College Preparedness

It’s never too early to prepare your student with tutoring and test prep

Get Started Today Schedule a Tour

Is your student prepared for college?

If you have a highschooler preparing for college, the number of exams and applications they have to complete can feel overwhelming. From AP tests for college credit to the PSAT and SAT exams themselves, make sure you’re giving your children the support they need through AP, PSAT, and SAT test prep opportunities.

At IvySmart Education in Torrance, Redondo, and Palos Verdes, we offer a variety of college prep tools to help your child succeed both in high school and when they get to college, including: 

• AP test prep
• PSAT practice
• SAT prep
• Subject specific tutoring
• Study skills and tutoring sessions

Get started with our team of experienced tutors at IvySmart and give your child the boost they need with college tutoring and test prep opportunities!

Start Preparing for College

Is your student prepared for college?

If you have a highschooler preparing for college, the number of exams and applications they have to complete can feel overwhelming. From AP tests for college credit to the PSAT and SAT exams themselves, make sure you’re giving your children the support they need through AP, PSAT, and SAT test prep opportunities.

At IvySmart Education in Torrance, Redondo, and Palos Verdes, we offer a variety of college prep tools to help your child succeed both in high school and when they get to college, including: 

• AP test prep
• PSAT practice
• SAT prep
• Subject specific tutoring
• Study skills and tutoring sessions

Get started with our team of experienced tutors at IvySmart and give your child the boost they need with college tutoring and test prep opportunities!

Start Preparing for College

AP Test Prep

“Advanced Placement” (AP) is a program of college-level courses offered at many high schools. Courses are available in many subject areas, including English, history, humanities, languages, math, psychology, and science.

It’s time to start thinking about which AP courses grab your interest, and how they might start you on the right path to college and career success. This program prepares students for the AP Examinations that are administered each year in May and represent the culmination of college-level work in a given discipline in a secondary school setting. Rigorously developed by committees of college and AP high school faculty, the AP Exams test students’ ability to perform at a college level.

Sign Up Today

AP Test Prep

“Advanced Placement” (AP) is a program of college-level courses offered at many high schools. Courses are available in many subject areas, including English, history, humanities, languages, math, psychology, and science.

It’s time to start thinking about which AP courses grab your interest, and how they might start you on the right path to college and career success. This program prepares students for the AP Examinations that are administered each year in May and represent the culmination of college-level work in a given discipline in a secondary school setting. Rigorously developed by committees of college and AP high school faculty, the AP Exams test students’ ability to perform at a college level.

Sign Up Today

PSAT & SAT Prep

A great modus operandi (or method) for a superior SAT score is to prepare in a study group setting. That’s why IvySmart offers PSAT and SAT prep to help high school students achieve higher scores on the test.

But before we get into the benefits of PSAT and SAT prep tutoring at IvySmart and the type of test prep groups we offer, it’s important to understand what the PSAT and SAT are, and why it’s important for high school students to get a good score.

What Is the PSAT?

The PSAT is a preliminary SAT test that is administered by the College Board and offered to freshman, sophomores, and juniors in high school. While the PSAT can be seen as practice for the official SAT college entrance exam, it also works as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Students who score exceptionally on the PSAT could qualify to receive scholarship money for college. 

Signing your child up for PSAT practice can prepare your highschooler for the exam and increase their chances of becoming a Commended Scholar and receiving that scholarship funding.

What Is the SAT?

The SAT is an entrance exam used by most colleges and universities to help determine college admittance, along with scholarship awards. While college admissions also weigh other factors like GPA, high school classes, letters of recommendation, and personal essays, they will also review standardized scores in relation to other applicants and current students. This makes having a strong score important for students pursuing Ivy League universities or more competitive colleges and universities.

The SAT is scored using a composite score that ranges from 0—1600. Each section (or area) will be scored out of 800 with the two area scores added together to create the final composite score.

To see what kind of SAT score to aim for, we recommend checking the average admittance score at each specific school. Most schools offer a breakdown of what their current students received and what SAT scores they are looking for. This will give you an idea of what each school is looking for when it comes to the SAT test.

Most high school students start taking the SAT during the spring of their junior year or fall of their senior year to have scores back in time for application deadlines. The sooner you take the test, the more time you have to schedule additional tests to aim for a higher score. Options like our SAT tutoring and test prep programs can help familiarize students with the structure and type of questions on the test so they’re prepared before they arrive.

Test Breakdown

The SAT test is broken into two sections: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math (with and without a calculator).

The first section is broken into Reading and Writing & Language:

• Reading: 52 multiple-choice questions in 65 minutes
• Writing & Language: 44 multiple-choice questions in 35 minutes

Following a break, the second portion of the SAT section is math. There are a total of 45 multiple-choice questions and 13 student-produced questions to be completed in 80 minutes. This test is broken into portions that the student answers with and without a calculator.

It’s important to note that there are no points taken off for wrong answers, so each question should have an answer before time is up!

The optional essay is 50 minutes long and will be scored separately from the composite score. The final score on the essay ranges from 6-24, depending on how many points are awarded for each section.

Benefits to SAT Tutoring

As we mentioned, preparing for the SAT in a study group is a valuable method for improving students’ scores on the test. This space:

• Provides diverse viewpoints
• Creates a strong support system that keeps your student accountable
• Helps your student set goals within that group
• Can reduce test stress
• Forms a sense of community between other test takers

Right now, our group SAT tutoring program meets twice a week. The Friday session focuses on math while the Saturday session focuses on English and an SAT mock-test that lasts for three and a half hours. This practice test will help each student see the progress they are making, along with a breakdown of how they’re doing on each section.

If we know what sections your student is struggling most with, we can work on improving those areas so they can get a better score the next time around.

At IvySmart, we’ve seen how effective and efficient our SAT study group can be. Certain studies also show that when students study together, they learn 2.5 times more than students who try to study by themselves. That’s why we’ve created an academic environment where this type of test prep can develop. Through our SAT tutoring program, we’ve seen an aggregate score increase of 300 points.

Don’t wait to prepare for the SAT. Sign up for SAT tutoring and test prep at IvySmart Education today!

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

TUTORING SERVICES

CONTACT US NOW