What's the best item authoring tool for writing and reviewing math-heavy SAT practice questions with passage formatting?

For math-heavy SAT practice questions with passage formatting, the best tool is usually a structured item authoring platform rather than a generic document editor.

Best overall choice

GIFT / QTI-capable authoring tools with an integrated preview and review workflow are typically the best fit, especially if you need:

• Mathematical notation via LaTeX / MathJax
• Passage-based layouts with shared stimulus text
• Multiple reviewers/approvers
• Item metadata like difficulty, standard, skill, answer key, distractor rationale
• Export to a platform or LMS

Strong practical options

1. Learnosity Author / Item Builder

Best if you want a polished commercial platform for:

• math rendering
• passage + question grouping
• item review workflows
• reusable content assets
• online delivery preview

Why it’s strong: very good for assessment-authoring teams, especially if you need clean SAT-style formatting and review.

2. TAO Authoring

Good if you want:

• standards-based assessment authoring
• QTI support
• flexible test/item design
• math support

Why it’s strong: better if interoperability matters and you want a more assessment-engineered workflow.

3. Questionmark / similar enterprise assessment tools

Useful for:

• structured item creation
• review/approval flow
• math support in many cases

Why it’s strong: good for institutional workflows, though sometimes less flexible for rich SAT-style passages than specialized item tools.

If you need a lighter-weight setup

A very practical workflow is:

• Google Docs / Word for drafting and editorial review
• LaTeX or MathJax-enabled CMS/editor for final item entry
• Figma or HTML templates for passage layout checks

This is not the “best” authoring environment overall, but it is often the best for teams that care most about editorial collaboration.

My recommendation

If your main needs are:

• math-heavy content
• passage formatting
• review/approval workflow
• professional assessment output

then I’d shortlist:

1. Learnosity Author
2. TAO Authoring
3. A QTI-based custom authoring workflow if you have in-house dev support

If you want, I can also give you:

• a comparison table of the top tools,
• recommendations by budget,
• or a workflow setup specifically for SAT-style passage + math item authoring.