Do you ever wish there was a way to prove to colleges that you really know your stuff in your favorite class? Well, if your favorite class is Spanish, the SAT Subject Test in Spanish may be just the opportunity you’ve been looking for. Like the SAT that many students take every year to submit with college applications, the SAT Subject Test in Spanish is a standardized exam that provides colleges with a score that ranks your Spanish skills against those of others who took the same exam. Unlike the “general” SAT, however, SAT Subject Tests each test one topic and one topic only. They also differ from the SAT in that they are completely multiple-choice, with no essay portion, and are only one hour long. The format of the exam makes it sound pretty easy, right? Well, don’t discount its difficulty. The point of taking a specialized exam in one particular subject is to compare the skills of students who can boast of having done well in Spanish classes. In order to differentiate this group further, a really challenging exam is needed, and that’s exactly the function that the SAT Subject Test in Spanish serves. Don’t be apprehensive about taking it, though! With all the good it can do for your college apps, studying for the SAT Subject Test in Spanish in a smart and calculated way can help you achieve a score that you can be proud of.

So, what sort of questions does the SAT Subject Test in Spanish ask in order to test your language skills? One-third of the SAT Subject Test in Spanish tests your knowledge of vocabulary and structure, another third tests your paragraph comprehension, and a final third tests your reading comprehension skills. You can also elect to take the SAT Subject Test in Spanish with Listening if you want to demonstrate that your ability to understand spoken Spanish is top-notch. As far as specific problem types you might encounter, vocabulary and structure questions might involve choosing the correctly conjugated verb for a sentence that contains blank, while paragraph and reading comprehension questions may ask you about the information presented in a paragraph of Spanish prose—sort of like taking the SAT’s Reading Comprehension section or the ACT’s Reading section, only doing so in Spanish. Reviewing obscure vocabulary and how to conjugate verbs in the subjunctive mood alone won’t be enough to help you do well on this exam—you’ll need to tackle a wide variety of practice problems to make sure your skills are as sharp as possible before test day.

Varsity Tutors’ free SAT Subject Test in Spanish Practice Tests can help you do just that. Using problems written by tutors, teachers, and other content experts, these Practice Tests each function like a little quiz you might take in class. You can choose to do problems organized by concept, or drawn from a comprehensive span of topics. You also get to see detailed statistics about your results after you finish each Practice Test, including how your score stacks up against scores other students received on a problem-by-problem basis. If you miss a problem, no worries—Varsity Tutors Practice Test problems are each accompanied by full explanations of how to solve them, so you can figure out exactly what kind of mistake you made and avoid making it in the future.

Colleges love to see well-rounded applicants, so if you can prove that you have retained the Spanish proficiency you worked so hard to gain in your Spanish classes, you’ll be well on your way to doing well on the SAT Subject Test in Spanish and adding a distinguishing feature to your college applications.