How to Study for the SAT
(And Why You Shouldn't Have To)
By Faith Walessa
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
A few minutes into my first SAT prep class, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was sitting with my friends, staring at freshly printed lists of question types we had to memorize, tricks to watch out for, and typical traps the College Board would set for us on our exams. The abject pointlessness of it all brought us to the overwhelming question: why? What were we supposed to be learning here? Our teacher shrugged dismissively and simply said, “The only thing you’ll learn while studying for the SAT is how to take the SAT.”
Before that moment, I had no idea I needed to be concerned about the test–I loved to read and was on relatively friendly terms with math. I naturally assumed I would already be prepared for the SAT. I thought of it as a comprehensive exam that would just confirm my skills and translate them into numbers I could use for college admissions. Instead, I was told that the SAT assessed its own particular skill set involving trick questions and phrasing games you had to learn to play on their own terms.
What’s on the SAT?
The SAT has two sections: Reading/Writing and Math, each divided into two modules. Yet my test prep materials never advised me to read more or practice math questions. Instead, as I studied for the SAT, I was fed cheap shortcuts and counter-intuitive information.
The Reading and Writing section was treated like an obstacle course by the books and websites I consulted back in high school. Students are told to avoid answers with absolute language like “always” or “never” to quickly eliminate multiple choice options. Other resources warn that even if a narrow answer reflects the passage with complete accuracy, it is still more likely to be wrong than a broad one. Some of the worst offenders are Transition Questions, which form about 10% of the Reading and Writing section and require students to pick between “However,” “Therefore,” and “Furthermore.” The College Board explains that they use these questions to meet “rhetorical goals,” but SAT tutors reduce them to a flow chart and teach students the fastest markers to identify “cause-and-effect,” “continuation,” or “contrast” sentences while skimming. Scoring high quickly becomes less about reading carefully and more about spotting key words as fast as you can. In the real world, that’s not how reading works at all.
The Math section is full of its own traps–convoluted questions that hide relevant information at the end, graphs with strangely labelled axes designed to dupe a rushing student, and complicated math lingo instead of common expressions students are used to seeing. If you don’t know that “the maximum value of a function” is just equivalent to the bottom of a parabola, you’re likely to freeze, waste time, and get a question wrong that you actually know how to solve. Instead of testing your ability to solve math questions, the SAT makes you question the ability you have.
If the purpose of the SAT is to assess and affirm your college readiness, then this approach makes no sense. The test has forced its students into a bottleneck by assessing pattern recognition and claiming to prove college readiness. And the industry surrounding the SAT shows just how narrow the scope of the test really is.
What is Test Prep?
The College Board claims that the SAT and ACT test transferable skills like reading comprehension and logical inference. And the truth is, students who read well will likely perform well on College Board exams. But the test prep industry survives and succeeds due to the assumption that students can be trained to beat the test–that special knowledge of testing traps will help students improve their score without improving their reading skills, logical reasoning, or education in general. There is far more–or perhaps far less–to the SAT than the skills it claims to assess.
Obviously, it is logical to pursue some test preparation: familiarity with the structure of a test is wise and practice tests develop the time-management and stress-management skills that are inseparable from the experience of standardized testing. But the truth is, if the SAT were actually about assessing the merit of a student’s education and their true academic abilities, like critical thinking, reading comprehension, and problem solving, then there would be no need for the test prep industry as we know it. Parents would be clamoring for stronger curriculum in schools, not a specialized tutor who claims to know the “Top 10 Tricks on the SAT.” And if those tricks work, then the value of such a test should be deeply questioned.
The Alternative: What’s on the CLT?
Despite my frustration with the test prep industry and the SAT itself, I continued to take practice SATs and identify testing tricks because I thought I had no other choice. Even as I learned to master the SAT’s structure and improve my score, I had no respect for the test or for what it would communicate about me. I knew there was no other option–until one day, there was.
The CLT (Classic Learning Test) is an SAT and ACT alternative for college admissions that was designed with an entirely different purpose. Instead of testing skills that are only relevant to the test they were created for, the CLT aims to assess both achievement and aptitude–the valuable combination of the knowledge you possess and your skills in applying it logically. In other words, the CLT is designed to identify and present the most fundamental skills of your education that you have been developing your whole life, instead of a couple test-taking skills you picked up over the summer.
Preparing for the CLT
The CLT will not try to trick you and it will not make you question the content it places before you. CLT exams are built from the most valuable texts of the Western tradition, bringing students back to history’s greatest minds, from Aristotle to Dickens to Hemingway. There is a richness and depth to CLT exams that honors the students who take them by inviting them to demonstrate real skills. Preparing for the CLT looks like reading widely, asking deep questions, and sharpening your reasoning. These are habits of the mind that are formed over a student’s entire academic life and that will matter in the real world much more than the ability to recognize that a “cause-and-effect” phrase needs to be matched with“therefore.”
And while the CLT does offer completely free practice tests and preparatory resources for students, these exist for the admirable purpose of allowing students to familiarize themselves with the digital testing format, sample content, and remote proctoring settings. They are not a way for students to memorize patterns and riddle out tricks, because CLT exams exist to help students showcase their real academic skills, not their ability to identify a phrasing trap.
Next Steps for Students
If the College Board is claiming to assess college readiness based on your education thus far, it should not require you to study entirely new information that will benefit you on the SAT alone. At CLT, we’re offering a test you don’t have to study for, because it’s a test you’ve been studying for your entire life.
After all my disorienting prep work, I never took the SAT. The CLT ended up being the only standardized test I needed for admissions at all of my top schools, and it cost me none of the anxious, time-consuming, confusing preparation.
It’s starting to look like the SAT’s time as the default test is coming to an end. With over 350 colleges partnered with CLT to offer more than $100 million in scholarships tied directly to CLT scores each year, there is growing proof of the value of CLT scores and CLT test-takers. As these numbers continue to pick up speed, the dignity and rigor of college admissions is returning. For students, this new option creates the choice that I was looking for back in high school. Instead of taking a test that assigns you a list of traps to avoid, try taking the CLT: a test that values the mind you have and the education that formed it.
Faith Walessa is from Ontario, Canada, and is a rising junior at Hillsdale College. She loves fanciful poetry, reading by flashlight, and freshly brewed coffee.
If you enjoyed this piece, be sure to check out The Anchored Podcast. For more Journal content, check out this post on what the CLT tests. From all of us at the Journal, thanks for reading and have a great rest of your week.
Published on 29th June, 2026.