When do you plan to take your ACT or SAT?

If you’re like most rising juniors, you’re not sure right now. After all, it’s summer! You have plenty of time to figure it out, right?

Wrong.

The biggest ACT & SAT mistake rising juniors make is waiting too long to take their first exam.

Because this adds loads of stress to your already busy schedule in the middle of your hardest year of high school, today I’m going to share 3 surprising advantages to preparing the summer before your junior year and testing in early fall.

Let’s get to it!

1. Boost Your Junior Year GPA

You can’t count on your senior year grades for a GPA boost because your junior year grades are the last full year of grades prospective colleges will see on your applications next fall.

It’s now or never! And - to make matters worse - junior year is the hardest year of high school.

Your ACT & SAT scores are an incredibly important part of your college application, but your GPA is at least equally important and, often, more important to an admissions committee.

Because you want your GPA to be as high as possible when you apply to college, you don’t want test prep to jeopardize your grades by splitting your attention with test prep during the year.

When you prepare the summer before your junior year, you can exclusively focus on getting your highest ACT or SAT score without having to siphon energy from your school work.

Summer ACT prep or SAT prep means you can get higher test scores and your best possible GPA with less stress.

It’s a win-win.

​2. Stay Committed to Your Passions

When it comes to college admissions, it’s easy to become tunnel-visioned on your numerical measures: your GPA and ACT or SAT scores. But - remember - you are so much more than your numbers.

What matters to you matters to the members of a college admissions panel.

After all, it’s their job to create the most interesting, compelling freshman class that they can. What you bring to the table - what’s most interesting and compelling about you - can’t be quantified and ranked.

Where you choose to spend your time shows what matters most to you.

Sadly, because junior year is so challenging, many students are tempted to drop the activities that they care deeply about in exchange for extra study time.

But, if you plan your junior year well, you can continue to enjoy your favorite activities without them detracting from your performance in other areas of life.

Preparing over the summer and testing early in the fall frees up time for soccer practice, volunteer work, and rehearsals - not to mention fun experiences like dances, football games, and movie nights with friends.

Plan well now so you have the time to enjoy your most rewarding activities throughout the year.​

3. Get a Jump on Your PSAT Prep

In October of your junior year, you’ll take the PSAT/NMSQT. (The NMSQT stands for National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.)

While the PSAT is true practice for some students, the strongest students can use it to qualify for merit aid gated scholarships.

The problem? Most families don’t factor the PSAT into their test prep plan until it’s too late.

So, if you’re a go-getter who wants to take advantage of ACT prep or SAT prep over the summer, you can actually leverage the prep you’re already doing for the full-length exams to improve your performance on the PSAT too.

Two birds. One stone.

And, if you prepare with my ACT Complete Package or SAT Complete Package program, you’ll receive a free bonus that’s exclusively available to my Complete Package students: Quick Prep for the PSAT.

This bonus course, a $187 value, teaches my students how to transition the skills they’ve honed in their ACT prep or SAT prep program to the PSAT in a simple, streamlined course that’s only available to my Complete Package students.

It's a great way to work smarter and gain every last point you possibly can from one amazing prep program.

The Bottom Line

Testing won’t ever be a cake walk, but preparing over the summer does make it more manageable.

My programs have lots of built in bells and whistles to make testing a less overwhelming and more successful venture. I would love to help you prepare and earn your higher score on the ACT or SAT.

Ready to get started?