Test Prep Fundamentals Program
Friske Test Prep Fundamentals Program
Our Test Prep Fundamentals program provides 26 or 40 hours of the highest quality in-person test prep tailored to students in or entering 9th and 10th grade and designed as a primer for future testing success. This program serves as a fantastic foundational program for students looking to get a jump start on their test prep journey! Learn about the fundamental differences between the SAT and ACT, take diagnostic practice tests for both exams, and receive guidance on which test is best for you with the program. Personal learning plans, customized and flexible schedules, more practice than a student could ask for, and higher scores await our students with this foundational program designed by test prep experts, backed by the latest in education research, and crafted to support any and every student’s individual needs and goals. See the Friske Test Prep difference below!
Introductory Consultation
Every student is unique with their own schedules and goals. Our programs are uniquely customizable to accommodate even the most specific goals. Prior to every program, we offer a free 30 minute in-person or phone consultation to help our students and their families plan for the future. Choose the right exam, pick a test date, and discuss future goals during this meeting. Ready to get started?
Personalized Start Dates
Because our programs are customized and all students work on their own personal learning plans, our start dates are flexible to adapt to every student’s busy schedule. Do you have a specific start date in mind? Perfect! We can’t wait to get started! Not sure when is the best time to start? No problem! We can help you determine when to start depending on the specific test date.
Flexible Scheduling and Rescheduling
We do not have specific class dates and times because we do not lecture to large groups of students! Instead, our students work individually on their customized learning plans. Our process allows our students flexibility in dates and times for their sessions. We also offer unlimited rescheduling with 24 hour notice during a student’s program time frame providing our students the most flexible schedule possible for their test prep program.
Small Group Sessions
We keep our small group sessions small, with no more than 5 students in any given session, so that our students get as much personalized attention and teaching as possible. We do not lecture to large groups of students in a boardroom or classroom setting because individualized teaching is more effective and efficient in raising standardized test scores.
Diagnostic Testing
The Test Prep Fundamentals program begins with SAT and/or ACT diagnostic testing depending on a student’s future goals during the first 2 sessions of the program. These exams serve as a starting point for each student’s test prep journey and allows us to customize and personalize a student’s test prep program based on the results of the exam. We can compare the results of both the SAT and ACT diagnostic testing to help provide suggestions as to which test is the best fit for each individual student. The diagnostic testing also provides us data to help guide a student’s home learning plan so that each student is focusing on the material necessary to improve their scores.
Diagnostic Test Corrections
We don’t know what we don’t know. Therefore, we must make an effort to understand what we don’t know in order to improve. Educational research indicates that high quality test corrections with review of missed questions is the most important part of the test prep process to raise scores. Missed question review is also the component of test prep that most students tend to skip over or minimize when attempting to prepare for these exams independently. Why? Because reviewing mistakes can be an uncomfortable process at times. We provide accountability with one-on-one test correction review to ensure that our students learn from mistakes and improve their understanding of difficult question types and content.
Personal Learning Plans
Each student receives personalized learning plans based on in-depth statistical analysis of their performance on diagnostic testing and subsequent practice tests. Our proprietary statistical analysis provides a level of detail that goes beyond what publicly available to a student from the College Board and the ACT Education Corporation. Each learning plan is unique to every student and provides a road map that a student follows during their program. A student works on their learning plan during their in-person session time independent of other students and at their own pace allowing for an unparalleled degree of personalization in each student’s test prep experience.
Identification of Strengths and Areas for Growth
Each student comes to our program with different strengths and areas that need improvement. Throughout the course of the program, these strengths and weaknesses may change as students gain confidence in topics they previously perceived themselves as less strong. Therefore, we continually evaluate each student’s test performance to improve areas in need of growth while reinforcing areas of strength. This process allows students to elevate their score by improving areas in need of growth while maintaining a high level of performance in topics in which a student excels.
Getting to Know the Digital SAT / PSAT and Enhanced ACT
Every student receives a thorough overview of both the Digital SAT / PSAT and Enhanced ACT so that they know exactly what to expect on test day. We review the overall structure of each exam and discuss the different ways that each exams tests Reading, Writing, Math, and Science topics. We also cover the pros and cons of each exam ensuring that each of our students and their family have all of the information they need to make an informed decision about whether to focus future study on the Digital SAT / PSAT or Enhanced ACT.
Exam Psychology
Throughout the course of each program, we discuss exam psychology specific to the each exam. We cover testing anxiety, emotional reactivity to difficult questions, challenges related to adaptive testing, and more so that each of our students is prepared on test day to combat the emotional challenges that can significantly impact test scores.
Section and Question Strategy and Practice
Our Test Prep Fundamentals program takes an in-depth look at every section and question type of either the Digital SAT / PSAT or Enhanced ACT depending on which test a student selects following diagnostic testing and score comparison. We discuss the reading, writing, math, and science topics applicable to a student’s specific exam so that each student has an understanding of the fundamental knowledge and effective test strategies necessary to begin their test prep journey.
Practice Testing
Practice testing is vital to improving standardized test scores by building confidence, increasing familiarity with the exam, and decreasing testing anxiety. Practice testing also allows a student to practice as if they are performing on their official exam. Therefore, we provide our students with diagnostic testing and up to three additional practice exams depending on the students pace through their personal learning plan. Our practice exams also provide individualized student performance data that aids in creating and updating each student’s personalized learning plan.
Unlimited Home Practice
Have we mentioned how important practice is to increasing test scores?!? To support our students test prep efforts, we provide UNLIMITED home practice! What does this mean? Each of our students is given a home practice book during their first session and a personalized guide to help direct them through the book. When a student finishes their first book, they can bring the completed home practice book in and receive another new and different book! Our students’ success is our success, so we do everything we can to help support our students both during in-person test prep sessions and at home.
Future Study Learning Plans
Our Test Prep Fundamentals program serves not only as a comprehensive introduction to the Digital SAT / PSAT and the Enhanced ACT but also as a primer for future study. At the conclusion on the Test Prep Fundamentals program, each of our students has the option either to receive a personalized learning plan for continued self-study or to continue their study with an adjunctive school year extension program to maintain and further develop their test prep skills. Many of our students who take the Test Prep Fundamentals program in the summer prior to their 10th grade school year choose to continue their program with a school year extension prior to returning for either the Digital SAT / PSAT program or Enhanced ACT program the following summer. Contact us for more details about our school year extension programs!
Scheduling Details
The Test Prep Fundamentals program for students in or entering 9th and 10th grade includes all of the services noted above within 26 or 40 hours total of in-person instruction depending on a student’s goals . Each student is typically scheduled for two 2 hour sessions per week for 6 - 10 weeks depending on the length of the program though scheduling is flexible. Program start dates are flexible to provide our students with the most adaptable test prep experience possible. Not sure when to begin? Contact us and let us help guide you through the decision making and onboarding process!