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.

Transcript

My name is Austin Rigde and I am currently a junior over at Leonora High School.

Hi, my name's Elissa Crusher, and I'm a junior at Santa Margarita Catholic High School.

Hi, my name is Annika Desai. I went to the Webb Schools.

My name is Christian Park. I'm in the 11th grade.

My name is Giorgia Harris. I'm a junior at Orange Lutheran High School.

Hi, I'm Diane Lee. I'm a junior at Northwood.

I'm Daniel Gilman, from Tarbut V'Torah.

Hi, my name is Lee Ching and I'm a senior at Agents.

My name is Justin Homer. I am a junior at Villa Park High School.

My name is Tommy Poletti and I'm a junior in high school.

My first ACT that I took, I was stressing a lot about it.

The entire college process is pretty scary and frightening. I had really good grades, and I thought, you know, standardized testing would be the end of me.

At first I hated it, thinking that if you don't do well, your scores are a reflection of you.

Well, I heard about Test Prep Gurus through one of my neighbors.

The first day that I went in, to the last day. I think it was a day before my test. He was constantly encouraging me.

The individual one-on-one, so it helped a lot.

They were super personalized, super relaxed setting, go at your own pace.

Okay, so what I'm seeing is, these are the types of problems that you're having trouble with. And so she could identify that.

It was professional, and I was able to... I knew I could talk to them.

I really liked my math instructor, because he helped me find ways to do problems that I was getting right, but in quicker ways.

And I was shocked, because I haven't worked that hard in my life. It definitely helped me see that I had an opportunity, and I had the potential.

That's when I learned that, hey, this is what I'm capable of.

Like, having tutors who help you to reach your goals when it comes to your scores, that's such a relief. There's nothing holding you back except you, kind of thing. And that really resonated with me, I guess, because self-confidence has not always been my strong suit, you know. And so to hear that from him really helped.

And then I realized, after a month, that it was working. And so when I saw all the hard work and all the time I was putting in paying off towards the end, it was really rewarding.

Honestly, I got my scores back, I flipped out. I probably would have started crying tears of joy, super excited, but I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of my friends. I just felt a big relief.

I did not realize how much better I had done. Seeing my score popped up, I loved it. That night was amazing. I did it.

That's not to say that your scores are a complete reflection of who you are as a person at all. But I think that just kind of was an indicator of the work in this context that I had put in.

And I improved by 10 points, and I never expected that for myself.

Well, I got a 36 on the English, and then the second time I retook it I got a 36 on the reading comprehension.

I was able to raise my SAT math score from the 690 to 790.

And a perfect score on the ACT.

I've used this as my central piece of how I can overcome anything.

So being able to get a successful score has made me feel just more confident that I'm going to be able to be successful at a more challenging school, you know.

I've been a lot more confident about doing certain things in my life from this program. It sounds weird, but I promise you that this really does change yourself.

It helped a lot. Opened a lot more doors for me, school-wise, college-wise. Gave me a lot more confidence.

It's a test, and if you can learn the way that test works, you can beat the test at its own game.

A 35 opened up a ton of different opportunities for me. I've seen the difference it's made, both in the money I'm getting from schools and the types of schools I've gone into.

I don't know, I would definitely just say thank you to my parents. Yeah, I told my mom and dad already that I thought, you know, it was just a really good experience. And I would do it again. Not that I would do it again, because I don't have to take the test again.

Papa, mama... thank you. I tell her thank you. Thank you. I would tell them thank you.

If it wasn't for Test Prep Gurus, I honestly wouldn't have gotten there.

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