3 Techniques that Will Explode Your SAT Score

Marc Hoberman works with students across all areas of learning. On this episode, he gives three great tips for students who are preparing for college entrance exams. SAT and ACT prep can be daunting, but with these tools, your student is on their way to a great score.

For a free online demo visit www.gradesuccess.com or email marc@gradesuccess.com

Marc's Story: Adversity Defeated

As a teenager, Marc moved to a different state. Soon afterward, he had a seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy. His mom helped him to realize that epilepsy was just one part of him, not what defined him. He wrote a book called Adversity Defeated, about not letting struggles define him. He also wrote a book on education.

He became the educator he is because of his illness. He kept his epilepsy a secret until he was in his 50s.

Teaching Means Connecting

Teaching kids is all about rapport. You really need a connection. If you can’t connect with students, then your knowledge will be lost. Its not just the information, it’s the delivery of the information.

In my tutoring business, I see students with learning disabilities, and sometimes the parents won’t tell me because they are ashamed. I’ve learned that sharing those things can help us to move forward in education.

College Prep Tests

Educators usually don’t like teaching to the test, but when it comes to college prep tests, you really have to teach to prepare for the test.

You can do it on your own, but you have to be a really regimented student to prepare on your own and be cognizant of time and test anxiety. You also need to recognize strategies that need to be employed on these tests.

Even if you have the classroom knowledge, you might not be prepared for the format of the test.

Three Keys to College Prep Testing

1. Students Need to Be Regimented.

They need to break it down. The tests are broken down into subjects.

As students study, they need to separate each section of the test.

Pick a day and time to study for the test. Decide how much time they are doing to spend each week on test prep. It can be hard to do long range planning, but a set amount of time each week. From there, how much will you study vocabulary for example, or grammar?

Scheduling and keeping to that schedule is the hardest part for teens. It can be hard for students to do this on their own.

2. Prevent Test Anxiety.

Test anxiety exists because we let it exist. Some kids get this from their parents (either they put too much pressure or they compare).

With a lot of help, it doesn’t have to be that way! When kids are studying properly and are prepared, they won’t have this kind of anxiety.

If you study incorrectly, you are wasting your time.

Working with mindfulness and tapping is another way to handle some of this test anxiety. Anchoring, remembering a good memory, can help to calm down students. Deep breathing is another technique students can use.

3. Recognize strategies that need to be employed.

Study 20 minutes at a time. Take a 5-minute break in a different place than where they study. Then, when you return, review what you have learned.

Learning takes place in review. This helps you absorb information so much faster. Learn in threes. Don’t try to memorize long lists. Memorize and review in threes.

Scaffold the learning. Make a foundation, learn something new, review it, and then build on that.

Rote memorization doesn’t work. Practice teaching a fake student in the room. You remember almost 90% of what you teach.