SAT / ACT Test Preparation

Since January 2006, all of my students' scores improved from the PSAT / initial SAT to the current SAT with combined Reading / Math / Writing scaled score increases ranging from 40 to 570 points.

Link: SAT Website 

Link: ACT Website

Can college-bound sophomores, juniors and seniors really improve their SAT/ACT performance?
Students who learn how to effectively recognize and eliminate obvious incorrect answer choices on the Reading, Writing, and Sentence Completion sections have a chance to improve their combined SAT score by 200-500+ scaled points.

In the above example:
“identical” makes (A) too extreme.
“will one day be believed” makes (B) too speculative.
“all” makes (C) too extreme.
“fall from the sky” makes (E) farfetched.
 
Even if the test-taker is unsure of (D), elimination strategies have rendered the other choices invalid.
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During individualized SAT / ACT prep sessions, I use my 10+ years of teaching / test prep experience to:
 
1) Help students fill Sentence Completion holes by purging erroneous choices through a systematic process of deduction.
 
2) Help students distinguish from among the 6 or 7 recurrent types of Reading questions, and quickly identify key words that expose well-disguised inaccurate answer choices (see 'Sample SAT Reading Question' above).
 
3) Help students pick numbers (Math questions with variables) and work backwards (great for multiple-choice tests) to decipher questions that would ordinarily require long forgotten algebraic formulae.      
 
Though it is advantageous to have taken Algebra II and writing/reading-intensive secondary Language Arts and Social Studies classes, the SAT/ACT is more about commitment, hyper-focusing, and, well, how good you are at taking the SAT/ACT. In other words, the SAT/ACT is 50% what you’ve learned (over the past 10 years), and 50% what you’ve practiced (over the past 10 weeks)!
 
Links:
SAT Math Practice Test: 20 Questions / 25 Minutes 

SAT Reading Practice Test: 24 Questions / 25 Minutes
Use the chart at the bottom of this page to convert Raw Scores to Scaled Scores

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SAT Scaled Score Admission Ranges for Western Universities 

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Breakdown of Math Topics Covered on the SAT
 
1. Number and Operations
2. Algebra and Functions
3. Geometry and Measurement
4. Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
 
1. Number and Operations

- Basic properties of numbers and their terminology (e.g. negative numbers, prime numbers, factors, integers, sets, sequences)
- Squares, square roots and exponents
- Order of Operations
- Fractions and decimals
- Percents
- Ratios and Proportions
- Averages
- Arithmetic Word Problems
 
2. Algebra and Functions

- Simplifying algebraic expressions
- Operations on Algebraic expressions (including factoring of quadratic equations)
- Equations and inequalities involving roots, exponents and absolute values
- Solving systems of equations and inequalities
- Direct and inverse variation
- Algebraic word problems
- Functions (domain, range, translations of graphs, functions using special symbols)
- Equations of lines (slope, intercept)
 
3. Geometry and Measurement
 
- Properties of parallel and perpendicular lines
- Coordinate Geometry (slopes, distance between points, midpoints of lines)
- Triangles (area, angles, properties of equilateral, isosceles, right and special triangles, the congruency and similarity of triangles, Pythagorean theorem)
- Quadrilaterals and other polygons (including area, interior and exterior angles, perimeters)
- Circles (area, circumference)
- Solid geometry (volume and surface area of solids)
- Transformations (translations, rotations, reflections)

4. Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability
 
- Data interpretation (reading tables and line, bar and other graphs)
- Descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, weighted average)
- Probability (of one event or two or more independent or dependent events)
- Geometric Probability (probability that a random point chosen will fall within a particular geometric figure)__________________________________________________________________________________________ 
  
Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Chart
Raw Score = Total Number Correct – ( Total Number Wrong / 4 )

Note: An actual full-length SAT exam contains 3 Critical Reading sections and 3 Math sections. This conversion chart is based on a single Critical Reading section and a single Math section.