SAT and ACT Prep: Peaking at the Right Time

First, three words about the “major” changes to the SAT coming in 2016: hype, hype, and HYPE. Don’t get me started about the ruse mounted by the College Board in creating more authentic test questions and bringing social justice to college admissions testing, the two huge flags they’re waving over this new campaign. Bottom line is that ANY test that asks ACADEMIC questions and forces you to work ALONE is inauthentic from the get-go: can you name ANY profession that requires you to answer academic questions and without the benefit of collaborating with colleagues? Besides teaching? And claiming to level the socio-economic playing field by making test prep freely available to the masses—guess what? it has been for years—is so disingenuous it strains credulity. As I said, don’t get me started. The SAT is simply ACT-ifying itself to sell more tests.  Just a mere coincidence the College Board announced these changes following the first year in history the SAT was outsold by the ACT? There’s some cold-blooded AUTHENTIC analysis for you J

One of the test-prep principles that will NOT change with the new test is PEAKING AT THE RIGHT TIME. Any athlete or avid sports fan knows it’s not only important to have a good team, but also, and perhaps more important, to peak at the end of the season and during the post-season. The same is true for both college admissions exams, the SAT and ACT. Regardless of whether your learning style is such that you prefer slow-and-steady or fast-and-furious, you want to arrange your preparation such that you accelerate towards exam day. I personally like both slow-and-steady, achieved through CPE’s 25-min/night program for PSAT/SAT/ACT prep throughout sophomore and junior years—shortly to be augmented with the release of CPE’s Pinpoint Test-Prep App* featuring six questions per day (two vocab, two math, two grammar from both SATs and ACTs) with answers and explanations emailed to you for every item you get wrong (you’re welcome ;-))—AND fast-and-furious, achieved through our 6-Session SAT (starts 4/27) and 6-Session ACT (starts 5/3) prep classes. Cramming is not a great solution for long-term learning gains, but it goes far over a 6-week dash to SAT and ACT game day.

Regardless of your learning style and general approach, if you’re taking the SAT on June 7 or the ACT on June 14, schedule your work such that you’ll PEAK ON EXAM DAY. You can plan your daily/nightly prep and practice such that you’ll do a little bit more every day between now and 6/7 and/or 6/14 and have your best test when it counts the most. Sign up for either our 6-session SAT or 6-Session ACT class, or the money-saving Combo class, and receive materials and daily/nightly assignment checklists to help you do just that.

Regardless of the format and content of the current and future college entrance exams, CollegePrepExpress is committed to helping you get the very highest scores of which you are capable. And we have high expectations for you!

*Check http://CollegePrepExpress.com/ePrep as early as next week for details and downloading instructions.

This post was originally published on 4/22/14 at collegeprepexpress.com