For some students, starting to prepare for and take tests early can be an effective strategy. Why? First, since you control all your scores, you decide which scores schools and colleges see and which ones they don’t. As such, tests can be taken purely for practice and familiarization purposes – and who knows? Perhaps you’ll ace your tests the first time, leaving lots of time to focus on other aspects of the college or private school application, like activities and grades.

For high school students, it makes sense to begin selecting ACT or SAT, and then moving down a gradual path of skill building and preparation for the corresponding test. This would involve working with practice questions and passages to gain comfort and familiarity. You could even take the ACT or SAT (or both) in 9th grade. Since most colleges superscore the ACT and SAT, taking tests early can allow students to focus on individual test sections, thus producing highly elevated sub-scores, which in turn produce a much higher ACT and SAT superscore.

For private school candidates, most schools require you to take the ISEE fourth grade one through eight admission, or SSAT for grade 9 through 12 admission.

Avalon’s curriculum team and tutors comprise industry insiders and item writers who have literally built tests from the inside out. Further, our curriculum team leader is industry icon Neil Chyten, whose revolutionary strategies have helped tens of thousands of students earn literally millions of additional points across the US and around the world. At Avalon, you get incredible strategies based on our years of insider experience.

Are Test Scores Still Important?

Yes, test scores remain an essential factor in college and private school admission. For colleges, test scores are among the top three factors considered by admission committees, along with grades and strength of curriculum. For private schools, scores on the ISEE and SSAT are just as important as grades and recommendations. When all other admission factors are in place, test scores can get you in or they can keep you out.

How Effective is Avalon’s Test Prep?

At Avalon, we hire the most talented teaching professional in their fields, and then train them in our proprietary test-taking methods and strategies. All tutors have master’s degrees and many have PhD’s all from the top colleges across America. Therefore, at Avalon, you always get an expert tutor teaching first-rate strategies, backed up by Avalon’s tutor-match guarantee: If you don’t agree, the session is free.

Get Started