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I. About Our Test Preparation Programs
II. About the SAT
III. About the SAT versus the ACT
IV. About Advantage Testing
I. About Our Test Preparation Programs1. Where does the tutoring take place?Tutoring sessions take place in the student's home or the tutor's office. Other options may be available as well, for example the student's school, depending on the student, tutor, and Advantage Testing location. In addition, special tutoring arrangements such as remote tutoring can be made through our New York City office and other larger offices. 2. How and when should my son or daughter start tutoring?Virtually all students begin our program by taking a diagnostic test. We utilize the diagnostic test to analyze strengths and weaknesses, to help us select an appropriate tutor, and to give us a sense of how the overall program should be structured. We strongly recommend that students preparing for the SAT, for example, work with a tutor for an academic year or more before they take the official test. Students preparing for an SAT Subject Test usually meet with a tutor for several months before the scheduled test date. For details about getting started, please visit our How to Enroll section. For contact information such as phone numbers, please select a specific Advantage Testing location or call our New York office at 212-744-8800. 3. What does a typical Advantage Testing test preparation program look like?The precise length of a program depends on several factors:
Each tutoring program is designed to address the particular needs of the individual student. While there are no prescribed or mandatory programs, there are typical schedules that we have found to be efficient and productive. Our tutors usually meet with students weekly. For further details, please click on the Standardized Test Preparation link on the left side of this page. 4. What are the typical results of your programs?The New York Times has noted that the score increases of our students were "stunning." These strong results are the product of one-on-one tutoring directed by our belief that every student should and can be considered individually. Each program is unique, tailored to the specific needs and aspirations of the student. We have no arbitrary benchmark point increase that we would consider a satisfactory result. Nevertheless, judging by our student evaluations, the vast majority of our students (approximately 99%) are overwhelmingly happy with their tutors, their learning experience, and their final scores. Most important, our students report experiencing a heightened sense of confidence and mastery when approaching other academic and intellectual challenges in high school, college, and beyond. Families have especially appreciated the long-term benefits of our program. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, one parent described his family's experience with Advantage Testing as "somewhere between spectacular and indescribable." 5. Do you offer a guarantee of results?No. We do not offer guarantees. Learning is a complex process, and standardized tests are designed to be challenging for even the strongest students. Many factors affect the outcome of a program: the length of the program, the number of meetings and tests, the student's starting point, hours of studying, and others. We control these variables as much as possible while addressing concerns throughout the process. We also monitor scores carefully through practice tests, so that we can gauge progress and predict test performance with some accuracy. Above all, we have a professional and personal commitment to seeing every student perform his or her best on test day. 6. Would scores improve anyway without tutoring?Of course maturation and classroom education can help improve scores. But it is not true that scores will inevitably or significantly improve for all students. On PSAT score reports, for example, the College Board projects a likely SAT score range with numbers both slightly lower and slightly higher than the equivalent PSAT score. Standardized tests are designed to yield relatively consistent resultsnot constantly improving results. Nor does it seem to be in the student's best interest to encourage complacency when faced with an academic gauge. As the New York Times Magazine puts it, "Indeed, the best way to improve the SAT's might be to give up the pretense that students can't improve their scores through tutoring or coaching. 'It's ridiculous to view the SAT as a pristine measure that can't be affected,' Alagappan says. Indeed, that very idea undermines the value of a test as a motivating force." 7. Do you believe in teaching short-term tricks to help students improve on their tests?No. Our test preparation programs are long-term. They consist of learning ideas, information, and approaches in a logical, meaningful way. We neither take nor recommend an approach that favors "cramming" or "tricks". Shortcuts such as these tend to yield erratic score increases at best and negative life lessons at worst. We set a high academic standard for students that they in turn usually meet. Our approach is academic and rigorous; 98% of our students have described their experience with us as "educational." Evidence abounds that this educational experience is the most effective way to raise scores. II. About the SAT8. Now that the SAT no longer includes analogy questions, do students still need to study vocabulary in preparation for the SAT?Yes. The sentence completion questions still explicitly test particular dictionary definitions. Furthermore, the Critical Reading sections increasingly test vocabulary in context. There are certainly many words in the English language: comprehensive dictionaries contain more than 600,000 word forms. But the SAT draws from an important subset representing approximately one percent of that total. This important subset—words that parents would want their children to know—serves as the currency of almost every branch of higher education. If students have not yet learned these words, the SAT provides the ideal impetus for doing so. Every student can and should learn the cornerstones of English vocabulary represented by this one percent. 9. What do you think of the emphasis on critical reading in the SAT?Representing a substantial part of the student's SAT score, the Critical Reading portions of the SAT can help introduce students to ideas and modes of expression that they will encounter in college. Critical Reading passages from the SAT consistently deal with topics of academic or cultural importancetopics that students are likely to encounter both in their formal studies and in the world beyond. Here are just a few of the topics covered by reading passages from past exams:
10. Isn't lifelong reading the only way to improve critical reading skills?No. The suggestion that only lifelong reading can promote critical reading skills could actively discourage those students who are not lifelong readers—and they are legion—from attempting to improve their reading abilities. A thorough approach to the SAT reading passages can demystify the comprehension process for readers of all levels, arming them with helpful skills for reading in college and in general. In turn, this approach can end up motivating independent reading, an invaluable asset in developing a students knowledge, skills, and sensibilities. 11. Does the SAT test academic content?Yes. The SAT has for decades followed the official recommendations of advisory panels of leading educators. Lasting three hours and forty-five minutes, this multiple-choice and free-response exam tests:
We believe that the SAT makes an earnest and successful effort to test concepts and skills useful for college. The vocabulary it tests is certainly the currency of a liberal arts education. Read Hawthorne, Joyce, Austen, Conrad, Dostoevsky, Wharton, and Melville, and you will encounter many of the words tested on the SAT. The SAT has incorporated material considered vital by a range of high school and university educators. We view the exam as fundamentally sound but, because no test is perfect, we would like to see the SAT serve an appropriate and unexaggerated role in college admissions. 12. What is distinctive about your SAT program?MaterialsOur course materials have been designed by systematically deconstructing every official SAT published in the last 25 years.
TutorsIn addition, our tutors are educators dedicated to their students' success. From literally thousands of applicants nationwide, we have assembled a group of 200 extraordinary "teachers with impressive credentials," as the New York Times Magazine wrote. (For specific information about our faculty, please select a location or visit our list of New York Tutors as an example.) Students and supervisors independently evaluate the work of our tutors several times a year. To the best of our knowledge, our group represents the most highly evaluated team of educators of any teaching enterprise or educational institution in the country. For a summary of student evaluations of our tutors, please click here. Practice TestsWe also provide repeated opportunities for students to practice on realistic materials under timed conditions in proctored, test-taking environments. As well as learning concepts and skills, students are thus able to refine the performance elements necessary to succeed on the SAT. 13. Is it fair to study for the SAT?Of course it is. It's fair and rational to study for any test on which one can improve. Improvement on the SAT, like academic merit in general, is earned through hard work and determination. Indeed, the capacity for hard work and the willingness to engage in it are at least as important in success as is intelligence. Too often, "merit" is viewed as an immutable intellectual status that is somehow independent of the very effort that actually develops intellect. The danger in this static and artificial division is that the false dichotomy provides a powerful disincentive to study. III. About the SAT vs. the ACT14. Will the ACT Assessment increase in prominence over the next few years?The ACT Assessment may increase in prominence, especially in areas such as the Northeast and the West Coast, where students have traditionally taken the SAT. Several reasons account for this possibility:
15. What are the similarities and differences between the ACT and the SAT?The ACT and the SAT are valuable tests. Both assess the educational development of high school students and the ability to perform college level work. However, the ACT and the SAT are different educational instruments with different emphases. The ACT Assessment, which tests skills in English, Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Essay writing (optional), is designed to assess primarily curriculum-based content and analytical reasoning skills. Results on this test are reported on a scale from 1-36 for each subject area and are averaged together for a composite score. The SAT is designed to measure a student's verbal, quantitative reasoning, and writing abilities. Students taking this test currently receive Critical Reading, Math, and Writing scores ranging from 200-800. To see an ACT and SAT score correspondence table, please click here. Other notable differences include:
16. Are there students for whom the ACT makes more sense?There are certainly students for whom it makes more sense to take the ACT than it does to take the SAT. Of course, which test a student should take depends, in part, upon the admissions requirements of the colleges to which he or she is interested in applying. We encourage students to follow the recommendations of their high schools in determining an appropriate and specific test regimen. Advantage Testing is able to help these students and their families make more informed decisions through our diagnostic process whenever appropriate; however, we discourage any attempts to "outwit" the college admissions process. Our students' improved performances invariably come out of hard work and determination. In the past, schools in the Midwest often encouraged students to take the ACT, while East and West Coast schools often favored the SAT. Given that virtually all colleges and universities now accept ACT results, we anticipate that the testing demographic for each of the tests will change. 17. What is the significance of the new, optional Essay on the ACT?In February, 2005, ACT, Inc., added an optional 30-minute Essay writing component to the ACT Assessment to complement the English section of the test. It is likely that ACT, Inc., added the writing component to respond to the evolving needs of colleges and universities. Not all colleges and universities require the writing sample, so the ACT affords students the option of taking only the tests that are required for admission to their prospective schools. Like the writing section of the SAT, the English component of the ACT gauges students' understanding of grammar, usage, sentence structure, and punctuation. The inclusion of an optional essay suggests that the two tests are converging to some extent. 18. Do colleges that have traditionally favored the SAT have a bias against the ACT? If East Coast or West Coast students take the ACT, does that send up a red flag?Virtually all schools that accept the SAT also accept the ACT. We have not known schools that accept both tests to discriminate against the ACT in favor of the SAT. The implication that students from certain geographic areas may send up a red flag by taking the ACT erroneously implies that the ACT is an inferior test. The ACT is simply another sound educational assessment tool produced by ACT, Inc., a test research organization less familiar in certain areas than is the Educational Testing Service, which produces the SAT. We encourage each student to take seriously the opportunity to demonstrate his or her academic merit through hard work and determination, focused preparation, studying, and consolidating and integrating new academic material. Standardized tests—whether the ACT, the SAT, or other educational assessment tools—provide such an opportunity. However, standardized tests are just one part of a students application. High school grades, the rigor of the chosen curriculum, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, a personal interview, and the application itself are also important. IV. About Advantage Testing19. What do private tutors do?We teach. We respect and complement the curricula and high standards of teaching at local schools. We have dedicated our careers to helping students develop their math, reading, logical reasoning, and writing skills, along with a host of other abilities for tests and academic subjects. As Tony Schwartz writes in his New York Times Magazine article: "[Advantage Testing founder Arun] Alagappan isn't so much teaching the test as simply teaching—in this case, intensive tutorials in math or reading." Furthermore, the SAT program often inspires students to work harder at school. In his article, Mr. Schwartz describes "sending [his] own teenager to work with [Advantage Testing] several years ago, paying the full fee for doing so and observing not just a significant increase in SAT scores but also major improvement in schoolwork and a burgeoning intellectual self-confidence..." It is our goal to enrich our students' intellectual growth both within and beyond the scope of standardized tests. 20. What training do your tutors receive?Our tutors receive intensive test-specific training by our directors and senior tutors prior to working with students. The training program is comprehensive, incorporating all relevant academic materials and approaches that we have developed over the last two decades. In addition to explaining the material in detail, we engage tutors in simulated teaching scenarios and offer guidance for shaping students' strategies. Ongoing informal and formal assessments, along with constructive criticism and open discussions, ensure that tutors continue to develop their craft as they work with us. For information about specific tutors, please visit the tutor lists by selecting an Advantage Testing location. 21. How are your rates determined?Our rates reflect the professional nature of our services, the qualifications of our tutors, their careful training, our painstakingly developed materials, our results, and the fact that Advantage Testing likely consists of the most highly evaluated group of tutors in America. Individual tutors' rates depend on several factors, including student evaluations, score increases, and levels of experience. 22. Isn't high-quality private tutoring expensive?Yes. We recognize the costs, we realize that they are daunting for many, and we work to provide realistic options through our active Financial Aid and Public Service Initiatives programs. Our nation offers a range of excellent public and independent options for education. If families can and choose to pursue private education, to say that the overall expenses are high is an understatement. The cost of an independent high school and college education can amount to more than $300,000. Add to this amount the cost of a private grade school, and the total can exceed $500,000. The amount families spend on Advantage Testing's services represents a small percentage of that total, while many if not most of our students regard their one-on-one work with our private tutors to be among the most important educational experiences of their lives. Teacher compensation in the United States is lower, as a fraction of our GNP, than it is in virtually every other major industrialized country in the world. The number one expense at Advantage Testing is teacher salaries. As the New York Times Magazine states, "In the end, [Advantage Testing] is simply bringing to the SAT's the same qualities we most value in any teacher—passion, patience, clarity, inspiration. In turn, [Alagappan] has sought to attract people like himself to tutoring by offering them rates comparable to those earned by top professionals in other fields." The fees we charge are comparable to, not higher than, those of leading professionals in other fields. The rationale? Private tutoring by exceptional teachers can have a profound effect on a student's confidence, ability, and attitude. 23. Do you offer financial aid?Yes. Please visit our Public Service Initiatives and Financial Aid pages for details about our programs. Since its inception, Advantage Testing has worked hard to make its educational and counseling services accessible to students of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. To that end, the group has provided pro bono instructional help and financial support to a variety of individuals and public service organizations, offered generous financial aid packages to students with demonstrable need, and donated tutoring services to charity benefits and school scholarship funds. We also hold small group lessons for which we offer significant financial aid to families that qualify. It is our explicit goal to enroll motivated students in our programs regardless of their ability to pay. We are continually developing new programs to improve access to our services. We welcome any ideas from within and beyond our group that will help make Advantage Testing accessible to families of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. 24. Do you offer tutoring for other tests and subjects?Yes. We teach a number of standardized tests including the SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests, SSAT, and ISEE. We also offer academic tutoring in a range of subjects at the elementary, high school, college, and professional school level. In addition to providing academic tutoring, we have also worked with students on college, graduate, and professional school applications when the institutions to which students are applying permit assistance in the preparation of such applications. 25. Has the media ever covered Advantage Testing?Yes. Although we have not sought publicity, Advantage Testing has been favorably featured in more than two dozen publications, including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, The Harvard Crimson, New York Magazine, The New York Observer, Crain's New York Business, Private School Insider, and Upper East Side Resident. Advantage Testing has also been positively reviewed by WABC TV, KCBS Radio, Bloomberg Radio, and numerous other major media outlets. For details, please visit our media coverage section. 26. What role can tutoring play in improving education on a national level?As an approach to the problem of educational disparity, tutoring has enormous potential. To read an article by our founder on this topic, please click here. We believe that tutoring can be an active, integral part of the solution for bridging achievement gaps. As adaptable as it is effective, tutoring requires few investments beyond the right instructor and a quiet room, making this approach suitable for all students. |
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