Tips to Prepare for SAT Exam in 2025

When discussing the basic requirements for studying abroad, aside from a good academic score, a personal essay, and an English proficiency test score, one of the key requirements is a standardised test result.

As an Indian student planning to study abroad, you are required to take a standardised test to demonstrate your readiness for university-level education. The journey towards higher education overseas is not an easy one. From preparing yourself mentally, financially, and emotionally to taking concrete steps towards your goal, the entire process can feel overwhelming. However, the MetaApply IE team is here to support you at every stage.

To study abroad, you need to take certain exams. While tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, or PTE assess your English language proficiency, exams like the SAT, ACT, GRE, or GMAT evaluate your academic readiness at different levels of education. In this blog, we will be focusing on one of the key Exams for Studying Abroad – the SAT.

So, without further ado, let’s get started.

What is SAT Exam?

SAT exam or the Scholastic Assessment Test is a standardised exam taken by students who wants to study abroad in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, or many other countries.

The SAT exam is not only taken by Indian students willing to study abroad. But even the students in the United States take this exam to showcase their college readiness.

The purpose of SAT Exam is majorly to analyse a student’s skills and knowledge in reading, writing, and mathematics. The result of this test shows the readiness of a student for the college curriculum. This test result also helps students in getting a visa and scholarship along with a successful college admission.

Below is an overview of SAT exam for your easy understanding.

As there is no age limit for the SAT exam, it is majorly taken by students in Grade 11th and 12th who want to study undergraduate program in an abroad university.

Now let’s look at the SAT exam dates for 2025.

SAT Exam Dates 2025

These are the dates for you to take the SAT exam in 2025. And now, let’s move forward to know what should be your preparation strategy to ensure you make it to your dream college around the globe in this year.

However, before we start with the preparation tips, it’s crucial for you to know what are some of the common mistakes students make while preparing for the SAT exam. So, let’s have a look at that.

Common Mistakes Students Make in SAT Exam Preparation

Getting afraid of any exam before taking it is a common phenomenon amongst students. However, what makes the fear of failing occur in the first place is making small, silly mistakes. To ensure you are prepared for your SAT exam 2025, it is better you know what mistakes you must avoid while preparing for your SAT exam. Here is a list of common mistakes you must avoid at every cost.

By ensuring you avoid these mistakes, you have taken the first step towards clearing your SAT exam. Now, let’s look at the tips to prepare for your SAT Exam 2025.

Tips to Prepare for SAT Exams

Preparing for the SAT exam is not difficult if you know how to do it the right way. To ensure a successful preparation process, proper scheduling is essential. Therefore, if you are aiming to study abroad, start organising your preparation for each step accordingly.

Now, let’s explore some quick tips to help you successfully crack the SAT.

Understand the Exam

One of the major mistake students make before taking any exam is directly looking to solve the sample paper. And after failing in solving a single question, their confidence shatters. If you are going to take the SAT exam, you are not looking at the SAT sample papers unless you know what that exam is, it’s format and syllabus.

As you got to know, the SAT exam is an assessment required by every student to check their college readiness. The college curriculum is not the same as of school ones especially in abroad. The abroad education mainly focuses on practical learning, which means students must study themselves and take professors assistance in case of any doubts.

To assess your knowledge on basic concepts like English reading and writing, and mathematics, this assessment is given to you. Ensure to familiarise yourself with the format and syllabus before you start with the preparations.

Create a Study Plan

Your next step in SAT exam preparations is creating a study plan. As mentioned earlier, the SAT exam is majorly taken by students in grade 11th and 12th wishing to study under graduation abroad. Although, there is no age limit here, but preparing for the SAT exam along with other responsibilities is an additional task. Hence, when you are aiming for clearing your SAT exam in one go, it is crucial you have a study plan ready with you.

Every exam becomes easier to crack when you know the right approach. For instance, if you are weaker in certain areas of the SAT exam, it is best to dedicate additional time to them. Moreover, once you analyse and understand the SAT exam format, you will realise that it closely resembles your school studies, particularly the maths section. Therefore, by staying attentive, you can effectively balance your schoolwork and SAT preparation.

Take Practice Test

The SAT exam lasts for three hours, including breaks. As you may know, it consists of three sections: Reading, Writing, and Maths. While the Reading and Writing sections follow a multiple-choice format, the Maths section includes both multiple-choice questions and “grid-in” or student-produced responses that require you to solve problems. Taking practice tests before the actual exam will help you familiarise yourself with the test format. Since SAT preparation typically takes 3 to 6 months, it is essential to dedicate the final month entirely to practice tests.

There are several benefits to taking practice tests. Once you have completed your preparation, you should gather all available sample papers. When attempting these tests, it is crucial to time yourself. This will help you improve your time management, understand how long you spend on each section, and ultimately enhance your speed. Taking full-length, three-hour practice tests will also help you adapt to the actual exam timings.

Master Skimming Strategy

Though you really can’t master the Math section by skimming strategy, you can use this technique for writing and especially for the reading section. As every section of the SAT exam have strict time limit, you must know how much time you have to give to each section to ensure you finish each question correctly. For the reading section, allocate a fixed amount of time, like 13 minutes per passage. In this, skim through the passages while understanding the meaning correctly.

For writing section, prepare yourself in a way that you easily figure out the grammatical errors and sentence corrections. Now for, math section, you need to spend less time on easy questions. By moving quicker on easy questions, you can have proper time for complex questions. However, you can only be able to achieve this when you spend enough time in preparation and sample papers.

Take Proper Breaks

One of the most crucial steps in your preparation journey is taking proper break. Students starting with their preparations at the last-minute wishes to cover the entire course in one night. However, this standardised test is not a school test that can be cleared with minimal efforts. When you start by creating a study plan, ensure it has ample breaks. Studying for long hours can lead to burnout. It is of no-good use if you are tiring yourself for studies because you will not be able to understand anything.

Hence, it is better you follow the Pomodoro Technique. In this, you must study for 25 hours with utmost focus and take 5-minutes break. In this manner, you will not feel wasted by the long hours of studies. When you take the break, prefer to walk, stretch, and hydrate rather than scrolling phone.

Start SAT Exam Preparations with MetaApply IE

Now that you have got the knowledge of what your SAT exam is going to look like and what your preparation strategy should be, it’s time you start preparing with the correct approach. To make you familiarise yourself with the SAT exam format and syllabus, and prepare with expert assistance, you can connect with our MetaApply IE experts.

Our TestPrep vertical is all about helping students clear their English proficiency and standardised exams. Understanding the overwhelming pressure on students of clearing their exams with utmost precision, we are here to help you at every step. You can take our SAT classes as per your preference. Whether weekday batches, weekend classes, or regular personalised classes. We offer it all!

So, what are you waiting for? Connect with us today and clear your exams to study abroad with ease.