SAT Question Bank Statistics: Complete Breakdown of 3,000+ Questions

TLDR:

• The official SAT Question Bank contains 2,995 questions split nearly evenly between Math (52%) and English (48%).
• Hard questions dominate at 61% of the bank, while easy questions make up less than 10%.
• Every single question includes a detailed explanation.
• Math has more questions overall (1,552), but English concentrates heavily in specific skill areas like Craft and Structure.
• Only 20% of questions include images, so most practice focuses on text-based reasoning.

Most students open the SAT Question Bank, filter for "easy" questions in their weak areas, and wonder why they only get 30-40 results. Then they switch to "hard" and suddenly have 200+ options. This isn't a quirk—it's how College Board built the entire system.

Hard Questions Make Up 61% of the Question Bank Because That's Where Score Gains Happen

College Board's official Question Bank contains 2,995 questions—enough for roughly 30 full-length practice tests. The difficulty breakdown:

• Hard: 1,823 questions (60.9%)
• Medium: 874 questions (29.2%)
• Easy: 298 questions (9.9%)

Experienced tutors see students make the same mistake repeatedly: they avoid hard questions until they "feel ready." But the question bank's distribution suggests a different approach. With six times as many hard questions as easy ones, the system expects you to spend most of your time working above your current level.

If you're scoring below 1200, you'll encounter far more difficult questions in the bank than you'll actually see on test day. If you're aiming for 1400+, this concentration of hard questions gives you exactly the practice you need.

Math Has 109 More Questions Than English, But That Difference Disappears in Practice

The split is nearly even:

• Math: 1,552 questions (51.8%)
• English (Reading + Writing): 1,443 questions (48.2%)

This 109-question difference means nothing for your practice schedule. You won't run out of material in either section.

What matters more is how these questions distribute across domains and skills—and that's where students need to pay attention.

English Questions Concentrate in Three Areas Where Students Actually Struggle

The 1,443 English questions break down into specific tested areas:

Craft and Structure: 431 questions (29.9%)
This is the largest single category in the entire question bank. It covers rhetorical synthesis, transitions, and text structure—the skills that separate 650 from 750 on the English section.

Information and Ideas: 387 questions (26.8%)
Central ideas, inferences, and command of evidence. Tutors notice that students who struggle here usually have a reading comprehension issue, not a test-taking issue.

Standard English Conventions: 358 questions (24.8%)
Grammar, usage, and sentence structure. This is the most teachable section—rules don't change.

Expression of Ideas: 267 questions (18.5%)
Style, tone, and syntax. The smallest category, but it appears on every test.

The concentration in Craft and Structure reflects where College Board sees the biggest performance gaps. If you're stuck at a certain score, there's a good chance these 431 questions are where you need to focus.

Math Questions Spread Across Four Domains, With Algebra Getting the Most Attention

The 1,552 Math questions divide into:

Algebra: 630 questions (40.6%)
Linear equations, systems, and inequalities. This is the foundation of SAT math. Students who struggle with algebra struggle with everything else because these concepts appear in geometry and advanced math questions too.

Advanced Math: 476 questions (30.7%)
Quadratics, polynomials, exponentials, and functions. Tutors spend the most time here with students aiming for 700+.

Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: 303 questions (19.5%)
Ratios, percentages, probability, and data interpretation. These questions take longer to read but often require simpler calculations.

Geometry and Trigonometry: 143 questions (9.2%)
The smallest domain, but you can't skip it. These questions appear consistently on every test.

The heavy emphasis on Algebra (40.6%) matches what you'll see on test day. Students who master linear equations and systems see score improvements across all four domains because these skills transfer.

Grid-In Questions Make Up 12.5% of Math—And Students Miss Them More Often

The question bank includes:

• Multiple choice: 2,621 questions (87.5%)
• Grid-in (student-produced response): 374 questions (12.5%)

All 374 grid-in questions appear in the Math section. That's roughly 24% of all math questions.

Tutors notice that students make more careless errors on grid-in questions because there's no answer choices to check against. A calculation mistake on a multiple-choice question might still get you to one of the wrong answers, giving you a chance to catch it. On grid-in questions, you just get it wrong.

The question bank's 374 grid-in questions give you enough practice to build checking habits. Work through 50-100 of these and you'll start catching your own errors before you submit answers.

Most Questions Are Text-Only, Which Changes How You Should Practice

Only 20% of questions in the bank include images, charts, or graphs. That means:

• Text-only questions: ~2,400 (80%)
• Questions with visuals: ~600 (20%)

Students who rely on visual learning strategies often struggle with SAT prep because most questions require you to process written information, build mental models, and work through abstract concepts without diagrams.

The tutors who get the best results teach students to draw their own diagrams for text-only questions. The question bank's 2,400 text-based questions give you plenty of opportunities to practice this skill.

How Experienced Tutors Use These Statistics to Build Practice Plans

The numbers reveal a clear practice strategy:

Start with the 298 easy questions to identify genuine knowledge gaps versus careless errors. If you're missing easy questions, you need content review, not more practice.

Move to medium difficulty (874 questions) and stay there until you hit 80%+ accuracy. Most students jump to hard questions too quickly, then get discouraged and quit.

Use the 1,823 hard questions to push your score up after you've mastered medium difficulty. Hard questions test the same concepts as medium questions—they just combine multiple steps or add confusing wording.

Focus your practice time on Algebra (630 questions) and Craft and Structure (431 questions) because these two categories make up the largest portions of their respective sections. An hour spent here affects more questions on test day than an hour spent on geometry.

Practice 50-100 grid-in questions specifically, because the 24% of math questions that use this format cause disproportionate score loss from careless errors.

Your Next Steps: Use the Distribution to Focus Your Practice

Don't practice randomly through the question bank. The statistics tell you where to focus:

If you're below 1200, work through all 298 easy and most of the 874 medium questions before touching hard questions. Build accuracy first.

If you're between 1200-1400, spend 70% of your time on medium questions and 30% on hard questions. You need to reduce careless errors on medium difficulty before hard questions will help.

If you're above 1400, work primarily through the 1,823 hard questions, focusing on Algebra and Craft and Structure first since these categories have the most questions.

Track your accuracy by difficulty level and domain. When you hit 85%+ accuracy on medium questions in a specific domain, move to hard questions in that same domain. Don't wait until you've mastered everything at medium difficulty—you'll make faster progress by pushing your strong areas to hard difficulty while still building your weak areas at medium difficulty.

The question bank gives you 2,995 questions. Use the distribution data to practice what matters most for your target score.