Know the types of ACT science section passages:

• 3 Data Representation passages, which test your ability to understand charts, tables, and graphs
• 3 Research Summaries passages, which test your ability to identify distinctions amongst various experiments and their results
• 1 Conflicting Viewpoints passage, which tests your ability to compare multiple hypotheses or experimental designs for a given topic

The answer is in front of you! The ACT chooses complicated science topics and uses unfamiliar jargon, but you don’t have to be a scientist to succeed in this section. Each passage gives you all you need to know; it is your job to play detective and determine what information answers each question. Think of this as more of a reading comprehension activity rather than an assessment of your technical background. A calculator is not allowed, so you will not be asked to solve complicated equations. Even if you don’t understand the content itself, it is simple enough to notice trends and correlations within tables and figures. Taking practice exams will help you improve your confidence in this area.

Beware of extra information. There is more information provided than is necessary to answer the questions. Don’t obsess over every fact; let the questions guide your attention to the relevant details.

Timing is key. You have 35 minutes to go through 7 passages. On average, that gives 5 minutes per passage. Move to the next passage only when you know you are done with the previous one. It will waste valuable time to go back, reread the passage, and try to find answers. Remember, there is no guessing penalty in the ACT, so you will not lose points if you answer incorrectly. Leaving a question blank is leaving points on the table!

Keep your energy up.  Science is the last section of the ACT exam. By the time you reach the science questions, you’ll have been sitting in a classroom for over two hours, and your brain will be functioning differently. Be sure to go through a full-length diagnostic at least once before test day so you know what to expect. Get a good night’s sleep the night before the test, and bring snacks and water to sustain you on the big day.

To prepare for the ACT science section, contact our ACT tutoring and test prep program today at (800) 501-7737.

1.    Take practice tests!

This may sound like cliché advice, but the reality of the math section is that the tests are comprised of similar questions. The more practice tests you take, the better you understand the nuances of these questions. This sense of familiarity with the questions will increase your confidence on test day, ensuring that you do your best work.

 2.    Simulate the test environment when taking practice tests.

As mentioned above, familiarity breeds confidence. Take the math practice tests timed and keep track of those problems that take longer. Work with a tutor to increase your speed on these difficult questions by breaking down the problems and learning the tricks for that problem type. Do these problems without a calculator, since you will not have access to a calculator on test day.

 3.    Use process of elimination (POE) before guessing.

The SSAT penalizes you ¼ of a point for each incorrect answer. However, if you are able to narrow your options down to three answer choices, the odds are in favor of guessing. At this point, take an educated guess before moving on.

 4.    Familiarize yourself with the different types of problems covered in the math section.

The SSAT math section includes problems on sequences, percents, odds and evens, ratios and proportions. Work with a tutor to identify your strengths and weaknesses on these problems, and increase your confidence and speed on the problems.

We hope these tips on improving your SSAT math scores help; for information on SSAT Tutoring and Test Prep, contact our expert private school and boarding school counselors at (800) 501-7737.

The standardized test’s second overhaul in less than ten years won’t go into effect anytime soon, and no specific changes have been identified yet. As you plan your college admissions strategy, take the time to familiarize yourself with the preliminary ideas now so that you know what to expect in the future.

It will be interesting to see how the College Board will adapt to the ever-changing nature of the testing industry. In 2011, the number of students taking the ACT surpassed that of the SAT for the first time, leading to questions about the SAT’s relevancy to success in college. In an e-mail to College Board members, College Board Vice President Peter Kauffmann outlined three broad objectives for the redesign:

• “Increase the value of the SAT to students by focusing on a core set of knowledge and skills that are essential to college and career success; reinforcing the practice of enriching and valuable schoolwork; fostering greater opportunities for students to make successful transitions into postsecondary education; and ensuring equity and fairness.”

• “Increase the value of the SAT to higher education professionals by ensuring that the SAT meets the evolving needs of admission officers, faculty, and other administrators, and that the SAT remains a valid and reliable predictor of college success.”

• “Increase the value of the SAT to K–12 educators, administrators and counselors by strengthening the alignment of the SAT to college and career readiness; ensuring that the content reflects excellence in classroom instruction; and developing companion tools that allow educators to use SAT results to improve curriculum and instruction.”

For information on SAT tutoring or SAT Test Prep, contact us at (800) 501-7737.

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

A great school with top resources for students. If you’re interested in graduating with the famed “MIT” degree, and want to be immersed in high quality education, every day, then this is a great place to go. With more nobel prizes than one could count in an hour, they define excellence in engineering. Some key specialities: Artificial Intelligence, Aerospace Engineering

(2)California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
(3) Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
(4) Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
(5) Renesselaer Polytechnic, Troy, NY
(6) Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
(7) UC-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
(8) Stanford University, Stanford, CA
(9) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
(10) University of Texas, Austin, TX

For more information on how YOU can gain admission to these or any other top schools, call Top Test Prep today at (800) 501-7737 or visit us online. 

(1) Look online – don’t just search craigslist for a tutor – there are other sites like http://toptestprep.com to help you. Start with a credible company who already has profiles and has done background checks on private tutors.

(2) Look locally – if you can’t afford a private tutoring company, go to your local University and post on their bulletin boards.

(3) Find referrals from your school – your local high school or college will likely have a list of great tutors.

Give us a call if you have questions about tutoring or test prep 1-800-501-7737.

Make sure to bookmark this link in your test prep review.

http://toptestprep.com/about/vocabulary-and-word-list/

We hope this helps you prepare!

If you have any questions about getting test prep or tutoring help, call us directly at (800) 501-7737 today.

Best,

Top Test Prep team.

For a quick preface: we’re a test prep and tutoring company that provides customized support and care for our families.  In fact, we employ a Zappos-style approach to treating customers with respect, which is possibly why we feel compelled to share this experience with others so they don’t have to deal with either Nate or Connor at SiteSlinger.

To give you examples of why we would not recommend the SiteSlinger, we contacted both Nate McGuire and Connor Hood in early 2013.  After setting clear expectations about the length and level of our site re-design, we were promised professional and prompt service.  After paying a significant amount up front, which is something we also recommend you do not do, we were told the project would be completed within a two-week period.  The problem with Site Slinger was that these guys decided not to contact our team up until a couple days before the project was to be completed.    They also were resistant, reluctant and provided continuous perfunctory, sub-par work.

SiteSlinger does not respond to customers.

Further, when we would call, every one of our phone calls went straight to voice mail.  We wouldn’t hear back for days.  Totally unprofessional.  Our staff each called and left several messages – and would get an email back, not a phone call.  They have no decency.

SiteSlinger does the bare minimum.

Literally, we asked the SiteSlinger people to convert several PSDs to HTMLs, and found bugs, errors and several issues when they turned the project in – late.  When we sent detailed feedback – they balked and again, only agreed to do the bare minimum.

We actually feel bad for the Capital Factory (http://www.capitalfactory.com/).  To have the SiteSlinger guys associated with your company is absolutely embarrassing.  You should spend some time training these people – particularly if your incubator is to be a reflection of quality companies coming out of Austin TX.

Here’s their contact information.  Do NOT use this company.  You’ll regret it.

Connor Hood  (connor@thesiteslinger.com)

Nate McGuire (nate@thesiteslinger.com)

And they’re affiliated with The Capital Factory (http://www.capitalfactory.com/)

Positive note:

The good news is that for every company like this, there are thousands out there who employ top level customer service and support.  We’ll use this as a learning experience to share with the hundreds of private tutors and instructors we have on staff.  We sincerely hope this serves as a lesson for others.

Previously, the Common Application’s Personal Statement, or Essay, section always had a range of prompts, one of which would be “a topic of your choice”. Now, the Common Application will contain a series of prompts dealing with:

• The student’s background and identity
• Personal transformations
• Intellectual challenges and solutions
• In addition, whichever prompt the student selects will now have a limit of 650 words, rather than 500 as was the case before this year.

What do these changes mean? Effectively, the Common Application has limited the means by which students can express themselves, and differentiate their application from those of students with similar academic profiles. This limitation will likely have several effects, which largely reflect upon which institutions benefit from the changes.

• Larger schools, with correspondingly larger application pools and admission rates, have no real issues with the changes, as they restrict the workload for their admissions offices, and offer a better example of “pure” writing skills.
• Smaller schools, and more selective schools, will inevitably respond to this by increasing the number of essays on their supplements in order to regain the more nuanced view of the applicant which they will lose in these changes.

Essentially, applying to more selective schools is about to become just a bit more difficult, and applying to larger schools will require applicants to find new ways of distinguishing themselves from the pack.

If you have questions on the upcoming changes to the Common Application, and want to find out how they will affect you or your student, then give us a call at 800-501-7737.

Written by Zachary Bills, Director for College Admissions at Top Test Prep.  Call us for more information about college admissions:  1-800-501-7737 (PREP)