We've had an incredibly rewarding 12 days at our SAT Intensive. The average student scored just above 2150, and the average student has improved 173 points. Some have improved over 300 points. Others already started out above 2250. There have been a few 2400s.
We're always experimenting with new things to help our students. A new part of our SAT Intensives is a 1-1 coaching component. These past two weeks, I have had 1-1 appointments with every student at the beginning and at the end of the program. For each student, we did root cause analysis and probed into the mechanical and psychological reasons for their surface level mistakes.
From these meetings, we would find deeper issues--which were things like not prioritizing memorizing vocab, not focusing, not checking over answers. You don't just "improve" math or reading. You improve these issues. We hold our students to eliminating their problems and improving their score.
Every mock test you take, you should treat it as the real SAT. We ask our students, "What are you going to do differently today?" If a student answers, "Make fewer silly math mistakes," we ask "How will you do that?" because a generic answer is not enough. We might even follow up after the test to see if they made that specific change.
Rising juniors should aim to take the current SAT this January, the last time it will be offered. This way, they can take advantage of two weeks of winter break to practice. At the same time, they should hang their real hope onto the newer SAT and take it in June after two weeks of summer break. Taking the newer SAT gives students half to almost a whole year more to maximize their scores.
Our pre-signup for our Winter 2015 SAT Intensive is open. Sign up to get the first updates!
Hearth Humanities (哈思人文)
430 Prospect Place, Alpharetta, GA 30005
Tel: 678-925-3437 or 678-938-7888