Most test preparation books and courses treat practice tests in similar ways. After a brief introduction, the test prep guys ask you to take an initial practice test called a “diagnostic” test that diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses under test-like conditions. When you get your results for the test, you get more information than simply your scores in the math and verbal sections. The test prepsters chart your diagnostic test to see how well you do on sentence completions, analogies, and reading comprehension on the verbal section, and how you do on multiple choice questions, qualitative comparisons, and grid-ins on the math. The diagnostic test also usually identifies your strengths or weaknesses in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. After the diagnostic test, your test prep tutor will likely recommend that you take a number of additional practice tests to become more comfortable with the SAT and to gauge your progress as you try to reach your target score.

As you take practice tests, you do become more familiar with the test, and being familiar with the test will make the actual SAT much less stressful. Taking practice tests also gives you a sense of how fast you can work. Take enough practice tests, and you will learn to avoid getting bogged down, find easy points, maximize your time, and employ the various methods available to you to navigate a multiple-choice test.

Most test-prep companies give you just one diagnostic test at the beginning of the class. But every practice test you take should be treated with the same scrutiny as the first diagnostic test. In fact, if used correctly, practice tests can be an extremely targeted study tool that will precisely pinpoint the areas in which you are weakest and then help you to learn how to combat and overcome those weaknesses.

If a smarmy test prep guru were writing this, he or she would tell you that these are the secret study skills that will unlock your full SAT potential. We’re not going to say that. Instead, we’re just going to show you how and why practice tests can be your best friend when it comes to preparing for the SAT.