FAQs for Test Prep Services

As of March 2024, the SAT is digital, adaptive, and shorter. Read more about those changes here:

Please do not  have your student take both tests. In fact, I suggest the student take neither test officially until she has been assessed. Although most colleges will superscore– count only the highest sub-test score from any given test date– not all do (e.g. Georgetown requires that all scores be sent), so it is strategic to wait to test until the student has prepared before getting anything on the record. Your coach will review any practice test scores to determine your student’s current ability level as well as her relative performance on the SAT versus the ACT. Your coach may also request to do additional assessing before or during the first session to determine which test is a better fit for the student.

We will choose the SAT or ACT by the end of the first test prep session and provide reasons to support that choice.

Most students will at least attempt testing: some will work for weeks or months to achieve a competitive score. On the other hand, there are many students whose test scores are not commensurate with the rest of their academic profile, and we have seen many of those students gain admission to the colleges they want to attend without submitting scores. When we make recommendations to our clients, we consider the student holistically, including factors that can interfere with test taking, like ADHD and anxiety. We encourage you to consider your college list, your student’s abilities, and your timeline, and decide on the best course of action.

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Both tests are equally well accepted and respected. Full stop. The choice is simply this: on which test is the student more likely to perform better? No college requires or wants both tests. Moreover, trying to learn both at once is usually inefficient and ineffective.

The student must register himself or herself for testing at

There is only one college in the US that requires the writing portion of the ACT: Martin Luther College. If that school is not on your college list, do not register to take the ACT with the optional writing section.

Your coach will typically assign 1.5-3 hours of studying per week to solidify skills and establish recall (long-term memory work).  Too much homework too soon will not help: there are foundational skills the student must learn and reinforce first. As test prep progresses, we will increase the difficulty and quantity of the workload between sessions, including requiring full, timed practice tests.

If we meet weekly, we see progress. It is hard to make progress with sporadic meetings or if the student does not do the homework. Some students improve very rapidly, and we only need, perhaps, 8-12 weeks of prep. Other students have a more typical pace of four months ahead of the first test. Some students need consistent tutoring for 6-9 months and will take two, three, or even four tests throughout that period, improving with each one.

These are typical ranges, but the timeline will vary by student, which is why we do not lock clients into package arrangements for test prep. We typically schedule for four months at the outset and add or subtract sessions as needed. Our team will always provide feedback about testing timing and adjust as needed. The best case scenario is a “one and done,” but a more typical outcome is testing two or three times. Ideally, a junior will be prepped and ready to test twice in the fall.

Most students improve well. An academically strong student who scores in the 1100s or 1200s on the SAT usually moves into the 1300s with good effort. Beyond that— 1400s-1500s-- depends on student effort and aptitude, and we cannot predict that level of growth at the outset. That said, we will keep student and parent apprised with data as the student makes gains and shows progress.

The PSAT (and the PACT in states where that test is administered) is mainly to help students get a baseline sense for their test taking skill level, and thus, students don’t need to prep. That said, if a student is very high scoring, she may be eligible for achieving a National Merit award through the PSAT, and in that case, it can be a good use of time to prep for the exam by taking the College Board’s PSAT digital practice tests. 

Not all schools are test optional: Public colleges in Florida, the top three Georgia public colleges, the University of Tennessee, Purdue, Georgetown, MIT, military academies, Dartmouth, Brown, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, UT Austin, Yale, and CalTech have all reverted to (or never stopped) requiring students to submit test scores. 

Not all programs are test optional: Certain majors, like nursing or BS/MD accelerated programs, are often exempted from test optional policies. For example, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business only offers direct automatic admission to students with a minimum GPA and test score (1370 SAT/30 ACT). 

School Preference: Some test-optional schools have a clear preference for submitting test scores. Auburn, for example, only accepted 9% of its class from the test-optional applicant pool in 2023. You can research this yourself by reviewing a college's common data set. 

Our experience as admissions advisors is that students with strong test scores do better in college admissions than students with no test scores, so it behooves most students to at least attempt testing. 

This is an admissions decision based on the average test score for the college and how competitive this score is relative to the college’s average. You may schedule an admissions meeting with Christina to discuss this topic.