The SAT and ACT are designed for 11th graders. That means junior year is testing year. Students should plan to take one or both tests two or, if necessary, three times to maximize their superscore and space out test dates to finish by the end of junior year.
Student go to high school, and their classes are taught by teachers. Then they go to college, and their classes are taught by teachers. So if you’re taking an SAT or ACT course, you want one taught by teachers — not AI, or a library of pre-recorded videos, or a high school student who got a high score but isn’t an experienced teacher. A live, skilled teacher can answer student questions and notice when a student is struggling to address questions from different angles when needed.
You also want to make sure that any class your student takes includes both the content they’re going to be be tested on, but also the strategies they’ll need to succeed. You don’t just want a teacher who’s good at math or good at English but doesn’t understand how these tests work.
Finally, you want a program that’s going to help students build over time. There are a lot of programs out there that just have students take a lot of practice tests or answer a bunch of questions, assuming they’ll figure it out eventually. Don’t think of SAT prep or ACT prep like track practice, where if you run more, you’ll get faster. Think of it instead like building a house, where you build a solid foundation, then a really good first floor, before you build the second floor and put a roof on it.
There’s no magic number of hours a day or hours a week a student can practice for the SAT or ACT and be guaranteed to hit their goal scores, any more than there’s an exact number of hours someone needs to go to the gym to hit their goal weight. It really depends on the students, and there are so many variables.
At the end of the day, the right amount of prep is the amount a student is willing to do and that won’t burn them out. You want them to put in the work and care enough to succeed, but not get so singularly focused on this one thing that they neglect other important things like their grades in school or their extracurricular activities, both of which matter a great deal to colleges in the admissions process.
Solution Prep offers SAT and ACT classes in person in Monmouth County, Middlesex County, and Ocean County, New Jersey, with centers in Wall Township, Little Silver, East Brunswick, and Toms River. We also run classes at a number of high schools by invitation of guidance, school administrators, or parent organizations. Students are also welcome to join group classes or work with an instructor 1-on-1 meeting virtually from anywhere in the country, or even anywhere in the world.
Solution Prep’s Basics SAT program includes 20 tutoring hours across 8 class sessions. It also includes 5 digital practice SATs with accompanying video test reviews. Students in our Basics course also get access to 20 extra lessons in their portal that dig deeper into ever lesson covered in class, with over 500 questions and video explanations. And finally, even our Basics SAT prep course includes 5 invaluable workshops for parents and students about college visits, essays, applications, financing, and more.
In the evolving college admissions landscape, some colleges are “test blind,” which means they won’t look at SAT or ACT scores at all. Other colleges may be “test optional,” which means you have the option of sending your test scores, and having great scores can still increase your chances of getting into those colleges. Then the rest of colleges are just requiring test scores.
Solution Prep offers both 1-on-1 tutoring and small-group courses. That way students and parents can decide which one is best for them.
For students with much lower scores who need a lot of help, or for students with much higher scores who want more targeted help, 1-on-1 tutoring can be the best program for them.
Solution Prep small-group class is between 3 and 5 students. We want to keep the group small to make sure every students gets the individualized attention that they need. In a small group, students can answer the questions they know and listen and learn for the ones they don’t.
From start to finish, the SAT takes about 2.5 hours. That’s why every SAT class Solution Prep teaches is 2.5 hours: because in addition to teaching students the important content and strategies they’ll need to succeed on the test, we’re also conditioning them to be able to focus on the test for that long and have the endurance to last all the way to the last question.
Every teacher at Solution Prep is great at teaching all the subjects on both the SAT and the ACT. That way your student can work with one teacher the entire time; they can build rapport, learn how your student works best, and help them succeed.
The SAT and ACT are put out by two competing companies, and college accept these two test scores interchangeably, with no preference irrespective of where they’re located, where applicants are located, or what a student’s majors is.
Because students should plan to take the SAT and/or the ACT at least two or three times to maximize their superscore, a Solution Prep program continues well beyond students’ initial run of classes.
Students will still have access to their practice tests, as well as 24/7 access to video test reviews through their SolutionPrep.com portal. Also in their portal, students have additional lessons available that dig deeper into the lessons learned in class with more questions and video explanations. There are also additional questions in their course manual with answers in the back.
Solution Prep program costs exactly what the price tag says, with no hidden fees. There are no enrollment fees, no diagnostic test fees, no credit card fees, not even materials fees because all materials are included. So you can be sure that the price you see is the price you’ll get.
Some people offer guarantees, but those are, at their core, a sales gimmick full of fine print designed to let whoever gave it to you have enough loopholes to get out of living up to that commitment. At Solution Prep, our students get out of this program what they put into it. And we want our relationship with our students and their parents not to be about looking for excuses to invalidate some guarantee, but to be about finding ways to help our students succeed and reach their goals.