Back when I was in school, historians sometimes liked to call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages. Although today’s historians might say such an appellation applies more to those who coined and used the term than the actual historical period, it was meant to suggest that during the Middle Ages—the period in Western History between Antiquity (Greeks and Romans) and the Renaissance—nothing very interesting happened. Hence, it was dark.
By analogy, the long period in the junior year sandwiched between Oct PSATs and winter/spring SATs/ACTs might well be called the Dark Ages of the Junior year. I see it happen to well-intentioned, high-achieving students every year: not a lot going on in terms of standardized test prep. All the math, grammar, and vocab they began studying for PSATs fades to black really fast. You know how it goes: you have really good intentions to get ahead of the curve by studying a little bit whenever you have time. But that free time never comes, or when it does, you quickly forget your test prep intentions and engage in something else a little more, well, interesting.
At CollegePrepExpress, LLC, we’re trying to shed light on the Dark Ages of Junior Year and help our students gain a powerful competitive edge over students who will descend into the standardized test prep abyss. Those who muster a little more energy and old-fashioned discipline than the rest of the juniors in the country by carving out a meager 20-25 min a night between November and February—the long months of the so-called Dark Ages of Junior Year—will leave the competition behind when the SATs and ACTs roll around in early 2010.
In order to help you help your yourself, we’ve designed two (one for SAT prep, one for ACT prep) new daily test-prep discipline checklist-style worksheets to help manage your 20-25 min/night. They are available for immediate download and use from the private Download section of our website. Students who USE these bi-weekly checklists (i.e., each checklist takes you through two weeks of nightly test-prep to-do’s) will alternate nights of practice tests and review. Each time you complete a two-week cycle, you will have taken a full-length college entrance exam and studied at least three hours worth of material covered on the exam. It’s a good plan to help you dust the competition and get into the college of your choice. Don’t ever say we didn’t tell you how to do it!
So go ahead and, pardon the anachronism, shine a flashlight on the Dark Ages of Junior Year. All it takes is 20-25 minutes a night! You’ll be so glad you invested the time.