You’ve taken countless SAT practice tests, and in the last few you’ve managed to hit - or even exceed - your goal score. Then on test day something goes wrong and the score report you receive from The College Board doesn’t come close to matching how well you’ve done on your practice tests. 

“Why is my official SAT score lower than my practice test scores?”

This situation isn’t uncommon, but there are ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. The first step is to figure out why your scores were different. Only then can you make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to pinpoint what went wrong and some strategies you can use to prevent a poor repeat performance. 

Were you feeling stressed going into the official test?

A little bit of stress can help you do your best come test day. It sharpens your mind and can help set the stage for your brain to take the SAT seriously. Too much stress, however, can make you perform more slowly and can increase your chances of making careless mistakes because you’re panicking.

The best medicine for test day stress is prevention. Here are a few ways to mitigate stress as you’re going into your retake. 

1. Make sure that you’re taking your SAT practice test in an “unfriendly” environment.

Even though it’s convenient to take your practice tests at the dining room table, if you’re prone to getting stressed out on test day you should try to take your tests somewhere you are less familiar with, like a public library. 

As an added bonus, many public libraries will proctor practice tests for you for a small fee, or will allow you to reserve a private study room for the time you’re taking your practice exam. 

It goes without saying, but take this advice with a grain of salt. If you’re in the middle of a rolling pandemic and taking your SAT practice test in a public space might put your health in harm’s way, then go back to that dining room table. Wherever you are, try to take your practice tests at the same time of day that you will sit for your official SAT exam because your brain functions differently depending on the time of day. 

2. Don’t overdo it with caffeine.

Yes, caffeine can get you going a little faster. However, if you aren’t used to drinking coffee or other caffeine-containing beverages, you probably shouldn’t start drinking them the day of your test. And even if you are used to drinking coffee, don’t change your intake. While two extra cups before your exam might feel like a good idea if you’re feeling a bit sluggish, too much caffeine can lead you to feeling more stressed during the test - either because of the caffeine itself or because you need to go to the bathroom.

3. If you can, avoid outside stressors the week of your test.

If you were feeling stressed due to school, relationships, or anything else in the week leading up to your SAT, that might have contributed to the stress you felt going into test day. Practice self care in the days leading up to your exam. 

Avoid unnecessary stress as much as you can and rest your mind. While it’s tempting to try to cram in a few final SAT practice exams in the week leading up to the test, you’ll be better served getting a bit of extra rest and reviewing your notes to remind yourself which errors you need to look out for on test day. 

Did you take your practice tests under realistic conditions?

Taking breaks during your practice tests other than the scheduled breaks, not being strict with the amount of time between sections, and eating and drinking while you work on your SAT practice tests can make studying feel less stressful. It can also help you fit in practice exams when you wouldn’t normally be able to take them. 

However, doing these things can also put you at a disadvantage if you get too used to them. As you’re preparing for your retake, make sure that you’re being strict with breaks and taking full-length SAT practice tests in one sitting.

The SAT is a long test, and it’s tempting to want to go easy on yourself and spread out your practice exams. However, this can artificially inflate your practice test scores and prevent you from seeing what you really need to work on between your practice tests and exam day. 

Do yourself a favor (even if it doesn’t feel like it in the moment) and block off the full amount of time you need for each SAT practice test. It’ll give you a realistic experience that will allow you to accurately gauge how you’re doing ahead of test day. 

Looking for a little help holding yourself accountable, Everydae (a PCH Tutors partner) offers free, live online proctored SAT practice tests. Pick your date here. 

Did you retake practice tests?

It may seem obvious, but taking the same set of questions twice can artificially inflate your practice test scores. While one or two overlapped questions might not make the difference between a 1300 and a 1400, be careful to not base your expectations on a repeat test. 

Did you just get unlucky?

Sometimes the distribution of content just doesn’t line up with your strengths. While generally this isn’t going to tank your SAT score, it can if you get flustered as a result of either losing time on the questions that you’re struggling with or just because you know you’re getting those questions wrong. 

What’s important to remember going into your next test is that you can’t control what’s going to show up on the test. That said, you can control how you react. 

When you get a question where you have no idea where to start, try writing down what you know to see if it jogs your memory. Give it 30 seconds to mull over. And then, if it’s clear that you still aren’t sure where to start you should flag it, skip it and move on. Know when to cut your losses and save time for that next question. You can always come back to the more difficult questions later on. 

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