An example of how you should not answer this question: My long term goal is to have your job. Actually, that's more my mid-term goal. My long term goal is to become the CEO. So I want to put myself on that path and continue to make course corrections along the way until I finally achieve that goal.
1 Self-guided test preparation programs are relatively inexpensive ways to prepare for the test. 2  Online preparation on the SAT's official website costs $69.95; the SAT's official test guide costs $21.99. 3  Other SAT guides can cost as little as $9.99. Some colleges require applicants to also take SAT subject tests in fields ranging from literature to physics to foreign language. 2  Each of these tests costs an additional $10, or $21 for language tests.
Read on for our guide to the SATâs length, individual section times and section ordering, and learn how to deal with fatigue during the test. The SAT is 3 hours (180 minutes) long in total, not including the optional essay or breaks. With the optional essay, the total test time is 3 hours and 50 minutes. Unlike the old SAT, which was broken up into ten mini-sections, you are tackling each subject in a single chunk.