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What to Do the Week Before the SAT

1 Week to Go

What to Do the Week Before the SAT 128 Hours and Counting: Getting Ready for the Big Day
In this article we'll discuss what you should do the week before the SAT, what to expect in the exam room, and what happens after you've taken the test.

You want the week leading up to the test to go as smoothly as possible, so get yourself into a routine beginning on the Sunday night the week before the test (128 hours). Look at your calendar for that week and make sure you plan ahead for everything else in your life: homework, upcoming tests, papers due, after-school activities.

It's easy to forget some important things you need to do this week, so have your parents read this article, too. They can print out a copy from the RocketReview website so you don't have to give up your book.

Go Easy on Yourself This Week
Don't overload yourself this week. In fact, do what you can to lighten up your normal schedule. If you normally participate in two or three after-school activities, consider passing up anything you don't have to do.

Your parents should know that you need to be focused this week, too. They should let you delegate some of your normal responsibilities you can make up your chores the week after the SAT.

If your teachers hit you with any major assignments this week, maybe you and your classmates should ask for a minor postponement until after the SAT. Most teachers will understand if you need to slack off a bit this week—they probably remember what it was like to take the SAT and they know there's a whole lot more riding on the test these days than there was a generation ago.

Try to get into a routine in the days leading up to the test. Get to bed and wake up at reasonably consistent times. If it takes you a while to wake up in the morning, wake up an hour earlier than usual every day this week so that you'll have an extra hour on test day to clear your head; the SAT starts fairly early in the morning, and you want to be completely lucid when the test begins.

By the way, if it's cold season, wash your hands frequently the last thing you need going into the SAT is to get sick this week. You're not being obsessive or a hypochondriac here; most cold viruses pass from the environment to your hands, and from your hands to your face. (If you get sick the week before the test, it's not going to ruin your chances for the SAT, but do stay home from school and get well.)

Getting into the Right Frame of Mind
At the end of a season and leading up to the championship, athletes go through a "tapering phase" to make sure they perform at their peak when it counts. In a sense you've been a mental athlete, and you want to make sure that you perform at your peak when it counts: on the actual SAT.

For you, tapering consists of scaling back drastically the amount of preparation you've been doing so you can give your mind a chance to rest and rev up your motivation. During this week you should do much less work, but of a much higher quality. Instead of doing an entire section of an SAT, for example, spend the same amount of time focusing on three or four truly difficult questions. You'll gain far more by wrestling with a tough question for ten minutes—or more—than you will doing ten simple questions quickly.

In fact, don't do anything timed this week. Rehearse the techniques meticulously, getting everything just right. Trust me on this point: the best way to improve your test-taking speed and your test-taking accuracy is to practice mindfully, being hyperconscious of every little step you do.

This week is also an excellent time to see how far your skills have advanced since you started preparing for the test weeks ago. Get out your PSAT booklet, or your first few practice exams, and look over your work. You'll be so surprised at how you used to solve questions that you won't even recognize your work.

Keep up with your vocabulary work this week, but don't try to cram in more words than normal—doing so will not make much of a difference in your score and trying to do so will just heighten your anxiety level at a time when you should be taking it easy.

Don't wait until the last minute to locate your admission ticket. You can print one out from the College Board's website if you registered online.

1 Day to GoThe Day before the Test

• If you haven't already, make sure you know the location of your test center. If you don't know how to get to the center, print out directions from MapQuest.com. If you haven't taken a test before at your test center, ask around among the seniors you know to see whether there's anything you need to know about the place.
• If you weren't able to register in time and you're going to a test center as a walk-in, choose a large site that you're familiar with. (Large, well-run test centers will have extra SAT booklets on hand for walk-ins.) If you're going as a walk-in, it's also a good idea to have a contingency plan.
• Speaking of contingency plans, if someone is supposed to drive you to the test center, make sure you have a back-up plan in case the person oversleeps, gets sick, or otherwise fails to show up tomorrow morning (remember, this is the day before the test) at the appointed time.
• During the day, make sure you have a digital watch or similar timing device, ideally one with large, easily read numbers. The best timing device to use is one that counts up rather than down, but any digital device is better than an analog watch with hard-to-read hands.
• Also make sure you have a working alarm—or two!—in the house so you're sure to wake up in time. If you can't find one, borrow one from a friend or a neighbor.
• Although you can get some gum and maybe a bottle of water the morning of the test, it's probably a good idea if you get these things today.
• Calculators are a distraction but if you feel more comfortable having one at your side, make sure you have one handy. If you borrow a calculator from a friend, make sure you know how it operates: fumbling with it on test day is likely to be disconcerting.
• If you didn't register in time and you're taking the test as a walk-in, make sure you have a check for the correct amount to bring with you.
• Finally, it's a good idea to have a cell phone handy on test day. If you don't have one, borrow one and make sure it's charged.

If This Is Your First SAT—Get Excited
It's natural to feel nervous the day before the test, maybe even a bit panicked, but let's try to get some perspective on your situation. Try to think of your first SAT as an audition for college, but not the audition that really counts. Naturally you hope that your audition goes well tomorrow, but it's not a big deal if it doesn't go quite as well as you'd like. Half of all SAT students wind up retaking the test in the fall of their senior year. Even students who do very well often retake the SAT because they know they could have done even better.

So don't think that all your college hopes rest on how you do on tomorrow's SAT—they don't. If you get a great score, terrific, but if you don't, it's not the end of the world.

The Night Before the Test

• It's fine if you want to see a movie or hang out with your friends until the early evening, but then get home. Do spend at least half an hour today reviewing your work, but no more than an hour. Again, you're not trying to learn anything new at this point; you're just making mental notes about things you should already know.
• Before you get too tired, lay out everything you're going to need tomorrow morning: a picture I.D., a calculator (although you don't really need one), your digital watch, your pencils, maybe a sharpener. Proctors will not allow scratch paper during the exam, so you won't need to bring that.
• Set out the clothes you'll wear for tomorrow, including any good luck items. It's a good idea to dress in layers so that if the room is too hot you can take off a sweater, or if it's too cold you can put one on.
• You might want to bring something distracting to read or listen to with you to the test site tomorrow, and maybe something to munch on. If so, set these items out, too.
• Charge your cell phone and set your alarm!
• I've never understood why students are told to get a good night's sleep before the SAT; I'm not even sure what a good night's sleep is. In any event, don't stay up much later than you usually do but don't go to bed much earlier than you normally do, either. Too much sleep tonight is just as bad as getting too little.

The morning ofWaking Up on Test Morning

• When you wake up, consider taking a shower or doing some brief calisthenics or other exercise to get the blood flowing especially to your groggy brain! If someone is taking you to the test site, make sure he or she is up, too.
• Eat a normal breakfast, but not too much or you'll be groggy. If you're used to consuming some form of caffeine—tea, coffee, cola—then doing so is probably a good idea this morning. But only if you're used to caffeine; if you're not, now is not the morning to start.
• Make sure you have everything with you when you leave, and allow enough time to get to the test site thirty to forty minutes before the test starts to allow for traffic delays and to get yourself into a good position for entering the exam room. Try to get to the site between 7:45 and 8:00.

Arriving at the Test Site
There will probably be dozens of nervous students milling around at the entrance to the test site, reviewing flash cards, skimming through their notes, or muttering to themselves. If I were you I'd avoid congregating near everyone else so you can remain focused, but that's up to you and your state of mind that morning.

If you arrived super early, you can hang out in the car or find a place to sit and read your book or listen to some music. If a parent drove you to the site, have him or her hang out until the test starts just in case some emergency comes up—like you're a walk-in, the test center doesn't have enough tests for you, and you have to be driven immediately to an alternative site.

Make sure your pencil points are slightly dull. Super sharp pencil points break easily and take longer to fill in the answer sheet bubbles than do dull pencil points.

If you're taking the test under special circumstances, or taking it as a walk-in, it's especially important that you show up to the test center early so that the proctors can accommodate you.

Entering the Exam Room
Don't just wander into your exam room casually. Try to be one of the first students into the exam room so that you can choose a good seat (assuming seating is not assigned, as it sometimes is). A good seat is one that gives you a clear view of the proctor and of the central clock in the room that the proctor will be monitoring to time the test.

When I took exams I always preferred seats in the very back of the room because I didn't like the feeling that something was going on behind my back that I couldn't see. You may be different and prefer a seat as close to the front of the room as possible. The important thing is to choose a seat that suits you, and not one that you take by default.

I recommend getting a seat either next to a window or next to a wall so that you're not sandwiched on both sides by other students. During the test you may want to take a break for a few seconds and stretch your neck; that's hard to do if you have students on either side of you. It's nice to be able to look out the window from time to time to clear your head.

As the proctor reads the instructions—Clear your desks and put all your belongings under your seat. Print your first name and then last name, bubbling in the first few letters on page one of your answer sheet, blah, blah, blah—don't space out. Use the time to get focused and alert so that when the test begins, you're ready to go.

Get ready to set your digital timepiece to zero you want it to count up, not down and await the proctor's signal.

The Scariest Moment in the Exam Room
Do you know when it is? Imagine that the proctor has finished reading the instructions and everyone in the room has his or her pencil poised to break the test booklet seal, waiting for the second hand to swing up to the twelve on the room's clock, when the test will begin.

Finally the second hand hits twelve, and the minute hand clicks once. The proctor looks out at the room full of anxious faces and announces, Open your test booklets and begin. You have twenty-five minutes to complete the first section.

Phwip, phwip, phwip, phwip, phwip. The silence of the room is broken by the chorus of seals being broken around the room and the flutter of test booklets being opened. Then the room is quiet, the only sound being the scribbling of pencils.

No, that's not the scariest moment in the exam, but it's about to happen.

Scribble, scribble, scribble. You're working through the problems on the first page just like you've done many times before. Everything's going along swimmingly as the proctor walks up and down the aisles occasionally.

Then, all of a sudden, everyone in the room hears a sound that draws a collective gasp: the sound of the first page turning!

"Oh no," everyone thinks, "I'm not moving fast enough!" All at once the head of every student in the room drops down closer to the test booklet, teeth clenched in determination, and pencils scribbling even faster. Within 30 seconds—I promise—everybody else in the room will have turned his or her first page, too, trying to catch up.

I assure you that the first person in the exam room to turn his or her page is racing recklessly through the problems—and bombing big-time. Don't be tricked into trying to keep up with that pace. Stick to our game plan. Stay focused. No shortcuts. Take pains. If you do so, you'll lock in at least a good score, and possibly a very good score. The time to accelerate is at the end of each section, and not before.

Ready, set...Ignore These Two Voices in Your Head
I want to warn you that during the test, two tiny invisible fairies will be sitting on your shoulders, whispering in your ears. You'll hear only one of the fairies, and you won't be sure which one it is until the test starts.

One of the fairies whispers gleefully, "I can't believe how easy this test is." The other fairy whispers ominously, "This is by far the hardest test I've ever taken."

There aren't really fairies whispering in your ears, of course, but I promise you that you will hear one of those two messages. Whichever voice you hear, ignore it—it's your mind playing games with you.

The test will seem much easier than your practice tests, or it will seem impossibly difficult, but either way it's just the way the test seems—it's not reality. In other words, both states of mind reflect illusions.

By the way, it's better for your eventual score that the test seem too hard than too easy. Being aware of difficulty is a sign that you are thinking about the questions and taking pains. If the test seems easy, on the other hand, it's because you're not taking pains to get the problems right. So if the test seems easier than you expected, force yourself to slow down and take pains—make the test seem more difficult.

Trust me on this point: you'll do better if the test seems hard. Only two types of people find the SAT easy: test-taking geniuses (1 in 10,000), or test-taking simpletons (alas, far more common than geniuses).

See also A True Story on page 7.

But Listen to This Voice
"Any question on the SAT that I know I can get right, I will take all necessary pains to make sure that I get it right. I will always take pains."

Always Maintain Your Grip during the Test—and if You Lose It, Regain Control
One of the things you'll probably have to deal with during the SAT are distractions. Someone sniffling or coughing or tapping a pencil are one thing, but I've heard stories of distractions ranging from pile drivers at a nearby construction site to the school's band—tubas, drums, trombones, cymbals—practicing on the field outside. Some distractions are insidious, like hearing the jingle from a commercial playing over and over in your head.

Use distractions as reminders to get back to the test in front of you. If someone in the room is distracting you, raise the hand you're not writing with to attract the proctor's attention but keep working while you wait for the proctor to get to your desk.

Keep Moving While the Clock's Ticking
Don't count on the proctor to be accurate or consistent about writing the time remaining in a section on the board. Monitor your time continually as you work through each section.

Watch out or you may enter a time warp. You start working on a difficult question that has you stumped, and before you know it, you space out. Suddenly you "come to" with a jolt and realize that you've just spent the last few minutes doing nothing!

To avoid time warps and spacing out in general, keep your pencil moving every few seconds, marking up your test booklet. Don't ever let your pencil lift more than a couple of inches off the page; keep it poised to mark up questions.

Speaking of keeping your pencil moving, don't spend forever bubbling in your answer sheet. It's not uncommon to see a student in the exam room artistically darkening a bubble for ten or fifteen seconds. If you waste even two or three seconds per question bubbling in your answer, you'll waste a minute by the end of the section—or over five minutes wasted on the entire test!

For most of the test, keep your answer sheet under your test booklet. Always, always, always write your answer in your test booklet before you transfer your answers—in groups, like once every page—over to your answer sheet.

One of Your SAT Sections Won't Count
Your SAT will have two writing sections (the essay and the proofreading questions), three reading sections, and three math sections and another one that won't count. The section that won't count could be a math section, a reading section, or a proofreading section. (You won't have two essay sections.)

The test writers use this experimental section—"equating section" is the euphemism the test writers use—to try out questions for future SATs. Having to take a section that isn't scored doesn't seem fair—and it isn't—but your only consolation is that everybody who's ever taken an SAT before you has had to do the same thing.

You'll know by the end of the test which type of section was experimental because you'll have completed an extra math, reading, or proofreading section. But how can you tell while you're taking a section whether it's experimental or not?

There's no absolutely certain way to spot the experimental section but here are some guidelines. First, the experimental section tends to be in the middle of the test. The SAT will begin with the essay section, and then you'll do the first multiple-choice section, which could be math, reading, or proofreading. The experimental section will probably not be the first multiple-choice section you take.

Second, the experimental section will probably be 25 minutes long rather than 20 minutes.

Third, if you get two math or two reading sections in a row, it's likely that one of them will be experimental (though you won't know which one).

Fourth, the experimental section tends to be harder—sometimes much harder—than the sections that do count. Also, if the questions lurch randomly from easy to hard to easy again, it's likely that section is experimental. (The questions in the regular sections will go from easy to medium to hard, except for the reading questions.)

If you spot the experimental section, do not blow it off or you'll have trouble regaining your focus for the rest of the test. Do the best you can on the experimental section so that you'll remain mentally limber for the remaining sections.

Students taking the SAT under special circumstances with extra time will not face an experimental section, nor will juniors taking the PSAT.

Out of the gatesNever, Ever Give Up on the SAT
You already know not to listen to the fairy that whispers in your ear, "This test is impossibly hard." But sometimes you truly believe that you've bombed on a section.

Don't give up. In the first place, the section in question may have been the experimental section. But even if the section you had a lot of trouble with wasn't experimental, it's possible that you didn't do nearly as badly as you fear.

But even if you truly did have trouble with a section, do your best on the rest of the test. Use the remaining sections to practice your test-taking techniques. Get the maximum practice value out of this test so that you'll be that much better prepared when—if—you retake the test.

See also A True Story on page 7.

Keep Working on Each Section until the Proctor Says Stop
In baseball the umpires make the calls; their word is final. Proctors are like SAT umpires—especially about timing.

I mentioned earlier that you can't count on your proctor's being accurate or consistent about writing times on the board. In fact you shouldn't count on your proctor's being accurate about telling everyone when to stop, either. I've heard of proctors stopping students several minutes early, or forgetting to tell students to stop altogether!

Use absolutely every second available to work on questions, and do not stop on any section until the proctor says stop.

After the proctor finishes reading the instructions and before the test starts, he or she will ask the class whether anyone has a question. Raise your hand and ask whether it's okay that you use a digital timer. The proctor will say of course—which you knew—but your point in asking the question is actually to put the proctor on notice that someone in the room you will be timing the section down to the second. In a sense, you become a second umpire!

Don't Overreach—a Great SAT Score Happens Accidentally on the Way to a Good Score
You may be tempted during the exam to cut corners, to stop taking pains, to rush to finish thinking that doing so is the only way you'll get your maximum possible score.

Don't.

The way to get a great score is to take all pains necessary to lock in a good score—for all but the last two or three minutes of each section. Then, and only then, when you've already guaranteed yourself a good score, you can take chances and reach for the great score.

Too many students—even the strongest test takers—make the mistake of reaching for a great score from the very start. Unfortunately, reaching for a great score at the beginning of the test forces them to take too many risks too early in each section. The usual result is not pretty: not only do they not get the great score they were hoping for, but they also blow the good score they could have gotten.

Consider Steve, who's shooting for a super-high SAT math score. He's always gotten As in math, and now, as a junior, he's acing precalculus. Steve figures that SAT math problems are way easier than the advanced algebra and trigonometry questions he's been doing in his math class, so he ought to be able to get a near perfect score on the SAT.

So he rushes in the beginning of the first math section. Steve doesn't take all the pains he should to ensure that he gets the easy and medium questions right, but then hey, he's a great math student—he doesn't need to take pains.

Steve's breezing through the first section just fine when all of a sudden he gets stuck on a medium question. Now, instead of tearing himself away from the question as soon as he senses trouble, he wrestles with the question. Steve figures he has to get that question right if he wants to get the high score he's shooting for. And before he knows it, Steve's spent several minutes on the question and he still hasn't solved it. He finally does but now he's in panic mode, and he races through the rest of the section. Indeed, Steve remains in high panic mode for the rest of the test—with predictable consequences for his math, reading, and writing scores.

If Steve had been merely willing to get a good score, he would have had no trouble jettisoning the problem that confused him and moving on. Then, if he had time left at the end of the section, he could have returned to the question and tackled it again.

Ironically, the way to achieve a great score is being willing to accept a good score. Students who aren't willing to accept good scores often do even worse than that.

Imagine that you're a rock climber and about to scale the tallest, steepest cliff you've ever attempted. The way to get to the top of the cliff is to forget about getting to the top. Instead, focus on finding a firm hold for your right hand. Then, when you find a hold for your right hand, you test it a bit to make sure it's firm. When you know that your right hand is secure, you turn your attention to your left hand and to finding a firm hold for it. And when you do find a hold for your left hand, and you test the hold for firmness, just to be sure, you then turn your attention to your right foot, and finding a firm hold for it. And when you find a firm hold for your right foot, you're now ready to pull yourself up and find a hold for your left foot. Then you repeat the cycle again, and again, and again, until you reach the top of the cliff.

Doing well on the SAT requires the same kind of focus. If you do the little things right, the big things will take care of themselves.

Take pains.

Across the finish line No Matter How Well You've Prepared for the SAT, It's Always Good to Walk in Feeling a Little Unprepared
Taking the real SAT is always, always different from taking practice tests that you know don't count. The SAT does count, and you know it. It's the same difference an athlete feels between a practice game and one in the final round of a championship.

The reason it's good to feel a little—just a little—unprepared is that you won't be thrown too badly by the inevitable surprises that occur on the exam. Students who feel completely prepared are too easily thrown for a loop when things in the actual exam room don't go exactly as they'd expected.

Most of what I've said in this article applies equally well to the PSAT, with the big difference that not as much is riding on the PSAT as on the SAT.

Should You Cancel Your SAT Score?
Sometimes it happens: you're suffering from an awful cold the day of the test, or you panic, or whatever. If you know you bombed, it might be a good idea to cancel your result because every SAT score goes down on your permanent record. The cancellation will be noted in your permanent record, but that's much better than having a bad score recorded.

Now, sometimes you only think you did poorly. Emotions can run high during a big test and it may be difficult to tell how you did. Just because you realize after the test that you missed a question or two doesn't mean you did poorly (in fact, it often means exactly the opposite). And remember that one of the sections is the unscored experimental one, so if you think you did poorly on the math, say, because of one particular section, there's a good chance it was the experimental one.

Anyway, if you decide to cancel your test, you can do so either at the test site (not recommended) or by notifying the testing authorities (ETS) by the Wednesday following the test. If you think you might want to cancel your scores, ask the test supervisor for a Request to Cancel Test Scores Form but do not fill the form out at the test site. If you're not absolutely sure whether you did poorly, you should probably wait and discuss the test with your friends—you may discover that you did better than you feared—or someone else who can be objective about your options.

You can cancel your score by writing a letter with all the pertinent identification information. You don't have to explain why you want to cancel your score. Label the heading: "Attention: SAT Score Cancellation." Send it to ETS in one of the following three ways:

• Via fax (the easiest method): 1-609-771-7681
• Via U.S. Postal Service Express Mail (U.S. only): SAT Score Cancellation, P.O. Box 6228, Princeton, NJ 08541-6228
• Via other overnight mail service (U.S. or international): SAT Score Cancellation, 225 Phillips Boulevard, Ewing, NJ 08618

Remember: if you cancel your scores, nobody, not even you, will ever know how you did.

Awaiting judgmentA True Story
When I first began tutoring students for the SAT, a group of them decided to take the March test. (At the time, the May test was by far the more common.) Anyway, I still remember getting the first call from one of the girls immediately after the test was over. She was in tears. She knew she had done "horribly, horribly."

At the time, the SAT had twenty-five antonym questions that were pure vocabulary items—pretty much either you knew the words, or you didn't (though you could use process of elimination techniques like the ones I showed you for the sentence completions). This was also the time the SAT curve was about 100 points harder than it is today. (Back then, only a dozen students in the entire country got a perfect score; today hundreds do.)

Anyway, as I was saying, she just knew she had bombed. I asked her whether she had used all the techniques she had learned. She said yes. I asked her whether she'd taken pains. She said yes. I asked her whether she recalled any specific math mistakes she'd made. She said yes, unfortunately, one or two.

After listening to her responses, I told her that she'd done much better than she feared, and in fact I thought she had done extraordinarily well. She said, "But what about my math mistakes?" I told her that the fact she remembered having made the mistakes after the test was in fact a good sign, not a bad one. Remembering specific mistakes is a sign of being hyper-aware during the test. I told her that the mistakes she recalled were probably the only mistakes she made. She calmed down a bit and then she hung up.

Not a minute later I got another call, this time from a boy, who was also deeply shaken by the experience. He, too, was sure he had bombed. "I didn't recognize half the words on the test." Again I asked him whether he'd used the techniques, and whether he'd taken pains. Yes, he replied. So I told him not to worry.

But that afternoon I received calls from almost all the students who'd taken that test, and every single one said basically the same thing: "I'm sure I bombed." At the same time, they all reported having used the techniques without fail, and having taken pains on all the questions.

Long story short, when scores were mailed out a month later (this was pre-Internet days, so you had to wait for an actual envelope for your scores), the average improvement of the students was nearly 200 points! And the girl who'd been in tears? Her verbal score shot from a 560 to a perfect 800 (back then you had to answer every single question correctly to achieve an 800, versus today when you can get a couple wrong), and her score in math (not her strongest subject) went up 140 points. Her total improvement was an astounding 400 points, and remember: she was convinced she should cancel her scores.

True story.

The moment of truthWhile You're Waiting for Your Scores, Get Back to Real Life
For the past few weeks, if not longer, you've been preoccupied with the SAT. Maybe you've let a few things slide: homework, extracurricular activities, your friends, fun. Now it's time to catch up on anything that's fallen behind and to return to your normal routine.

I know you may be feeling a little anticlimactic after getting all geared up for the SAT that's now over, but don't forget other tests that may be looming on the horizon. If it's early spring now, you may have an AP test or two looming in mid-May as well as the SAT II Subject Tests, which you may also need to take in the fall. You've worked hard preparing for the SAT and it's natural to want to relax a bit. But please, please don't blow off your AP exams or SAT IIs; in many ways these tests can be just as important to your admissions chances as the SAT.

By the way, do not throw away all your SAT preparation materials just yet—I know you're tempted—just in case you decide to retake the SAT.

What to Do When Your Scores Arrive
Three weeks after the SAT I (or SAT II), scores are mailed out to students, but scores are actually available online two weeks after the test.

Along with your score report—which you should save—the envelope will also contain an "Additional Services Order Form." Save this form, too.

Are You Planning to Retake the Test?
I discuss the question of whether you should retake the SAT at length in the FAQ section (available online, see questions 7 through 10). If you might retake the SAT, send away for a copy of the test and your answer sheet. This feature is called the Question and Answer Service. It isn't available for all test dates—nor is it clear whether this service will be modified for the new SAT.

To order, complete the Additional Services Order Form mailed with your score report. You have up to five months after the test to order your answer sheet but do so as soon as your scores arrive because it takes a month or so for your answer sheet to arrive. The cost is $10 (though this price will probably increase a bit along with everything else associated with the new SAT).

You get a photocopy of your actual answer sheet but not your personal test booklet. Still, you'll learn a lot by reviewing your errors and any blanks you may have left. When the booklet arrives, you'll learn an incredible amount by retaking the test—timed, using OmniProctor—and seeing whether you repeat any errors.