45 min)
- 25 min: transitions and words in context
- 15 min: sentence boundaries and punctuation
- 5 min: write 1 thing learned
Day 4: Rest or light review (15 min)
- Read through the error list so far
Day 5: Timed practice (70 min)
- One timed module of Reading and Writing (32 min)
- 5 min break
- One timed module of Math (35 min)
Day 6: Review (60 min)
- Go through every miss and every guess
- For each, write the reason: did not know / misread / careless / ran out of time
- Redo missed items without notes
Day 7: Reset and plan (30 min)
- Count reasons: which is most common?
- Pick next week's focus (one math topic, one reading skill)
- Celebrate the effort: favorite meal or activity
Weekly check-in questions for parents
- What was the hardest question this week?
- What will you do differently next time?
- What do you need from me?
Reminders
Official practice is the best match for the real test. Results vary by student; no score is guaranteed.