Is your child hoping to be US university or college bound next year? If so, you probably have been watching your child slog through their SAT/ACT prep with workshops in Reading, Writing and Math, studying test questions, and sampling practice exams for the necessary test-drive so that they can perform their best in this SAT/ACT season. These standardized tests, offered once a month from October to June, can overload your child’s academic schedule and add considerable pressure to their regular school life. What can you do to help as an ‘SAT parent’?
SAT parents can learn to understand the general purpose and scope of the test and be supportive and encouraging in their child’s preparation and test-taking periods. Here are a few helpful tips:
1) Prepare early and prepare well: Take interest in the SAT or ACT with a general perspective to plan well for the test. As early as Grade 10, start your child on preparing for and taking the SSAT or PSAT, which are the preliminary standardized tests for the SAT. These pre-SAT tests will expose them to content topics, skills and knowledge that are tested at a higher level in the SAT.
2) Get to know the Tests: Find out what the SAT or ACT is about and how it is used by the universities and colleges that require them. Knowing the content sections of the test can help you appreciate the required knowledge and problem-solving skills that you child needs to be proficient in for success under time constraints. If you are aware of what is tested, you can support your child by targeting the weaker topic areas and focusing on the right preparatory strategies to strengthen the writing, reading or mathematical skills that need improvement. You can also try the SAT Test yourself by taking the SAT Parent Challenge at the following website: http://inquiry.princetonreview.com/ugrad/satparentchallenge/
3) Set realistic targets: Parents can help their child set target scores that are achievable and celebrate their success at every milestone along the way. When your child begins studying for the SAT or ACT, they are mostly getting to know the format of the test and are less focused on test-taking strategies, such as time management, that they will learn later to help them achieve their best scores. Since the SAT or ACT can be written a number of times, you can sit down with your child to work out some realistic scores over the test period in order to get to their end goal.
To find out more about the SAT, go to: www.collegeboard.org. To find out more about the ACT, go to www.actstudent.org.
If your child is writing the SAT or ACT, Options Solutions can help you and your child put together an SAT or ACT prep and test-taking program to achieve their best scores. Contact us at (604) 922-8456 or info@options-wp.chhdev.com for more information or check or calendar for upcoming workshop dates.
