You’ve worked hard this semester—or at least that’s what you’ve told your parents ;-). You deserve a relaxing vacation, and at CPE we wish you a great time skiing, beaching, playing, hanging, reading, vegging, keeping your mask on and social distancing from others, and whatever else you like to do to unwind and recharge your batteries for the second semester.
If you’re facing February-June SATs, ACTs, or SSATs (see dates here) and you’re honest with yourself, you know you can have a kick-butt vacation, do all the things you want to do, and/or spend LOTS of time doing nothing at all, and still carve out a little time each day for test prep. 45 min to an hour a day, for example, won’t ruin ANYONE’s vacation, but it WILL move you much closer to your post-vacation SAT, ACT, or SSAT goals. Here are some of CPE’s tips to help keep you focused and moving forward during the upcoming vacation:
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Make a plan and write it down.
Make a decision to do 45 minutes or an hour of work each day. It’s your life so you get to choose when. But once you’ve made a decision, put it in writing—a note from yourself to yourself about your vacation goals. Add your commitment to your day planner or electronic calendar or smartphone reminders. All this will help you execute your plan. As a free holiday gift, CPE will email you our Daily to-do checklist for the SAT, the ACT, or the SSAT, just for the asking; it organizes preparation for each exam into alternate days of testing and studying. Send us an email asking for the particular checklist you want, i.e., the exam for which you’re preparing, and we’ll email it right back to you. You’re welcome :-).
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Alternate days of taking tests and studying the specific bodies of material on each exam.
Use only the official versions of each test, i.e., the CollegeBoard’s, the ACT’s, and the SSAT’s official test prep materials.
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Start by studying the material covered on each exam.
If your history teacher gave you a review packet and a couple of practice tests to study for a big history test, would you just take the practice test and ignore the review packet? Of course not! A students would study the review packet FIRST, and then use the practice tests to discover strengths and weaknesses. Same holds true for standardized tests: begin with the material covered on the exam. For the SSAT, that means vocab, analogy types, and math; for the SAT, that means math and grammar; for the ACT, that means math, grammar, and science. Similarly, know the appropriate strategies for each exam, e.g., guessing and time-management strategies, and know the common question types and develop problem-solving stategies to get them right!. If you’re not sure what these are, buy the appropriate CPE Prep Pack for $5.99, or purchase one of the much more expensive books available on the market :-). At CPE we can’t stress enough the importance of studying material in addition to taking practice tests. Most students usually do only the latter.
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Take practice tests and be sure to take them seriously by simulating exam conditions.
Pretend you’re having the actual exam experience as best you can. Remember Vince Lombardi’s words: “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” Time yourself strictly, don’t break up individual sections, use a pencil and the bubble answer sheets, and do them siting in a chair and in silence. Even try to psych yourself up that it counts.
Remember, we’re here to help. Email DrYo@CollegePrepExpress.com, call 860-519-1000, or text Dr. Yo at 413-329-7540. Once again, if you carve out a 45 minutes to an hour a day every day over vacation, you can still have an AWESOME vacation and feel really good about yourself when it’s over because you’ll be that much farther along in the college admissions game.
Trust me, you’ll be really glad you did. 🤓