As students prepare for upcoming SAT and Preliminary SAT (PSAT) dates, questions may arise regarding how to prepare, what to study, and what happens after they take the test.

These upcoming dates for 2025 include Nov. 8 and Dec. 6 for the SAT and Oct. 10 for the PSAT. Students hoping to take these tests, however, will not be able to take them all at West Linn. Jennifer Bosket is the Administrative Assistant in charge of testing at the school, coordinating the tests available to students.

“Here at West Linn, we do not offer the weekend SAT or the school day SAT,” Bosket said. “We offer the PSAT, which is mostly intended for students that want to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program.”

The PSAT, known fully as the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT), is an optional version of the SAT that students can take to determine what their scores may be were they to take the real SAT. However, it also allows students to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program, where a top-scoring percentage of students, as determined by cutoffs that are calculated each year, are recognized by the program. Based on their score, students are either commended or qualify as semifinalists.

For the 2025 competition, the school had ten students qualify as semifinalists, including Zachary Santoso, senior. 

“For the PSAT specifically, make sure you focus on reading and writing. If you’re going to take the PSAT to try to become a National Merit Scholar or commended or try to get an award through National Merit, then they heavily weigh reading in their [scoring] system,” Santoso said. “So study reading, but for the SAT, you want to study math because math is the easiest to get better at quickly for the SAT.”

Because of how the PSAT cutoffs are weighted for the competition, the reading and writing portion of the test is worth double the math section, making students aiming for recognition from the National Merit Scholarship Program incentivized to focus on upping their reading and writing scores. The regular scoring is not weighted towards one section or the other.

The SAT and PSAT use the same format, which is two sections, one for reading and writing and one for math, and each section is divided into two modules. In the first module, students answer questions that are easier, and which ones they get right contribute to the difficulty of the second module. The more questions you get right on the first module, the harder your questions will be on the second. 

When studying for both tests, no matter the section, students are recommended to use two different programs, as identified by both Bosket and Santoso as being helpful to students.

“The best [method] for me was Bluebook, that’s College Board’s official practice application,” Santoso said. “You can take tests that are pretty much identical to the real ones, and they have quite a lot, so you can take as many as you need to get your score up and to where you want it to be. But, if you want to practice individual questions, I would go to Khan Academy.”

Additionally, knowing how to use the Desmos graphing calculator provided on both tests is beneficial, as a number of questions, especially those in the first module of the math section, can be answered using Desmos. Students looking to gain greater knowledge of how to use this calculator are encouraged to look for instructional YouTube videos and practice under the same conditions as the actual test.

“Get used to using Desmos and using it on your computer that you’re using [for the SAT],” Santoso said. “Sometimes you get used to using Desmos with a mouse, and suddenly you have a laptop with just a trackpad. It can feel kind of wonky. I would try to use Desmos on the device that you’re going to use and, if you can, still bring a physical calculator, because it’s easier to type in numbers quickly on the calculator.”

To students looking for extended help studying, some may consider private tutoring. A simple Google search brings up a plethora of options; however, students should take the time to consider if using one of these services, or even taking the test in the first place, is truly necessary to their career or scholarship goals.

“My personal opinion is, unless you know that the college or university that you want to attend is going to require that for admission, I don’t feel like it’s worth the money spent,” Bosket said. “So it’s important that kids first go to the website of the university that they’re considering and first decide if it’s something that they want to even spend their time and their money on. A lot of people get really stressed out about tests, so if they don’t necessarily need it, what’s the benefit? But that’s up to each individual family and person.”

Students considering taking the SAT for scholarship purposes may consider looking at scholarships.com for scholarships that fit their SAT score, or some of the other sites recommended by U.S. News.

Of the almost 6,000 post-secondary institutions in the U.S., the College Board identifies just 63 schools that require the SAT. This makes identifying if students even need to take the SAT all the more important, as many of the remaining universities are test-optional instead.

“There’s so much stress on people and students and kids right now, our lives just feel extra stressful,” Bosket said. “So, if you don’t have to take another test, don’t. Even though I’m the testing coordinator, it doesn’t mean I think everything about testing is wonderful. So I encourage people to just go out, do their research, and determine whether they feel like the advantages or disadvantages outweigh their decision.”

Below is a list of tools, recommendations, and other information students can use to help prepare for both tests.

In preparation:

• Signing up:
  • Log in to the College Board website and navigate to the SAT or PSAT page. From here, you can check the available dates and other deadlines, find where the test is being offered near you, register for the SAT, and much more.
    • Students can also find information on making accommodations for the SAT.
  • TIP: If students are trying to decide whether to take the SAT or ACT, they shouldn’t use the page on the College Board website to inform their decision. Do independent research instead, as the page goes into why the SAT is superior, as opposed to giving an unbiased comparison.
• Study tools:
  • Bluebook practice tests
    • Students will need to download Bluebook, the College Board’s official testing application for when they actually take the test.
    • Students should download it sooner to practice using the application and make use of the available practice tests.
    • Students who do NOT have a device that can download Bluebook and/or cannot take it with them to their testing center can speak to Jennifer Bosket, the Administrative Assistant in charge of testing.
  • Khan Academy
    • Khan Academy has partnered with the College Board to offer test prep that focuses on the skills and knowledge students will need to know for test day, according to Khan Academy.
    • Going to the Official SAT Prep page lets students click on SAT Math or SAT Reading and Writing and begin doing lessons and taking tests for a variety of different units, with each unit focusing on one skill at one level of difficulty.
• What students will need for the test, according to the College Board:
  • For the PSAT: 
    • Fully charged device with Bluebook.
    • A charger compatible with your device.
    • A pencil or pen.
    • An acceptable calculator.
      • TIP: Make sure it’s fully charged for the test and will not die in the middle of the test.
    • A photo ID.
    • Materials required for accommodations (headphones, etc.) or necessary to use your device (keyboard, mouse, etc.).
  • For the SAT:
    • Fully charged device with Bluebook.
    • The student’s admission ticket from the Bluebook application after completing the exam setup.
      • Students must complete this exam setup on Bluebook before taking the test.
      • The exam setup opens five days before the test begins.
    • An acceptable photo ID.
    • A pencil or pen.
    • The student’s College Board username and password.
    • An acceptable calculator.
      • TIP: Make sure it’s fully charged for the test and will not die in the middle of the test.

During the test:

• Tools available to students while taking the test include:
  • The Desmos graphing calculator.
    • Available on both modules of the math section for both the SAT and PSAT.
    • It’s recommended that students make use of this calculator on the device that they will be using when they take the actual test.
    • Desmos allows students to plug in a variety of questions and get the answer somewhat easily. 
    • For information on how to use the Desmos graphing calculator, YouTube tutorials can provide good information on this topic.
  • A formula sheet.
    • Available on both modules of the math section for both the SAT and PSAT.
    • Provides a variety of formulas for geometric shapes that may be helpful on the test.
      • TIP: Keep in mind that this formula sheet does not provide explanations as to the meanings of any of the variables, so students will need to know how to interpret the formulas on this sheet.
  • A line reader.
    • Available on all sections for both the SAT and PSAT.
    • Allows students to choose to block out the screen and focus on one line at a time, theoretically helping students to focus.
  • The option eliminator.
    • Available on all sections for both the SAT and PSAT.
    • Gives students the ability to mark off answers that they think are incorrect. The marking is not permanent and can be undone.
    • This feature is beneficial because it can help students focus on answers by making it easier to ignore options that students are confident are incorrect.
  • The ability to highlight and make notes.
    • Available on both modules of the reading and writing section for both the SAT and PSAT.
    • Students are able to highlight sections of text in a variety of colors and type notes.
  • The testing timer.
    • Available on all sections and all modules of both the SAT and PSAT.
    • This timer can be hidden by students or left up on the screen so students can see it as they take their test.
    • Even if students hide the timer, it will reappear and turn red when five minutes remain in the module.

After the test:

• Students should check their College Board account to remain updated on when their scores will be released. Students can check the page that corresponds to the test they took for the predicted date.
• After scores are available, students who’ve taken the SAT can decide whether or not they’d like to make another attempt.
  • Consider the average scores for the colleges, scholarships, or other applications you’re planning on applying to, and if a higher SAT score would benefit you.
  • Consider superscoring.
    • If a student has taken multiple tests, certain colleges, scholarships, and other applications will allow students to submit the best score they achieved for each of the sections.
• If students took the PSAT, they can use their score to determine whether or not they’d like to take the SAT in the future, and if so, what areas they would like to focus on improving, whether that be math, reading and writing, or even the specific skills within these sections.
• Information on scoring can be found on the College Board’s My SAT.