Keith's Tutoring Blog

This post is for most if not all standardized exams.

The number one issue I see with the majority of students who are preparing for these major and critical exams is that they do not spend enough time prepping.

For example, obtaining a tutor a week or even three weeks before the test date is probably not going to do much to increase your scores, especially if you are meeting up with a tutor for only an hour or two per session, given your current score (pre-test).

Here's my take. If you know that you will take one of these major exams (All High School AP exams included), please start months...

This blog is specific to the AP (Advanced Placement Exams).

Not to date myself any further but how things have changed. When I was in High School, there were only a handful of exams that a student could sit for in terms of Advanced placement exams. There were your basic sciences, such as Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, and of course English Literature and US Government. However, nowadays, students have up to 34 AP exams to choose from, ranging from Chinese to Art History to French or any other subjects a student could imagine.

So why sit for these exams? what are the advantages?

First is...

Tip #2 for Standardized Exams

Students who plan to sit for any standardized exams should do the following:

1. Take a diagnostic exam. It does not have to be a full-blown exam but a mini-version in order to get a idea as to your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Thoroughly evaluate and understand your diagnostic scores - every breakdown, not just how many wrong or right you got in each section but also understand the type of questions you are getting wrong. Also, if possible record those lucky hunches or guesses. The key is to maximize study time and effort. Why waste precious time reviewing topics...

This tip applies to all standardized exams.

First, focus on eliminating careless mistakes. Most students who are taking this exam (SAT, GRE, GMAT, etc.) for the first time will realized that majority of their errors (if not more than 50%) are due to careless mistakes. Thus, if they focus on fine-tuning this portion of their skill sets they would see their overall score rise. Given that most students wait till the last week or two to study for an extremely important exam, thus, focusing on the low-hanging fruits as they say in the process improvement arena is step 1.

Second, once the low-hanging...