Studying for the SAT often requires dedicating countless hours over several weeks to learning test-taking strategies, English skills, and math skills.

When you are spending an hour or two each day studying for test administration that is months away, you might start to wonder if all of your efforts are really worth it. Now that the SAT doesn’t penalize students for wrong answers, you should be able to try your best and guess on the rest and do okay, right?

Not exactly.

While it’s impossible for you to get a zero on the test (everyone who takes the SAT will receive at least a 400), you have almost similar odds of doing very well on the test without studying.

When you take the SAT without studying, you don’t have the chance to learn from your mistakes or see which areas you need to improve before test day. Although it’s possible that you will earn a higher score without studying, even if you are a strong student, you will likely score slightly below the average SAT score of 1051.

The SAT was designed to create a bell curve where the average score falls around 1000-1050 each year. If you’re not learning strategies to help game the test and boost your score, you will probably fall into the middle part of the bell curve, just slightly above or below 1051.

While you might be thinking that a score within the range of 900-1050 is not too bad, it can hinder your chances of getting into your dream college or earning scholarship money.

When admissions boards review applications, they want to see applicants who stand out among their peers. Earning a score that is either average or slightly below average (within the 50th percentile or lower) is not a great way for your application to look impressive.

Colleges want to see applicants who score within the top 75th percentile or higher. For many Ivy League schools, like Yale and Harvard, that means earning a 1560 or higher. For many state schools, like Ohio State University and the University of Illinois, the 75th percentile is between 1420-1480.

If you’re planning to go to a selective college, you will need to earn an above-average SAT score, which will mean that you devote some time to studying.

Even if your SAT score without studying were high enough to help you get into the schools on your list, you would still want to earn a score that will make you eligible for scholarships. Earning a score in the top 75th percentile can help you earn thousands of dollars in scholarship money. If your score is too low, you will have trouble earning competitive scholarships where your score is compared to other applicants who studied hard and earned a great SAT score.

As you can see, studying for the SAT is definitely worth the trouble. In fact, with just as little as 8 hours of studying and SAT prep, you can raise your SAT score by 90 points or more. With 20 hours of prep, you can increase your score by 115 points or more.

If you find yourself growing bored or overwhelmed with studying for the SAT on your own, that does not mean that you should try to take the SAT without studying.

Enrolling in an SAT prep course is a great way to make sure you put in the hours you need to do well on the SAT all while learning from an instructor who will set the pace and offer great SAT and study tips.

Here are a few of the advantages of signing up for SAT prep:

• Learning helpful tips and strategies. While the College Board offers useful practice tests and practice questions you can use to review for the test, they don’t offer strategies to help you game the test and earn a score in the 99th percentile. SAT prep classes are taught by experienced instructors who earned impressive SAT scores and know the strategies necessary to do well on the test.
• Pacing. When you’re studying on your own, it can be hard to determine what concepts you need to study at what time and for how long. SAT prep courses are led by experts who know how to structure the course so that students cover all of the material and strategies they will need to know for the SAT.
• Motivation. It can be hard to stay motivated when you’re studying for the SAT on your own. When you take a class with an enthusiastic instructor, you will have enough interaction, guidance, and progress monitoring to help you continue to study and improve upon your weaknesses.

Taking an SAT prep course is one of the best ways to prepare for the SAT so that you can earn a score that is above average. Sign up for an SAT prep course through Prep Expert today when you visit our website.