The June 2027 SAT is on Saturday, June 5, the last weekend SAT of the school year and, for most juniors, the last one before senior year. Many students sitting in June already have a score and want the last points, which live in the harder second module. This cheat sheet is built for that. It covers how the harder module works and the hard question types that decide top scores, with real SAT-style questions worked through and a drill after each part. It ends with a six-week plan that fits around AP exams and finals, and a test-day checklist.
June 5, 2027 at a glance
| Test date | Saturday, June 5, 2027 |
| Registration deadline | Friday, May 21 |
| Late registration, changes and regular cancellation | Tuesday, May 25 |
| Borrowing a device from College Board | Request it at least 30 days before test day, so by May 6 |
| Scores | Usually about two weeks after test day. College Board posts the exact date on its score release page. |
| Next dates after this one | August 28, September 18 and October 9, 2027 (College Board’s anticipated dates) |
Deadlines close at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Dates are from College Board’s SAT dates page.
Want the plan sized to your own score? The SAT study planner takes your latest score, your colleges and this date, and gives you the points per week and a week-by-week schedule.
What’s on this cheat sheet
- Is June the right date for you?
- How the harder second module works
- Text structure: describe the whole passage
- Modifiers and long subjects
- Hard Words in Context
- Right triangles and trigonometry
- Hard algebra: factors and absolute value
- Surface area and volume
- A six-week plan to June 5
- Test-day checklist
- FAQ
Is June the right date for you?
| Your situation | June makes sense if… |
|---|---|
| Junior with a March or May score | You want one more try before senior year, and you know which domains cost you points. |
| Junior taking a first SAT | You want a score before summer, with fall dates left for a retake. |
| Junior with AP exams | You’d rather finish AP exams (May 3–14) before the SAT. Finals may land in the same weeks, so check your school calendar. |
| Sophomore | You want a real baseline score at the end of the year. Many sophomores wait instead. |
If June doesn’t go to plan, College Board’s anticipated fall dates include August 28, September 18 and October 9, 2027. Early deadlines often fall on November 1, so check whether each of your colleges accepts October scores. Many colleges superscore, so a June test that raises only one section still helps. SAT scores for colleges shows which schools are a reach, target or safety at your score, and the test dates page has every deadline.
How the harder second module works
Each section has two modules. How you do on the first decides whether your second is easier or harder, and the top of the scale is only reachable through the harder one. That has three consequences:
- Module 1 accuracy matters most. Check your work on module 1 even if it costs you a question at the end. A careless miss there can close off the harder module.
- A harder second module is a good sign. If module 2 feels much harder, that usually means module 1 went well. Don’t let it shake you.
- Pace for the hard questions. You have about 71 seconds per question in Reading and Writing and about 95 in Math. Answer the quick ones quickly to bank time for the last few, and guess rather than leave any blank: wrong answers cost nothing.
Hard questions are rarely about obscure content. They use ordinary skills, with wrong answers that are almost right. Every example below has one.
Text structure: describe the whole passage
“Which choice best describes the overall structure” questions have choices that each list three moves. Before reading them, label each sentence of the passage yourself in a few words: finding, explanation, exception. Then reject any choice where even one of its three moves is wrong.
Worked example 1: every part of the choice must be right
Dr. Celine Moutard and Philippe Rouyer demonstrated that increased ambient temperature suppresses the foraging activity of the garden snail (Cornu aspersum), a result that can be understood in terms of costs and benefits: higher temperatures may not enable the snails to increase food intake enough to offset the greater risk of desiccation. Most other terrestrial gastropods respond to temperature variations similarly to garden snails, but desert-adapted land snails (Sphincterochila boissieri) display the opposite pattern, as their specialized mucus secretion results in a different balance of reward and risk.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
A) It discusses two different responses to the same environmental factor, explains why one of those responses occurs, and then suggests that the other response still needs to be explained.
B) It describes and accounts for a finding, characterizes the finding as representative of a general pattern, and then describes and accounts for an exception to that pattern.
C) It presents and explains a study result, indicates that the result is similar to the results of many other studies, and then attributes a conflicting study result to a difference in that study’s methods.
D) It introduces an observation of a behavioral pattern, presents an explanation for the pattern, and then describes an exception to the pattern that casts doubt on that explanation.
Label the moves: a finding about garden snails, explained by costs and benefits; most other snails behave the same way; desert snails are an exception, explained by their mucus.
Answer: B. Each choice starts plausibly and fails on one move. A says the desert snails still need explaining, but the passage explains them. C blames the exception on a study’s methods, but the passage blames biology. D says the exception casts doubt on the explanation, when it actually fits the same cost-and-benefit logic.
Practice: Reading
Six real Reading questions, rising to hard.
Try a real Digital SAT reading set.
6 real Digital SAT Reading questions — inferences, evidence, central ideas, words in context, and text structure. Read the passage, choose the best-supported answer, and see why. ~7 minutes.
Modifiers and long subjects
Two grammar rules catch strong readers most often on the harder module, because the wrong answers sound fluent:
| Rule | How to check |
|---|---|
| 1. An opening phrase describes whatever comes right after its comma | Ask who or what is doing the opening action. That noun has to come first after the comma. |
| 2. The verb agrees with its real subject, however far away | Cross out every phrase and parenthesis between the subject and the blank, then read what’s left. |
Worked example 2: who is doing the removing?
Often called the ocean’s “carbon sink,” phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that float near the water’s surface, absorbing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Removing excess carbon from the atmosphere, ______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) a recent study’s finding is that these organisms capture roughly 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions each year.
B) an estimated 40 percent of global carbon dioxide captured each year is attributed to these organisms, according to a recent study.
C) these organisms capture an estimated 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to a recent study.
D) a recent study has found that these organisms capture roughly 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions each year.
Who is “removing excess carbon from the atmosphere”? The phytoplankton. So “these organisms” has to come straight after the comma.
Answer: C. A puts “a recent study’s finding” there, D puts “a recent study,” and B puts “an estimated 40 percent.” Each says something other than the phytoplankton removes the carbon. All four choices contain the same facts, which is why this rule decides it.
Worked example 3: cross out the parenthesis
In his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, philosopher Thomas Kuhn first articulated at length his concept of a “paradigm shift”—the idea that the accumulated anomalies and unresolved problems a scientific community has encountered (experimental failures, contradictory data, theoretical gaps, etc.) ______ each major transformation that community undergoes in its understanding of the world.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) precipitates
B) is precipitating
C) precipitate
D) has been precipitating
Cross out “a scientific community has encountered” and the parenthesis. What’s left is “the accumulated anomalies and unresolved problems ______ each major transformation.” The subject is two plural nouns joined by and.
Answer: C) precipitate. A, B and D are all singular. They sound right if you match the verb to “community,” the singular noun just before the parenthesis.
Practice: Writing
Grammar and transitions, the way the SAT tests them.
6 real Digital SAT Writing questions — punctuation, sentence structure, agreement, and transitions. Pick the correct version and see exactly why. ~7 minutes.
Hard Words in Context
Hard vocabulary questions are usually decided by logic, not by rare words. Find the sentence’s signal word (but, so, though) and follow what it requires.
Worked example 4: follow the “so”
Psychologist Lena Hoffman and colleagues demonstrated that switching costs—the mental effort required when people shift between different tasks—decrease workplace productivity. Employers can offset this effect by allowing longer uninterrupted work periods, but those costs, though variable, are largely ______ task complexity, so employers who minimize switching will likely prefer assigning a few complex projects over many simple ones.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) proportional to
B) indicative of
C) unrelated to
D) embedded in
Work backward from “so.” Employers would prefer a few complex projects to many simple ones. That only makes sense if a switch costs about the same whatever the task, so fewer switches always cost less. The costs must not depend on complexity.
Answer: C) unrelated to. A is the tempting choice: if costs grew with complexity, complex projects would cost more per switch, and the “so” would no longer follow. B and D don’t describe a relationship that leads to the employers’ choice.
More strategy: SAT Words in Context and the SAT vocabulary list.
Right triangles and trigonometry
| Fact | On the reference sheet? |
|---|---|
| 1. a2 + b2 = c2 | Yes |
| 2. Triples and their multiples: 3-4-5, 5-12-13, 8-15-17, 9-40-41 | No |
| 3. sin = opposite/hypotenuse, cos = adjacent/hypotenuse, tan = opposite/adjacent | No |
| 4. The two acute angles are complementary: sin of one is cos of the other, and their tangents are reciprocals | No |
| 5. Similar triangles have equal corresponding angles, so equal trig ratios | No |
Worked example 5: square both sides
A right triangle has legs with lengths of 18 centimeters and 80 centimeters. If the length of this triangle’s hypotenuse, in centimeters, can be written in the form 2√p, where p is an integer, what is the value of p?
A) 1681
B) 1764
C) 1834
D) 3136
The hypotenuse squared is 182 + 802 = 324 + 6,400 = 6,724. Squaring 2√p gives 4p, so 4p = 6,724 and p = 1,681.
Answer: A) 1681. A faster route: 18-80-82 is 9-40-41 doubled, so the hypotenuse is 82 = 2 × 41, and p = 412 = 1,681. B is 422, close enough to look right if you estimate.
Worked example 6: the other acute angle flips the ratio
Triangle XYZ is similar to triangle PQR, where angle X corresponds to angle P and angle Z corresponds to angle R. Angles Z and R are right angles. If tan(X) = 3/4, what is the value of tan(Q)?
A) 3/4
B) 4/3
C) 12/5
D) 5/12
Angle P matches angle X, so tan(P) = 3/4. In triangle PQR, the right angle is at R, so P and Q are the two acute angles. The side opposite one is adjacent to the other, so their tangents are reciprocals: tan(Q) = 4/3.
Answer: B) 4/3. A is the trap: it’s tan(P), the angle that matches X, not tan(Q). C and D come from a 5-12-13 triangle, which isn’t this one.
Hard algebra: factors and absolute value
Worked example 7: match the constant first
Which of the following expressions has a factor of y + 3a, where a is a positive integer constant?
A) 5y2 + 11y + 21a
B) 5y2 + 29y + 21a
C) 5y2 + 41y + 21a
D) 5y2 + 52y + 21a
If y + 3a is a factor, the other factor must give 5y2 and a constant of 21a = 7 × 3a. So it’s 5y + 7. Expanding (5y + 7)(y + 3a) gives 5y2 + (15a + 7)y + 21a.
Answer: D. The middle coefficient must be 15a + 7 for a positive integer a. Only 52 works: 15a + 7 = 52 gives a = 3. 11, 29 and 41 would each need a fractional a.
Worked example 8: two cases, one shortcut
|7y − 25| = 61
What is the sum of the solutions to the given equation?
A) 43/7
B) 46/7
C) 50/7
D) 58/7
Two cases. 7y − 25 = 61 gives y = 86/7. 7y − 25 = −61 gives y = −36/7. The sum is 50/7.
Answer: C) 50/7. The shortcut: the two solutions sit equally far either side of the point where 7y − 25 = 0, which is y = 25/7. So they add to 2 × 25/7 = 50/7 without solving either one. In Desmos, graph both sides and click the two intersections:
Surface area and volume
The reference sheet gives volumes, not surface areas. A cylinder’s total surface area is two circles plus the curved side: 2πr2 + 2πrh.
Worked example 9: from circumference to radius
The circumference of the base of a right circular cylinder is 16π centimeters, and the height of the cylinder is 9 centimeters. What is the total surface area, in square centimeters, of the cylinder?
A) 150π
B) 200π
C) 272π
D) 300π
2πr = 16π, so r = 8. The two circles are 2π(8)2 = 128π, and the curved side is the circumference times the height: 16π × 9 = 144π. Together: 272π.
Answer: C) 272π. Counting only the curved side gives 144π, and counting one circle instead of two gives 208π. Neither is a choice here, but on a harder version one of them would be.
Practice: Math
Six real Math questions across all four domains, rising to hard. Keep Desmos open in another tab.
All four Math domains, one drill.
6 real Digital SAT Math questions across algebra, advanced math, problem-solving and geometry. Solve by hand or in Desmos, then see the worked explanation. ~10 minutes.
A six-week plan to June 5
This plan assumes you already have an SAT score from March or May, or a recent practice test. If you’re starting from scratch, begin earlier with the study planner.
| Week | Focus | Do this |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Apr 25–May 1 | Get a starting point | Took the May 1 SAT? Write down what felt hardest while you remember it. Otherwise, take a full-length practice test in Bluebook. |
| 2. May 2–8 | AP week 1: keep it light | 20 minutes a day on one hard skill from this page. Borrowing a device? Request it by May 6. |
| 3. May 9–15 | AP week 2: keep it light | Same again. May scores should arrive about two weeks after the test. |
| 4. May 16–22 | Hard-module skills | Read your score report and pick two weak domains. Drill their hard questions daily. Register by Friday, May 21. |
| 5. May 23–29 | Full practice test | Take it at 8 a.m. on Saturday, like the real test, then review every miss. Late registration closes Tuesday, May 25. |
| 6. May 30–Jun 5 | Review, then rest | Redo only questions you missed. Complete Bluebook exam setup. If finals overlap, keep SAT practice to 20 minutes a day. |
Pursu’s Score Map tracks your accuracy on every SAT skill as you practise and ranks your top opportunities, so you spend those 20 minutes on the skill worth the most points. Try it free.
Test-day checklist
From College Board’s test-day guidance, in three groups.
Before Saturday:
- Open Bluebook and complete exam setup for the June test.
- Get your admission ticket from Bluebook in the days before the test, and print it if you can.
- Charge your device fully the night before, and bring a charger.
What to bring:
- Your testing device with Bluebook installed, and a charger or portable battery. Outlets aren’t guaranteed.
- An acceptable physical photo ID. Digital IDs aren’t accepted.
- A pen or pencil. Scratch paper is provided.
- An approved calculator if you want one. Desmos is already built into Bluebook.
- Your admission ticket.
On the day:
- Plan to arrive by 7:45 a.m. unless your admission ticket says otherwise.
- Phones go to the proctor. Smartwatches and Bluetooth earbuds aren’t allowed.
- Bring water and a snack for the break.
June SAT FAQ
When is the June 2027 SAT?
Saturday, June 5, 2027. Register by May 21, or by May 25 with late registration.
When do June SAT scores come out?
Usually about two weeks after test day. College Board posts the exact date on its score release page.
Is June the last SAT before senior year?
It’s the last one of the 2026–27 school year. College Board’s anticipated next dates are August 28, September 18 and October 9, 2027.
Is the June SAT harder?
No. Every SAT is scaled so scores mean the same thing on any date. What changes from student to student is which second module you get: doing well on the first module routes you to the harder one, which is where the top scores are.
Should I retake the SAT in June?
Retake if you can name the domains that cost you points and have time to work on them before June 5. Your score report’s domain breakdown is the place to start.