3 Methods for Increasing Speed on the ACT® and SAT®
In last week’s post, one of the New Year’s resolution examples was Resolution #6: “I’m going to increase my speed—without rushing.” That goal matters because speed on the ACT® and SAT® isn’t something students either “have” or “don’t have.” It’s something they learn.
On timed standardized tests like the ACT® and SAT®, students build speed through three trainable skills:
Familiarity,
Skill mastery, and
Repetition.
Together, these skills form the foundation that students need to perform efficiently, maintain accuracy, and feel confident under pressure on test day.
The Timing Reality Test Takers Can’t Ignore
The ACT® and SAT® aren’t just content tests. They’re content tests under strict time constraints, which means speed training has to be intentional.
On the ACT®, test-takers face tight pacing in core sections, such as:
English (35 minutes / 50 questions),
Math (50 minutes / 45 questions), and
Reading (40 minutes / 36 questions).
On the digital SAT®, students have 64 minutes for Reading and Writing and 70 minutes for Math (2 hours and 14 minutes total). Each section is split into two timed modules. Students can move within a module until the time ends and the test advances.
When test takers “run out of time,” it’s usually due to poor habits, like:
hesitation at the start of questions,
slow or inconsistent execution,
overinvesting in hard questions, and/or
practice that doesn’t match real testing conditions.
This is why the three skills work so well together. Each one addresses a different source of lost time, and together they lead to real speed gains.
Let’s unpack what these three methods look like and how you can help your students attain this invaluable skillset for their next test.
Method 1: Familiarity (content + format)
Familiarity is where gaining speed begins. When students recognize what they’re looking at quickly, they can stop hesitating and start faster, reread less, and make fewer false starts.
When students see the same question types repeatedly, they respond faster because the early steps—recognizing the task and choosing a first move—begin to require less conscious effort. Researchers often describe that shift as automaticity (Logan, 1988).
What Familiarity Looks Like in Tutoring Sessions
Teach recognition separately from solving. A simple and effective drill: give your students a question and ask them to spend 5–10 seconds identifying:
what type of question it is, and
what the first step should be.
The goal isn’t to solve the problem (yet), but to train the brain for fast interpretation and setup.
Use official tools early and often. Use test-aligned practice materials from the start.
For the SAT®, “realistic practice” means using Bluebook, because module timing and digital navigation are part of the task.
For the ACT®, students need frequent exposure to ACT®-style formatting and pacing so test questions become easily recognizable and students become more comfortable with the flow of the test.
Quick Pacing Notes (ACT® vs. SAT®)
ACT® pacing: The timing of the ACT® makes slow starts costly. Consistent skip/return habits can hinder progression, and quick first-step decisions matter.
Digital SAT® pacing: Each module is separately timed, and when time ends, the platform advances. Students can’t “borrow time” from one module to the next.
Method 2: Skill Mastery (fluency that prevents stalling)
Familiarity helps students start faster, and skill mastery helps them stay fast.
Many students understand content, but still move slowly because their execution isn’t fluent. What does that look like?
messy setup
second-guessing
mid-problem restarts
avoidable algebra/grammar decision points
rereading that rapidly grows into timing problems
Students get faster when their practice targets specific weaknesses, includes timely feedback, and repeats the skill until execution is reliable and consistent. That approach aligns with what researchers describe as deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993).
Prep That Builds Mastery into Speed
Use an error taxonomy that leads to a clear next step. Instead of labeling mistakes as “careless,” categorize those errors in ways that point directly to what should be addressed next:
Recognition gap (didn’t identify the question type)
Concept gap (didn’t know the underlying rule/idea)
Procedure gap (knew it, but steps weren’t fluent)
Decision gap (chose a slow method under time pressure)
Execution slip (misread, copied wrong, arithmetic/grammar slip)
This keeps tutoring sessions focused on fixable habits that actually boost pacing.
Run short “single-skill sprints,” then return later. Short, targeted sets (8–12 minutes) with immediate review help build fluency quickly. Then, return to the same skill later in the week.
Strong performance during practice isn’t always proof that the skill will stick or transfer later. Researchers call this the learning vs. performance distinction (Soderstrom & Bjork, 2015).
Treat strategy choice as part of skill mastery. Many timing problems happen because students use slow, heavy methods on every question. Help them build habits like:
“What’s the fastest valid path here?”
“Is this a skip-and-return?”
“Is there a simpler setup that gets the same result?”
Students don’t need a million strategies. They need a small set of reliable approaches to problems they can rely on and execute quickly.
Method 3: Repetition (under realistic timing constraints)
Repetition is how students turn “I can do this” into “I can do this quickly, every time, under the clock.”
But not all repetition helps. Students don’t get faster just by doing more problems—they get faster by doing the right kind of practice often enough that their skills hold up under pressure.
One key piece is retrieval practice. When practice forces students to pull information and procedures from memory—rather than just re-reading notes or examples—retention improves. This is commonly called the testing effect (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
Speed also becomes more reliable when practice is spaced over time and made slightly more challenging—especially when students work under realistic timing and don’t always know what type of question is coming next. Researchers often group these principles under desirable difficulties (Bjork & Bjork, 2011).
Finally, once students know the basics, mixing problem types is one of the most practical ways to build real test-day pacing. It forces students to recognize the question type and choose the right method—exactly what they have to do on the ACT® and SAT®. Researchers refer to this as interleaving, and studies suggest it can improve long-term learning compared to practicing one type at a time (Rohrer, 2012).
What (realistic) Repetition Looks Like in Tutoring Sessions
Use timed sets that match how the test actually feels. Avoid vague instructions like “go faster.” Instead, assign timed sets built to mimic real test pacing:
Digital SAT®: module-like timed sets and periodic full-length practice tests.
ACT®: timed mini-sections that reinforce steady pacing and skip/return discipline aligned to the section clock.
Mix question types once students have the basics. Blocked practice can make students look fast because they already know what tool they’re supposed to use next. Interleaving forces them to identify the problem type and choose the correct method— just like they’ll do on test day.
Space full-length practice and make it diagnostic. Full tests should generate data, not exhaustion. Ask:
Where does time start leaking?
When pacing increases, does accuracy collapse?
Are they rereading, restarting, or overinvesting in hard questions?
A Simple Speed System You Can Run (and measure) During Prep
The sample structure below shows how to build speed without turning every session into a stress test.
1) Familiarity block (10–15 minutes):
question-type recognition drills
SAT module pacing/navigation habits for SAT® students
2) Skill mastery block (20–30 minutes)
single-skill sprint + immediate review
one targeted correction (redo with time constraints)
3) Repetition block (15–25 minutes)
a short timed set designed to mirror real test pacing
a debrief focused on time losses, not just wrong answers
What to Track (simple, high-value metrics)
These are some practical, observable metrics that connect directly to better pacing:
Time-to-first-step (how long before a useful approach begins)
Abort rate (restarts or method-switching mid-problem)
Costly errors (mistakes caused by indecision, rereads, or messy setup)
Skip discipline (skipping early enough/giving challenging questions a suitable amount of time, returning strategically)
Common Speed-Training Mistakes Tutors Can Prevent
Mistake 1: Practicing untimed for too long
Untimed work has a purpose, but speed is contextual. If practice never includes time constraints, students won’t be able to stay on pace throughout the test.
Mistake 2: Going fully timed too early
If students aren’t familiar with the content and format—or haven’t mastered the underlying skills—timed work can trigger panic and reinforce bad habits. Build fluency first, then add time constraints.
Mistake 3: Relying only on blocked practice
Blocked sets don’t train fast strategy selection. Interleaving better reflects actual test conditions.
Mistake 4: Treating “better practice today” as proof of durable learning
Short-term gains can be misleading. The goal is fluency that remains reliable under pressure and across future sessions.
Students don’t gain speed by “trying harder.” They gain speed when preparation reduces the things that slow them down: long hesitations at the start, messy execution, restarts, and slow method choices. That’s the difference between rushing and pacing.
If we keep the system simple and consistent, speed improves without sacrificing accuracy. Build familiarity intentionally, refine skill execution, and practice under realistic timing frequently enough that it becomes second nature.
Clear Choice provides a tutor-ready curriculum and tools built around pacing, mastery, and realistic timed practice—so you can deliver a high-quality ACT® & SAT® prep program.