SAT® Prep Course Comparison
UWorld and Khan Academy

UWorld and Khan Academy are the top ranking resources among students who are preparing for the upcoming SAT® exam. For high performers, the question isn’t which of these tools to use — UWorld vs. Khan Academy — but how to effectively use these prep resources together for a maximum SAT score. In this article, we will offer a snapshot of the key differences and how to use both in your exam preparation. UWorld SAT reviews and Khan Academy SAT reviews reveal that students find both learning tools very helpful as they take SAT practice exams and follow a strategic study plan for exam success.

What Features Make the Best SAT Review Course?

For starters, the most effective SAT review courses offer challenging practice questions that mimic the SAT exam. When students practice with these exam-like questions, they are much more confident and prepared on exam day. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the best review courses offer immediate feedback with in-depth answer explanations. It is essential that students working through practice questions and SAT practice exams know “why” they got an answer correct or incorrect. This way, if the answer was incorrect, the student can learn from the mistake and avoid repeating it on exam day. This type of active learning methodology is extremely important to exam success.

What Does UWorld SAT Prep Offer?

UWorld has been the industry leader in high-stakes exam preparation for over 20 years. Our dedication to excellence is just one of the reasons UWorld SAT reviews are so positive. Students love that their UWorld SAT course offers practice questions that are just like the exam. Because students have the opportunity to practice with SAT-style questions, there are no surprises on exam day. In fact, the real exam feels like just another SAT practice exam they have taken with UWorld as part of their study plan.

But it’s not just the practice questions that students love. UWorld offers in-depth, easy-to-understand explanations for every answer choice. These explanations, accentuated with vivid illustrations, bring content to life and explain the “why” for the correct answer choice and the “why not” for the incorrect answer choice. It’s not enough to just know that you missed a question on your SAT practice; you need to know why you missed that question so that you won’t make that same mistake on exam day.

In addition to the SAT-style questions and in-depth explanations, UWorld offers full-length SAT practice exams that simulate the real SAT. Upon completion of the practice exam, students can take advantage of detailed reporting that identifies areas for improvement and accurate score prediction features that estimate what they would score on the actual exam. These performance metrics allow for more targeted study in order for students to reach their highest possible SAT score.

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What Does Khan Academy SAT Prep Offer?

Like UWorld for SAT, Khan Academy offers helpful tools for students who are preparing to take an upcoming SAT exam. Khan Academy offers video tutorials on the different subjects and concepts that you will see on the SAT. Students who like to learn by lecture find the platform familiar and appreciate the opportunity to pause content and rewatch portions of the video presentations.

In addition to their video content, Khan Academy offers quizzes and practice questions that accompany the SAT-prep videos. On both the Khan Academy website and the College Board® website, you can find full-length SAT practice exams to simulate your exam-day experience.

UWorld SAT Prep vs. Khan Academy SAT Prep

If you are to compare UWorld and Khan Academy, the primary differences are the format for content, the depth of explanations, and the learning methodologies. Here are a few questions people ask when they look at both the UWorld and Khan Academy SAT prep:

SAT Practice Questions - UWorld vs. Khan Academy

UWorld and Khan Academy’s SAT resources offer thousands of practice questions that mimic the SAT exam. However, UWorld’s active learning methodology focuses on learning from detailed answer explanations that offer thorough explanations for the correct answer as well as feedback on the incorrect answer choices in order to help you learn from your mistakes. UWorld’s answer explanations include hyperlinks with definitions of terms, background information, formulas, and vivid illustrations to help build understanding and retention.

SAT Review Features - UWorld vs. Khan Academy

When using UWorld for SAT prep, there are a variety of available features that will help you prepare for an upcoming SAT exam such as the Flashcards and My Notebook features.

Flashcards allow you to transfer written and visual content onto your flashcards as well as add your own notes. With just the click of a button, you can conveniently create flashcards that contain high-quality content from SAT experts to aid in your studies. The UWorld Flashcard feature is unique and highly effective because it uses spaced repetition technology, which shows you the most difficult information more frequently until you grasp the concept, and then less frequently to increase retention. This is more efficient than passively viewing flashcards in random order. With spaced repetition, your flashcards make studying more effective. Additionally, you can create custom tags for your flashcards to improve searchability.

The My Notebook feature with UWorld is an easy-to-use tool for creating a customizable, digital notebook in order to take notes and personalize your study. You can add any content from your practice questions or explanations as well as personalizing your notes with the editor functionality. The My Notebook feature allows you to have essential topics, difficult concepts, and targeted information to study all in one place. It allows you to maximize UWorld content in a way that feels personal to you. Flashcards and My Notebook are two features students find helpful to improve retention and talk about in their UWorld SAT prep reviews.

Like UWorld, Khan Academy has helpful study features to help with SAT preparation. Though Khan Academy is composed mostly of video lessons, it also offers tips and strategies for taking the SAT exam. You can access SAT practice exams on both the Khan Academy website and the College Board website.

Both UWorld and Khan Academy offer SAT assessments to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to gauge SAT exam readiness.

How does UWorld SAT provide answer explanations for different question types?

Every question in the UWorld SAT QBank (Question Bank) comes with an informative explanation, regardless of subject, passage, or question type. For example:

This UWorld SAT math explanation includes the correct formula, the proper application of that formula, and important things to remember when solving the math problem.

This UWorld SAT reading explanation includes why the answer is correct, information about locating the best answer, why the other answer options are incorrect, and things to remember when answering similar questions.

This UWorld SAT multiple-choice explanation helps you analyze the information being asked, eliminate distractors, understand why the incorrect answer options are wrong, and recognize things to remember when answering similar questions.

Question Difficulty Level - UWorld vs. Khan Academy

UWorld is not necessarily harder than Khan Academy, but it is challenging in a different way. The questions you will find with UWorld are written at or above SAT exam-level difficulty, and the UWorld questions are formatted to look and feel just like the SAT exam. Your UWorld SAT practice exams and your UWorld study sessions will challenge you in such a way that you will be confident and prepared on exam day. When you sit for the actual SAT exam, it will feel like just another practice session with UWorld.

UWorld vs. Khan Academy - SAT Practice Tests

The UWorld and Khan Academy SAT practice tests are very accurate and are a great way to prepare yourself for the rigors of exam day. UWorld’s questions are written by accomplished educators who are SAT experts. The questions on your UWorld SAT practice exams mimic the questions you will find on the actual SAT exam in both format and content. Khan Academy offers full-length, official SAT practice exams released by the College Board along with answer keys. Though you will see which answers you answered correctly and incorrectly, unlike UWorld SAT, there is no explanation for right and wrong answer choices with Khan Academy’s SAT practice exams.

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SAT Prep Time - UWorld vs. Khan Academy

Whether you are using UWorld, Khan Academy, or a combination of UWorld and Khan Academy for SAT prep, the length of time to complete your prep depends on your individual goals and schedule. After taking a UWorld self-assessment, determining your baseline of knowledge, identifying any weak areas, and targeting your dream score, build a study plan that is realistic for your SAT goals. That study plan will inform you as to how long you need to give yourself for SAT exam prep. UWorld offers 30-day, 90-day, 180-day, and 360-day subscriptions for their SAT prep, with the 90-day subscription being the most popular among students.

How Can UWorld SAT and Khan Academy SAT be used together?

Because Khan Academy is a free resource, a lot of students choose to add it to their SAT-prep plan. UWorld and Khan Academy can be used together for SAT preparation quite easily. If you are just beginning with your prep, watch the Khan video lessons – this will provide you with a foundational understanding of concepts. As part of your study plan, then begin working through your UWorld questions and explanations. The detailed explanations from UWorld are the gold standard in exam prep and will help you learn as you study.

Practice using the UWorld for SAT content in each of your study sessions. When you answer a question incorrectly, pay careful attention to the in-depth explanation and learn from your mistakes. If you still aren’t sure you understand the concept completely, watch a Khan Academy video to see if the lecture is helpful. Once you feel confident, test your knowledge by completing additional UWorld questions on that subject or concept.

Frequently Asked Questions

The best way for international students to prepare for the SAT is to utilize premium online learning tools like UWorld for their exam prep. The exam-like questions from UWorld will familiarize international students with the style of the exam, the in-depth explanations will help students learn as they practice, the performance tracking features will help international students see how they compare to their American peers, and the self-assessments will show participating students if they are ready for exam success.
Because the UWorld and Khan Academy SAT prep courses are accessible online, international students can access and use both for their SAT practice exams, assessments, learning content, and extensive SAT preparation.
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