With SAT prep often costing up to $100 an hour, access to high-quality test preparation has long depended on how much families can afford to spend. Google is now trying to ease that burden.
This week, the company announced a new update to its Gemini app that allows students to take full-length SAT practice tests, complete with feedback designed to help them improve.
The new feature lets users take a realistic SAT mock exam directly inside Gemini, without paying for subscriptions or third-party tools. Google says the practice tests are built using vetted material from The Princeton Review, a long-standing name in standardised test prep. The idea behind this partnership is to address a common concern around AI-powered education tools, their accuracy. Rather than relying on generic training data, Gemini’s SAT content is designed to closely mirror the structure, difficulty, and pacing of the real exam.
Using the feature is pretty straightforward. Students simply open Gemini and prompt it with something like, “I want to take a practice SAT test.” Gemini then launches a full-length exam experience inside the app. Once the test is complete, the AI breaks down performance by topic, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and areas that need more work. Students can also immediately ask follow-up questions, request explanations for specific answers, and even get help building a personalised study plan based on their results.
Louis Eriakha
In terms of accessibility, Google is keeping things simple. The SAT practice feature is free and available to anyone with access to the Gemini app, with no indication of regional restrictions. That puts it in sharp contrast with traditional SAT prep platforms, which often charge hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars for full courses, mock exams, and one-on-one guidance.
This SAT update also ties into Google’s broader push to make Gemini more useful in education. Alongside the exam prep feature, Google recently announced a collaboration with Khan Academy, integrating trusted learning content directly into Gemini. This includes support for writing through Khan Academy’s Writing Coach, as well as structured explanations that help students understand concepts rather than just arrive at answers. The goal, Google says, is to guide learning without encouraging shortcuts or academic dishonesty.
Taken together, these updates show Google repositioning Gemini from a general AI assistant into something closer to a digital study companion, one that lowers costs, improves access, and brings credible educational partners into the AI experience. For students facing the pressure and price of standardised testing, that shift could make a real difference.
Damilare Odedina
