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3 Biggest SAT/ACT Mistakes

College Admissions

The blog post below is a rough transcription of the video above - so please listen to the video if possible - otherwise, here is what was in the video:

Hey everyone, It is Neha, founder of College Shortcuts and Elite Private Tutors. I wanted to talk about the three biggest mistakes that we see in test prep every single day.

Now, number one, one of the biggest mistakes we see is that students don't even prep for the exam. They think they're prepping, but they get a book and they're not even consistently going through it.

One of the biggest secrets I have to tell you, I'm really excited to say this, but I don't know you may not know this about me, but I go through over a thousand resumes to pick my top 10 Test Prep coaches.

My coaches actually tutor students around the globe. They've made top scores like ninety-nine percentile on the SAT and ACT. They know exactly what it takes to hold a student accountable and to make sure they're doing it week-by-week and making it, let's say the word that most people don't put with 'test prep' right there. . .  FUN! We make it fun!

The biggest mistake is that students do not even think about the level at which they have to work on test prep. They think they're just getting a book and thinking they're doing it the right way on their own, but a lot of times they're just spinning their wheels.

The second biggest mistakes we see is that students want to register for tests really late.

On this video I wanted to just give you some quick value here by telling you the test dates that are coming up. So for example, there are so many tests dates that are coming up.

Let me just tell you SAT test dates. There's one that's coming up November 4th. There's one that's coming up December 2nd, May 5th, 2018, and June 2nd, 2018. Now there might be some more sprinkled in after the December date, but these are the ones they've already confirmed.

That's for the SAT. If you're looking specifically for the ACT, all those dates are ready too.

Let's talk a little bit about the ACT dates as well. I have them right here. We've got test dates on October 28th, December 9th, February 10th, April 14th, June 9th, and July 14th of next year.

Now, most parents do not realize the importance of planning early for this exam. The second biggest blunder we see over and over with test prep is that they don't decide on the test dates. They don't make a plan of action.

It's like for example if you know you're about to have a big Bollywood wedding and you know the date of it, but you don't even plan all the things you have to do right before that event. Right? Like there's so many steps before you can plan a 500 to a thousand-person event. That's five days long, and too long to be honest.

In the same manner there's so many different sections. The SAT is not just one section, it's many sections. The ACT is not one section, it's many sections. There's a lot of planning that goes into it.

Second biggest mistake we see over and over and over is not picking the right test dates and not figuring out when to do it.

The third biggest mistake we see, BIG, BIGGEST mistake. It's really painful to watch. The third biggest mistake that pisses the umph out of me when it comes to the college admissions process and test prep here. Third biggest mistake!

Waiting till senior year to take these tests!

Now this is the biggest mistake I see over and over. I hear schools talk about it to parents. I got a call yesterday. A call with a mom was like "Well the school says you can't register for the S.A.T. until you're a senior." I'm like "Uh, let me talk to that counselor myself and I'll deal with them." Yeah, big 'NO NO' people. No! You need to be taking that SAT early on.

I was hanging out with an Indian kid yesterday. He's taking the PSAT today. He's a junior. He knows what he's getting into. He's like "This is national merit time. I'm going to rock that test!"

I'm just here to tell you the third biggest mistake is waiting too late for the test. It is so important to get your kid test prep, now! No joke.

Want to hear what the smart kids do? Want the secret? If you want the secret, you got to type "Yes" below or I'm not going to say it.

I'm going to take a moment here. I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait for some 'Yes' to show up because I want you to get that competitive edge. I want you to know what it really takes.

It's not just taking a book and being like "Hey mom I studied for the S.A.T. for ten minutes." Then it's like "click click" let me watch the Kardasians. No! That is not how test prep works. It's not about like "Oh hey let me check my planner for the dates and let me see... oh you know what the test dates are in November. Let me sign up for it like on October 31st. Let me just like let me sign up right here." No, that's not how it works.

The third mistake  is waiting till way too long to take it!

If you can see me and hear my voice and are ready for the next secret, type 'Yes, sounds good'.

Like I was telling you, biggest biggest bonus of the students we work with that are like rock stars, that get it right. I know this sounds crazy because you're like "There's no way parents are doing this with their kids." Yeah, actually there's two million kids that basically apply every year to college.

There's a lot of really really really smart parents that start really early in the process. Those are the rock stars, those are the rock stars, because teamwork makes the dream work.

You can make the dream happen in senior year when they're all honors, AP, extracurricular, too busy, SAT essays. If you want a kid that like burns out, basically turns into a ball of mush, or really the one that's like sassy and annoying every day, then wait till senior year, because I see it every single day.

I have to take the parents off the ledge, off the ledge of like "I hate my teenager." Yeah that's because you didn't plan early as a parent, sorry.

So let me tell you the biggest thing that students and parents do that are rock star families when it comes to test prep.

Alright number one - they start early.

Now when I mean early, I actually mean like 10th or 11th grade. 10th, yeah I said 10th.

Second biggest thing, 11th grade is definitely one you should be taking at least two to three exams.

Here's my heavy hitter tip for you. When I'm talking about junior year. I'm not talking about just spring semester. I'm talking about Fall semester and Spring semester. There's two semesters that they can be studying for this test.

The big the one and the big Kahuna - do not take that test senior year! Gross. Such a bad idea.

I have no idea why people even think about taking that test senior year. It's like "let me just pile a bunch of bleep bleep all over my kid" and then be like "hey want to take the SAT II?" and "want to write over 20 essays?"

Your kid is going to be the worst kid ever if you do that to them senior year. I'll tell you why because like I see it all the time.

I'll tell you the biggest mistake I'm dealing with right now. When dealing with a parent, they're taking the SAT for the first time as a senior, November. That means they can't even apply early anywhere. No one knows what their test dates is. No one knows the test score.

So biggest mistake ever, is doing it way too late in the game.

I can send you a special special link on how I can make your life easier as a parent. Just say "yes" to make your life easier. Yes, to making your life easier as a parent. It's all about making it easier. Yes.

Second, just so you know if you want the free checklist, it's over here. Right up here collegeshortcuts.com

See that right there? Just go to that URL. Just put your email in. You get all sorts little things into the inside of my brain on a daily basis. Yeah everything you need out of me.

Third thing is make sure you shoot us some message. Just so you know, we read every message from all of you guys.

We like fall in love with each one of you families. I love you guys.

I want you to know there's just so many mistakes we see every single day.

Here's the crazy part about it. MY parents made a TON of mistakes.

They made me study for way too long. They didn't get the right coaches in place. They didn't understand exactly what I needed for my areas of development and so they put me in these courses for three hours at a time on top of all honors, AP, extracurricular. . . I would sit in that class and this was me in the class. . . literally, I was like "Oh my god do I really have to listen to this instructor." He is so boring.

I just want you to know, I've gone through thousands of resumes to only pick my top 10 coaches.

We have the three slots left, just three.

These are, what we call, people who have made 36's on the ACT. 1600's on the SAT. They can do this in their sleep. They're like "Test prep? Boom!"

We've helped students get incredible scores because I found out just myself how horrible this process was. I'm not going to name names because I worked with some of the same companies your kids probably worked with myself. I've done it! I did the same thing. My parents didn't know what they were doing. I'm here to tell you there was a better way.

It's the one-on-one approach that always works every single time because the way your kid takes the test. For example Harpreet is very different than the way Drakious may take it. Right?

We've got to make sure we get a one-on-one approach for these kids, so they get the exact help they need. I just want to you to know those are the three biggest mistakes we see every single day in the test prep process.

I have these really amazing coaches that I would love to share with you, but all you need to do is type "Yes" below.

I'm going to send you information, a PDF that will literally tell you exactly how I can get you access to my secret team of rock stars. This is what we call the head nerds. The nerdiest of nerds that are also fun and charismatic and make it super awesome to do test prep.

Even through video, I mean you're like "Dude, this girl feels like she's in my car." Yeah I know, I feel like I'm right here with you right. Same thing goes on with my test prep coaches. That's why we work with students not just even in the U.S. We work with kids in India. We work with kids in China. We work with kids in Europe. We work with kids in South America. We work with kids in Antarctica, just kidding not in Antarctica. Way too cold over there, they can't even open their test prep books. There's like ice all over it.

All I want you to know is that test prep is where it's at. We have only three slots left. I want to do this quick video here for you. Type in "Yes" below. Share this with your friends.

If you got any families you know that have a sophomore or junior or unfortunate senior right now, please share this with them because we want to make sure we're trying to help them as much as possible in the college admissions process.

Specifically, in test prep because I'm here to tell you that even if your kid is a 1550 or 1490, we can still help to get to that perfect score. No joke! If your kid has an eleven hundred or not even a 900, were working with kids like that right now today too.

If you think that they can crack open a book, and they're getting the right way to do the test, you could be totally wrong, because I see it over and over. So many students study, but they don't study smart.

You want your kid to study smart.

Study as much as possible but really do it in efficient way with their time and that's why we are here at College Shortcuts.

Comment below, say "Yes", and I would love to help you!

This is Neha Gupta, founder of College Shortcuts and Elite Private Tutors. Glad to see you on and have an amazing day!

Bye!

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