Does your high school, local community college, or local community center offer ACT and SAT review sessions? You should seriously think about attending them as they can be great tools to improve your ACT and SAT scores, getting more familiar with the material, and practice taking the exam. You might even have access to expensive resources such as professional tutors. Here are just 6 reasons you should be attending ACT or SAT review sessions ahead of your test date.
1. They Help You Study
Flickr user Jirka Matousek
Do you have trouble sitting down and studying for a test? If scoring well on class exams comes naturally to you, you might not be used to studying and your skills could be a bit rusty. If you haven’t learned strong study techniques, you might not be sure where to start with SAT or ACT prep. And SAT/ACT test prep isn’t like studying for other exams! You can’t really memorize the material.
SAT/ACT review sessions have the work laid out for you. The host of the review sessions will have a game plan written out for you and other participants. You simply have to show up regularly, put in the effort, and you’re getting some study and prep under your belt. And then you can take the skills you learn in these sessions home with you to put them to use there.
2. You’ll Get More Familiar With the Material and Test Format
The SAT and ACT exams aren’t like other tests you’re taking in high school. They ask different questions and draw on more than what you’ve learned in your courses. You have to read carefully, use logic, and understand what each question is asking of you.
The only way to practice for these tests is to become very familiar with the material and formatting. Review sessions offer a great way to see question examples, discuss the answers, and get a better understanding of how the layout of the exam affects your approach.
3. You’ll Have the Opportunity to Ask Questions
When studying alone or reviewing practice tests on your own, you really can’t ask anyone why your answer was wrong. In review sessions, questions are welcomed and encouraged. The entire class can go over an ACT or SAT question and get to the bottom of the answer together.
They’re also an opportunity to get valuable feedback. The teacher or tutor who is leading the review sessions can give you insight into your testing strategies and answers, helping you to improve your score.
4. You Can Take Practice Tests
Practice tests are the key to doing well on the SAT or ACT, but you need to set aside three hours each time to take the exam without distractions. They’re only really helpful if you’re creating the real testing conditions for your practice. At home you may have distraction after distraction. Even if you set aside the time and ask no one to disturb you, test from a friends, pressing class assignments, or the pile of laundry needs to be done today. These distractions can absolutely affect your ability to focus on the exam at hand.
In review sessions, however, you won’t have these distractions. All students in the room will be taking the test, too, and you won’t be allowed to have your phone out.
5. You Can Potentially Work with a Professional Tutor
Many schools and organizations not only have teachers working with students in these review sessions, but they also have professional tutors. These tutors are trained to help students like yourself with the math, science, reading, and format portions of the exam. Professional SAT and ACT tutors are shown to help students increase their scores.
6. The Sessions are Often Free
SAT and ACT prep can get costly, especially if you’re going all out on the testing materials and tutoring. However, these review sessions are often free. You’ll have access to workbooks, tests, and more all for little to no cost for you. If your review sessions have a professional SAT or ACT tutor, too, you could be saving thousands of dollars.
To do well on the SAT or ACT, it helps to prepare ahead of time. Simply doing flash cards in your free time, while they do help, isn’t enough. Review sessions can help you stay on top of your studying and practice tests while also giving you access to top notch resources like tutors, workbooks, and feedback.
Your ACT and SAT scores can affect your chances of getting into your dream school, but did you know that many colleges and universities report the average scores from the previously accepted class? Use College Match today to discover how your scores stack up against these students and how you can improve your chances of getting a coveted acceptance letter.
