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SAT (Fall 2023)
Course: SAT (Fall 2023) > Unit 8
Lesson 1: Using Official SAT Practice with your studentsUsing Official SAT Practice as a School District
Check out our answers to these frequently asked questions from districts. If we still haven't answered your question, or you are still having issues, reach out to College Board customer service (866-630-9305) or report a problem to Khan Academy’s Help Center.
Functionality
Q: How does Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy work?
Watch our video overview of Official SAT Practice or read through the bullets below:
- Official SAT Practice works by understanding each student’s strengths and weaknesses and providing personalized recommendations on math, reading, and writing skills that will help prepare them for the SAT.
- These personalized recommendations are created based on students' past test results (e.g. PSAT/NMSQT or SAT) or based on diagnostic quizzes.
- Videos & articles help students learn and brush up on SAT concepts and strategies.
- Practice problems, official full-length practice tests, timed mini-sections, and essay practice tools allow students to practice and apply what they’ve learned.
- Finally, students are encouraged to create a practice schedule based on their SAT test date. Khan Academy will send practice reminders to help students stay on track.
Q: How does Official SAT Practice compare to other parts of Khan Academy?
Like other parts of Khan Academy, Official SAT Practice:
- Provides videos, articles, and practice problems to help students learn concepts that are important for college, the SAT, and your classroom curriculum.
- Provides custom tailored recommendations based on strengths & weaknesses
- Provides a Coach feature that allows teachers to view student progress.
- Adheres to the same principles of protecting student data and privacy. For more info, check out Khan Academy’s privacy policy
- Uses the same login as the rest of Khan Academy
- Is completely free!
Unlike other parts of Khan Academy, Official SAT Practice:
- Was created through a joint partnership by Khan Academy and College Board, the makers of the SAT.
- Is only available through a web browser. It is not available through Khan Academy’s mobile apps. While you can watch videos on the mobile app, you can’t do practice problems there. To access practice problems on your smartphone, you’ll have to go to satpractice.org in a browser.
Q: What technology do students need to access Official SAT Practice?
- Students need a device (e.g. laptop, smartphone, or tablet) and an internet connection to use Official SAT Practice.
- In order to do practice tests on paper and import those results into Official SAT Practice, students need a printer.
- Students need Khan Academy accounts to get personalized recommendations and to save their progress on the platform.
- Students need a College Board account if they want to pull in their PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10, PSAT/NMSQT or SAT scores.
Q: How can students practice the SAT essay?
Khan Academy offers a way to practice the SAT essay using a tool called Revision Assistant. Revision Assistant allows students to plan their writing and type their essays in an untimed setting while getting dynamic feedback as they go. Once the student submits the essay, the tool will automatically evaluate the essay and provide feedback.
Students can access essay practice here or by clicking on the ‘Practice’ tab of Official SAT Practice and then clicking on the ‘Essay’ section.
Q: How can educators see their students' essay work?
This feature isn't yet supported, but educators can see whether their students have completed practice essays. Here's how: With Coach Tools, educators who set up classes in Khan Academy can choose to have them “SAT reporting enabled.” By clicking on an individual student, and scrolling down to “Completed Practice,” coaches will be able to see whether a student has completed a practice essay, but coaches aren't currently able to see the contents of the essay.
Q: Do we have any evidence as to whether Official SAT Practice works in improving scores?
In May of 2017, the College Board and Khan Academy announced that studying for the SAT on Official SAT Practice for 20 hours is associated with an average score gain of 115 points. That’s nearly double the average score gain achieved by students who don't use Khan Academy's SAT program.
Out of the nearly 250,000 test takers studied, more than 16,000 gained 200 points or more between the PSAT/NMSQT® and SAT.
In addition to the 115-point average score increase associated with 20 hours of practice, shorter practice periods also correlate with meaningful score gains. For example, 6–8 hours of practice on Official SAT Practice is associated with an average 90-point increase.
Q: Are students practicing real SAT questions as they go through the product?
Yes! Questions on Official SAT Practice were created in collaboration with the College Board, the creators of the SAT. In addition, all of the full length practice tests were written by the College Board, and several of them are actual past SAT exams.
Q: Why are my students not getting practice reminders from Khan Academy?
Often, district email filters can be strict, so you may need to work with your district IT team to allow Khan Academy reminder emails to go through, and ensure that the khanacademy.org domain is whitelisted.
Q: What data do Khan Academy and College Board collect about my students?
Khan Academy is a signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge. You can read more about our privacy policy and our commitment to protecting student data in our privacy policy. No data is passed on to the College Board without the student's consent.
Linking Khan Academy and College Board accounts
Q: What are some common errors that lead to linking failure between Khan Academy and College Board accounts?
The most common causes of linking failure are:
- Multiple Khan Academy accounts Students may have multiple Khan Academy accounts. If they are logged into more than one, or if they are trying to link the wrong one, they might have difficulty. Encourage them to stick with one!
- Multiple College Board accounts Make sure students are trying to link with the College Board account they used to register for the PSAT/NMSQT or the SAT
- Age restrictions Students can't create College Board accounts until they are 13 years old, so they also can't link Khan Academy and College Board data until they are 13. Ensure that the date of birth is accurate on both accounts.
For students having trouble logging into their College Board accounts:
- Reset the password to the College Board account and re-try the linking process
Q: What should students do if they link to the wrong account?
- Students should confirm they are logged in to the account they used to register for their past PSAT/NMSQT or SAT.
- If students have created multiple College Board accounts and have multiple sets of scores across multiple accounts, they will have to call College Board Customer Service to provide further evidence of their identity in order to get the accounts merged.
Q: My accounts are linked but my scores aren't showing up!
- Students should log in to CollegeBoard.org and check that they can see their PSAT/NMSQT® or PSAT 8/9 scores.
- If students can see their scores on CollegeBoard.org, they should visit their Khan Academy settings and click "Disconnect from College Board".
- The button will then change to "Connect to College Board" – click it. Students will be prompted again to ‘Allow’ College Board to send their exam results. This often resolves the problem.
Q: How can The Matching Tool help match students to their scores?
If the College Board system is unable to match the student's College Board account to a set of scores, the “Matching Tool” in the Student Score Reporting Portal can help.
Students can access the matching tool by logging into their College Board account. They can click on their scores from their Welcome page or click on their username and select their scores. If their scores don't appear, look for the Don’t See Your Scores? area, and click on the Matching Tool link.
If students took a PSAT exam, this video can help students use the matching tool.
Oh no! The Matching Tool didn't work!
There are two scenarios in which the Matching Tool will not be able to help, and students will need to call the College Board Customer Service at 866-630-9305 to provide further evidence of their identity to resolve the issue:
- If the student gridded in their first name, last name, birthday, or gender information on the answer sheet incorrectly, or it does not match the information in the student’s online account
- If a student has multiple sets of scores stored in multiple College Board accounts
Q: How can students tell if their College Board and Khan Academy accounts are linked?
Coaches can create SAT classes in Khan Academy. Once all students have been added and given coaches permission to see their SAT practice data, coaches will be able to see which students have linked to the College Board. Note that the class size maximum is 100 students.
Students who have linked their College Board and Khan Academy accounts will have their test scores available on the Official SAT Practice home page. In addition, the prompt asking students to ‘Sign in to College Board’ will disappear.
Another way to check that the accounts are linked is to check your “Settings” by clicking on your profile name. The “Connected to CollegeBoard.org” section should say “Disconnect from College Board’ if accounts are successfully linked.
Q: How does a district know how many students have linked?
The College Board is working to ensure that districts will be able to see how many students have linked by accessing their data in the College Board’s K12 reporting portal. If you are not sure how to access your K12 reporting portal, You can contact your College Board representative. If you don’t know who that is, you can find out here.
In the meantime, we recommend districts make a plan to have a lead at each campus create Khan Academy SAT Classes and require that the CSV report be sent regularly with updates.
Q: Can students link accounts if they don’t yet have PSAT or SAT results?
Yes! When your students take the PSAT or SAT later and access their results on College Board, their Khan Academy accounts will automatically pull in those scores and customize their practice recommendations.
Q: Do students need to do anything after they have linked accounts to feed in other test results?
No. Once students check their results on College Board, they will be pulled into Khan Academy automatically.
Q: Where can I get help if I have issues with account linking?
Reach out to College Board Customer Service (866-630-9305) if you are continuing to have issues. You can also report a problem to Khan Academy’s Help Center.
Q: What can we do if our schools block YouTube?
Students will still be able to watch videos using Khan Academy’s video player. This should be automatic and require no additional steps to set up!
Tracking Student Progress
Q: How can I track my students’ progress on Official SAT Practice?
You can create an SAT class using the Coach Tools to have access to:
- Lesson Plans created by teachers for teachers available for skills in Math, Reading, and Writing
- Links to additional Khan Academy® content and SAT content that can be assigned to the class based on the class’s greatest needs.
Individual Student Progress
- Students' upcoming SAT test dates
- Problems completed, time spent, and practice tests scheduled
- Notification if account is connected to their College Board account
Recently completed activity
- The top recommended skills for practice
- Questions attempted, answer choices, and correct answers
- Practice Test scores
Students can always track their own progress as they go with the goal tracker at the bottom of the page, or through the calendar showing their practice schedule. The Review tab on Official SAT Practice also shows a running log of all of the problems a student has completed.
Students can always track their own progress as they go. In particular, the Review tab on Official SAT Practice shows a running log of all of the problems a student has completed.
Q: How are energy points calculated on Official SAT Practice?
| Activity | # Questions | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Individual question | 1 | 75 per right answer |
| Individual skill practice or timed mini-section | 5 to 10 | 100 for completing practice session + 75 points per right answer |
| Diagnostic quiz | 10 | 500 |
| Instructional video watched | N/A | 750 |
Q: If students are struggling with the foundational skills, where should they start?
Students who are struggling with foundational math skills should access Khan Academy’s extensive math resources that cover math from K-12 and beyond. Students can search by math concept (e.g. fractions) or by class (e.g. Algebra I).
Students who are struggling with foundational writing and reading should review our grammar resources that cover parts of speech, punctuation, syntax, and more.
Q: How should I support my students after they take the PSAT 8/9?
Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy is designed to help students get ready to take the SAT as 11th or 12th graders. For your 8th and 9th grade students, check out these resources:
- Guide to identify appropriate resources on Khan Academy
- Skills Insight Report from the College Board’s K12 Reporting Portal
How to Implement Official SAT Practice in schools
Q: Where can I go to get other ideas about what schools are doing?
You can also check out Khan Academy’s educator guide.
College Board’s guide and checklist on classroom best practices
For other resources like flyers, case studies, & presentations, head to satpractice.org/k12
Q: How can I roll out Official SAT Practice to my schools and classrooms?
- Check out the resources here and consider using the best practice guides to get ideas.
- Identify a school or district owner who will lead the implementation, and create a small committee who will support the project.
- Your district owner & committee should create accounts to explore Official SAT Practice and get trained using the e-module
- Together, set measurable district-wide or school-level goals based on how the SAT fits with your curriculum. You can contact your local College Board office to request the “SAT and state standards alignment document” and to review your data in the College Board’s K12 Reporting Portal.
- Create a school implementation model in partnership with your principals and teachers to build buy-in and boost your chances of success.
- Get ideas from the Case Studies and make a plan for:
- When during the day you will dedicate time to helping students create Khan Academy and College Board accounts
- When during the day you will dedicate time to helping students link their accounts
- When during the day you want students to practice.
- Who will be overseeing student practice.
- How you will communicate the benefits of Official SAT Practice to students, teachers, and parents.
- How you will train and support the educators who are overseeing student practice.
- Determine how you will celebrate student progress
- Start using Official SAT Practice in your district, measure and celebrate your progress, and make improvements as you go.
Celebrating student progress
Q: What are some ways to recognize and celebrate students?
Consider recognizing schools, individual students, cohorts, or groups of students (such as homerooms or athletic teams) with the most practice.
Many districts have found success by offering certificates, public recognition, or prizes to celebrate student progress as measured by time spent practicing, energy points, and problems completed. There is no single right metric to measure, so get creative and motivate your students with the things that may be most meaningful to them!
Award ideas for schools with the most usage/linking
- Scholarship dollars
- Shopping sprees
- Visits from local celebrities/sports teams
- $1 for every student that links
- Money for college visits
Award ideas for students/classes with the most usage/linking
- Front of the line lunch passes
- Shopping spree for teachers
- For schools with uniforms – a free dress day
- Pizza parties
- Extra Credit
- SAT Honors Assembly or “Prep” Rally
- Restaurant Gift Cards
- Theater/movie tickets
- Call or send a messages home.
- Ask local businesses to donate prizes or to host a special event for students.
Do you have other questions?
Submit questions and find additional resources in our help center or support community.
Contact your College Board representative using the regional office page.
Want to join the conversation?
Are the practice practice problems at https://www.khanacademy.org/mission/sat/ and https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/sat from the new SAT or the old SAT?(2 votes)