With the summer rapidly settling in on us, we wanted to remind you of the value of utilizing the summer to prepare for standardized testing for students. While it can be difficult to motivate to complete academic work while the sun is shining and voices of laughter can be heard rising over the gentle breezes, having a focused goal in mind, like the specific guaranteed data points that we set as part of our test prep packages, can make it a bit easier to get things going. Here are some reasons why it’s wise to do test prep in the summer:

1. The timing of this approach is actually perfect. As the college board suggests, the perfect time to begin preparation for the late August SAT, for example, is May or June. Our test prep packages involve 12 weeks of one-on-one preparation, beginning with a full diagnostic exam. This has been proven to maximize test scores, offering the perfect balance of preparation, memory, and focus.
2. No School=Less Stress: If you’re taking a standardized test during the school year, it is virtually impossible to avoid stressful school events. Tests, sporting events, and extra-curriculars all offer mines on a tenuous field already made difficult by the general grind of a busy teenage life. Frontloading the testing to the summer avoids this stress and automatically improves results.
3. Begin with a Diagnostic: If you begin in the summer, you generally will find more time to take a full diagnostic, which does require a chunk of time to complete (3 hours for the SAT, for example). This is typically far easier during the summer months than the school year. Students have homework and are typically cooked on school nights, and the weekends are for rest and rejuvenation, catching up on homework, extra-curriculars, and spending time with family and friends. But the diagnostic is critical to understanding which areas to focus on in preparation and skipping it risks idle work in studying for it.
4. Timing is Everything: Prepping and taking the test during the summer between sophomore and junior year is ideal (though not always possible). If the first August test doesn’t offer perfect results, you still have numerous other chances to take it as time goes on. While there is still some mathematical skills that a student could encounter junior year that are helpful if they aren’t advanced in math, it’s still worth it to get the early start. As a general rule, the more you practice and familiarize yourself with the test format, question types, and timing, the better the ultimate score.

If you’re in need of Greenwich Tutoring for test prep, look no further than the best test prep experts in Fairfield County. With a developed network of highly trained and experienced PhD and Masters level tutors with educational backgrounds from only the most competitive schools who work closely with students to guide them through the entire testing process, they will maximize your results and subsequent chances in applying to college with their test prep packages. Tutoring gives students taking standardized testing an enormous edge over students that forego tutoring. Some studies have even suggested that weekly tutoring for SAT testing in particular results in results that are 157% higher than results of students not using tutors. With such a critical piece of college applications at stake, it is wise to make the investment.