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What the last six weeks before a test are for

Theo Alvarez

SAT and ACT, with a score report to read$55/lessonLos Angeles

(Test prep)

Six weeks is not enough to learn anything new, and trying is the most reliable way to lose points you already had.

Feb 11, 20267 minutes

Stop teaching content

Whatever has not been learned by six weeks out is not going to be learned in a form that survives a timed section. New material this late competes with the material that was already solid, and the solid material is what loses.

Buy timing instead

Most of the recoverable points in the last six weeks are pacing. Two full timed sections a week will find more marks than twenty hours of content review, and they find them in the first fortnight.

Three question types, no more

Pick the three costing the most marks and work only those. A student who fixes three types moves further than one who reviewed everything, because reviewing everything is how you spend six weeks confirming what you already knew.

One whole Saturday morning

At least one full sitting at the real start time, in a room that is not their bedroom. Stamina is a skill, and it is the only one on this list that cannot be practised in an hour.

Who wrote this

Theo Alvarez

SAT and ACT, with a score report to read

I sit two official tests a year so my pacing advice matches the test students take. Sessions run on your own score report, not on a generic curriculum.

A fifty-minute lesson
$55
Rated by 156 students
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Theo Alvarez, sat and act, with a score report to read

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