Jason Breitkopf - Hacking the SAT: Tips and Tricks to Help You Prepare, Plan Ahead, and Increase Your Score

Copyright 2020 by Neil Khaund and Jason Breitkopf

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Peter Donahue

Print ISBN: 978-1-63158-509-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63158-510-4

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Introduction

THE VALUE OF THE PROCESS

A fter working with over fifty thousand students from around the country across thirty-five years there is one strategy that works every single time for increasing your SAT and ACT scores. If you put the work in, you get results. There is no substitute for hard work on these exams. Now, this book will provide you with some tips and guidelines to maximize your effort, but there is simply no shortcut to these exams. They are difficult and they require effort, but in the end they are manageable. Millions of students have survived the process and you will, too, but you first need to get in the mindset that you will need to hustle. Theres no way around it.

That said we have seen many students who understand this fact but take it to the extreme like their lives depend on it. While these exams are important its essential to have some perspective that this is only one step in a long and exciting academic journey. We coach students as much as possible that the process of test preparation is just as important as the result.

If you think about it, up until now in most students high school careers there havent been exams as critical towards determining their future as the college entrance exams are. There is quite a bit of pressure to score well on these exams as they not only help determine where you go to college but the types of scholarships and grants you could potentially qualify for. However, keep in mind that over your academic career this will not be the last high-stakes exam you will take. There could be others along your journey from masters exams such as the GRE, GMAT, MCAT, or LSAT to industry certifications you may need for your career like passing the bar or your Series 7.

The point is that if the SAT or the ACT is your first high-stakes exam take this opportunity to have some perspective on the process and remember that you are building a mindset to cope with these highstakes academic endeavors. Regardless of the outcome, if you take the time and effort to prep for these exams you can be confident that you are going into them sitting in a better position than if you didnt take these exams seriously. While this may sound obvious its important to know that you have the capacity to work extremely hard towards a goal and, regardless of the final score, know that you gave it a real shot. This level of mental acuity is critical in not only building confidence towards the exams but having the relaxed mindset necessary during the exam that you have already succeeded by maximizing the process.

The reason this perspective is so important is that there is no strategy, program, tutor, or curriculum that can help you get a better score without the extraordinary amount of effort required on your part. Frankly, there is no reason to read this book or any others if you dont go into the process with the mindset of I am ready to work.

This book will help lift the veil on the test prep industry in order to give each consumer the knowledge they need to maximize their SAT or ACT preparation process. While our strategies are among the best, and you will get a chance to learn them in detail, its also important that each student understand how to maximize the process from knowing when to take the exam, which exam to take, and a buyers guide on how to shop for a preparation program. Ultimately, this information can only be useful as part of a focused effort towards these exams.

Good luck and get to work!

Chapter 1

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

I have worked in the supplemental education field for most of my adult life. And by supplemental education, I mean after-school and weekend tutoring. In that time, the majority of my clients and their children, the actual students, have hailed from backgrounds on the high end of the socio-economic scale. This is because tutoring is expensive.

I lived in the Los Angeles metro area for ten years, and, for the most part, made my living either as an in-home tutor or by working in, and managing, tutoring businesses. In my experience as an in-home tutor, I would drive from my small apartment near downtown Burbank, California, a decidedly lowmiddle- and working-class neighborhood, to places with recognizable names such as Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Sherman Oaks, and Woodland Hills.

What I encountered was unimaginable wealth. My clients owned enormous homes, multiple expensive cars, and all the best life had to offer. They sent their children, my students, to the most prestigious private schools on the West Coast. And they could easily afford to pay the fees for in-home tutoring. In my time working with these students, I taught test preparation programs for the SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests, and Advanced Placement (AP) tests, as well as programs in test preparation for the SSAT and ISEE, private high school admittance tests, study skills, writing, various math subjects, and other academic topics.

The companies for which I worked would often develop programs for school partners, many of which were in disadvantaged neighborhoods. These programs brought my services and the programs I taught to students who would normally not be able to afford test prep and academic programs enjoyed by the wealthiest of families. Thanks to public school districts or large and well-known nonprofit organizations who partnered with my employers, I and my fellow tutors were able to provide the same curricula, materials, and instruction to students seeking to lift themselves up out of difficult economic situations and reach for academic success at college and beyond.

Invariably, though, whether the students with whom I worked were disadvantaged students from depressed socio-economic conditions or the children of wealth, these students all had one factor in common. Someone was paying a large amount of money for these programs. Wealthy parents paid the tutoring company directly for one-on-one attention from a tutor, often in their homes, while middle income families accessed these programs through modestly priced small-group classes and workshops at suburban tutoring centers. Lower income families accessed these same programs through their school district or a large, prestigious nonprofit organization in larger workshops and bootcamps. Whether I was working in the Los Angeles, New York, or Boston metropolitan areas, in the big city or in the close suburbs, there was a network of school districts, communities, and organizations in place to help students access the high-quality, expensive tutoring programs I taught.