It’s not much of a secret that preparing for and taking the ACT or SAT isn’t exactly fun; just ask almost any high school senior. But just because this process isn’t fun doesn’t mean it has to be scary.
By going in with clear-eyed expectations and the right mindset, families can minimize stress and maximize their chances of seeing the results they want. To that end, here are five things every family should know before starting ACT/SAT prep.
#1: Different Tests Are Different
Surprisingly, most parents and students aren’t glued to College Board’s social media feeds monitoring developments in standardized testing; it turns out that they’d rather be doing literally anything else. As a result, when faced with the choice of ACT or SAT at the beginning of the prep process, many families go with what their college counselor recommends or what their friends are taking because they don’t think it matters.
Don’t do this! Though there is overlap between them, the ACT and SAT are different in many impactful ways. For example:
- The ACT is faster-paced, whereas the SAT gives students more time per question but generally requires more problem-solving.
- A student’s Math score counts for ⅓ of their total score on the ACT but ½ of their total score on the SAT.
- The ACT weighs grammar knowledge more heavily than vocabulary knowledge, while the SAT tests them in roughly equal proportions.
And that’s just to name a few. It’s important that your student starts the prep process by making an informed decision about which test is better in their case; a great way to do this is to take a practice test for each and compare the results.
#2: Don’t Underestimate Prep Time
Both the ACT and SAT have multiple distinct sections that contain different question-types, test a wide range of content, or both. As a result, no matter which test your student chooses, preparing for it isn’t an intuitive, straightforward undertaking.
Don’t shortchange the preparation process. Repetition is a crucial part of mastery on these tests. Allow months rather than weeks to ensure your student has adequate time to build the “muscle memory” required to perform under pressure on test day.
#3: Plan for Multiple Test Dates
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point. One major reason to plan for a longer time window than you might instinctively expect is to allow your student the opportunity to take the test more than once.
Data from both the College Board and the ACT shows that students generally improve their scores with repeat testing. And that’s not especially surprising given that additional test dates mean more time to prep, more familiarity with the pressure of the testing environment, and more chances to come out on the right side of the variance inherent to these tests (e.g. more vocabulary questions with words the student recognizes).
We recommend that families allow time for 2–3 official tests. If the student knocks it out of the park on the first try, fantastic, they don’t have to take it again. At the end of the day, though, it’s better to have the time and not need it than the reverse.
#4: Kids Who Own the Process Do Better Than Those Whose Parents Own It
Also known in tutoring circles as KWOPDBTTWPOI—we’re workshopping the acronym—this is one of the fundamental truths of test prep. To reiterate an earlier point, repetition is vital to every stage of this process. It contributes to memorization of math formulas and grammar rules, optimization of technique for various question-types, efficiency of passage reading, and a dozen other things.
As anyone who has ever tried to convince a teenager to do anything can attest, motivation is essential. We don’t expect anyone to be excited about this process, but students who take the initiative to put in the time rather than needing to be coerced by parents are more likely to get the reps necessary to succeed.
This is true even if your student is working with a tutor. Tutoring sessions are a fantastic place to learn technique, cover content, and review mistakes, but they’re not enough on their own. Most of the time, commitment in this process comes between meetings, when students independently practice the things they learned in session.
#5: Score Plateaus Are Normal
Unlike tests in school, the ACT and SAT don’t solely assess content knowledge; they also test problem-solving skills, pattern recognition, and time management. Consequently, simply knowing more of the concepts on the test isn’t a guarantee of score improvement.
The result is that improvement is not always linear. A student’s score may plateau because they’re not moving quickly enough, or they’re having trouble with a particular question-type, or they’re at the point on the scoring curve where missing one question has an outsized impact on their score in a particular section.
When confronted with this situation, don’t panic. It’s true that students sometimes hit a score ceiling and just don’t have the capacity to improve any further; oftentimes, however, the issue(s) causing a score plateau can be addressed with time, patience, and practice, practice, practice.
READ MORE: 3 Common Misconceptions About the New ACT
There’s no getting around the fact that applying to college has been known to be something of a stressful process. By encouraging your student to follow these recommendations, though—make an informed ACT vs. SAT decision, allow enough time to prepare, and approach preparation with patience and persistence—you can reduce the amount that the ACT and SAT contribute to that stress. Good luck, and happy testing!
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