How does the Lock-In Challenge work?

The Lock-In Challenge is an opt-in competition that rewards studying every day. You do a minimum amount of your study plan each day, compete each week in a small league of students at your level, and earn points toward prizes. Each edition runs for several weeks.

Because leagues group students at a similar level, your starting score doesn't decide who wins. Showing up every day and answering carefully does.

Everything for this edition is on the Challenge page in the top menu. Show details opens the dates, prizes and rules, including the daily minimum.

Join the challenge

You need an SAT date in the future and a study plan, which Aniko builds once you finish the diagnostic. See How does the diagnostic work?

Any plan can join. On the Free plan, you take one of a limited number of free spots. When they're gone, the page says "All free spots are taken. A subscription is required to join."

1. On the Challenge page, click Join Challenge.
2. Choose to start today or tomorrow. With 3 hours or less left in your day, you start tomorrow. If you join before the challenge begins, you start on its first day.
3. Confirm. If your plan is below the challenge requirements, Aniko lists the changes first. Confirm them with Update plan and join.

Each challenge day

Each day, answer at least the daily minimum of questions from study plan tasks marked Challenge on Study Plan. The right sidebar shows what's left today. Tasks you or the AI tutor add don't count. See What counts toward my daily minimum?

Your plan also schedules full practice tests, each week and every day in the challenge's final days. On those days, the finished test is the day's work. Each day follows your own time zone, so you have until your midnight.

Rounds and lives

The challenge runs in weekly rounds that start and end at midnight Pacific time. The last round can be shorter. You have 3 lives each round. Missing a day's requirement drops you and uses 1 life, and you can rejoin while you have lives left. See What happens if I miss a challenge day?

Leagues, points and prizes

Each round, you join a new league of up to 10 students at a similar level. Your place depends on how many challenge questions you answer and how well.

When the round ends, your league place earns points, and first place earns the most. The more challenge days you completed that round, the more of those points you keep. Points from every round add up on the challenge leaderboard, and prizes go by your final place on it. The Challenge page lists this edition's prizes and any conditions for receiving one.

Bigger limits

While you're active in the challenge, your question and practice test limits rise if your plan's are too low for its work. The boost pauses while you're dropped and ends with the challenge. See Free plan limits.

Settings that lock

While you're in the challenge, your plan has to keep:

• All 7 study days.
• Every SAT domain switched on.
• At least 30% focus on each section.
• Daily questions at or above the minimum, every day.
• At least the required number of full practice tests each week.

You can still raise your daily questions, move your SAT date to another future date and change your full test's weekday. Saving a change below the minimum in Study Plan Settings, or deleting or moving plan tasks so a day falls short, drops you and uses a life. Aniko warns you first: "This will drop you from the Challenge".

Frequently asked questions