FAQ

Helping parents and students reduce the rising cost of college via higher SAT scores, good school selection, and sound planning.

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I’ve listed the most commonly recurring questions that I receive on the telephone regarding our Community SAT Prep Course. Please read through them if you have an opportunity, as they will help you understand the SAT and our approach to your child’s SAT score improvement much better. It might also save you a phone call.

~ What is the difference between the Community SAT Prep Course, and the One-Day High School Workshop?

~ What type of student takes our SAT Prep Course?

~ What is the typical SAT Prep Community Course format?

~ Why do you spend so much time on the Math Section in your Course?

~ Why should I send my student through your Course more than once?

~ Why don’t you cover the Writing Section in your Course?

~ Do you ever adjust your course material or curriculum?

~ Do you offer ACT Prep Courses or Workshops?

~ What is the difference between the Community SAT Prep Course, and the One-Day High School Workshop?

The Course is a 10-hour course taught on the weekday evenings, and weekends off campus, and is purchased by parents for their children. The Course guarantees a score improvement ~ the average of which is between 100 - 190 points per student (See Score Increase Guarantee). Once a student is enrolled in the course, he never has to pay again to attend the course again (See Unlimited, FREE, Course Retake Provision). In contrast, a One-Day High School Workshop is taught during a single school day ~ providing about 6 hours worth of SAT Prep instruction. It is scheduled by your high school administrators. The workshop targets a 70 point score improvement average per student, but does not guarantee a score improvement.

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~ What type of student takes our SAT Prep Course?

Most students enrolling in the course have an SAT score between the state and national averages (e.g.: a Critical Reading and Math total between a 950 - 1030). Students who enroll in our course are usually high school juniors or seniors, and have taken the SAT at least once to establish a “baseline” SAT score. The baseline score is helpful because it allows us to measure the score improvement the course provides for your student. Our goal within the course is to take these “typical” students to a 1200 (Critical Reading & Math Only) on the SAT if possible. Having said that, many students outside of these initial scoring boundaries (either higher or lower) have succeeded in achieving score improvements in the course.

Finally, if your scores are significantly higher than a 1200, or significantly lower than a 950, please call the office to discuss 1 On 1 tutoring options (or click the 1 On 1 Tutoring link in the navigation bar to the left), as our tutoring module may be the preferred format for your situation.

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~ What is the typical SAT Prep Course format?

The typical course is taught is made up of 10 hours of course work ~ no need for your kid to sign his life away to get a significant boost to his SAT score. They typical course is divided into 5 class sessions and follow the following outline:

Session 1: Motivational Concepts, SAT Test format, Gamesmanship, Scoring, and Guessing strategies. Vocabulary Building Techniques. Introduction to The Math Section (Variable Exchange: Fixed).
Session 2: Review Previous Session. The Math Section (Variable Exchange: Open).
Session 3: Review Previous Sessions. The Math Section (Variable Exchange: Restricted).
Session 4: Review Previous Sessions. The Math Section (Geometry).
Session 5: The Critical Reading Section (Sentence Completions, and Short & Long Passages). Practice Test. Pre-test Regimen, How to Handle Test Day Pressure, Planning for the Future, and Motivational Concepts.

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~ Why do you spend so much time on the Math Section in your Course?

Well let me begin by pointing out that there is no one who loathes math as much me. In fact, I majored in English in college because I believed that doing so would negate the need to take four semesters of math (as was required in other majors). Incidentally, when I found out I was mistaken, I nearly collapsed and died of a heart attack.

I provide that background to point out that I do NOT overweight the Math Section just because I like “math.” On the contrary, my focus is always on maximizing student score improvements on the SAT, in as short a timeframe as possible. The Math Section is the best section on the SAT to quickly improve scores.

My “anti-math” techniques are useful in helping kids with, and without, gifted math brains, and add significant points to their SAT scores. These techniques and concepts position all students to succeed on EVERY question in the Math Section, regardless of inherent talent they may or may not possess.

The concepts I discuss in the Critical Reading Section of the course are powerful, but take significant investments of time to develop into a measurable score improvement. Once the student understands the concepts covered in the portion of the course devoted to the Critical Reading Section, they are free to work on developing these skills on their own. Unlike the Math Section, the Critical Reading Section is not facilitator driven, so a great deal of the labor can be conducted without my supervision - freeing up class time for other areas of concern. Top of the Page.

~ Why should I send my student through your Course more than once?

Think about any talent or skill you seek to perfect: additional practice will never harm your ability to perform that talent or skill, and will typically improve them as well. Think of a musician: how many times must he play the major scale to “master it?” Think of an athlete: how many free throws must a basketball player take to guarantee that he will not miss a single opportunity at the free throw line on game day? In both situations, the answer is “countless” ~ yet the ensemble will never be perfect, and invariably, a few basketballs will clank off the rim in spite of all those repetitions ~ but the overall result is still better than it would be without all that practice. Our system is based on the same philosophy. The questions on the SAT do not change. They are completely consistent from test to test. The only thing that changes over time is your child’s ability to handle these problems as “routinely” (read “stress free”) as they’d tap out the notes of the major scale, or sink a free throw.

In my mind, academic preparation for success is the same process as artistic and athletic preparation for success. The more time you have to prepare, the better, and more consistent the results. Sure some students will come through our course one time, go up 150 points, and we’ll never hear from them again, but with most students, more time in the course leads to even higher score improvements. In the interest of seeking the highest score improvements possible, the Score Increase Guarantee requires that a student come through the course twice, and take two SATs. There is no additional charge for multiple course retakes (via our Unlimited, FREE, Course Retake Provision). We consistently find that the highest score improvements are gained by students via multiple course repetitions, and the course is set up in this fashion.

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~ Why don’t you cover the Writing Section in your Course?

The Writing Section is covered thoroughly in the course syllabus, but is not addressed at all during class time. There is a very good reason for this decision. Currently, the Writing Section is not helpful for college admissions at 95% of all colleges (and 100% of all colleges in SC). Furthermore, the Writing Section does not help students qualify for the SC Life Scholarship, the Palmetto Fellows Award, NCAA Initial eligibility, or ROTC Scholarships. Generally speaking, no one is concerned with your score in the Writing Section, and for that reason, we don’t waste precious class time to cover it. If this focus ever changes we will change our course format to include it, as the Writing Section is unquestionably the easiest section to improve (even easier than the Math Section).

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~ Do you ever adjust your course material or curriculum?

The course format is more of a guideline, than a clear path to follow. We will adjust the course curriculum to generate the highest score improvement for the group, based on what the SAT seems to be emphasizing at the time, but it will always be “Math heavy.”

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~ Do you offer ACT Prep Courses or Workshops?

No, we do not, and here are the reasons why. The designers of the ACT take a much different approach to test content and scoring than the designers of the SAT. Unlike the SAT, the ACT is curriculum based, and closely follows multiple topics taught in school. As such students are responsible for acumen on a much wider range of content. With this understanding, scoring higher is then directly correlative to learning more.

Besides the hardship of testing on a broader content, the ACT also has a very narrow scoring band (scores range only from 1 to 36) - meaning that to improve a student’s ACT score only 1 point, we would need to show him how to get about 4 or 5 additional correct answers. By comparison, 4 or 5 additional correct answers on the SAT could generate a score improvement of roughly 40 - 60 points.

Finally, students are not allowed to combine scores from individual sections on the ACT from different test dates. In other words if my Math score was higher on ACT test attempt #1, I could not use that Math score with the Reading score from ACT test attempt #2. This is a significant inflexibility, as the ACT test is measured as a whole - and not by its parts. By way of contrast, the SAT allows students to combine their highest sectional scores even if they were 10 SATs apart. In other words, if a student’s Math score was highest his 10th attempt, colleges would take that Math score, and combine it with his previous highest Critical Reading Score to arrive at his official SAT score.

The result of the ACT’s broader range of material covered, narrow scoring bands, and the inability to combine scores translates into a test that is very resistant to “score improvement.” While ACT is in the business of providing score improvement services (selling books, and guides), even they acknowledge that, “short term review is not likely to be of much benefit.”

Hopefully in our analysis, we’ve made a pretty good case that improving an ACT score requires a significantly larger sacrifice of time on the student’s part, and equal time spent in the endeavor to improve a student’s ACT score generally does not generate an equivalent improvement to the SAT he would have garnered in the same period of time. Additionally, every study we’ve seen suggests that ACT scores do not typically improve with the benefits of additional attempts, or by taking ACT Prep courses. We believe that consistent, meaningful, and measurable improvements on the ACT are simply not obtainable within a manageable timeframe.

That said, the ACT is a legitimate test, and we recommend that all students take the ACT once in the fall semester of their senior year - in addition to their SAT efforts. We find that some students do better on the ACT than the SAT. For example, and this is a pretty extreme example, my ACT score was 270 points higher than my score on the SAT when I was in high school. We have seen examples where the opposite was also true (and SAT scores were significantly higher than ACT scores - for the same student).

Finally, all colleges accept the ACT and the SAT, so take the ACT once, so you can report your ACT score along with your highest combined SAT score (after taking our course) on your college application packet. The colleges will automatically take the highest score (either the combined SAT score or the ACT score) to determine if you meet their admissions requirements, and if you are eligible for other merit based scholarships they award.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Our Community SAT Prep Course

“Coach: I went up 100 points from the March SAT to the June SAT, and I took the June SAT with my wisdom teeth having just been removed, so hopefully I can do even better when I take the test again under more optimal conditions.

- Caroline Matthews

More Testimoinals Here!

¨ We are so excited to share with you our news that Jordan improved his SAT score in November by 200 points!!! Our initial goal was to “crack” a 1000… now he’s 10 points away from becoming a Palmetto Fellow. Thank you so much!

- Mrs. Berry

(He improved an additional 30 points on the following SAT).

More Testimoinals Here!

¨ Coach, I got my June scores in a few weeks ago, and I wanted to let you know how I did. This time I got a 1360! The breakdown was a 610 in the Math, and a 750 in the Critical Reading. [His baseline Math score (pre course enrollment) was in the low 500 range, and the baseline Critical Reading score around 600 ~ resulting in a 200 plus point score improvement in the course]. It been great!

- John Behnke

More Testimoinals Here!