As juniors and seniors begin and end the college process, standardized testing weighs on the minds of students and parents. Across the United States, high schoolers spend their Saturday mornings agonizingly filling in bubble after bubble.
At this point in the year, seniors are stressing about whether their scores will be good enough for their dream schools, and juniors are diving into testing and test prep. So, with all this stress, families everywhere search for any ways to improve scores, and one suggested solution to this problem is an SAT or ACT prep class.
“Each student should do some sort of test preparation and practice, whether on her own, in group classes, or in individual tutoring sessions before taking the SAT/ACT,” according to a handout provided by the Stone Ridge College Office.
The College Office also emphasized that test preparation should be individualized for the student. Because each student has her own learning style, each student’s test prep should be specialized so that it is most effective for her.
Students have plenty of options when deciding what is best for them. There is everything from online help to group classes to practice books to private tutoring.
Test prep pricing ranges from free online options to nearly $2,000 for a comprehensive Capital Educators course. The free options include Khan Academy and College Board, where there are full length practice tests available to download.
Some students also opt for private tutoring. At locations like Fairchild Educational Services in Olney, Maryland, students meet one-on-one with tutors who are specialized in either math and science or grammar and reading comprehension.
At both private tutoring and group classes, students take practice tests, go over the answers, and analyze the different Maddie Bryant ‘17 took a Capital Educators course during the winter of her junior year.
“I definitely think [test prep] does [help]. My scores went up 300 points from the PSAT to taking the real SAT,” said Bryant.
Bryant’s experience, however, is very different from that of Kathryn Paravano ‘17.
“I took an intensive SAT/ACT Prep course for three and a half months but my scores never changed after hours of work,” noted Paravano.
“While many students and families are very anxious about standardized testing, many people lose sight of the fact that the single most important factor in college admissions is the student’s academic record,” according to the College Office.
No matter what test prep options a student chooses, it is important that she buckle down and focus on school, because no matter how pressing test prep may seem, grades are the number one priority.