Wilson Prep SAT

Don’t Be Bored When Reading

If I had a nickel for every time a student has complained during a tutoring session that, “Ugh….these readings are SO BORING…,” I would be a very rich woman. Believe me; I get it. Who wants to read about black holes or Mark Twain at 8 am on a Saturday morning? I know the passages… Read more »

Don’t Goof Up the Grid-Ins

Sitting on the train this week, I overheard a group of mothers discussing the recent SAT. Of course I couldn’t help but eavesdrop! One mother was complaining that her daughter ran out of time because her daughter was confused about how to answer the math grid-ins. (One math section has 10 questions that are not… Read more »

Being is BAD!

No heroic adventure of epic proportions is complete without a bad guy. An ugly, terrible, maniacal villain. In the quest for standardized testing achievement, “being” is that bad guy. “Being” is the villain because he looks like a good guy. He is going to sound like he fits ever-so-nicely into a sentence, but this is… Read more »

Get the Last Laugh When Reading

Want to get the last laugh in the SAT or ACT reading section? Pay close attention to the last line – better yet, underline this line. Chances are the last line is the key to the reading because this line concludes the author’s message and contains the extremely important MAIN IDEA. In fact, the entire… Read more »

SAT Vocabulary: Develop Your Potty Language!

To the distress of many students, vocabulary is an integral part of the SAT reading component (both sentence completion and reading comprehension questions). Therefore, studying vocabulary must become an integral part of every SAT-taker’s life. Now, I don’t know the ins and outs of my students’ lives. I don’t know when they have sports, when… Read more »

The Return of the Pink Eraser!

Do not show up to the SAT or ACT with a mechanical pencil, and definitely do not show up with a bad eraser! Every year I yell and scream these Do Nots and every year students don’t listen and there are tears! Therefore, this year I am putting these Do Nots in writing. Here’s what you need to know… Read more »

Play the Sentence Completions to Win!

As I watch my husband and sons prepare to attend Monday night football, I am reminded that the sentence completion section of the SAT is like a football game: to win, you must go on the offensive. Too many students make the mistake of passively “listening” to how each possible word choice sounds in the… Read more »

Math Vocabulary!

When we think of vocabulary, we most often think of the reading component of the SAT and ACT. Yet, understanding vocabulary is just as important for acing the math section of these tests. Below are some key math vocabulary terms. Perhaps you don’t need flash cards, but you do need to practice putting these terms… Read more »

WilsonPrep’s Top Ten Study Habits

Now that students are settled into the school year and the tutoring routine, I am getting lots of questions from parents about how their children should be studying at home. Preparing for the SAT and ACT is different than preparing for school exams; therefore, students need to be ready to try new methods. However, your… Read more »

Gearing Up for Grammar!

Quick quiz: Do you know what a contraction is? Pronoun? Preposition? If your answers are no, no, and definitely not, you are in the same boat as many high school students. Most likely you learned some basic grammar in fourth grade and then quickly moved on to reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Hamlet, happily replacing grammar rules with… Read more »

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