Summer is a break from the toil and drudgery of the school year, a time when students can explore their own passions on their own time, or take advantage of some truly exceptional opportunities. We’ve written about this before of course, and have shared some exciting opportunities available to students, everything from research programs to internships. In this article, we’re going to approach a topic most students don’t want to consider, especially while on vacation from school work: studying for the SAT and ACT. Summer is a great time to get some work in, and really boost your scores in preparation to apply for college. In this article we’ll explain why this is a good idea, how to go about approaching this studying, and how to make sure you can still enjoy your summer to the fullest while you do so. Let’s get started!
Why Prepare for Standardized Tests over the Summer?
This is a common question. After all, school is done for the year, you’re free, why would you willingly return to math problems and analyzing written passages for meaning? There are two reasons, both important. The first is that studying works best if done over a long period of time, working knowledge and skills into your long-term memory.
It’s possible to cram for a test, sure, but then all that knowledge is lost just as quickly, and you’re starting from square one again next time. If you really master the knowledge over a longer period, then it’s all engrained, and you have a much firmer foundation when it comes time to prepare for the next test. Of course, the ideal is to only need to take the test once, but studying over a longer period is still more effective for this too.
Second, the SAT and ACT are both meant to be based primarily on knowledge you learn in high school. How well they actually manage this is debated, but that is the intention. These skills, and everything else you learn in high school, is like any other skill; if you stop doing it for a while you get rusty. Just like a professional athlete still trains in the off-season to stay sharp, so too do you need to exercise your mental muscles during the summer.
Now, many students do pursue challenging academic experiences over the summer, but the particular skills needed for these tests are something all their own. Test taking is itself also a skill, and what tends to make the academic experiences students pursue over the summer so excellent often also involves a lack of standard tests. Working in a research lab will teach you incredible things, but mastering the particularly finicky language used by the SAT or ACT isn’t one of them.
Finally, the summer is a long length of time without school work. Even if you do have some significant other obligations, this is still far more free time to study then you’re ever going to have during the school year. It would be a shame not to make the most of it.
How to Approach Summer Studying for the SAT and ACT
So studying for these tests during the summer is a good idea, even if it may not be your favorite thing to do (we get it; we help students prepare for these tests as a living and we understand just how aggravating they can be, even though all our students are fun to work with). How then should you approach this studying?
We generally recommend two separate methods, either of which may be applied on its own, or in combination. The first, and simplest, is the bootcamp method. We operate these ourselves, and this takes the approach of having students study for a set period of time intensively. This is like any other intensive period of studying, and treats preparing for the SAT or ACT like a full high school course.
This is often very effective, especially if you prefer to get all of your studying over with at once. If you do take this approach, we recommend doing so near the middle of the summer, and doing some studying outside of it. This is the best approach if you have taken the test before, and want to specifically target areas for improvement in order to increase your overall score.
The other approach is to do a bit at a time each week; maybe an hour or so, working on specific skills or areas of weakness for you. This is easier to fit around a busy or shifting schedule, and lets you get in a consistent stream of work, even if you don’t have the same hard push to focus all at once.
Both of these approaches are effective, which you use depends on your own studying habits and schedule. For more mechanical advice on preparing for the SAT and ACT see our article on the secrets of test prep.
How to Study Around Other Obligations
Students are often quite busy over the summer. This is a good thing, something we encourage and enable for our own students and colleges like to see. That said, these activities can then make finding the time to devote to studying for the SAT or ACT a challenge, or sap you of energy for other pursuits. In this section then, we’re going to explore how to tackle this challenge, and how to fit in studying for standardized tests around a wonderfully full schedule.
The first, and most important thing, is to figure out what your schedule actually is. This includes any and all of your planned activities, any plans for travel your family has, any work you need to do, and any obligations you need to set aside time for. We recommend making a schedule for the whole summer, block by block, week by week, to see where the ground lies.
This is especially important because most summer activities don’t last for the full summer. An internship may last for eight weeks, a camp for six, and a vacation to somewhere tropical is always too short. Once you have marked out where all your time is already spent, you can clearly see what you have to work with.
From here, you should try to fit test prep in a way that lets you work at your own pace, and in the manner that best suits your strengths. Here are some considerations:
- You should try to study every week, even if it’s just for a little bit. Missing one week isn’t the end of the world, but building a consistent habit of studying makes it easier to stick to.
- If possible, you should stick to the same or similar times each week. Schedules do change over the summer, so this isn’t always feasible, but it’s worth the attempt.
- Try to set aside a few longer blocks of time for full practice tests. You shouldn’t do one every week, but doing one per month can help you track the progress of your studying, and measure what you still need to work on.
Finally, you do not need to fill every waking hour with activities and work and test prep, though it can sometimes feel that way. You can and should take time to relax, to unwind, to hang out with friends and enjoy a brief period of life without school and the obligations it brings. This too you should add into the schedule, blocks of time with no planned obligations where you can simply be, and experience and enjoy the world around you. The summer is a time to learn and grow and explore, yes, but just as athletes take rest days in the middle of periods of intense training, so too do your mind and psyche need a break from time to time, and there’s no shame in taking one.
Final Thoughts
Standardized tests remain optional at some colleges, while others now require them once more. We still urge all our students to study for and take these tests, as getting high scores can only help you, both in securing college admissions, and in landing excellent scholarship offers. Summer is an excellent opportunity for you to really take your scores on the ACT and SAT to the next level, and we encourage you to take advantage of that fact.
Of course, studying for these tests is often a challenge. They aren’t formatted like any other test you take in high school and the questions they ask are generally completely different from what you see in classes, even if the material is the same. If you are looking for help preparing for your tests, and maximizing your score, then check out our test prep service. Our team of experts has years of experience, and students who work with us see score increases of 180 points on the SAT on average. Don’t wait, schedule a free consultation to learn how we can help you.
