Premier College Prep helps students improve SAT, ACT scores

Admin — 2008-09-10T02:17:46-07:00

Premier College Prep helps students improve SAT, ACT scores
From the Sylvania Advantage

"Most who perform at the highest level have a personal coach...one who does not decide whether you play or not, but one who is concerned with your doing your personal best..." says Carol Hall, founder of Premier College Prep, a company specializing in helping students prepare for SAT and ACT examinations.

"Test taking involves more than just knowing the material. Peak performance involves so much more than that. Peak performance is all about being focused, relaxed and working hard. My goal for my students is for them to think like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. Both of them know how to peak perform," she related. "Peak performance skills can be learned. In addition to teaching substantive knowledge, I use brain-compatible research in my classes to help my students maximize their college entrance test scores," she offered.

According to Mrs. Hall, with the cost of college reaching tens of thousands of dollars, the cost of preparation can be a great investment. ACT and SAT test scores affect not only college entrance, but also scholarship dollars and honors program acceptance. A high grade point average does not necessarily guarantee a high ACT, PSAT or SAT score. These are tests of skill and achievement that are proven to be affected by coaching.

The PSAT or Preliminary SAT, tests verbal, math and writing skills and has multiple choice questions involving grammar and rhetoric. The SAT tests verbal and math skills. The verbal sections are composed of high level reading comprehension, analogy and sentence completion questions. The math sections contain primarily logic and reasoning problems. The ACT tests math, English, science and reading and is aligned to the high school curriculum. The ACT tests students on their achievement in high school.

A former math and biology teacher as well as an academic dean, Mrs. Hall has always been an avid reader. During her career, Mrs. Hall attended numerous learning seminars. When her son, a good student and athlete, was being recruited to play basketball by Princeton University, it was noted that his SAT score needed to increase by 100 points. "We worked together and he was able to raise his score by 200 points. Realizing other students could use this help, I spent at least a year developing an official course for preparing for the PSAT and SAT, which I taught at St. John�s Jesuit High School. The principal looked at the before and after scores and suggested I also create an ACT prep class, which took another year and more," Mrs. Hall remembered.

The success of these two programs led a Sylvania Northview principal to suggest that Mrs. Hall develop a study skills class to help students with overall school performance. "And that took another year to develop the peak performance study skills class," she said. The PSAT/SAT and the ACT courses are 21 hours spanning seven weeks. All classes are s limited to 25 students. The peak performance study skills class, which includes speed reading, individual learning styles, memory, note taking, organization, language power and brain care is a 12-hour program with six two-hour sessions.

A summer PSAT/SAT and ACT prep class will be held beginning July 16 through July 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Way Public Library, Perrysburg or Aug 26t at St. Ursula Academy or Notre Dame Academy. ACT classes begin Aug. 26 at t St. Ursula Academy, Aug. 27 at Bowling Green�s Firelands campus in Huron, Ohio and Sept. 18 at Way Public Library. Those classes are in preparation for the Oct. 17 PSAT examination; the Oct. 6 or Nov. 3 SAT examination and the Oct. 27 ACT examination. A series of winter and spring classes are scheduled for the spring examinations.

Mrs. Hall has also scheduled a summer peak performance study skills class beginning July 16 through 21 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Way Public Library, Perrysburg.

"What really fires me up is when I hear success stories from my students or their parents. Recently, I had a boy who applied the peak performance brain techniques I had been teaching him to cross-country track. He went from unranked to fourth in the city. Another mother said, �You make my daughter feel smart. I am a teacher and I want to know how you do that?� And, I will always remember the student who went from a 19 to a 27 on the ACT," she reflected. "Then there is my youngest son whose PSAT score went up 300 points and he was a National Merit scholar."

Other notes include accolades such as "I want you to know that my son raised his ACT score 3 points as a result of your class. This put him in a category to receive a Presidential Scholarship at his school�that equates to $10,000 over four years!" and "My son was in the 87th percentile on his sophomore PSAT. After taking your class, he was in the 99th percentile on his junior year PSAT and was a National Merit Scholar. He was offered a total of $400,000 in scholarships."

According to these parents, preparation seems to have paid well.

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Premier College Prep helps students improve SAT, ACT scores