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The SAT* Test: Help Your Child Prepare and Keep Perspective
The mere mention of the SAT* or ACT® test sends a tremor of panic through most college-bound high school students. While you can’t take the test for your child, or even sit with her for support while she muddles through, you can suggest effective preparation strategies that will help her perform to her fullest potential. You can also help her recognize that, in all likelihood, the SAT or ACT score will not make or break her future.
Ways to Prepare
While the methods they use vary, most college-bound students do prepare for the SAT and ACT test. In a survey of 203 college-bound teens conducted by Sylvan Learning Center, 90 percent of respondents either had prepared or planned to do some sort of dedicated preparation for the test. Working from a SAT prep handbook was the most popular method, used by 81 percent of students; 62 percent of students joined SAT study groups; 54 percent took a SAT group prep class, either online or in-person. Of those who did take a prep class, 83 percent reported high satisfaction with that help. Namely, it boosted their confidence in the test.
What Works
What methods of SAT and ACT prep work best? Prep classes give students the experience they’ll need for the test. Students gain experience working under time pressures, learning strategic test-taking skills and taking practice tests.
These experiences can also be learned by reading SAT or ACT test books and taking practice tests they offer. But, students have to be motivated to open the book and read it. Many find it difficult to get motivated and benefit by having an instructor guide them through.
Richard Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of Education for Sylvan, points to another benefit of group classes. “Research and common sense tell us that teenagers enjoy the social aspect of studying. It helps to know your peers are going through the same thing.”
Some students never open a prep book or enter a prep class, but ace the test. How do they do it? “Keeping up in class is the most important thing a student can do for success in the test,” Bavaria says. “This includes going to class regularly, keeping up with homework assignments, taking good class notes, studying for tests and seeking help as soon as problems with comprehension arise,” notes Bavaria.
Impact of the SAT or ACT Score
A college entrance exam score may or may not help a student get into the college of her choice. That, of course, depends on the score. It also depends on how heavily a college weighs the test scores.
SAT and ACT scores can help students identify which colleges would be a good academic fit for them, say education experts. That’s particularly true for those colleges who place considerable weight on test scores (not all colleges do). Major college guides publish the mid-range of college entrance exame scores for each school's freshman class. Prospective students can compare their scores to those of the college/s of their choice, seeing how they match up.
“Most colleges place an equal amount of weight on other factors, like essays, extracurricular activities and grades,” Bavaria says. “They don’t rely solely on SATs.”
That’s because most colleges recognize that these test scores give only a general prediction of how a student will perform. “They’re certainly not predictive in a perfect sense,” Bavaria says.
To learn more about Sylvan’s test preparation programs, please contact your local center by calling 1-800-228-3413 or use our Center Finder.
Legal Info
SAT* is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, Sylvan’s newsletter. Test names, abbreviations, and other trademarks are the property of their respective holders, and do not indicate an affiliation with, or endorsement of Sylvan’s newsletter.
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