The Study Hall in Rockport offers classes, small groups and one-on-one tutoring for the SAT.  All Juniors who attend public school in Maine are required to take the SAT on April 10, 2018. 

Math SAT Prep classes are 2 hours long, and meet once a week for 6 consecutive weeks. Students arrive and get the right answers to the homework they were assigned the session before.  They are expected to spend 55 minutes taking practice sections of real SAT exams and 30-60 minutes working on skill building and content for homework.  We go over the right answers and we discuss one or more “types” of problems and how to approach them.  For instance, problem 4 might have been solved most quickly by plugging the four possible answers back into the equation to see which one worked.  Did any of the students try that?  Now that they see how that works, would they be able to think of trying that in the future?

Strategy is the focus of the middle part of the class.  Which questions are done most quickly and easily?  Since the score you receive is based on getting the most questions right that you can, it is vital to learn how to get through questions efficiently.  Which questions are “time traps” that will take longer and still not count for any more points?  Also, where are the most common mistakes made?  Can you remind yourself to watch out when you see a question with some of those elements?

Students take a 25-minute timed test section while in class.  This is a dry run for the feeling of being put on the spot.  The instructor can watch how the students spend their time and where they could have done more.  At the end, the students learn how many they got right, which ones they should have done or what they could have done better, and how that would have affected the score they would have gotten.  Then it’s time to assign new homework and say goodbye. 

Small group and one-on-one sessions are 60 minutes and the students do not take a timed section with the instructor.  They spend the whole time going over problems, skill building and discussing strategies.  If a student got a problem wrong, they have to analyze whether they should have attempted it or guessed.  Could they have recognized a way to do it and get the points?  The more questions a student reviews, the more options s/he has during the test itself.

This format is repeated for six weeks.  The students hear some of the same suggestions more than once, so they really start to incorporate them.  They also get used to taking a timed test.  The more the students practice the better their chances for significant improvement. 

If you have a student who needs to prepare for the SATs, call The Study Hall today at 236-3949.