Monthly Archives: March 2021

31 Mar 2021

Managing Your Time in the Age of Covid

It has been a strange and devastating year, with rippling effects in nearly every part of our lives. One such effect has been a complete reimagining of how students attend school. For students who struggle to manage their time – indeed, for most students – hybrid and remote learning have presented serious challenges. Their schedules alone can be incredibly confusing; I have a student whose classes switch between live and asynchronous, remote and in-person. All of these classes have both homework and asynchronous classwork. For even the most organized student, keeping a schedule like this straight and managing all of the work can become overwhelming.

Beyond the logistics of keeping schedules, classwork, and homework straight, there lies the very real challenge of spending hours a day learning on Zoom, Google Meet, or some other remote learning platform. Having myself completed a teaching certification in July that required me to be on Zoom for seven hours a day for three weeks, I know first-hand how draining this can be.

So what can students do to make all of this easier?

I have my students write out a daily schedule, in which they clearly map out every hour of the school day. This helps them to keep track of their live classes, and it also helps them to block out time for asynchronous classwork. If a student does this at the beginning of the week, they can lean on this schedule to guide them through each day; it eliminates the energy spent on the guesswork of “where am I supposed to be now? What am I supposed to be doing?” Getting in the habit of creating a schedule also sets students up for success down the road. Many students struggle when they enter college because the combination of more free hours and heavier workload requires some top-notch time management skills. If a student has started implementing these skills in high school, it sets them up for success.  

Another tip is to encourage students to write out their daily schedules on paper or in a physical planner, rather than on their phones or in Google Calendar. Working on a written schedule provides a nice break from screens, and there’s something satisfying about physically crossing tasks off of a list.

Lauren Singerman, Director of Tutoring

25 Mar 2021

Reading Your Way Through the SAT & ACT

Back in June, we put together several reading lists for students looking to bulk up on their summer reading. But did you know that reading is actually an excellent way to prepare for the SAT or ACT? Or really any test for that matter! Let’s break down the test sections and see how strong reading skills will give you a leg up on every part of the ACT or SAT… 

English, Writing, and Reading

Of course, strong verbal skills will serve you well on the Reading and Writing Sections of the SAT and the English and Reading sections of the ACT. While it may seem that the English and Writing sections are mainly focused on grammar, punctuation, and syntax — not purely reading comprehension — strong reading skills are still essential to success. Many of the Writing questions require you to wade through long, convoluted sentences and then determine how the sentence might be improved. If you have lots of practice reading complex material in any context — from novels to articles to nonfiction — you will have a much easier time of understanding these passages. The errors may even begin to jump out at you! 

Math 

The application of your reading skills to the Math sections of the SAT and ACT are certainly less intuitive, but equally important! The vast majority of math problems on these exams are not purely testing your mastery of mathematical concepts. Even the most straightforward problems are accompanied by text, some of which can be translated into mathematical notation if you are able to decipher what the problem is telling you. In the case of a word problem, this might look something like translating a paragraph into a system of equations. These problems — the ones that require you to read through a lengthy chunk of text before getting to the mathematical objective — can feel especially daunting. With strong reading comprehension skills, not only will these questions feel more manageable, but you will also be able to breeze through them with plenty of time on the clock. 

Science

Similar to Math sections, the Science section is full of scientific graphs and charts, but the bulk of the passages are paragraphs describing an experiment or situation. What skills will serve you best in distilling down and picking out the essential information? Your reading skills, of course! Basically, the Science section is a glorified Reading section: read the passage, synthesize the information, and answer questions about the material provided. Don’t be intimidated by the graphs and charts, they’re only there to help you! 


Hopefully, we’ve convinced you to squeeze a little more reading time into your busy schedule. It will pay off not only in your test prep endeavors, but in whatever academic pursuits are on the horizon. Check out our post on Reading for SAT & ACT Preparation and while you’re at it, take a look at our general Reading Suggestions. Happy reading! If you’re looking for additional academic or test prep support, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. As always, we don’t just tutor, we’ll be with you every step of the way™!

10 Mar 2021

ACT At-Home Testing Update

Back in November of 2020, ACT alluded to the imminent release of an online, at-home testing alternative for students struggling to take the ACT in person due to COVID-related barriers. However, ACT recently announced — definitively this time — that an at-home test will not be rolled out this year.

ACT CEO Janet Godwin notes that between extensive research and collaboration with partner organizations, ACT has “laid the groundwork for remote proctoring, but more development time is needed to launch an accessible, secure, and customer-centric option.” ACT cites their commitment to “equitable access to remote proctoring” as the reason for the delay, as they work to ensure their remote proctoring options suit the needs of students and institutions alike. 

In the meantime, both ACT and the College Board are striving to keep students as up-to-date as possible on test center closures, which have disrupted testing schedules throughout the past year. Students can register for the April 17th ACT test date through March 12th (late registration runs from March 12th – March 26th). If cancellations occur between the date a student registers and March 26th, students will be able to request a change at no cost to them through their MyACT portal. At Sentia, we have many students, particularly those located in California, who have experienced closures and opted to sign up to test at centers several hours from home where seats are available. Though these solutions are not ideal, given that remote proctoring will not become an option this year, those who are eager to include test scores reflecting their academic abilities with their college applications may need to travel (safely) in order to take the ACT or SAT. 

ACT is also ramping up their notification practices to ensure that students are notified promptly of any test center closures that affect their testing plan. Students can expect to receive an email notification if there is a test center closure, if ACT moves them from a closed or at-capacity test center to an open test center, and when test scores are released. 

As for the College Board, keep an eye on this SAT Test Center Closings database if you have plans to take the SAT in the coming months. Additionally, we recommend that students contact their SAT testing centers directly to confirm that they are still open. The College Board will continue to contact students directly if their chosen testing centers are closed, but it would be best to get out ahead of this and reschedule if necessary, in case there’s a delay in the College Board contacting those who have been affected by test center closures. 

We know that last-minute testing disruptions and closures can be overwhelming. We want to help ensure that your testing experience goes as smoothly as possible. If that means finding a new testing location, formulating a test prep plan, or working through testing strategies, we are always happy to help. At Sentia, we don’t just tutor, we’ll be with you every step of the way.

04 Mar 2021

Embracing Small Wins

It’s a tricky thing, embarking on standardized test prep. So many students and their families have voices in their ears, bombarding them with widely varying opinions regarding how to do it “right.”

“She’s going to need to meet with a tutor twice a week for a full year to come even close to the score she needs.”

“My son takes a practice test once a week! It’s the only way to do it!”

“No 8’s and 9’s on the ISEE? Forget about applying to any decent schools.”

These opinions can come from friends, family members, admissions counselors, tutors…anyone who has been through the process and considers themselves an expert.

Here’s the thing, though: the tests are standardized. Students aren’t. A student is not a number on a score report. And the number on the score report isn’t the final say in admissions.

After many years as a tutoring company administrator and tutor for various standardized tests, one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is the importance of managing expectations. And here’s what I know: if a student meets with a tutor once a week for a few months, is motivated and focused in sessions, asks questions, does their homework, and takes a mock test roughly once a month, that student is very likely to improve their score. That improvement comes from a combination of learning new material and new strategies, learning how to manage time, and becoming more comfortable with the format of the test. 

But what will that improvement look like? It’s not the same for everyone.

A student’s final score is almost always directly proportional to where they started from. If an ACT student comes into test prep having forgotten most of what they learned in Algebra, the priority will be to strengthen their confidence with those basic skills before moving on to more advanced math topics. And the speed with which they absorb and retain those skills will dictate how much more material is covered. If this student started with a 20 on the Math section of their first mock, and – within four months of tutoring – they’re up to a 25, that is a huge win in my book. Five points is quite a leap. Now, a 25 is not a 34, which is closer to what most students and their parents would like to see. But for that student, considering where they started, a 25 should be seen as a great accomplishment. It should be celebrated! 

Celebrating small victories is crucial to progress in the test prep process. Giving students permission to focus on small achievements boosts their confidence and motivates them to continue to improve. Focusing on what they don’t have or haven’t achieved can lead to frustration, a feeling of helplessness, and – therefore – diminishing returns. 

A tutor can set a student up for success with these small victories by working with the student to set reasonable goals. For example: answering the first 25 questions of the ACT Math section correctly on their next mock; writing down their own word choice for the synonym portion of the next ISEE mock before looking at the answer choices; really drilling the comma rules and nailing those questions on the next SAT mock test. 

In a process that can feel overwhelming and intimidating for many, setting realistic goals and managing expectations only sets students up for success. This idea has guided my work as a tutor and administrator for many years, and I think it has had a hand in helping my students to feel empowered and motivated in their navigation of the test prep process.

Lauren Singerman, Director of Tutoring