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Health & Fitness

Warning: Some SAT/ACT Prep Programs Increase Scores but Fail the Student

Much has been said about increasing the score of students on standardized tests such as the SAT and the ACT.  College Board makes a claim on its online score report that tells students the amount of points students with similar scores earned when they retake the test.  They even provide the percentages of students who retake the exam who have scored higher, lower and the same.  Of course, the more familiar with the test a student is, the more likely that student will improve – no matter the type of test.  That is precisely the reason students practice for the HSPA, the SAT, and the ACT – to improve their score.  Should educators just teach to the test so that students get better scores?

Higher test scores will help students have more choices in the college pool.  However, good SAT or ACT scores are not adequate predictors in a student’s academic success in college. Teaching to the test does not teach students how to read comprehensively, how to solve math problems, how to read statistical data, or how to write a grammatically correct sentence.  It only prepares students to anticipate the type of questions that will be on one particular test, how to eliminate answer choices that are way off base, and how not to lose points. This warning label should come attached to these types of study programs:

WARNING:  Students who learn only the test-taking strategies of the SAT and ACT are not learning the important skills being tested and may find themselves struggling to keep up in college.

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Many students who study to the test find themselves having difficulty in college, dropping and repeating courses, losing scholarship money, transferring to less challenging college, or worse – dropping out.  The right training not only helps students get into the right college, but also prepares them for success there.

As an Educational Consultant, I see many students who have performed excellently on the SAT and ACT, but cannot construct a paragraph when writing their personal statements for their college applications.  I also find that because students do not read recreationally, they lack vocabulary skills and tend to rely on study aids to get through their reading assignments. These students neither develop different strategies for different applications nor do they change strategies as appropriate.  Rarely do they combine mathematical concepts on their own or see the relationship between the math and the science they study. Oftentimes, students at a higher math level than that of the SAT or ACT will forget those concepts practiced in earlier grades.  The "inflated" test scores indicate nothing of the student's ability to perform in college.

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At College Prep, students not only perform better on their standardized tests, but they also learn the skills questioned by those tests.  Students learn and practice reading comprehension strategies such as: how to determine the author’s tone, identify the main idea, make inferences about a passage, and determine the mood.  Mathematical concepts are explained, proven, and applied.  Different study strategies are explored so that students know how and when to use and change strategies as appropriate. Teachers at College Prep also explain how students can apply these newly developed or refreshed skills to their schoolwork so they perform better – not only on their SATs and ACTs - but also in all their studies. 

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