Why Most SAT Practice Doesn't Lead to Higher Scores

The problem isn't how much your student practices. It's how.

One of the biggest problems in SAT preparation is that students spend hours doing practice questions without clear methods for working through them. They read the passage, pick the answer that “flows” or “clicks” or otherwise seems right, check whether they got it correct, perhaps seek out a sensible sounding explanation for any questions they missed, rinse, and repeat.

Credit where it’s due: that does constitute practice, and it’s probably better than nothing. (Only “probably” because it could be reinforcing bad habits.) But it doesn’t describe effective practice, and that distinction is what separates students who achieve significant score gains from those who stay stuck no matter how much grinding they do.

My SAT Reading & Writing Score Accelerator course is geared to put students on a different trajectory. Every practice set is tied to specific strategies taught in the preceding units. Students don’t just knock out practice questions in whatever ad hoc fashion feels right to them in the moment. They apply a defined process, step by step, and then receive detailed explanations that walk through that same process so they can see exactly where their own approach aligned or diverged.

Take for example my brand new course unit, just published yesterday: a timed practice set on Command of Evidence Comparison questions. Below are my instructions for the practice set, which provide both a sneak peak into the course and a glimpse into how I’ve structured it to sidestep the pitfalls discussed above and set students up for success:

“Before you start, make sure you’ve thoroughly studied Unit 5.3 (strategies for COE Comparison questions) and Unit 5.4 (strategies for parsing comparisons). These practice questions are designed to be worked using the specific techniques from those units — the Scale Method, the 3-Round Elimination Process, and the approach to “weaken” questions covered there.

The goal here is deliberate practice. That means actively applying each step of the process as you work through the questions, not just reading the passages and picking the answer that “feels right.” If you find yourself skipping steps or falling back on instinct, slow down and return to the framework. Building reliable habits with these techniques now is what will make them automatic on test day.”

Before students ever touch these practice questions, they work through two full units covering the techniques they’ll need: how to parse the comparison being made, how to identify the compared elements and the claimed relationship, and how to systematically eliminate answer choices using a structured, repeatable process.

In my 10+ years as a full-time test prep tutor, I’ve learned that such sequencing is the difference between productive work and busywork. When a student sits down to work through my mock questions, they aren’t just guessing and checking. They’re actually training. That’s critically important, because as I often tell my students: when pressure mounts on test day, we don’t rise to the occasion — we fall to the level of our training.

This is how Score Accelerator is designed from start to finish: step-by-step strategies first, then targeted practice with full explanations that reinforce the method. Every week also includes live Zoom sessions with me plus a video replay, so students can learn directly from the course creator and revisit the material as needed.

Enrollment is now open for my 6-week Score Accelerator program leading up to the May 2nd SAT. Classes start Tuesday, March 24th. Enroll by 5pm PT this Sunday for a $50 discount using code MAY2WIN.

To enroll, click here.

~ Dave

Note: This post was originally published on the Walker Prep website, where you can find more SAT Reading & Writing resources.