Give us a week — we’ll give you a chunk of your year back!
Fill in gaps from classes you took last year, or preview major topics in challenging classes you’ll be taking next year- Get ahead in the college admissions game
- Learn how to manage test stress and academic anxiety
- Improve all your study skills
- Get Your CommonApp DONE
For the Smart Summer Sessions schedule and to register, click here.
NOTE: Courses listed below that do not appear on the Schedule/Registration page can be scheduled, enrollment permitting, at your request. Please call (860) 519-1000 or email summer@collegeprepexpress.com
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
All Smart Summer Session classes meet 3 hours/day, either 9AM-12PM ET or 1PM-4PM ET, for a total of 15 hours of instruction and practice. They classes all feature intensive, hard-hitting instruction with built-in time for work and individual attention.
Get most or ALL of your CommonApp done BEFORE the school year starts. Whether you take this class or not, this is excellent advice. This class will walk you through EVERY section of your application, help you craft stand-out essays, activities lists, and short answer responses for each of the schools on your list. See our CommonApp Boot Camp page for more details.
ACADEMIC COURSES AND STUDY SKILLS
Essential Study Skills Workshop
Spend five days learning and practicing essential study skills that enable students to excel in high school and get the most out of their college educations. Featured topics include organization (in notebooks and on computers) and various note-taking techniques; active reading strategies, making use of summer reading material for practice; various study methods, including the latest online study tools; essay planning and writing (using summer reading assignments for practice); using technology to boost efficiency and efficacy; making and giving class presentations; and building historical frameworks across the curriculum. A GREAT class to take before the start of a new school year!
Transition Math for Grades 7-9
This is a great class for middle schoolers and early high school students. This course makes sense for students who require extra presentation of fundamental arithmetic and early algebraic concepts as well as practice with fundamental skills, or for those who want to review all these fundamentals before moving on to their first Algebra course in school. Topics include: working with fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing); place value and decimals; converting fractions, decimals, and percentages; using variables; basic word problems; basic shapes, perimeter, and area; coordinate graphing and basic equations; and order of operations.
Algebra 1 Review/Preview
This class is intended for students who either will have just completed an Algebra 1 class in school and want to review before moving on to Geometry or Algebra 2, or for those going into Algebra 1 in the fall. Topics include: review of basic math for Algebra (real numbers, ratios and proportions, powers, square roots, order of operations, variables, and simplifying expressions); solving equations and using formulas; graphing linear equations in slope-intercept and point-slope forms; solving and graphing inequalities; solving systems of equations and inequalities; exponent laws and scientific notation; absolute value; pythagorean theorem and special right triangles; polynomials; factoring; solving and graphing quadratics; and word problems. While the class is geared toward the standard Algebra 1 high school class, special attention is given to topics that frequently appear on standardized tests, like the CAPT, SAT, ACT and SAT Subject Test Level 1.
Geometry Review/Preview
This class is intended for students who either will have just completed a Geometry class in school and want to review before moving on to Algebra 2, or for those going into Geometry in the fall. Topics include: points, lines, and planes; common shapes, perimeter, area, and volume; angles and triangles; pythagorean theorem and special right triangles; similarity and congruency; parallel lines and transversals; perpendicular lines; proofs; and basic Trigonometry. While the class is geared toward the standard Geometry high school class, special attention is given to topics that frequently appear on standardized tests, like the CAPT, SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject Test Level 1.
Algebra 2 Review/Preview
This class is intended for students who either have completed an Algebra 2 class in school and want to review before moving on to Precalculus, or for those going into Algebra 2 in the fall. Topics include: real numbers; absolute value; equations and inequalities; functions and their graphs; polynomials and factoring; rational expressions; irrational and complex numbers; quadratic equations and functions; probability; and introduction to Trigonometry. While the class is geared toward the standard Algebra 2 high school class, special attention is given to topics that frequently appear on standardized tests, like the CAPT, SAT, ACT and SAT Subject Tests.
Precalculus Review/Preview
This class is intended for students who either have completed a Precalculus class in school and want to review before moving on to Calculus, or for those going into Precalculus in the fall. Make the hardest math class in high school much more manageable. See all the major topics presented in a 5-day intensive class so that when you see them in school it’ll be for the second time! Topics include: functions and their properties (parent functions, inverses of functions, combination of functions, and transformations); conic sections and their graphs (circles, parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas); Trigonometric functions and their graphs; simplifying expressions and proving identities using Trig functions; law of sines and law of cosines; exponential and logarithmic functions; parametric equations and polar coordinates; and binomial expansion theorem and sequences and series. While the class is geared toward the standard Precalculus high school class, special attention is given to topics that frequently appear on standardized tests, like the SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject Test Level 2.
(AP) U.S. History Review/Preview
This class is intended for students who plan to take U.S. History in the fall, standard or AP, who might want to take or re-take the SAT Subject Test in U.S. History in the fall, and who want to get a head start on the class! This is a great course for first time AP history takers because it will provide students with the nuts and bolts of AP history classes, introduce them to the test and introduce the major themes of the course, both chronologically and thematically. We will use the AP U.S. History Exam as our anchor for topics and skills covered throughout the week, which will serve standard as well as AP history students. We will tackle topics most frequently covered on the Exam, work with Document-Based Questions (DBQs) and discuss specific topics covered in recent years, including Pre-Columbian and colonial America, The American Revolutionary Era, Economics, Society and Politics of Antebellum America, Manifest Destiny, The Civil War Era, Reconstruction, Industrial America and Urban Society in the late 19th Century, Populism and Progressivism, Emergence of America as a World Power, World War I, America Between the Wars (the Great Depression and the New Deal), World War II, Post War America, Urban Sprawl, The United States During the Cold War and Vietnam, Social Movements of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and Post-Cold War America. Some time will also be devoted to tackling a U.S. History THESIS paper, how to use and cite sources, analysis and understanding of primary documents and political cartoons, and understanding AP Exam multiple choice questions.
(AP) U.S. Government Review/Preview
This class is intended for students who plan to take AP U.S. Politics and Government in the fall, have completed the course already and want a refresher before moving on to another challenging AP history course, or for students in standard U.S. Government classes who want a preview of the course so they can begin in September with a solid foundation. This seminar will be taught using the AP U.S. Politics and Government Exam as an anchor for topics and skills covered throughout the week, tackling topics most frequently covered on the Exam and discussing those specifically covered in recent years. Topics include: Constitutional Underpinnings, Political Behavior and Public Opinion, Political Parties, Interest Groups, Mass Media, Public Policy, Institutions of National Government, Civil Rights and Liberties, and Elections. Skills Include: note-taking techniques, active reading tips, analytical and persuasive writing best practices, how to use and cite sources, analysis and understanding of primary documents and political cartoons, and understanding AP Exam multiple choice questions.
(AP) World History
This class is intended for students who plan to take AP World History in the fall. This seminar will be taught using the AP World History Exam as an anchor for topics and skills covered throughout the week. We will discuss the course both chronologically and thematically, tackling topics most frequently covered on the Exam and discussing those specifically covered in recent years. Topics include: Early Technological and Environmental Transformations, Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, Regional and Transregional Interactions, Economic Productive Capacities and its Implications, Global Interactions, Social Organization and Modes of Production, Industrialization and Global Integration, Global Migration, New Ideas of Global Society, Economy and Culture and Global Conflicts. Skills include: note-taking techniques, active reading tips, analytical and persuasive writing best practices, how to use and cite sources, analysis and understanding of primary documents and political cartoons, working with Document-Based Questions (DBQs), chronological thinking skills, how to compare and contextualize across the curriculum and understanding AP Exam multiple choice questions.
(AP) European History
This class is intended for students who plan to take AP European History in the fall. This seminar will be taught using the AP European History Exam as an anchor for topics and skills covered throughout the week. We will discuss the course both chronologically and thematically, tackling topics most frequently covered on the Exam and discussing those covered in recent years. Topics include: The Renaissance, The Reformation, Absolutism, The Scientific Revolution, The Enlightenment, Society and Economics of the Age of Reason, The French Revolution and Napoleon, The Industrial Revolution, The Political Shifts of the Early 1800s, Unification, Mass Politics, Imperialism, World War I, The Interwar Period, Dictatorships and World War II, and Shifts in society and Politics: 1945 to Present. Skills include: note-taking techniques, active reading tips, working with Document-Based Questions (DBQs), analytical and persuasive writing best practices, how to use and cite sources, analysis and understanding of primary documents and political cartoons, chronological thinking skills, how to compare and contextualize across the curriculum and understanding AP Exam multiple choice questions.
AP English Language and Composition
This class will introduce and give to for students to practice the key skill sets necessary to excel in their AP English Language & Composition class and to get a high score on the AP Exam in May. Participants will become skilled readers of prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects, as well as the way genre conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing. The class will be organized around several years’ worth of AP Exams, so students will be familiar not only with their AP course expectations but also with the AP Exam itself.
Writing Across the Curriculum
This class offers instruction on the most common forms of writing students are asked to produce in high school and college: analytical essays, history essays, persuasive essays, research writing, and creative writing. Brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, and polishing in each genre will be presented and practiced, so that when students return to school in the fall, they will know exactly how to handle writing assignments as they arise in each of their classes.
Summer Reading and Writing
This class will help students complete their summer reading assignments and get instruction on and help with producing meaningful and polished essays they can bring to school on day one. Writing instruction and practice will extend beyond just summer reading assignments, however, to include creative writing, journaling, and other common genres in the high school curriculum, catered to the individual needs and desires of enrolled students.
Creative Writing
In this intensive, five-day program to develop creative writing skills, students in grades 9-12 will develop their own craft ideas in the genres of short story, poetry, playwriting, and verbal scrapbooking. Every student will complete the course with at least one beautiful, hand-crafted piece of creative writing. We will concentrate on effectively developing a deeper understanding of our own ideas and stories, finding our own voices and tones, and the ability to understand and communicate in the different genres. Enroll in this class to have lots of fun with writing, and to move your skills to a whole new level!
Math on the SAT, PSAT, ACT, and SAT Subject Test Level 1
This class offers a comprehensive presentation of ALL the math you’ll need to know on the SAT, PSAT, ACT, and SAT Subject Test Math Level 1. If the material is covered on these exam, you’ll see it here, and if it’s not, you won’t (we’ll leave that to our other Math classes and to your teachers in the fall ;-)). The most common standardized test questions in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry will be emphasized, so that whether you have to take the PSAT, the SAT, the ACT, the LEvel 1 Subject Test, or all of the above, you will be supremely prepared for the MATH!
PSAT/SAT Prep and Practice
This class offers an intensive 5-day immersion in the content, strategies, and test-taking skills necessary to excel on the REDESIGNED PSAT and SAT. The course makes sense for any sophomore-senior who plans to take the PSAT or SAT this academic year. Using CollegePrepExpress’s time-tested study program and copyrighted materials, students will begin to study the substantial body of knowledge covered on the exam and practice taking tests in a simulated testing environment. All three sections—Critical Reading, Math, and Writing, including the essay writing portion of the exam for SAT students (students will received detailed, individualized feedback on their essays), are covered in detail. Students will receive a substantial amount of printed material in class, but they are also required to purchase the CollegeBoard’s Official Guide to the SAT.
ACT Prep and Practice (See also our academic year format, 6-Session ACT Prep Class, in West Hartford and online on the Classes page.)
This class starts by introducing students to the main differences between the ACT and the more familiar PSAT/SAT, essential strategies, and the finite body of mathematical and grammatical material tested on the exam. All five sections of the exam–English, Math, Reading, Science, and the optional Writing section–are covered in detail. By the time students take, go over, and study ALL FIVE PRACTICE TESTS in the required book, they will be fully prepared for everything they’ll encounter on game day.
Materials: Students need to purchase The Real ACT Prep Guide (3rd Edition) and the new Offical ACT Prep Guide 2016-2017, the best source of practice, available in most bookstores that carry standardized test prep book. Participants can get a head start by reading/studying the review sections in The Guide, but they should not start taking the practice tests until the course starts. Students should bring the following to every class: their text books, notebooks with plenty of blank paper, a calculator, a pen, and a #2 pencil.
SSAT/ISEE Prep and Practice
This class offers an intensive 5-day immersion in the content, strategies, and test-taking skills necessary to excel on either the SSAT or the ISEE. The course makes sense for any middle schooler—or precocious elementary school student—taking the SSAT or ISEE during the coming academic year. Using CollegePrepExpress’s time-tested study program and copyrighted materials, students will begin to study the substantial body of knowledge covered on the exams and practice taking tests in a simulated testing environment. Verbal, Mathematical, and Reading Comprehension knowledge and skills will all be covered and practiced! Students will receive a substantial amount of printed material in class, but they are also required to purchase Princeton Review’s SSAT & ISEE book.
Take ONE WEEK to work on your GRADES instead of your TAN! 😉