SAT & ACT Improvement

By Dr. Wayne Adams

Wow? Summer break has already started. Before we know it, high schools will be back in session in early August. How time flies, especially over the summer.

Upcoming Exams: ACT on Saturday July 17th and Saturday, September 11th; SAT on August 28th and October 2nd; and PSAT on Wednesday October 13th.

More and more students prefer to prepare over the summer. Rising seniors want to see if their scores are high enough for desired colleges and universities (and for Bright Futures), rising juniors want to see how they would score plus preparing for the PSAT in mid-October, and many rising sophomores incorporate preparing for these exams as part of their longer term strategy to be admitted to the best university possible and seek to maximize scholarships.

One of the great rewards of my helping my students have their best possible futures, including doing their best on the SAT and/or the ACT Exams.

A rising senior recently wrote, “I just got my SAT score from my last test, and I am pleased to report that I received a 1530 (this is 99th percentile)! Thank you so much for all of the assistance you provided me throughout your class!

A rising junior wrote, “Dr. A. I wanted to say thank you for all the time you spent with me and the knowledge you taught me. Not only did you teach me how to do better on the test, but also how to be a better person with many valuable, life-lessons.”

Another rising senior wrote, “I wanted to let you know I received my test scores back and got a composite of 31 (super scored got a 32). Individually, I got a 32 on math, 28 on Science, 27 on English, and a 36 on reading. Who woulda thought, of all the sections I would get a perfect score on the reading section haha. Thank you for all of your help!!”

I always ask my students at the end of our first class what they found most surprising. Their typical answers are, “I learned so much so fast,” “Our time went by so quickly,” “This is so different from what I expected,” “We really do work interactively,” and “I really enjoyed it.”

Often when I talk with parents, they ask: Question: “How do you keep my student’s attention for your normal three hour class?”

Answer: “That is not the problem. As your student will tell you, the problem is that the time goes by so fast.”

Question: “How do you motivate students to do their best?”

Answer: “When my students quickly see they can rapidly improve, they motivate themselves to see just how well they can do.”

Question: “Do you help students aim for a specific score or score range?”

Answer: “No, because I believe this adds too

much pressure and is counterproductive. Instead, I ask them to do their best with the time and priorities they have … and the score will take care of itself. They also learn how to ‘have fun taking the test’, which sounds like words that should never come together but … as they will learn … really do and can greatly help with their mental outlook and test performance.”

Question: “How much of a student’s performance do you believe is mental?”

Answer: “I believe half of a student doing their best is mental, and this means taking the pressure ‘off’ and helping them achieve and maintain their peak mental performance zone.” This is one of my proprietary guides I give to every student about different ‘test-taking’ personalities and how to maintain peak mental performance during the exam(s).”

Question: “What makes the difference in how different students score?”

Answer: “For my students, the factors are the academic preparation when they come to me, test-taking skills, special techniques that greatly help on the exam, how well they are guessing on test-day, and ‘curve balls’ (those questions you seldom see but, when you do, you either know how to answer them or you are guessing). We have special preparations for these ‘curve balls’.”

Question: “Can you help with other areas of college admissions and costs?”

Answer: “Yes, and I have for years. This includes writing outstanding college application essays; key information for the ‘Top 25’ colleges and universities, ‘Five More’, and ‘Top 5’ in Florida; locations of very helpful web sites; and my guide Negotiating with Colleges that has helped my families save $1,000 to $10,000 a year in college costs.”

Question: “Do you have anything that can help my student get off to the best start as a freshman in college?”

Answer: “Yes, I have written a book about How To Can Survive and Thrive as a Freshman at a Secular University which I give to every family that has proven very helpful in parents and students preparing for the ‘college experience’ and then the student getting off to the best start. This includes tips from the first step on campus as a new freshman through the major decisions in the first week, taking ‘hypernotes’ that greatly enhance how quickly and how well a student prepares for exams, strategies and plan for handling the first set of semester exams, and much more.”

If you would like to talk more with me about your student, please give me a call at 727-253-0639 or send an e mail at wwa0811@mykolab.com. Would be great to talk with you further.

Dr. Wayne Adams is one of the leading SAT and ACT tutors in the country. His students normally improve around 200 points on the revised Writing, Reading, and Math SAT superscore; and 4 – 7 points on the ACT composite. They have been admitted to 5 of the “Top 5”, 8 of the “Top 10” and 18 of the “Top 25” universities in the country, and many more schools in Florida. These schools include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, U Chicago, Duke, U Penn, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Notre Dame, Emory, UC Berkley, UCLA, USC, UNC (Chapel Hill), NYU, Northeastern (Boston), Boston College, Georgia Tech, Naval - Air Force - Merchant Marine Service Academies, Penn State, LSU, Auburn, UF, U Miami, FSU, USF, UCF, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Palm Beach Atlantic, FIU, New College of Florida, Stetson, and Julliard – Manhattan - New England - and Berkley Conservatories of Music. Many have received academic, athletic, or music scholarships. He has also tutored three students who achieved National Merit Scholar Finalist awards. He is a former Dean of a Graduate School of Business and Full Professor, and began college teaching at the University of Maryland in 1968. He has degrees and advanced studies at Harvard, Yale, Vanderbilt, Columbia International, and Luther Rice.