Test Prep
Philosophy
Our Test Prep Philosophy
We believe that confidence on a test rises
as perceived difficulty lowers.
We believe that perceived difficulty of a test
lowers as the fundamentals of its content are acquired.
We believe that the fundamentals, by nature,
are simple, easy concepts to understand.
Concepts that are easy to understand are easily remembered,
and things easily remembered are simple to implement during tests.
When students know the simple concepts they need
to score well on a test, they have everything they need to succeed.
Expert Advice
What are the experts saying?
“No prep course is going to lift a 400-bracket scorer
into the 600 level … Naturally, no quick fix can do
the work of a long habit of reading good books.
A seventeen-year-old who has had little interest and
little practice in these skills for eleven school years
isn’t likely to become adept in a few weeks.”
—
“Since the test is of ‘developed ability,’ as the Educational Testing
Service (ETS) says, the longer and more demanding the
course, the more it’s likely to help. Youths with a reading
habit aren’t as likely to be helped much since they already have
the tools and tend to score in the six hundreds or better anyway.”
—
“A prep course is much more likely to boost the math score,
and ETS has long said it is helpful to be taking a good
math course at the time.”
—
“If, after a prep course, one’s scores go up thirty or forty points each
in the verbal and math, nothing has really been accomplished …
Rarely have I known of one-hundred-point increases in the
verbal score, and they were unusual cases.”
What are these “tools” that Pope is referring to?
They are the Fundamentals of reading: a competent reading speed, the ability to scan text and pick out important information, and a mature attitude toward varying difficulty levels and technical writing.
Consumer Reports
Have You Read The Consumer Reports?
In mid-2006, Consumer Reports WebWatch released a study comparing 10 online test prep programs out there, complete with the pros, cons, and effectiveness of each. Interestingly enough, they came to the exact same conclusion as Loren Pope (College Admissions Guru) and the Educational Testing Service: there is no “magic pill” students can take to fix years of not studying.
claims made in the promotional materials of many online SAT
test prep sites, there are no secrets or tricks that can substitute
for years of elementary, middle and high school education. Just as
you can’t grow a plant faster by watering it more, you can’t get a
higher SAT score with last minute cramming.”
Are You Already Starting To See That “Test Prep” Is The Wrong Ladder Leading To The Wrong Rooftop?
Read the whole report to find the same startling discoveries we did: Most companies make outrageous score increase claims with little or no data to back up their promises, and anyway:
performed exceptionally well against expensive, better known products,
such as The Princeton Review and Kaplan’s, which cost $399 each.”
(If you are having trouble with the link you can download the report here.)
Research
A few things worth mentioning
needing remediation across the board!
The Community College of Denver found that students who score at or below certain levels on the SAT aren’t even Fundamentally ready for college and need remediation before admittance.
| Subject | ACT Score | SAT Score |
| Math | 19 | 460 |
| Reading | 17 | 430 |
| Writing | 18 | 440 |
Are we really graduating approximately 50% of our children with educational deficiencies and then sending them out into the world? It certainly appears that way, because this isn’t the end of the story.
The National Institute for Literacy found that, “Sixteen of out seventeen 17-year-olds can not read and gain information from a specialized text, for example the science section of the local newspaper.”
Test prep won’t help students who are academically deficient, and if it is any kind of answer at all, it is certainly the wrong answer for the real problem. We know this from experience, observation, and research, and that’s why we only focus on your child’s fundamentals: because it’s the only thing that really matters anyway when preparing for exams.
A student with great fundamentals will still perform well without test prep, but a student who lacks them will do lousy no matter how much test prep they receive.
Free Help
Man, if you want free help with test prep then GO GET IT!
Nobody is stopping you, and we encourage it! We are not a test prep business and have no plans on ever becoming so. We tested the Number2.com program, found it to be most satisfactory, and could not imagine how a paid course would have done a better job to prepare us for the SAT or ACT (they have a GRE Preparation module also).
A few critical components Number2.com does not have are personal coaching, Fundamentals training, and live weekly classes, and while these obstacles did not stop us from successfully testing their program, we recognize that students need personal guidance and interaction to help build confidence. So here’s the deal:
This free resource is so effective and easy to use, that we decided to provide the personal support for the wheel instead of reinventing the wheel itself.
All your kids need to do is:
1) Download the n00b-to-Ninja Guide for free (and read it).
2) Create their free account at Number2.com and make sure they add “andrew(at)thinkarchimedes.com” as their coach (Please note that (at) = @, just avoiding spam bots here).
3) Make sure we are white listed in their email filter so they receive updates for free classes and coaching sessions. As their coach, we can log in to see how your child is doing, where he or she is struggling, how much has been completed, and correct repeated mistakes.
