Prep before the test Entrance exam scores pave college, career path

There is no more stressful time for parents and students than when they are gearing up for those all-important college entrance exams.

Parents are aware how much of their child’s future depends on scoring well. It determines where they will study and the quality of the degree they ultimately receive. It also determines whether they will be offered an academic scholarship to help defray the high cost of that education.

Some students also feel that pressure because they know their parents can’t afford to pay for college. Others always feel internal pressure to do well on everything they attempt. And then there are others who feel no pressure at all because the next sports event or party is all that concerns them.

Regardless of which category a student falls into, all public school students must take the ACT as part of the Prairie State exam, mandated by the state of Illinois. And all college-bound private and public school students must take either the ACT or the SAT to be considered for admission.

These tests may be taken multiple times, with only the best scores reported to colleges, so most students take them several times, trying to improve their scores. Many students take an ACT or SAT preparation course or study from an ACT or SAT review book to help them score better.

Jay Amberg of Amberg Educational Consultants has been teaching such review courses to students from around the suburbs for more than 30 years. He rents a classroom at Loyola Academy in Wilmette and conducts classes from there. But he also teaches students one-on-one if they are interested.

“I teach ACT review courses to any student who is interested and I teach PSAT review courses to very high-scoring students who are attempting to become National Merit Finalists. I teach these PSAT classes in the late summer and early fall of their junior year before the test is nationally administered in October,” Amberg said.

Local demand for SAT review courses has diminished recently so Amberg now teaches SAT review as part of the ACT course.

“I still recommend that students take both tests because for some students, the SAT is a better test,” Amberg added. “The SAT spends more time on vocabulary, sentence structure, reading and math, but it has a penalty for guessing. The ACT has more graph and chart reading and there is no guessing penalty. Both have added essay sections.”

Amberg reviews algebra and geometry skills with his students, as well as English usage. But a big portion of his time is spent teaching them tactics and strategies for effectively taking the tests.

“I no longer keep careful track of student improvement, but if a student is willing to work and practice, they can see significant improvement of their score. An improvement of three points on the ACT is large,” he explained.

The national average for college-bound students on most ACT test sessions is 20 on a scale of 36. That means that someone with a score of 24 is in the top 75 percent of college-bound students and someone with a score of 28 is in the top 90 percent of his or her college-bound peers.

“If a student improves their score from a 20 to a 24, that means that they have passed up 25 percent of their contemporaries,” Amberg said. “On the other hand, a lot of parents think that their students must score in the 30s. But they have to remember that only 4 percent of students score 30 or above on the ACT.”

Amberg’s typical course runs for eight two-hour sessions at a cost of $365 per person.

“That is enough preparation for most students,” he said. “For those who can’t afford a course or are too busy to take one, I recommend two very good prep guides that were created by the creators of the actual tests. Those are ‘The Real ACT Prep Guide’ which includes examples of actual tests and ‘The Official SAT Study Guide.’ Both offer strategies and tactics for taking the tests and are significantly better than the other guides on the market.”

For more information about Amberg’s courses, call (847) 869-8084.

Most of the large learning center chains like Huntington Learning Center and Sylvan Learning Center also help students to review for these exams.

At the Huntington Learning Center located at 722 W. Northwest Highway in Barrington, test review is done on a one-on-one basis, according to Nancy Linden, co-owner.

“Every student has different strengths and weaknesses, so we are able to speed through a student’s areas of strength and spend more time on his or her areas of weakness when we individualize it. For instance, some never understood geometry, so we are actually teaching it while other students just need a quick review,” Linden explained.

Those who are taking Algebra II as juniors are advised to wait until near the end of the year to take the ACT and SAT since much of the material taught in that course is covered on the test. Those who took Algebra II as sophomores, on the other hand, are told to take the college entrance exams earlier in their junior year so that the Algebra II material is still fresh in their minds.

Linden said that Huntington’s one-on-one approach also allows for easier scheduling for busy students with a million activities going on simultaneously.

“Besides, if we have a student who got an 18 the first time they took the test and another student who got a 29, we need to employ different strategies to work with those two students,” she added.

Like Amberg, they spend most of their time reviewing for the ACT since few students opt to take the longer, more verbal-intensive SAT exam. In addition, area school counselors recommend that students here take the ACT over the SAT, according to Linden.#147;We recommend that they take the test first at school to see their starting point and then we work with them in two-hour private sessions, setting a goal and working just on what they individually need. For instance, if their lack of vocabulary knowledge is hurting them, we work on that, especially in science. And we expose them to as many versions of past tests as we can, coaching them on how to allocate their time between questions,#148; she said.

Using these techniques, they have shown impressive results in their students, raising their ACT scores an average of 4.5 points, Linden stated. Those who scored lower initially, of course, see the most dramatic results.

#147;We expect to see students two to three times per week for two-hour sessions because we have found that a more compact series of sessions is more effective than a protracted series of sessions,#148; Linden said. #147;We see the average student for 20 to 30 sessions (40 to 60 hours) before the exam, at a cost of $68 per hour.#148;

#147;It isn#146;t cheap,#148; she admitted, #147;but I tell parents that a lot of the better schools are awarding big renewable scholarships based on these scores. So, if you can save $28,000 over four years by spending $3,000 to $4,000 on a review course, isn#146;t it worth it?#148;