College entrance exams play a key role in determining your college choice. Standardized tests are designed to test your knowledge in a very specific way. Understanding the ins and outs of the tests will allow you to achieve your best possible score. This course is designed to provide you with test taking strategies, an understanding of what kind of test taker you are and practice for improving your scores on both the ACT and SAT tests. You will focus on grammar, reading comprehension, writing skills. Science and vocabulary all designed to improve your score. This is part 1 of a two part series of courses.
Students will:
- Understand your strengths and weaknesses regarding test-taking.
- Learn tricks to relax during the test.
- Master your reading comprehension skills.
- Learn the grammar you need to master
- Educate yourself on the Science section
- Learn to write effectively and quickly
Course Outline:
Lesson 1: What Kind of Test Taker are You?
Your first lesson will require you to look inward. What kind of test taker are you? Are you relaxed when taking an important test? Do you suffer from test anxiety? Determining how you react to tests will assist you in approaching the test day in the most effective way.
Lesson 2: Getting to Know the SAT
Knowing what to expect is half the battle…this section will discuss how the SAT is scored, why taking the PSAT is right for you, and provide some insight into the test makers mindset.
Lesson 3: ACT Practice for Reading
This section will focus on honing your reading comprehension skills as a preparation for the ACT reading questions. You will work through an actual ACT test and then check your work. Learning how to read the questions and quickly eliminate incorrect answers is the key to completing the tests in the time permitted. The tests are designed to distract the test taker with alluring, but incorrect answers. You will learn how to avoid these pitfalls.
Lesson 4: SAT Practice for Reading
This lesson will hone your skills on the SAT reading questions. You will work through actual SAT passages in an effort to improve your reading skills.
Lesson 5: Reading Comprehension Made Simple
The SAT sentence completion questions require knowledge of some difficult vocabulary. You can’t possibly memorize large vocabulary lists, so we will spend time learning how to dissect sentences to assist you in ascertaining the meaning.
Lesson 6: Rules of Grammar that you Need to Know
Grammar is an important part of the ACT and the SAT. It would be difficult to learn every rule of grammar, however this lesson will focus on the commonly tests rules.
Lesson 7: Tips to Master the ACT English Section
The ACT English section requires preparation, so it is important review what you should focus on and what can be disregarded. The English test is a 75-question, 45-minute test covering Usage/Mechanics and Rhetorical Skills.
Lesson 8: Tips to Excel on the SAT Evidence Based Reading and Writing Section
This lesson will focus on the three different SAT multiple-choice questions that you will see on the Evidence Based Reading and Writing section. Strategies will be revealed that will help you know what is important as you work through the Evidence Based Reading and Writing section.
Lesson 9: Write the Right Way
Having a plan for finishing the writing section in the allotted time is crucial to showing the admission committees that you have the right stuff to succeed in college. The ACT writing test is a 40-minute essay test that measures your writing skills—specifically those writing skills emphasized in high school English classes and in entry-level college composition courses. The SAT writing test is a 50-minute essay test that measures how you develop a point of view on an issue presented in an excerpt, support your point of view using reasoning and examples from your reading, studies, experience, or observations, and follow the conventions of standard written English.
Lesson 10: Write the Right Way (continued)
Time to practice writing this week!
Lesson 11: Things you Need to Know About Science
Reading graphs and charts accurately is a necessary part on the Science section. While calculating is required, the test is more about your verbal skills than your knowledge of Science. The ACT science test is a 40-question, 35-minute test that measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and problem-solving skills required in the natural sciences.
Lesson 12: It’s a Wrap!
You have completed the first review course for the ACT and SAT tests, great job! Take some time and review what we have covered. It is imperative that you show up on test day ready to tackle each question type, well-rested, and armed with the knowledge to succeed.
