Decoding the ACT and SAT: How to Ace the Test

Webinar Transcription

2023-08-10 – Decoding the ACT and SAT: How to Ace the Test

Hi everyone. My name is Stacey Tuttle and I am your moderator today. Welcome to “Decoding the ACT and SAT: How to Ace the Test.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing. We’ll start off with a presentation and then answer your questions in a live q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can start submitting questions in the q and a tab when you’re ready.

So now let’s go ahead and meet our lovely panelists. Maria. Hi everyone. My name is Maria and I graduated from Harvard back in 2020. I was a 2020 senior. And while I was there I studied sociology and global health policy and I was also on the pre-med track. So I’m really excited to get a chat with you all about standardized testing.

Yeah, it’s a really hot topic. Mm-hmm. It’s a good time of year to be taking the test again. So the poll here and actually it doesn’t seem that this is queued up appropriately, so I do apologize to those in the room. The poll was supposed to say, which standardized tests are you planning to take?

But for now, let’s just get a sense of what grade y’all are in and that’ll give us a sense of when you might be planning to take the test. So you’re gonna see a poll appear right in front of you that asks you what grade you’re in. And so go ahead and fill that out. And Maria, I’m sure you’re gonna touch on the timeline for this is a very popular question about when you take the test.

Do you remember when you took your test? Yeah, so I think the first time I took any standardized tests at all was like my P S A T that my school just had for everybody. And I think that was the first time that I even heard about standardized testing. But the first time I took it, For real and, and knowing what it would mean for my applications was in my junior year.

So I took it later in my junior year, I think it was in the spring. And then I, I think I took it again later in or early in the summer. Yeah, that’s pretty typical. And so it’s a, see, it looks like we have some, a good mix of seniors and juniors. Which, you know, right on target what you’re saying, right.

Maria, in terms of when you’ll really prep for that, we do have some sophomores, a few freshmen, an eighth grader. That’s very exciting. And then some in the other categories. So maybe we have some parents in the room or people who have graduated from high school already, maybe taking a gap year. And so welcome, welcome to everyone and let’s get started with the main part of the presentation.

So Marie, I’m gonna turn it over to you to get started. Thanks, Stacy. So usually when students are, like Stacy said, in the process of hearing about standardized tests, usually hear about two acronyms. You hear a c t and ss a t, they sound very similar. But there are different tests run by different companies and they, even though they both get a sense of where you’re at in terms of like your reading comprehension, math writing skills, there are.

Key differences between the two. And so today we’ll just talk a little bit about how those tasks play into your application, and then also what are some of the differences so that you get a sense of which one might be a right fit for you. So just starting off with like, why does this matter? Like what is the impact that standardized testing has on any student’s application?

So if you, when you’re thinking about applying to college, there’s a lot of different components there. Whether you’re using the common app or you’re applying directly to a school, or you’re in the uc system. And to apply to a California school, you’ll notice that there’s different requirements. So you will probably have to turn in your your transcript or you will have to turn in your transcripts we’ll, which will show your G p a your coursework.

There’ll also be most likely some essays, letters of recommendation. And another, another category there is standardized testing. So usually I put standardized testing in the more quantitative field of what admissions officers are looking at when they’re looking at your file. But it’s one of many different pieces of your application.

And so even though they’re important because they do give a data point of in general, like maybe some a data point in regards to thinking about your academic rigor or maybe your it could give a bit of a sense of some balance to, to your G P A. For example, maybe your G P A at the beginning of high school maybe wasn’t great and you were able to lift it, but it’s still maybe not on par to what you might’ve thought.

If you had had the same progress or the same academic caliber freshman year all the way to senior year, sometimes doing really well on a standardized test score can balance that out. And so that’s one reason why some students really wanna take it. It’s to balance out that G P A, a lot of schools after Covid hit decided to go test optional or say it’s not required at all.

And so again, it’s one of the many things that are considered and. The level of consideration really depends on the school. So I always recommend that students look into what schools are actually requiring, the s a t or a c t, which schools are saying that it’s optional and which ones are saying that it’s not required at all.

And so kind of coming back to the big picture, like I said, it’s one of the many things that admissions officers consider, and it’s one of the things that could get you on the bubble, but doesn’t necessarily say that you’re for sure getting in or you’re for sure not getting in. So, for example, you might have Ace, the A C T or the, the A C T or s a T, but let’s say that there’s a lot of students with the same in, in any given cohort, maybe.

The cohort that you’re applying to, whether that’s early or later regular decision, maybe there’s a lot of students that have the same academic profile as you maybe did very similar activities and there it becomes a little bit hard and you all have like the same perfect s a T or a c t, it becomes a little bit harder to parke through like, okay, well which one should we pick?

And so usually what what comes into that is more of your personal statements that give more of a sense of who you are as a person outside of school. What are the things that you’re gonna bring onto campus? What are the ideas, background experiences? And so that’s why it’s a little bit hard to gauge like how influential the, that standardized test is all by itself.

It’s because there’s so many other things that could just shape the way that an admissions officer is looking at your student profile. So I would say, In a nutshell, it helps an admissions officer get an idea of your academic rigor, but it really is the admissions officers getting to know you as a person through your essays, through your letters of recommendation, through a lot of different other data points that end up really pushing the needle on whether you get into a school or not.

And another thing here is usually admissions officers also know that not every student is a great test taker. And so that’s also a reason why there’s so many other data points to consider when admissions officers are, are deciding which student to let in or not.

So what’s generous tests are part of a student’s application, so I just put down all the standardized tests that have been out there that maybe you have heard about for the sake of dispelling some categories that no longer apply and to go through some of the ones that are helpful to know about but don’t actually contribute to your application.

So more specifically, the P S A T or pre s a t is an acronym you might have heard about. You might be thinking of it in the same category as the SS a T or the a c T, but actually DO is not something that’s required for college applications. It’s something that you, that students can take through their school to get prepared.

It’s like a mock test. And I think I, I started taking the P S A T A, I think my ninth grade. It might be available to students even before that, but I started in ninth grade. I took it in ninth grade and 10th grade, and I also took it in 11th grade. And so that is a helpful just gauge of where you’re at before you actually take the SS a T.

Then the s a t and the A c T are the two main ones that actually are applicable to your. Application, but I put ss the s a t two. There is, because maybe you have heard of s a T two you or you’ve heard of s a t subject tests. So I just wanted to put it there in order to say that it’s something that’s no longer required.

It used to be kind of like an SS a t equivalent of like an AP exam. It’s just a subject specific exam that tests your knowledge and that specific area. And so a lot of students who took that test, it was in order to show greater competency. And so when I was pre-med, I took the biology one, I took the chemistry one.

I took one that I thought would really show my proficiency in a specific area because it aligned with my academic profile of being a pre-med. But again, those are no longer being administered. And so it’s something that you don’t have to worry about. The TOFL is another standardized test that’s usually for international students to prove their engli their English competency.

And so that’s another one that might be required if you didn’t go to high school in the us. And then there’s AP exams, which are classes that usually take in school, but you could also take, and then the cumulative exam of that is the AP exam. But you could also take AP exams without actually taking classes in your high school.

So that’s usually not advised because there’s a lot of things that students or teachers get trained to know how to teach you the specific material. You get a lot of unit exams that are available to teachers. There might not be as much prep work available if you try to take this independently, but it is available for folks especially as a way to provide the opportunity to students who maybe don’t have access to those classes in their high school.

So I mentioned that the two biggest the most important tasks are the SS a T and the a c t. And so I’m just gonna go into a deep dive of both so that you get a sense of. What, what, what each one consists of and which one might be the best for you. So the s a t is usually administered seven times a year in the us.

It’s about four hours long, so three minutes three hours and 50 minutes. And the highest score that you can get is a 1600, and that’s 1600 is split between two different categories. The first is math where you can get a maximum of 800, and then the second one is evidence-based reading and writing, which is a max of 800.

And so those two SC scores together added up for your 1600. But you might have heard of something called super scoring, which is that if you take this test multiple times, and let’s say the first time you get a perfect score in math, you get an 800, but you get, I don’t know, this is a very exaggerated score.

You get a a 300 in your evidence-based reading and writing. So your total score might be 1100, which might not be great as a whole, but you could focus on, okay, I’m gonna really, really study for that second portion of the evidence based reading and writing. And I’m gonna just take the next couple weeks or months until the next test to hone in on that.

You might not have to worry as much about the math portion because you can super score those two obviously. There are students who don’t ace one of the sections and it’s actually an opportunity to raise both scores. But it is a strategy for students who are really wrapped for time who are doing a lot of extracurriculars or schoolwork, and they already get a really good score.

In one of these sections, you can really focus on the other section as a means to balance those two and super score it together, because schools will take the highest score in each section and add those, and that’s what they will take as your final score. So you’ll still have to submit both tests, but the universities will look at just the top scores in both of those categories.

So what is the process of taking the test actually like? So like I mentioned, it’s the math and the E B R W, which is the acronym for that letter like language section. The math section is 80 minutes and it’s 58 questions and it tests different topics from algebra to data analysis, and it’s usually classes or content that you would’ve seen in your classes.

Usually not until like your junior year or senior year, but some students take it earlier and study for it earlier, or might have advanced courses before that. And so it, this is made so that students who are taking regular coursework and not necessarily an advanced pace, can still take it their senior year.

So if you’re, I know we have some eighth graders, ninth graders in the room. So if you, if you take a practice test and you don’t know what some of these topics are, you can definitely try to study them on your own and take some practice test or, or take a course for the SS a t. But do know that some of these are things that you are probably gonna learn in school as well, and so you might have not just covered it yet.

And then the other portion of the B r w the evidence-based reading part of it is 65 minutes and it has 52 questions. And that one usually is testing your understanding of complex passages and identifying words in context. So that will usually look like you get in different passages and questions, asking about the logic behind different like sentences and what could have fit into one thing.

And so usually it’ll be like a reading portion and a question portion. The writing and language is a little bit a little bit more digestible. It’s usually just like questions and it has to do more with the grammar and argument building abilities. And so you’re able to test like, okay, what’s wrong with this sentence?

Or what’s like a tense that should be here? It’s more, or even like, what’s wrong with this sentence structure? And so those are usually smaller snippets. Snippet questions that students usually feel like they can go through faster. But usually it’s a place where a lot of students make mistakes because they seem so easy, and sometimes because it’s multiple choice, there might be better options still in the in the dropdown.

And then lastly essays are also optional now, but it is a good opportunity to potentially just show your writing skills. It’s not, it’s not necessary again, so it’s a 50 minute portion add-on to the test and some schools may require it, which is why some students definitely have to take it. But I would make sure to ask the school before you make that decision to not take care or to take it.

So the flip side of the coin, so if you are thinking about maybe taking the S A C T the test process is a little bit different. It is still administered seven times a year in the us but it’s a shorter test. It’s three hours and 35 minutes, and the highest score is a 36, and that’s actually a composite score.

So the score is split between English, math, reading, and science, and the average of each of those will end up averaging out into your 36. It’s not like it gets added onto one big score like the SA team. So like I said, you can score up to 36 in each section, and the average of those four scores is your composite score overall.

And what goes into that composite score is first, there’s a section that’s just the English section, section. It’s 75 questions in 45 minutes. And that tests like the grammar, punctuation sentence structure. It’s very similar to that second part of the s a t that I mentioned. That’s like snippets of smaller questions.

There’s the math, which is 60 questions in 60 minutes, and that one’s testing anything from pre-algebra to trigonometry. And so again, for some students who haven’t seen that already pre-algebra sometimes isn’t offered in some schools until 10th grade. And so just know that like those are things that you might not have covered.

Like I mentioned before the reading section is 40 questions in 35 minutes, and that one similar to the first part of the reading section. And the s a t is more like snippets of. Stories or a narrative and you get a chance to test your comprehension of that content. And then the last section, which is I think the one that it really separates, the ss a t from the a c t is the science section.

And that’s 40 questions in 35 minutes. And it’s not gonna ask you like specific like biology questions that you should know or chemistry or physics. It’s more so understanding like data analysis within science. So it’s testing like your interpretation of a potential like science experiment that they tell you about or they show you a chart and you’re supposed to evaluate like, okay, what do, what do these results mean?

And so it’s all usually in like a science context, but it’s more testing your ability to reason and to problem solve than it is your knowledge of specific like biological you know, situation that happens or like a, a chemical. Principal. And then lastly, just like the SS a t, the a c t also has a writing component, and that’s one essay and they give you 40 minutes for it.

And that’s again, optional. So you should just check with your school to see if it’s, or to the school that you’re applying to, to see if it’s something that’s required. So I just kind of gave a deep dive into each each test, but now as you’re deciding which one to take a, a couple key questions to ask yourself are, what are some of your strengths?

What are topics that you have already covered in school? Maybe there’s things that you haven’t covered yet. And sorry, I actually, when, when I go back to what are your strengths, if you know you have really strong. Data analysis, like reasoning in like the science realm and you’re able, like, you’re really into stem, that’s usually like a, a marker of something that will push students towards the a c T a little bit more.

If you are a a pre-med or a stem potential, potential STEM major, it’s sometimes better to take the a c t as a way to show a little bit more rigorous background in, again, like data analysis in that realm that will go into any of those STEM fields. So sometimes students do that again if they’re pre-med, if they’re thinking about engineering.

And then also thinking about the timing of each look and see the breakdown of the timing and see which one maybe makes more sense for you. Maybe with like the math, for example, and the a c t, like maybe you don’t wanna do. 60 questions in 60 minutes. And so there is like a different cadence to each of these sections.

Again, because the a c t has more topics that may be something that you like, you know, having the, the ability to say like, okay, this section is done. Maybe I didn’t do super well. I can move on to the next one. Some students don’t operate like that. They just want one chunk of like, heads, downtime. And maybe for those students, the s a the s A T is better, where there’s less breaks in, in your in the flow of actually answering questions.

Those are all things that I’ve heard from students in the past that have pushed them to take one test over the other. The other is, again, the topics that you have covered in school. So take a look at what each one, usually this concerns more like the this is a bigger concern in the math section where students feel like there’s some questions that are in the a c t that they feel like weren’t covered in the s a t.

And so I would just look at practice tests and try to see if there’s types of questions that you feel like are, are very new to you. And I think for any of these, there’s always the test book, the practice books and there’s courses and there’s other resources that help fill in the gaps that maybe you have from not taking the courses.

And so this is this chart that I put here is just something that I copied over from the Princeton Review, and so you can take a look at that. You could also, I. Look at directly like the college board where the, where the SAT’s administered, the A C T website where the A c T is I guess not administered, but where you could register, where you get your results.

And those two usually have a more detailed breakdown into what each of those entail, and you can compare the two. So when do most students first take standardized tests for college admission? So, like I mentioned for in my own experience I took the P S A T and that’s usually where a lot of students first start hearing the words.

S a t. Usually it’s taken in 10th and 11th grade, but you can take it as early as eighth grade. And like I mentioned before, those never, all the P S A T scores, they never count towards your college application. For, for the actual admission. But the test that you, if you take the P S A T in 11th grade, those scores can be considered for the National Merit Scholarship.

And that’s a really prestigious scholarship that you can put in your in your resume, something that you can put in your awards on your common app section. So those are all things that might influence or help your application, even though the scores themselves don’t get transferred into the application.

Then a lot of students take the s a t and a c t starting their junior year but usually goes into, or can sometimes go into your senior fall. I don’t recommend that as much because there’s a lot of things happening your senior fall. You’ve just coming, you’re just coming back from break and you’re starting classes again, so you might be a little bit rusty already trying to catch up with, with classes.

You are starting your actual college applications. And so there’s probably a lot of essays that are already on your mind and a lot of new things that are coming up, including even social events that seniors get to do and are really exciting. So having your standardized testing out of the way is just something, one less thing to worry about.

So I usually recommend that students take it starting in their spring and then into their, their summer if, if they wanna retake some of the, some of the tests. And lastly, the AP tests. Those have a pretty regular cadence of happening usually in May. And after you’re done taking your AP course so what are some of the best ways to prepare for standardized tests? I think that the best way is taking practice tests. There’s obviously a lot of resources out there for taking classes, using a prep book having a one-on-one tutor. And I think all of those are really great ways to prepare. I think the thing that will help you to have like the upper hand is to actually take a lot of like real tests in real time, to take sections that are section tests that are timed and put yourself in scenarios where you’re feeling the crunch for time, where you’re feeling like the pressure of needing to answer these questions quickly so that you can kind of mimic the real life scenario in which you’ll be taking the test and, and.

The scenario in which those scores will go to actual colleges. I also think it’s some of the best ways to just learn from your mistakes. Sometimes if someone just explains the question to you and you just kind of know it it’s less transferable to you actually seeing a completely different problem that maybe uses the same method to solve it, but different numbers, different scenarios.

And so I think that if you take a lot of practice tests, you start seeing that there is some repetition in the patterns of methodology where maybe a math question that again, has different numbers and different scenarios, uses the same principles to answer it, and you’ll start getting a feel for that trend.

And it’s, it gives you like mental muscle memory to, to be able to look at a brand new question and to recognize similar ways of solving it. I would say it’s, it’s pretty similar to I. It’s pretty similar in the English section as well. There’s obviously some vocabulary that might overlap, but usually vocabulary is a little bit harder to prepare for in that way.

I think in, in that it’s usually just memorizing a lot of s a t words, but in the sections about grammar and in the sections about comprehension, there’s also similar patterns of the types of maybe like next best answers. And you start getting a sense for which one is the real best answer and which ones are like the full, like the, the, the red herrings there that are supposed to like throw you off a little bit.

And so I think that once you get, you can again get a sense for what the best answer, but making sure that you’re not persuaded by maybe the next best answer can be the difference between answering a question really quickly or taking longer to try to figure out, okay, which one is the best answer between the two and.

I think you can lower that margin of of time that you take on those questions by taking a lot of practice tests and getting a sense for which are right and which are wrong or, or which are right, and which ones are like close to the best answer. So I, I think again, the, that is really helpful as something closer to the exam where you’re taking a lot of tests and you’re just getting the reps in.

Maybe before that, if you’re feeling really rusty or you feel like, you know, you took one practice test and you just didn’t know a lot of it, that’s where maybe you can get a sense for like, maybe I did really well in the English portions and I just really need help in math or vice versa. And so I always recommend that just as a baseline, if you take one practice test, you can get a sense of where you feel the most lost.

And I wouldn’t feel the pressure of like, I need to get everything right. Like, this is your baseline, this is hopefully a place that you grow from, and that you get a sense for where you need to dedicate the most time. And if you’re gonna invest in getting a course or a tutor or a book it can kind of guide you into where to best invest that money.

So what are some tips for the actual day of the exam? So eating a good breakfast and this is where a bit of my like pre-med background comes in. I think having a breakfast with a low glycemic level index is gonna just help you have a more stable energy source throughout the course of a three, almost four hour exam.

So eating something like oatmeal or a whole grain breakfast sandwich or something that will just not give you like a sugar spike, like maybe some, like if you’re eating like poptarts or like really sugary cereals in the morning, those will, you’ll crash at some point within the, the time window of the exam, which is not something that you want to happen.

So if you’re able to eat something that’s gonna give you a more stable energy over a longer period of time, it’s more lost, more likely to last you throughout the exam. And there’s also times for taking breaks, like bio breaks and being able to eat a snack. So if you break snacks out, Give the same recommendation of eating something that doesn’t give you a sugar spike or sugar crash.

Getting a good night’s sleep. You definitely don’t want to go to this, this task with being sleep deprived or not being at your full cognitive capacity. And so I think that this is something that’s not just the night before you should get good sleep, but try to practice having good sleep throughout your senior year.

And I know that’s something that’s really, really hard to do and idealistic, but I would say especially if you are taking this test your junior spring and are, may be able to sacrifice a little bit of doing other things that you wanna do just to get an extra hour of sleep in preparation for the exam, or especially if you’re doing it in the summer where you might have a little bit more more buffer time.

I would try to go to sleep early and, and try to get those eight hours. Another thing that, that students sometimes take for granted is waking up with plenty of time and not feeling like you’re rushing. Sometimes students like to cut things really close. This is like kind of a coping mechanism that just comes about naturally when you’re taking a lot of classes.

When you’re doing a lot of extracurriculars, you kind wanna squeeze every moment of like every activity that you’re doing and try to minimize the, the overhead time of going from one place to another. But I think that with testing, it’s really important to just make sure you’re calm that morning that you don’t feel like you’re running late, like you’re gonna miss the exam.

I’ll give you like a personal example. I, when I was taking my a c t, so I taken my s a t twice already. I felt good with my scores and then I just thought I took the a c t as an additional test because I felt like I had already kind of studied for it and could just add it onto my application.

And when I was gonna take that test, I didn’t realize that. I had signed up for a different test center than where I usually took my ss a t tests. And so I got to the, to the center where I usually take my s a t, where I took my SATs and where I thought my a c t was. And I realized my name wasn’t on any of the rosters.

And I had gotten there pretty early. Like I just like to get there and be able to like read a book or like just calm down and not feel like I’m rushing in and getting there early gave me the time to actually go several miles across town to the other high school where I should have gone in the first place.

And I did get there a little bit late, but they hadn’t started the test yet. They let me take it. But I think that actually having that buffer space is what allowed me to even get there before the test started. I hope that all of you double check where your test center is, and that doesn’t happen to you, but it’s just.

Another piece of evidence of why it could be helpful to get there early and to make sure that you give yourself enough room to potentially make a mistake or for there to be traffic or an accident or something like that. And then prepping your test, taking materials ahead of time. Make sure that if there’s a calculator portion for, for the test that you’re taking, that you bring your calculator and that you have an extra pencil in case it breaks.

Do you have an eraser? All those things. And lastly, and I think again, this is the one that a lot of people forget, is just taking a deep breath and remembering that you’re a lot more than your test score. I started out this presentation with saying that this is one of many different data points in your application, and that’s not at all to minimize the importance of doing your best and prepping well and being diligent about preparing for this test, but rather it’s to just give you a bit more.

Perspective into, into knowing that this is just one of many things that admissions officers are looking at. And that this, there’s a lot of incredibly intelligent people that I know who are doing amazing things in several different careers who are just terrible test takers. And that just happens sometimes.

And so just know that like there are ways to grow in that give yourself time and space and to prep to do well on these tests, but that ultimately knowing that for some people this comes easier than others and this just doesn’t define you and your academic experience. And so coming back a little bit more to what it actually looks like to take this test, so what is a timeline for taking for standardized tests in college applications just so you know when to take this test versus maybe spending more time in your essay or whatnot?

So usually. I think starting to prep the summer before some sophomore year and junior year, or sorry, the, so the summer between sophomore year and junior year. So that you can take your first one junior fall or junior spring. The reason why I say this is because when the, when the school year starts, it’s just a lot harder to study.

And so if you have a summer and you know, the summer before if you’re doing, I usually tell students that they should start working on their essays the summer between junior year and senior year, so that they’re not writing essays on really difficult prompts and things that make you question like what you’re passionate about and the challenges in your life and all these existential questions that come with the common app.

If all, if all of those things that are happening, if all those questions that you’re asking yourself are happening the summer between your junior and your senior year, then you might also not want to be taking a standardized test at that same time. So if that’s not the right time, and then your junior year, if you’re really busy and it’s harder because you’re taking AP exams and extracurriculars, then the other time where I think it’s like a big chunk of time where you aren’t being pulled in every direction is your junior the summer between your sophomore year and your junior year, right?

You just come out of sophomore year where you’re probably not even thinking about college applications just yet. Maybe you’re thinking about a school list, but you probably haven’t started touring. You might not have as many AP exams. And so it’s usually a lower pace time to start thinking about what tests you wanna take, taking practice tests.

And so usually that’s the time that I recommend students start working on this. And ultimately you have to submit the scores before the application deadline. So make sure that you’re planning for a test date that allows you to receive your score before the application deadline. Sometimes when it really overlaps or it goes over, you can sometimes talk to schools directly and ask if they will consider it after the application deadline, but that’s really at the school’s discretion.

So I recommend that. Again, the, the time period is between usually like the summer between year, sophomore and junior year, and then your actual deadline, the earlier on that spectrum, the better. But you do have until that last until that deadline to, to get your scores back. And so that’s kind of the, the window of time in, in that end period is usually early decision in November and then, or early applications in November.

And then regular decision in, in Jan, January 1st or first week of January. And then I’ll. Pause there, just to say like, that was pretty much a, a lot of context and information about the tests themselves. This next section is a little bit more about just how that process has been how that played out in my life and how I used that in order to better understand like what tests I wanted to take what cadence, some of the mistakes that I made and some of the things that I learned.

And so this section is more from my personal life and the one before that was more generally things that you can take away about the exam and when and how to take it. So in my life, the P S A T was something that just happened in my school and I really didn’t pay attention to it until my junior year when I knew that there was the National Merit Scholarship.

And all of a sudden I was like, oh, okay, this test matters. But before that, again, it wasn’t something I really paid attention to. What I learned from that was that I, if I had been a little bit more conscious about how I was gonna have to take the s a t one day and the p ss a t was good prep, I would’ve maybe tried a little bit harder and tried to reflect on like, okay, I realized I felt really lost in this section.

Like maybe I should take a look at that outside of my classes. And so that’s something that I wish I would’ve done, and I think I would’ve also gotten a better score in my P S A T to have maybe gotten a, a greater chance of getting the, the National Merit Scholarship. I took the SS a T twice, so I did an online prep course that my school provided my junior year, and I took a lot of practice tests in the fall, and so I felt pretty ready to take it my junior spring.

So I took the test I think it was like the first month that it was offered in the spring, and I did well, but I really wanted to raise, I think it was my math score. And so, I took it again and I raised my math score and felt pretty good about it. I, I think as just like a first gen student, I didn’t quite know that you only needed one test, and like, I just kind of assumed like, oh, people say that, but in reality you, you need two.

I think there was just like this, like lack of knowledge and distrust that like, or, or fear that I was missing out on something that like later on it would come back to bite me. And so out of that, I took the A C T years later, like looking back, my s a T score was a lot better than my a c t. And so I probably should have just submitted my SS A T, but I, I did take my a c T as well.

I still did, it was like a solid score, but it wasn’t, it didn’t show the academic rigor that my SS a T did. And so if you’re in a similar position, one, I would say you only need one standardized test. Like you truly don’t need to take both. And if one is much better than the other, For example, like I didn’t, I don’t think I had to submit my a c t, I could have just submitted my SATs.

And so I, I would suggest just thinking a little bit more critically about what you wanna submit. And then lastly, my AP exams. I took nine exams over the course of my four year years of high school. And so those were all ones that immediately went to, or I guess you could choose to not disclose your AP AP score.

Definitely the schools will know you took an AP level course. And so I would just be careful about your decision making process of deciding to disclose or not disclose one to not disclose the score. Because some students like will really want a five and if they get a four, they may not wanna show it.

And I think something that’s that’s really tricky about that or like that’s, that’s unwise about that is. If you’re an admissions officer and you see that a student took an AP class and decided to not, to not send their score, you’re probably thinking that they did much worse than a four. You’re probably not thinking, oh, they got a four, which is a great score.

You know, it’s, it’s not a five, but it’s definitely not like you still passed. And so I would be very careful about your line of reasoning for why you’re not reporting the score. And I would talk with your your college counselor and your high school and with your admissions officer or CollegeAdvisor about that process more because again, you don’t wanna potentially give off the wrong impression of how quote unquote bad your score was.

So some last advice that I would give students preparing for standardized tests is to look through that comparison chart to figure out which test makes the most sense for you based on the strengths and weaknesses that you perceive and maybe where you have time to grow. I would start early.

Like I said, there’s a lot of things that are taking up your senior year, a lot of things taking up your. The summer between your junior and senior year, and sometimes your junior year can be very, very hectic as it’s your last year before you’re actually applying to colleges. And so the best time to start, I think, is that summer before junior year to just get a sense of baseline then your junior year to study and to take your test, your junior spring.

So that might not be possible for some, some of the students on this call who are already maybe rising seniors or rising rising juniors and summer has already gone. But I would say I, I prepped my junior fall and it was still something that I was able to prepare for quickly enough to do to take my, my test this junior spring.

And for my own situation like that just worked out best. My summer was gonna be really busy and so I knew that I wanted to take it before my junior year. So for students who have a similar situation, it might be smart to start getting prepared for to take those tests. In this upcoming spring.

And then lastly while definitely you have different course books and courses that are available and tutors, I would say that the biggest thing, regardless of what method of studying you’re using, is to definitely take time to practice tests in scenarios where you feel the pressure of of what it will be like actually taking the test in real life.

So those are all three things that I, I, I learned through my process and that I would definitely recommend to other students looking into that for, for the upcoming year.

Thank you so much, Maria. That was incredibly informative. I really liked the comparison chart and we all learned a lot tonight. So that’s the end of the presentation, part of the webinar itself. I hope you found this information to be helpful, like I did. And remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab.

So now we’re gonna move on to the live q and a and I’ll read through the questions you submitted in the q and a tab, piece them in the public chat so you can see them, and then read them out loud before Maria can answer. As a heads up, if your q and a tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you join the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

So Maria, the first question has to do with practicing. And so a lot of the practice component is about, you know, practicing the tests. Questions themselves and the content and learning the content and not learning how to read the questions. What about speed? Like do you have any recommendations around how to practice toward the speed you need to complete the questions in the time allotted?

Yeah, so I think speed is usually a byproduct of reps, like how many reps you can get in, how much practice you get. I think the first time you’re seeing something completely new, like there is no te or it’s hard to get a technique to say like, okay, this is completely new and I’m just gonna do it fast.

Whereas the more repetition and exposure that you get to questions that’s gonna allow you to pick up on, like I said, like maybe it’s a different, different numbers, different scenario, but it’s the same method of solving a problem. You are gonna get a lot faster if you’re able to identify, oh, this is a problem that uses, that uses X technique.

I’ve done like five questions that uses that technique. You can move through that question a lot quicker. So I would say that’s like maybe something more specific to math with like English or some of the, the, the reading portions. I think there’s like a couple maybe like tips that you can do. I think sometimes students as they’re going through the different questions, they’ll look at a question and say like, this is too hard, I’m gonna move on to the next one.

And then like, this is too hard, I’m gonna move on to the next one. And then there’s like this, like growing anxiety of like, wow, like I, I’ve practiced all of this, but now in the, in the time of the test, like I don’t remember any of the information. And I think pe sometimes the natural inclination is just to move on quickly to the next question.

I would just take a moment and like, breathe in and think about like, do you really like not know this question? Or is it just like the pressure of time speaking that’s like blocking you from, from remembering. And so if you’re feel, if you feel yourself going into like that angst instead of just moving to the next question and bringing that angst with you, I would just take a second to just calm down.

Like, it’s better to take that overhead time to kind of get a sense of like where you’re at and to try to solve that question. It’s something, it might really be something that you just haven’t been exposed to or you genuinely don’t remember. But making sure that that is like an informed conscious like choice.

And it’s not just like a, a visceral, like, I don’t get in the first five seconds, I need to move on. So I, I would say apart from getting a lot of repetition and practice testing, that’s another, I guess like thing to avoid that will make you go faster in the long run. Yeah, it’s not easy. I think the pressure of the time is often a very difficult.

Obstacle to face for a lot of students. So thank you for that insight, Maria. And thank you for the person who asked the question. There’s a lot of other questions here around practice input. So one question has to do with hacks or like tips or tricks. Are there any kind of insider secrets about, or little tips that you got when you were in high school around how to read a question or, or something to that effect?

Anything that comes to mind? I took it so long ago. I can’t think of a thing, but what are your thoughts? Yeah, as you were saying that, I’m like, wow, it’s been almost eight years since I took that the test. And so it’s, I don’t remember like very specific tips, but I do remember there were some, like in the sense of the more practice tests that I took, the more I was able to spot, like, ooh, if you see this question asking this with this wording, It probably means like this, this, and this.

And I remember that, especially for math, where I was able to like kind of just find trends between the different, like practice tests. And so I, I think that this is where it’s really helpful to maybe take a course or to buy like a, a prep book that sometimes really spells out those like tips for you.

And I think that is really helpful. Something that the, that, that could be a little bit tough about that is you have to memorize those tips. So in addition to learning the content and memorize or trying to capture all of that content, internalize it, then you’re also trying to like remember the tips.

So what I would say is if you are learning tips via your coursebook or classes that you’re taking, Or sorry, your prep book or classes that you’re taking take a minute to like actually try out that tip with questions so that you get like the muscle memory of this is how that tip plays out in my questions.

And I think that’s gonna make it a lot more easily transferrable to your actual experience taking the test than just like something you need to know. Again, like a, a scenario that I know has happened to me even in college has been like, oh my goodness, I remember there was a tip about this and I’m spending time during the test trying to remember the tip instead of answering the question.

And so I would say that’s like a, a potential like drawback that you just wanna like, be conscious of the more that you’re trying to learn and memorize tips and tricks that, that I totally agree with. Thank you so much. And again, prac. I, I think statistically speaking, practicing is the number one way to improve overall.

So all of these questions kind of around how to do better practice, practice, practice, we can’t emphasize that enough. Other, another related question to practicing though is where would you recommend starting with finding resources for practice? So do you have any courses you recommend, any books you recommend?

What are your thoughts? Yeah, so I was really lucky that my high school had paid like a online, it wasn’t even like a coursebook, it was just like sets of, of practice tests. So pretty much it would be like it was a program where you logged in and you had to like, take like five sections of math by the end of like the month.

And you just kind of did them at your own pace. And it was part of like course credit for like one of our classes. And so I would ask, I think first thing is like if you’re, if there’s a chance for you to not have to pay for resources, that’s great. So if your school already pays for resources and you might not know about it, it could be helpful to ask your your college coun, your high school college C counselor to see if there’s anything that’s already available that the school pays for.

If there isn’t, then I would just start out with buying a prep book. So for, I didn’t do this for the SS a t because again, my school provided that resource, but when I was thinking about the a c t, I did buy a prep book and I just went through the prep book. And I think again, that’s where it’s helpful to just have like a whole summer where you’re like, okay, there is no time pressure where I’m like, okay, I could be doing my homework for math, but instead I’m like using this prep book.

I think in the summer there’s like the most relaxed like no competition for, or much less competition for your time. And so I would buy a prep book and I would try to go through it and just try to get a sense for like, what material are they even testing, getting a feel for the test. I even did this, like, as when I was thinking about taking the G R E, which is the standardized test for graduate school.

I was looking at the prep books and I was like, I just wanna get a sense of like what this test is gonna be like. Like, luckily I had already taken the SS a t before and so I, I knew what standardized tests were like, but just getting a chance to like, get a feel for the test itself, the content. And then what I really recommend is taking a baseline practice test taking a deep breath and making sure that, you know, like this isn’t like your score.

Like this is not what you’re submitting, this is just your starting point. And getting a sense for what you feel comfortable with, what you feel really, really like this oriented by and then making a plan for, okay, you know, I’m gonna try this by myself at first. If, if, again, depending on your, on your resources, your financial like stability there, maybe there is like things that if you pay for a course might really, I.

Affect your family’s finances and that’s something that you don’t wanna do. Then in that case, and that that was similar for me I decided to try things out by myself and see how much I could grow on my own. And again, having the long the time and not having the time pressure made me be able to test out, okay, how much can I do this on my own?

I know that if I figure it out, like, okay, I really tried this on my own, I still feel really confused, which is totally okay. Like, it’s a hard test. It’s your first time and you need to take a class. You don’t wanna find that out the week before the exam, which is why, again, I’m stressing starting earlier the better.

’cause it gives you the room to figure out like, okay, if I don’t wanna spend the money, can I do it on my own? And if I can’t, then I have the time to, to ask for more professional help. But I think buying the book is probably the best, like next step after you take a test and you realize, okay, there’s these sections that I really need to improve on.

You could also look at online examples. So I know the college board has plenty of past SS a t tests that you can take sections of and you can check your answers and everything. And so it’s a pretty comprehensive way of taking sections that were actually administered to students. I think by now they probably even have like my S a T or the s a t that I took from like eight years ago in on the website as well.

Excellent. Thank you for that really comprehensive answer. And actually that leads me to another question and a transition to an additional resource here at CollegeAdvisors. So, a question in the chat was, is Khan Academy recommended an effective resource for s a T prep? And Khan Academy definitely is one of the top resources I would say I would recommend that, that, that students find helpful if you’re going for like a formal resource tool that has this Methodized option for you.

CollegeAdvisor, if you do sign on with CollegeAdvisor at any time, also has a, a resource with their packages called methodized. And that is also one i I highly recommend. And so for those of you not in the room, or those of you in the room, excuse me, who aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be.

Our team of over 400 former admissions officers and admissions experts are ready to help you and your family navigate all of it in one-on-one advising sessions. So take that next step and your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team.

And you can do that using the QR code right here on the screen. During that meeting, we’ll review your current extracurricular list and application strategy, discuss how those line up with your college list and outline the tools you need to stand out in a competitive admissions world. So definitely take advantage of that opportunity.

That will be here on the next slide while we address a couple more questions here. Question about when to submit test scores for you, Maria. So two questions in the chat related if we have a good G p A. But a standardized test is kind of low compared to what the college is typically looking for.

How do you recommend navigating that? Then relatedly should you submit your test score at all if it’s not kind of hitting that average for the college? Yeah, so I think that that’s a really personal choice, depending on if you have the time and ability to retake the test. I think that that’s always like an option that a lot of students don’t wanna think about because it’s kind of, it can be if you don’t get the score that you want, it can be really Discouraging to, to muster up the course, be like, okay, well I’m gonna study again.

I’m gonna try again. And like, but I do recommend that if you have the time and space, you’ve already done the, the brunt work of taking it the first time you’ve broken the ice, I recommend thinking about potentially taking it again, if it’s not the score that you want you might have a really great G P A, but I think this is especially true if you’re applying to a very highly ranked school, is that there’s other students who probably also have very high GPAs.

This is not to say that you need a 4.0 to get into these schools. I know plenty of students who at Harvard, even who like had gotten a C or like, I don’t know how many, but I, I know a couple of my friends have mentioned like getting a C in high school and like, obviously that means you, they didn’t have a 4.0.

And so I would just say, well, There are students who don’t have a 4.0 at HAR or didn’t have a 4.0 in high school, or really high g p A in high school. At Harvard. At Harvard, and lots of other very highly ranked schools. You probably will find a lot of students who have very high gpa. And so I just wouldn’t take it for granted that just because you have a high G P A that you are already set in terms of your kind of like those academic quantitative points in your application.

I would, I would say more like changing the perspective of do you have the time and resources to take this again? And that’s how I would decide about taking it again. If you already know, you don’t have the time and resources to take it again and you’re really choosing between a score that you know is, is pretty low.

And this is different. Like if I, I wanna make sure I get like the whole spectrum of potential thought here. Like there are some students who might say like, okay, I have a 4.0 G P A, but I didn’t get a 1600 on my SS a t. I got like a 1580, like, do I really wanna submit that? And again, I would say like, think more like holistically about this process and like know, like that that’s a really fantastic score.

If, for example, like you get something that’s way below maybe the average of what a lot of students who’ve. Previously gotten into the school of your choice, or if the school reports their average scores on their website and you know that it, it is objectively below that, then I think like it is something that you should consider.

I don’t wanna give like any specific numbers of like, well if it’s below this, definitely don’t submit it. But I think it’s a conversation that is best had with one your specific CollegeAdvisor. And two, sometimes like you can also call the admissions office of a school and say like, Hey, this is my situation.

A lot of times they’re very diplomatic, just like I was being right now of not giving you a specific score. But I think they can give you a better sense of like, hey, like it is possible to like not submit the score at the school. You know, you wouldn’t be penalized. And that might be something that is more school specific, and this is why I think that’s a conversation to have with a specific school.

Because there might be a school that says, actually no, like, we really need you to submit this. Like it’s a requirement here. And so going school by school is a better structure and procedure after you decide that you don’t have the resources to take it again than to just automatically say like, I’m not gonna submit it.

I think, and again, the, the caveat to all of this is if you like, say you have a really terrible score for whatever reason, like you got sick during the exam, I don’t know what happened. Like you, you blinked out, there’s no other time to take it again. You do have the potential if it’s a non, if it’s not required at a school to just not submit it.

And so I would say like, yes, there are scenarios where like if the difference is very stark and you can’t retake it, maybe that’s like a, a clear scenario. But I think it’s a lot students who are asking this question are usually more in that gray space where it’s better to ask schools individually.

Awesome. Great. Information there, Maria. Time for definitely more questions. Hoping we can get through the next couple in the chat. A lot of questions I saw around the essay component of the tests. For schools that don’t require the essay component do they prefer students who complete the essay part of the test?

In your experience, do most schools strongly recommend the essay part of your the test? What, what are your thoughts? Yeah, so I think a lot of schools say if they say it’s recommended, so like if you go on a school’s website and say it’s recommended, I would say you definitely should take it because that means that other Stu, other students are taking it.

And if there is a similar, if there’s a student that has a very similar profile as you, and they have taken it, it gives a school an extra data point to say like, oh, you know, also this student did this, and like, we really love their writing or whatnot. And so I would say if you are stuck between taking it because you think like it might not count, I would.

Think more about like what the stu what the school has specifically written on their website. And I would go by that. If I see recommended, I usually do it if the school has nothing about that and like, you wanna ask them, I, I would say like, again, you, that is a school, school to school like decision. I do think that there’s a lot of students who decide not to take it and have still gotten into, into really great schools.

Like I know specifically people at Harvard who decided to not take it and still got into the school. And so I don’t have like a very straight specific answer to that question except by saying that there are schools that there are students at even like a very top school like Harvard, that have done the essay and who haven’t done the essay.

And it’s more so like, do you, if you don’t feel prepared to do it and you don’t, if you feel like it’s gonna be something, an added like stress to an already. Again, like a packed time to study for your tasks. Like maybe that’s a more personal decision that you decide to not take it, but just have in mind the possibility that somebody else with a similar, again, student profile could take it.

And it gives admissions officers enough, an extra data point to decide between two students of similar similar student profiles. Great. Awesome. Ending question for you is, again, kind of about practice. Do you have any helpful, helpful tips in prepping for the reading section? I know there was a pre-registration question also about kind of tricky worded questions in the reading section.

Any helpful tips on the reading section in particular? Yeah, I think that the reading section, well one just memorizing like a lot of ss a t words and will help you out on that. Like, I think there’s a lot of times where some of the questions are I. It can be tricky because they’re using words that like you don’t know.

And so I think an easy way to just prepare for that is to do a lot of s a t words on the side. When it comes to the wording of the question itself, I think the best tip again is to take a lot of tests and to try to spot the trends. I didn’t, I haven’t taken the test in eight years and so I don’t remember like any specific tips off the top of my head.

But I do know that when I did find tips, ’cause there, there were some where I was like, oh, this is so helpful for next time. It came from me taking a lot of practice tests and noticing trends across them. Yeah. I, again, practice, practice, practice. And so we might have time for just one more quick answer from you, Maria, if you don’t mind.

When it comes to the admissions review process, how is the test score viewed in light of the overall application? Can you speak just briefly about that? Yeah, so I think similar to, to what I had mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, I think it is one of several factors and so it’s important to note that like you’re not getting in just because of your s A T or SS a T score.

Something I didn’t mention before is that like there are some scholarships at schools that come as a result of like very high performance in your academic, like your quantitative academic scores, that’s S A T A C T or your G P A. And so I think that’s an important thing to consider if, you know the school you’re applying to has scholarships for that.

But other than that, I would just revert back to. The answer that I gave in that slide, which is that it’s one of many components and it’s important and you shouldn’t just discard it. But it’s again, if the school doesn’t even require it, it’s something that’s a lot, a lot lower lift for, for the applicant.

Great. Thank you so much Maria. That does conclude the webinar tonight. I hope you all enjoyed learning about decoding the A c t and ss a t acing the test here with Maria and me this evening or this afternoon, wherever you are. Here is our August webinar series, if you hope to join us for a future webinar and we hope you all have a great rest of your day.