Strong study habits in high school pay off twice: they help you earn better grades now and make you a stronger candidate for college admission and scholarships, especially when paired with a competitive SAT score. And in addition to leading to better grades in high school and a higher SAT score, strong study habits will serve you well in college, and beyond, in whatever career you choose. In fact, some study habits can even be applied to the process of building athletic, musical, or communication skills.
Colleges look closely at your grades and SAT scores because together they show how well you handle challenging work over time. The way you study today can make a real difference in your future options.
Balancing schoolwork, extracurriculars, and SAT prep can feel like juggling a dozen things at once. The good news? You don’t need to study all day to succeed—you just need the right strategies. Here are ten study tips will help you study smarter, improve your grades, and walk into the SAT confident and prepared.
Consistency beats cramming every time. Set aside regular times each day for school subjects and SAT review so studying becomes part of your routine—like practice for a sport or rehearsal for a performance. Or, you can even think about study schedules like brushing your teeth. You just wouldn’t think of waking up and not brushing your teeth.
When studying is a habit instead of a last-minute emergency, your grades tend to be more stable and higher, which is exactly what colleges want to see on your transcript and what also leads to a higher SAT score.
Want to get better grades on quizzes, mid-term exams, and final exams? Don’t read more, do more active recall-based studying.
So many students waste precious time reading and re-reading course notes, assigned readings, and the course textbook. Reading material that you need to know feels very productive, but it’s an incredibly inefficient way to study. Academic research has shown that frequently quizzing yourself and forcing yourself to recall facts, strategies, or methodologies to solve a problem or answer a question is, at a minimum, 50% more effective than simply reading the relevant material.
Again, don’t just reread your notes or highlight passages. Quiz yourself instead using flashcards, SAT practice questions, or even by explaining a concept out loud.
Active recall trains your brain to pull, or “recall” information which is the same skill you need on big tests at school and on the SAT exam.
Spaced repetition—reviewing material at gradually longer intervals—is one of the best ways to build lasting memory. For example, review a new SAT math concept today, again in two days, then next week.
This approach is especially powerful for SAT math formulas and English grammar rules, and it also helps you remember content for unit tests and finals in your classes.
Aim to understand why formulas work and how grammar rules apply instead of just memorizing steps. If you are learning about averages or comma usage, look at how they appear in real test questions or essays.
Parent who are plus or minus 40 years old today often complain that they can’t seem to help even their youngest kids with math because “they don’t teach math the same way anymore.” Well, the new ways of teaching math are now much more focused on encouraging a deeper understanding vs. memorizing facts. You can memorize that six times seven equals forty two. But for example, if you are forced to take 42 pieces of something and organize them into six groups of seven, the process of multiplication becomes clearer and you better understand what it means to multiply or divide.
Deeper understanding makes it easier to handle new or tricky question types, which both your teachers and SAT test writers love to use. In fact, even the trickiest SAT math questions fundamentally test math content that most students learn in their freshman or sophomore year of high school. There is no calculus on the SAT. You rarely will miss a problem because you have never learned the math concept. You’ll frequently miss a problem because you didn’t have a strong enough grasp of an underlying math concept to realize that the question was requiring you to apply it.
Instead of “study SAT Math,” try a goal like “complete 10 grid-in questions and review my mistakes” or “outline one practice essay.” Small, clear goals are easier to start and finish.
Checking off these mini-goals gives you a sense of progress and keeps you motivated through long semesters and the full SAT prep timeline. You can even introduce more challenging goals, such as achieve a higher percentage of practice questions correct on your next timed practice set. If you are diligently following a study plan, you’ll notice that you are able to meet these goals.
Pick a quiet, well-lit spot that is just for studying—no phone notifications, no TV, no endless scrolling. Keep your supplies (notebooks, calculator, highlighters) nearby so you can start quickly.
A dedicated study zone sends your brain a signal that it is time to focus, helping you use your study time more efficiently and reducing procrastination.
It’s such a boring, trite, somewhat annoying point to reinforce, but any form of understanding is harder when you are multi-tasking. If you are trying to understand what the person in front of you is saying to you or trying to understand how to complete an SAT math problem, if you are checking your phone every 90 seconds, it’s just harder to comprehend.
Trying to study while texting, gaming, or watching videos usually means you are not really focused on any one thing. Commit to one subject or SAT section at a time.
You will finish assignments faster and remember more, which leads to higher test scores and stronger grades without adding more hours to your day.
Explaining how to solve a geometry problem or outline an essay to a friend, sibling, or even an imaginary “class” is one of the best ways to check your understanding.
Teaching forces you to organize the steps clearly, and any part you cannot explain shows you exactly what to review before quizzes, exams, and SAT test day.
This might seem silly, but it works.
Instead of spending two hours on just one subject, mix different topics in a single study block. For example, start with 30 minutes of SAT Reading, then move to homework for your chemistry class, then work on your history project.
Switching subjects keeps your brain engaged and helps you learn how to move between different types of thinking, which is useful in both school and standardized tests.
Of course, if you aren’t taking the SAT for 4 months and the history project is due in a month, and your chemistry homework is due tomorrow, and you only have 1 hour to study, that needs to be taken into consideration. But with the proper time management and planning, you can mix things up to get more out of every hour you invest in studying.
There is a lot academic research that distinguishes between regular practice and what is called deliberate practice. When you are training or studying deliberately, you learn more and acquire skills faster. It’s a more efficient way to study, train, or practice. It is characterized by focusing on the basics first, going slow at first to ensure you get the technique exactly right, and then attempting increasingly difficult tasks that push you to the border of your comfort zone. And one of the key component of deliberate practice is getting expert help to explain the right technique in a way that you can understand.
In the context of SAT prep, this doesn’t necessarily mean you must hire an SAT tutor. It could mean watching a video or asking a parent or friend. But sometimes you just need an external party or source of expertise to explain something in a way that makes sense to you.
Colleges see your high school grades as one of the strongest indicators of how ready you are for college-level work. Strong, consistent study habits make it much more likely that your GPA will reflect your true potential over all four years.
Schools consider SAT scores alongside your GPA because together they give a clearer picture of your academic readiness. When you build good study routines now, you are not just preparing for one test—you are building the skills you will use in college lectures, labs, and exams.
Improving your grades and SAT score starts with small, repeatable actions. Choose two of these tips—such as scheduling daily study time and using active recall—and commit to using them this week.
Over time, these habits will not only raise your performance in class and on the SAT.