Put Your Skills to the Test

Today’s Learning Objectives

• Establish a base score with a diagnostic test
• Learn about diagnostic mode
• Understand your results with analytics
• Learn about practice mode

Time to complete: 30-60 minutes

Today’s Tutorial

Welcome to the second day of SAT Academy! Yesterday we created an Acely account and developed a plan. Today, we’ll get a baseline score with a 20-minute diagnostic exam, learn about practice mode, and dive deeper into our study plan. 

1. Set your starting point with a diagnostic

We eased you into things yesterday, but now it’s time to get to work! Let’s start back at our home dashboard by clicking the home button or heading to app.acely.ai.

From here, you’ll see our second task to get started is to take a diagnostic exam. The diagnostic exam is designed to assess your current skill level in various SAT sections. Take your time with each question; remember that this exam will help benchmark your progress. As you practice, it’s important to take diagnostic exams to track your progress.

Click on the task to get started. 

In Diagnostic Mode you’ll see some key features:

Eliminate Answers: 

Utilize the Eliminate Answers feature by flipping the Eliminate Answers toggle. Then click the button next to the incorrect answer choices. This allows you to cross out options you believe are incorrect, making it easier to focus on the remaining choices. This feature helps sharpen your decision-making skills under time constraints.

Mark for Review:

Next, use the Mark for Review feature to bookmark any questions you find challenging. To do this, click the small flag icon next to the question. You can revisit these questions before submitting the exam, which can help you avoid mistakes due to second-guessing.

Navigation:

The navigation bar will allow you to go back or skip ahead in questions. You can see the question now has a flag next to it, so it will be easy to jump back here before submitting the exam.

Now take your time to complete the exam. This will populate your current score in the app.

2. Understanding your results

Once you’ve completed the exam, you’ll see your exam results. On this page, you’ll see a projected score, accuracy, timing, and the questions from the exam. Take a few minutes to review your results. You can also revisit this page from your SAT exam page.

3. Navigate to the SAT Exam page

It’s good to take Diagnostics often, but the best way to improve your score is by completing practice questions. 

You can access practice mode in several ways: through the left navigation menu, by clicking on the test card on your dashboard, or directly from your study plan.

Each exam page contains everything you need to prepare for that exam.

Scroll down to find the “Practice Mode” section. You’ll have the option to practice questions across all subjects or focus on a specific subdomain, such as Math: Algebra or Reading & Writing: Craft and Structure.

Notice the colorful badges next to each practice section. These badges represent your accuracy stats, updating as you practice. Use these metrics to identify your strong and weak areas.

4. Start practicing 

Pick a section in Reading & Writing, and click the practice button to enter practice mode!

Left Panel:

The left panel displays your current and past questions. Each question is marked with an icon indicating whether you answered it correctly or incorrectly.

Right Panel:

On the right side, you’ll see the current question along with a chat bar. The chat bar allows you to ask questions or request hints. In the chat bar, you can type out questions you have or use the buttons to auto-type.

Let’s ask for a hint by pressing “I need a hint”!

Hints are intentionally a little vague to give you time to reach the question on your own, but you can also ask more questions if you need more help. Asking questions can help you better your understanding of the material, so don’t be shy. You can ask to explain a specific concept like “What is a linear equation?” or how to begin like “What should my first step be?”.

Now let’s ask Acely “What should my first step be?” Acely will provide a hint to guide you.

After reviewing the hint, attempt the question. If you get it right, well done! If not, try another option. Whether correct or incorrect, Acely will offer a detailed explanation of the answer. You can also ask why another answer wasn’t correct and get an explanation. 

Pay attention to the explanations provided after each question, especially for any questions you get wrong. Understanding why an answer is correct or incorrect is crucial for mastering the material.

To move on to a new question, click the “New Question” button

You can either stop here or keep practicing today!

Whew!

Congrats on another day of SAT Academy! Log off and enjoy your day. Tomorrow, we’ll continue practicing, learn how to practice our mistakes, and go over some test-taking strategies. 

Today’s bonuses

• The Ultimate Desmos Cheat Sheet
• Time Management and Productivity
• What to Do the Night Before the SAT