How is the SAT Organized?

The SAT is organized into 10 individually tested sections:

• 3 Writing
• 3 Critical Reading
• 3 Math
• 1 Equating (does not count toward your score).

1. The Essay always comes FIRST (SAT Section 1).
2. Next, six 25-minute multiple choice sections in random order (SAT Sections 2-7): Two Critical Reading, two Math, one Writing, and (usually) the Equating section.
3. Then two 20 minute sections (SAT Sections 8 & 9): Critical Reading and Math.
4. Finally, a 10 minute Writing section is always LAST (SAT Section 10).

The chart below shows you the total number of each question type for each SAT subject.

From my SAT training guide: SAT Unlocked.

How are SAT Critical Reading Sections Organized?

SAT Critical Reading consists of 67 questions in three sections:

SAT Critical Reading (CR) tests 3 types of questions:

• 19 Sentence Completions (SC)
  A sentence with one or two words missing. Choose which missing word(s) that best complete the sentence.  Sentence Completion questions appear in order of difficulty.
  

• 8 Short Passage (SP)
  A one paragraph passage to read and interpret. Questions can also compare two passages.  Short Passage questions do NOT appear in order of difficulty.
  

• 40 Long Passage (LP) A multiple paragraph passage to read and interpret. Questions can also compare two passages. Long Passage Reading questions do NOT appear in order of difficulty.
  

Notice that unlike Sentence completions, Passage Reading questions do NOT appear in order of difficulty. This means that easy questions can often be waiting for you at the end of each Critical Reading section.

Tip: Always make sure to finish the entire Critical Reading section so you can answer easy questions that may be at the end. The big temptation on the Critical Reading section is to spend too much time on the shorter Sentence Completion questions at the beginning, and not leave enough time for the Long Passage questions, which take more time to read but often include easier questions near the end.

For more on Critical Reading timing strategies, click here.

From my SAT training guide: SAT Unlocked.

How are SAT Math Sections Organized?

SAT Math consists of 54 total questions tested in three sections.

SAT Math includes 2 types of questions:

• 44 Multiple Choice (MC): Typical SAT question with 5 answer choices.
• 10 Grid-In (GI): Enter an actual value on your answer sheet, instead of simply filling in a multiple choice oval.

SAT Math questions appear in order of difficulty from easiest at the beginning to hardest at the end. In the section with Grid-In questions, the Multiple Choice questions end with hard questions and then the Grid-Ins start over with easy questions.

Tip: The harder the question, the less obvious the answer. Because questions at the beginning of the section are easier, the answer choices tend to be straightforward. However, as the section progresses, the test makers throw in trick answers to try to fool you. At the beginning of a section, the most obvious answer is usually the right one. Near the end of the section, the most obvious answer is often the wrong one.

From my SAT training guide: SAT Unlocked.

SAT Writing: How are Writing Sections Organized?

SAT Writing includes an essay question and two sections of multiple choice questions.

• The Essay is always the FIRST section on the SAT.
• The bulk of multiple choice questions then come in one big, 25 minute section of 35 questions, and which appears somewhere between Sections 2-7.
• Additionally, a short, ten minute section of 14 Improving Sentences questions is always the last section of the test (Section 10).

The multiple choice (non-Essay) part of SAT Writing includes three types of questions:

• Improving Sentences (IS):
  Part or all of a sentence is underlined and you have to decide which is the best version of the underlined part.

• Error Identification (EI):
  Four different words or phrases are underlined in a sentence and you have to decide whether any of these underlined parts contain an error.

• Improving Paragraphs (IP):
  Questions on how to improve parts of a poorly written passage.

Improving Sentences (25 questions) and Error IDs (18 Questions) make up the vast majority of SAT Writing MC questions, while Improving Paragraphs account for only 6 out of the 49 total questions.

Improving Sentences and Error ID questions tend to appear in order of difficulty, with the easiest questions of each type appearing at the beginning and the hardest questions appearing near the end. Improvement Paragraph questions, by contrast, do not appear of order of difficulty.

Tip:
On the long Writing multiple choice section, answer Improving Paragraphs questions first. Then go back to the beginning of the section and answer the rest of the questions.

After slogging through 11 Sentence Improvements and 18 Error IDs, test fatigue and time pressure combine to make the Improving Paragraph questions far more difficult at the end of the long Writing section than they would be if they were positioned earlier.

By moving to the back of the section and answering these questions first, you can pick up easy points that other students often miss. This strategy also helps you better manage your time because the final questions will then be shorter Error IDs instead of the longer Paragraph Improvements.

From my SAT training guide: SAT Unlocked.