PSAT and SAT Prep Courses
The RHS Alumni Association and the Reach High Scholars Program again will be offering
courses to help RHS students prepare for the PSAT and SAT college admission tests. The courses
will take place at RHS from 7:30 to 10:00 AM on Saturday mornings commencing on September
25, 2010. They will be conducted by Mrs. Deborah Harmon and Mrs. Susan Spinney.
The courses will be presented in two parts: three sessions to prepare for the PSAT test, followed
by ten sessions to prepare for the SAT test. The courses are open to all RHS students. They are
aimed primarily at juniors who will be taking the PSAT tests in the fall and the SAT tests later in
the school year. Sophomores taking the PSAT test and seniors wanting further training for SAT
tests to be taken in the fall are also welcome.
Topics to be Covered
Both courses will cover the following topics during the first two hours of each session. The ten-
week SAT course will give more intensive coverage and will include practice at writing essays.
The last half hour of each session will be devoted to such topics as information on colleges,
financial aid, college visits and summer programs.
Testing Strategies
Critical Reading
o Sentence completion
o Passage-based reading
Math
o Numbers and operations
o Algebra and functions
o Geometry and measurement
o Data analysis, statistics and probability
Writing Skills
o Identifying sentence errors
o Improving sentences
o Improving paragraphs
Practice Tests
The PSAT Course
Course Dates: September 25, October 2 and 9, 2010
PSAT Test Date: October 16, 2010
Cost of the Course: $20.00 for the three-session course (payable on September 25) or $10
per session (payable at the session)
The SAT Course
Study Materials: Official SAT Study Guide: Second Edition ($21.99 at www.collegeboard.com)
Course Dates: October 23 and 30, November 6, 13 and 20, December 4, 11 and 18, 2010;
January 8 and 15, 2011.
SAT Test Dates: October 9, November 6, December 4, 2010; January 22, March 17, May
7 and June 4, 2011
Cost of the Course: $100.00 for the ten-session course and the study guide or $80.00 for
the ten-session course if the student already has the study guide (payable in either case on
October 23). The full amount will be refunded to any student whose best scores on each
section of the test total at least 2,000 (even if obtained on different test dates).
Fees received will be applied to the costs of operating the courses and any balance will be applied
to the RHS Alumni Association’s program to help RHS students defray the cost of fees for
standard college admission tests and applying to four-year colleges.
Importance of Preparation
The SAT test is a common-denominator measurement applicable to all applicants to U.S. colleges
and universities. For RHS students it is a way to show that you are “as good as the next guy.”
But, the next guy frequently has prepared with some combination of an online or classroom
course of 20 weeks or more and private tutoring. Frequently, thousands of dollars are spent in
the process.
To take the tests without thorough preparation is disastrous and could substantially reduce the
chances of admission to the college of your choice.
The scores that you achieve are your personal credential. They will compensate for the reality
that it is not sufficient just to have top grades at a high school (like RHS) that is unfamiliar to the
admissions offices at many colleges and might be perceived as less-challenging academically.
It is recommended that the test be taken two or three times (with continual practice). Scores can
be improved by 200-300 points. And, most colleges allow a student to submit the best scores
achieved on each section of the test. “Heads you win; tails you win!” As an incentive, the Reach
High Scholars Program is offering the Randy Carlson Award of $100 to any student who
increases his or her best-combined SAT I score by more than 360 points above the score
achieved on the first attempt. Randy (RHS ’10) had that amount of improvement by taking the
test four times. The Award also will be given to any student who increases his or her ACT
score by more than five points above the score achieved on the first attempt. The award will
be renamed for successive winners.
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