For Parents · SAT
The SAT, for parents
Everything you need to know as a parent, nothing that you don’t.
Links are provided below if you’d like to learn more, or simply schedule a time to talk with us!
Step 1
Take the SAT?
For most students, yes. Most colleges are test-optional, but a strong score still helps. And many of the most selective colleges require scores again, among them Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Yale.
College Explorer Every college’s test rule, on one map SAT scores and admit rates at 234 colleges. Search any school by name. Open the College Explorer →The test itself: two sections on a computer, Reading and Writing and Math, about two and a quarter hours in all, scored from 400 to 1600.
The good news? That part is your student’s homework, not yours. Here’s the full breakdown anyway, and we’re happy to say more if you’re interested.
Step 2
Test dates
Most students take the SAT in the spring of junior year and again in the fall, after a few hours a week of practice for two to four months.
No need to pick a date yet: hold off until we talk.
Good luck to everyone taking the SAT today!
— days until the next SATTaking the SAT? Make sure you’re ready: what you need on test day.
Step 3
Start free
One official practice test shows where the points are being lost. We build the plan from there.
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Take an official practice test
In College Board’s Bluebook app, which needs a College Board account. We suggest Practice Test 11.
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Get your free analysis
Enter the answers to see where the points were lost, and the top three priorities.
Step 4
What it costs
Start free. Add more only if it helps.
Free: one Question of the Day per section, every day, and the analysis of your student’s first official practice test. Each analysis after that is $4.99.
Premium Plan
$49.99 a month
$129.99 for three months (save 13%) · $299.99 for a year (save 49%), the best value at just $5.75 a week.
- Every workbook’s notes, and every checkpoint and final test
- No daily limits
- Every practice test analyzed, every week
- Your trends, and practice aimed at them
- A weekly progress email to you
Try the workbooks free for one day in the app, with no charge when it ends.
Bootcamp
$2,500 per seat
Save $200 with early enrollment.
- Sixteen two-hour sessions over eight weeks, online
- Office hours every week
- Three months of the Premium Plan
- No more than ten students per group
A free consultation
Free
Thirty minutes with Kevin Engle, the founder.
- Your student’s goals and timeline
- Which option fits, if any
- What we’d do in your place
The SAT itself is paid to College Board.
How deltaPlus compares
What your student gets from each, side by side.
Price for the time you need
The least each lists for that much time, before tax, on one scale.
College Board
Practice tests it’s built on
College Board’s official tests Its own tests
College BoardStarting scores each guarantee covers
On the SAT’s 400 to 1600 scale. Each has its own conditions.
College BoardYesIn partNot on its website
| deltaPlus SATthe app | College BoardBluebook, My Practice |
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Self-Paced |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $49.99 a month$49.99 a month $129.99 for 3 months $299.99 a year |
Free | $149 a month$149 a month $297 for 3 months $588 a year |
$99 for 30 days$99 for 30 days to $449 for a year, by plan | $49 a month$49 a month $129 a year |
$99.99 a month$99.99 a month in the app $265 for 3 months or $700 a year on its website, or a pass to an SAT date |
$299 for a year$299 self-paced |
| Free to start | Your first official test analyzed, and a Question of the Day in each section | Everything | One SAT and a skills check; a 3-day trial | A free trial | A 7-day trial | A free account with limited questions | A 14-day trial |
| An iPhone app | Made for the iPhone | Bluebook on iPads and computers; practice on the web | Any device, in a browser | An iPhone app | An iPhone app | An iPhone app | An iPhone app |
| Built on College Board’s official tests | College Board’s 8 official tests, analyzed from your answers or your Score Details | The 8 official tests, with Score Details | 30 SAT tests; can use your official SAT scores | A full-length mock exam, plus up to 9 built from its questions | Up to 3 full-length tests | 9 SAT tests, in Pro; reads your SAT score report | 5 full-length tests |
| Ranks what to work on first | Ranked by the points each one cost, in plain words | Progress in 8 areas, with advice on where to focus | A study plan that updates with your results | A study plan from your strengths and weaknesses | Study schedules | Analytics, with accuracy by topic | Which categories cost the most points, after each practice test |
| Practice questions | 1,366, and Math new every time1,366 in Reading and Writing Math with new numbers every time, in 347 kinds |
ThousandsThousands, all official | 9,000 | 2,000+ | 2,500+ | 4,800+ | Thousands |
| Time and pacing | Every practice at the SAT’s pace, or extended time; each section’s seconds too fast or too slow; when to move on, taught | Bluebook’s clock, as on test day | Time on each question; speed and pace | Timed tests; time analysis to find slow questions | Timed tests; a pacing lesson | Pace drills against the clock; time by difficulty | A built-in timer |
| Daily practice | A daily exercise aimed at your top priorities | A Question of the Day | Daily tasks in its study plan | A plan built on your daily availability | Daily and weekly checklists | A daily streak | A study plan built for your schedule |
| Lessons | 17 workbooks, each with notes, practice, checkpoints, and a final test | Khan Academy’s free lessons, linked from each test | An AI tutor; interactive Desmos guides | Video lessons, in the course | 200+ video lessons; an AI tutor | 110+ lessons; an AI tutor | Video lessons |
| For parents | A weekly progress email to a parent | Copies of its emails to a parent, scores included | A Parent Portal: activity, and current and goal scores | Performance reports and a predicted score | Weekly progress emails to a parent | A way for a parent to pay, or to gift Pro | An enrollment advisor for parents |
| A guarantee for every starting score | Love it or your money back after three months, with conditions | Free | 200 points more or 3 months refunded, starting at 1250 or below | Refunds case by case | 100 points more or your money back, starting at 1350 or below | 200 points more or 3 months refunded, starting at 1250 or below | A higher score or a refund, with conditions |
Prices in US dollars before tax, from each company’s own website or App Store page on November 2, 2026, without sales or trials. Other companies’ names and logos are their own trademarks; none is affiliated with deltaPlus.
This comparison has a page of its own, to share: deltapluslearning.com/compare.
Bootcamps
Eight weeks, built backwards from one official SAT date, with every session taught by Kevin Engle, the founder.
The 2027 groups
| Group | Meets | First session | Last session | Last day for early enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2027 | Saturdays 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Wednesdays 5:15 to 7:15 pm | January 9, 2027 | March 3, 2027 | November 30, 2026 |
| March 2027 | Sundays 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Thursdays 5:15 to 7:15 pm | January 10, 2027 | March 4, 2027 | November 30, 2026 |
| May 2027 | Saturdays 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Wednesdays 5:15 to 7:15 pm | March 8, 2027 | April 28, 2027 | January 22, 2027 |
| May 2027 | Sundays 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Thursdays 5:15 to 7:15 pm | March 7, 2027 | April 27, 2027 | January 21, 2027 |
$2,500 a seat, or $2,300 by the date in the last column. See the bootcamp terms.
Step 5
Weekly updates
You’ll know what you need to know, when you need to know it: a short email every Sunday, and each practice-test report the day it’s graded.
Your student adds your email in the app, under Settings > My Account > Parent Email. Confirm the link we send, and you’re set. To stop, use the link at the bottom of any update.
Every Sunday, in your inbox
- Practice days, questions answered, and how many were right
- Practice-test scores, and where the misses were
- The next SAT, and whether a practice test is due
Step 6
Questions
How much time does it take?
Most students work a few hours a week for two to four months. A bootcamp is eight weeks.
What does my student need?
Any browser on a Mac, a Windows computer, or a Chromebook runs the app. Practice tests run in Bluebook on a laptop or tablet, and answers can be entered here in any browser.
What about accommodations?
Request them early through College Board’s Services for Students with Disabilities. Bootcamp time targets are set around each student’s approved accommodations.
What should tutoring cost?
In a word: LESS. An inexperienced tutor runs around $50 per hour; at the other extreme, it’s not unusual for families to spend over $8,000 on SAT tutoring for one child! A year of deltaPlus SAT Premium costs just $5.75 a week—about what a single latte costs in 2026!
Why deltaPlus?
Our founder, Kevin Engle, has taught and tutored for more than fifteen years: for big names like The Princeton Review and Mathnasium, for small boutiques, in classrooms, and one-on-one. deltaPlus is everything that works, for less than one hour of tutoring a month. And if you don’t love it, you get your money back: use Premium for three months the way it’s meant to be used, and if it isn’t worth it, call us. See the conditions.
Step 7
Talk to us
Tell us your goals and timeline, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Book a timeOr email info@deltapluslearning.com.