ACT

ACTs Less Than a Week Away? 5 Pro Tips to Raise Your Scores REALLY Fast

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Good time management on the ACT, even more than on the SAT, is crucial for getting high scores. And the cool thing is, relatively speaking, it doesn’t take long to master or to see its impact on your composite score. Is a few days enough time? Yup, if you’re dedicated. It’s basically a matter of knowing the format of each of the five tests really well. You don’t want to be the kid who, when the proctor says turn the page and begin, blurts out, “Hey! There’s Science on this test?!”   Those who become students of the exam–that is, […]

Standardized Test Prep Made Simple: Tip Sheet for Preparing for SATs and ACTs

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Preparing for high-stakes standardized tests like the SAT or the ACT is not EASY, but it is SIMPLE. What I mean by that is much of the work is psychological: you need to make a decision to invest the necessary time, plan your work, and then work your plan. For years instructors at CollegePrepExpress have been helping students get high scores by showing them that preparation for these behemoth exams is really the same as that for any other test: it involves TWO basic activities: studying the material covered on the exam and taking practice tests to give you facility […]

Why CPE’s Super-Value Math Class (for SAT, ACT, Level 1 Subject Test, and Final Exam Prep) Is a Genius IDEA 

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   For further details on the class, visit our 4-in-1 Super Value Math page Dr. Yo’s 4-in-1 Super-Value Math Class is one of those rare gems that makes excellent sense for the vast majority of high school students. The problem is, most students and parents either don’t know that it exists, or they don’t immediately see how it can prove so tremendously beneficial in their particular case. The purpose of this blog post is to redress that unfortuante situation. The concept underpinning the class is to offer high school students in grades 9-12 instruction and practice on the SPECIFIC BODY OF MATHEMATICAL […]

The Best Time for an SAT/ACT Combo Class: Long-Term SAT, ACT, and Subject Test Planning for Sophomores and Juniors

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The more experience I get, the less inclined I am toward generalizations. That’s true in life outside of work, and that’s true of the many students with whom we work at CPE, from public or private school, New England or Florida, state school or ivy bound. With all the athletic, extracurricular, personal, and academic variables in busy high school juniors’ lives, it’s very difficult to make recommendations based on sweeping generalizations that actually apply to all or even most juniors. Having said that, here’s a sweeping generalization and recommendation based on 25 years experience specializing in helping students get into colleges […]

The 1/24 SAT Retesting Dates and the College Board’s Anachronistic, Imperious Air

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Yesterday, the day after the 1/24/15 SATs were canceled for many New England students due to weather, the College Board announced its retesting dates and, in some cases, new test centers. It was issuing orders, not offering choices. For many students in West Hartford and throughout the region, the new date is 2/7/15, exactly two weeks after the originally scheduled exam. That date may not mean much to anyone outside the college preparatory universe, but those of us in the trenches know that 2/7 is the pre-existing, regularly scheduled ACT date. Hmmmm. If you’re one of the students who now […]

Dr. Yo’s Top 2 Tips for Reading Comprehension/Concentration on the PSAT, SAT, ACT, Literature Subject Test, and AP Lit exams

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Reading  comprehension tests are, in most cases, a misnomer. Passages on the SAT, ACT, Literature Subject Test, and AP English exams do not typically test students’ ability to COMPREHEND the material; they test students’ ability to pay attention to what they’re reading. This is a very important distinction, particularly when it comes to confidence. When students perform poorly on a reading comprehension test, or at a level less than they’d expect,  the reason is not likely that they can’t COMPREHEND the passage, but rather than they weren’t paying close enough attention; that is, they weren’t concentrating on what they were reading. […]

SAT and ACT Prep: Peaking at the Right Time

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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 […]

Got ACT on 9/21? 5 Tips for Cramming

 tagged ACT / standardized tests / test prep by

If you’re taking the ACT next weekend and haven’t been able to prepare as thoroughly as you’d like—hey, we understand, end of summer, start of school, yada yada yada—do not despair. Because there’s no vocabulary on the exam, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time studying as you do for the SAT. The ACT is, in fact, a much more “beatable” test than the SAT, especially when time is short. There are two bodies of material you need to know: math (key topics in Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and a wee bit of Trig) and 10 key […]

5-Point Checklist to Prep for the ACT in a Week…or Less!

 tagged ACT / strategies / test prep by

If you’re taking the ACTs this weekend and haven’t been able to prepare as thoroughly as you’d like—understandable given the SATs and/or January midterms many of you faced—do not despair. Because there’s no vocabulary on the exam, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time studying as you do for the SAT. The ACT is, in fact,   a much more “beatable” test than the SAT, especially when time is short. Whereas the SAT requires a huge chunk of STUDY time to master all the abstruse vocabulary (see what I did there?), ACT prep places a premium on taking […]

Why the ACT is just as important as the SAT

 tagged ACT / admissions / junior year / SAT / test prep by

By Kate Cryan “There are several compelling reasons why students SHOULD TAKE BOTH tests.”  So said Dr. Yo in this 2008 post. You could say he was a good five years ahead of the curve: last year, the number of students taking the ACT was, for the first time, slightly higher than the number taking SAT, and 50% higher than the number taking ACT ten years ago. Why the sudden preference for ACT? It’s not sudden, and it’s not a preference, because SAT popularity hasn’t waned. The number of ACT takers has steadily increased each year until it finally surpassed […]

3 Things to Do with Your Recently Arrived PSAT Scores

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 So your wake-up call came this week in the form of PSAT scores from the CollegeBoard. Now what? Decide whether you’re an SAT kid, an ACT kid, both, or neither. Because the PSAT is a really good indicator of how well you’d do on the SAT (just add a zero to each score; e.g., a 53 PSAT –> 530 SAT), we typically advise students take an ACT in December or February with which to compare to your PSAT results. Use any number of freely available conversion charts e.g., ACT’s charts, CollegeBoard’s charts) to help you decide how to allocate test-prep […]

Got ACT on 9/21? 5 Tips for Cramming

 tagged ACT / standardized tests / test prep by

If you’re taking the ACT next weekend and haven’t been able to prepare as thoroughly as you’d like—hey, we understand, end of summer, start of school, yada yada yada—do not despair. Because there’s no vocabulary on the exam, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time studying as you do for the SAT. The ACT is, in fact, a much more “beatable” test than the SAT, especially when time is short. There are two bodies of material you need to know: math (key topics in Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and a wee bit of Trig) and 10 key […]

Taking the ACT This Weekend? Here’s Your 5-Point Checklist for Cramming

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If you’re taking the ACTs this weekend and haven’t been able to prepare as thoroughly as you’d like—understandable given the end of the year crunch—do not despair. Because there’s no vocabulary on the exam, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time studying as you do for the SAT. The ACT is, in fact,   a much more “beatable” test than the SAT, especially when time is short. There are two bodies of material you need to know: math (key topics in Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and a wee bit of Trig) and 10 key grammar rules. More […]

Beating the ACT

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio  With the ACT on April 13, this show is RIGHT ON TIME! Join Dr. Yo’s TEEN EXPERTS—Jake Leshem (KO ’14) and Catherine Eatherton (KO ’14, and yes, it’s just a coincidence her initials are…CPE ;-))— both of whom got nearly perfect scores on the ACT this year, as they offer advice, tips, and flat out tricks to beat this college entrance exam.  Other TEEN GUESTS include Maggie Geisler (Conard ’14) and Jake Youmans (Hall ’14), both of whom are currently studying for the 4/13 exam. Tune in to hear them […]

Pep Talk for Standardized Test-Taking JUNIORS

 tagged ACT / admissions / applications / junior year / SAT / standardized tests by

“The truth can hurt you it’s just like the dark it’ll scare you witless but in time you see things clear and stark.” – Elvis Costello Everybody knows junior year is the hardest working year of high school. And, alas, the stark reality is the hardest part of it is the final stretch. Cumulative tests, big papers, final projects, and (gulp) final exams all conspire to make the last two to three months challenging to sleep, serenity, even sanity. Oh yeah, and then throw standardized testing—SATs ACTs, Subject Tests, and, in some cases, AP exams—into the already unmanageable mix. Thanks, adult world, […]