Six videos of students and parents on what the SAT and the ACT were actually like: the starting score, the homework, the stretch where the score did not move, and where they ended up. These are their words, lightly cleaned up from the video captions. Nothing has been added.

How Ella went from a 22 to a 34 on the ACT

Ella started ACT prep with a 22 and finished with a 34, moving from the 69th percentile to the 99th. She and her mom talk about the extra half hour of homework every night, doing a session on vacation, and the call that cleared her on the pre-read at Williams College, where she is now committed for lacrosse.

How Asha went from a 26 to a 34 on the ACT

Asha started at a 26 on the ACT, scored a 32 on her first official exam after a group class, then added one-on-one work on math and science and came back with a 34. She and her mom Angie talk about what the class actually taught, why the second score changed the list of schools they were considering, and what Asha plans to study.

What Tommy took from the ACT into law school

Tommy went from a 17 to a 27 on the ACT in high school, a 10 point jump he credits to his tutor Jeff telling him that expecting to fail was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Six years later he has been accepted to USC law school, after ranking seventh out of 238 in his class at Santa Clara, and he still uses the study habits he picked up in test prep.

A mom on how her son got past years of test anxiety

Luke had years of test anxiety his mom describes as total paralysis, going blank on material he had completely memorized. Three lessons in he took an APUSH test and got a hundred, and by the end of his practice tests he was getting 36s on the English and the reading.

Ten students on the SAT and ACT, in their own words

Ten high school students say what the SAT and ACT felt like going in, and what happened after they prepared. One raised an SAT math score from 690 to 790, one scored a 36 on the ACT English section and then a 36 on reading comprehension the second time, and one says a 35 changed both the money coming from schools and the kinds of schools open to them.

How I learned not to hate the SAT

Students who went in believing standardized testing would be the end of them describe what changed once they learned how the test actually works. One says, “I improved by 10 points and never expected that for myself,” and another says a 35 opened up a ton of different opportunities, in the money coming from schools and in the kinds of schools open to them.

Watch more student stories on the Test Prep Gurus YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TestPrepGurusNewportBeach