Tutoring For All Ages

Every parent and student out there is looking for the path to a great score on a standardized test. And there are so many tutors and tutoring companies out there selling the one-and-only-best-product or method to get you that score that it’s hard to tell what works and what doesn’t.

Of course, we at Abacus are yet another company using a set of methods and principles that we know works. But we also don’t think that you should have to pay thousands of dollars for access to all of it. So, we’ve collected a set of basic tools for achieving your best score on a standardized test:

1. The tests are standardized. That means that the principles described here will work for the SAT as well as the PSAT, ACT, SSAT, ISEE, GRE, or whatever standardized test you have to take.

   But it goes further than that. Standardized tests always have an element of predictability, which you can use to your advantage. Learn the structure of the test in advance, so that you know what to expect. Never go into a test cold and expect to get your best score.

2. Not everyone will ace the test. Standardized tests are designed to be challenging for most people. If everyone got a perfect score, the test would be useless, and it would just be re-designed to be harder next time. So it’s important to know where you expect to land on the score chart. Evaluate yourself and try to be realistic about your expectations. If your vocabulary is weak, you’re not likely to get high marks on a verbal section, and getting a perfect 2400 on the SAT is hard even for top students at the best schools. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment. At the same time, don’t sell yourself short — it’s important to set aggressive goals for yourself.
3. Practice, practice, practice. Nearly every standardized test out there has practice problems available to you if you know where to look. Many test websites, like the SAT and the SSAT, have “question of the day” features. Independent websites sometimes have detailed explanations of sample questions. And, of course, you can buy books that provide practice questions for a specific standardized test.

   Be aware that some tests have better practice material than others. As of this post, almost any book on the SAT contains relevant and helpful practice questions for all sections, but not even all the reputable publishers of test preparation materials have the ACT Science Reasoning sections right, and the SSAT/ISEE test-prep books are a bit unreliable, with only a few exceptions. So check online reviews and podcasts, ask around, and consider contacting a tutor for their opinions on the best books. Many tutors (including ours) will provide this information for free if you just ask.

   Once you have practice problems and practice tests, use them. Do a few practice problems a day until you get in the habit, or make an appointment with yourself to do a section or two per week. Don’t forget, when you’re setting aside time to work, to budget time for correcting your work and analyzing your wrong answers — a crucial step to avoiding the same mistakes in the future.

4. Vocab, vocab, vocab. This deserves its own mention because it’s so important. On tests with separate sections for different subjects (like most general standardized tests), vocabulary is explicitly tested in verbal sections and implicitly tested in reading and writing sections. Improving your vocabulary is the single most effective thing you can do to improve your verbal scores on the SAT, ACT, GRE, SSAT, and ISEE. So start now and work on just a few vocab words a week.
5. Be consistent. Studying and learning one vocabulary word per week will improve your verbal prowess by 52 words in a year. And that’s just one word a week. One word a day, or 3 words a week, is also pretty easy. Tape a word to the refrigerator or the front door, or have one downloaded to your computer or your phone. Make a point of using it a few times during the day, and you’ll know it well enough to recall what it means if you see it on a test question or read it in an article. Likewise, starting early and doing one test section a week will give you a lot of exposure to practice problems without a lot of stress. It’s not an excessive amount of work at any one time, and it’s a lot more effective than cramming.

Earning the best score you can on your test will take work, but it’s definitely possible. And hopefully, now, the path to your best score is less of a mystery.