Through our rigorous and individualized tutoring programs, students gain the skills, strategies, and poise needed for test day.
Whether preparing for the ACT, SAT, or other standardized tests, students can be assured they will receive the right guidance from our college test prep experts at Galin Education.
And the benefits last beyond test day. Through our programming, students’ track their own progress, challenge themselves, see the growth in their skills, and leave our program more confident and ready to tackle the next academic challenge.
Students deserve a meaningful college test prep experience, and we’re excited to be able to provide it.
Approach
No two test-takers are the same. That’s why our college test prep process begins with a diagnostic exam so our tutors can understand each student’s specific strengths, weaknesses, and test-taking styles. With that insight, we create a personalized curriculum to cater to every student’s needs to boost confidence and test scores.
Individualized Tutoring
Tests may be standardized, but test preparation is not. The journey to test day is different for each student. By building strong relationships, our tutors quickly learn how to best challenge and encourage their students to reach their highest potential. This personalized approach is not only more effective, but more enjoyable too.
Long-Term Prep
Our comprehensive approach to test preparation requires students to commit to a steady regimen of tutoring sessions, homework exercises, and practice exams. Step-by-step, day-by-day, our tutors guide students through the ins-and-outs of the test so students understand the content and master the test-taking strategies needed to perform their best on test day. Our rigorous, long-term approach helps students maximize their scores on all sections of the exam.
Practice, Practice, Practice
At Galin Education we believe in the power of practice tests. Students take multiple timed practice tests throughout their program to gain familiarity with the test, build up endurance, and practice the skills and strategies they’ve been working on with their tutors. Our tutors review tests with the students to celebrate progress, highlight areas for improvement, and game plan for upcoming sessions. To register for a practice test, please click here.
ACT vs SAT
ACT | English Test
75 questions / 45 minutes
The English section tests students’ ability to analyze text for grammatical and rhetorical correctness. Many students rely on their “ear” to help determine which of the four answer choices is right. This, however, often leads students astray – the way we speak is not always grammatically correct. So, we emphasize the basic rules the ACT tests, from subject-verb agreement to punctuation usage. We also work on non-grammar content such as paragraph organization and transitions between sentences and paragraphs. The English section is broken down into two major question types: Usage/Mechanics (slightly more than 50% of the problems, including punctuation, grammar and usage, and sentence structure) and Rhetorical Skills (slightly less than 50% of the problems, including strategy, organization, and style).
ACT | Math Test
60 Questions / 60 Minutes
The Math section draws upon students’ skills in a variety of high school math subjects. With the volume of math concepts covered, some students need substantial review of the basic math topics they learned many years ago, while other students may not have mastered high school level math and require re-teaching. And some students just need to practice more advanced material. The ACT breaks the Math section into two main areas. Preparing for Higher Math (57–60% of the problems) encompasses several categories of concepts: algebra, geometry, functions, statistics/probability, and number properties. Integrating Essential Skills (40–43%) problems test application of those concepts, often in more complex ways.
ACT | Reading Test
40 Questions / 35 Minutes
The Reading section contains four passages always presented in the same order: Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative, Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science. Between the number of passages and the time allotted for students to complete them, many students encounter timing challenges on this section. To help address these challenges, we train students to effectively and efficiently read the passages so that they have enough time on the questions themselves. We help students determine patterns in question stems and answer choices. We teach students how to quickly eliminate incorrect answers to find the correct answer more easily, rather than spending precious minutes debating the answer choices. And with three-fourths of the section devoted to non-fiction, we push our students to dedicate time to reading books, articles, newspapers, journals, and magazines that we recommend.
ACT | Science Test
40 Questions / 35 Minutes
The Science section is easy to misinterpret; after taking the ACT, many students realize that they are not really being tested on their “science” knowledge, but rather their ability to interpret data and understand experimental design. This section is broken up into six passages, each with either six or seven questions, in three formats: two “Data Representation” passages (testing data interpretation), three Research Summaries passages (data interpretation and experimental design), and one Conflicting Viewpoints passage (comparing/contrasting scientific arguments). We discuss the structure of all three passage types and strategies required to complete them effectively and efficiently, helping students become proficient at reading various charts and graphs, understand how studies and experiments are designed and conducted, and notice patterns in scientific arguments.
ACT | Writing Test
The ACT Writing section is optional, but almost no colleges or universities still require it. Students who attend public school in Wisconsin will need to take the ACT Writing section on the in-school test each spring, so we discuss the structure and basic strategies, but it is no longer a focus of our test prep.
SAT | Reading and Writing Test
2 modules
27 questions / 32 minutes per module
The SAT Reading and Writing section tests students’ reading comprehension and understanding of English conventions. Reading/Writing is tested across two modules. The first module consists of a variety of easy, medium, and hard problems. Depending on students’ performance on the first module, they will advance to an easier or harder second module. In this way, the SAT Reading and Writing is “section adaptive.”
Each module begins with vocabulary questions, followed by several short Reading passages. For these problems, we emphasize both the vocabulary essential to a student’s ability to grasp college-level material and the ability to read, digest, and extract essential information from a given text. The section then shifts to test grammar and transition words and phrases. Many students rely on their “ear” to help determine which of the answer choices is right. This, however, often leads students to wrong options – the way we speak is not always grammatically correct. So, we emphasize the basic grammar rules the SAT tests, from subject-verb agreement to punctuation usage. We also teach students how to identify the correct transitions between sentences and paragraphs. The section concludes with a handful of problems that require students to synthesize research findings; we provide students with the strategies to complete those problems efficiently.
SAT | Math Test
2 modules
22 questions / 35 minutes per module
The SAT Math section draws upon students’ skills in a variety of high school math subjects. Math is tested across two modules. The first module consists of a variety of easy, medium, and hard problems. Depending on students’ performance on the first module, they will advance to an easier or harder second module. In this way, the SAT Math is “section adaptive.” About 75% of the SAT Math problems are multiple choice, and about 25% of the SAT Math problems require students to produce their own numerical answer.
With the volume of math concepts covered, some students need substantial review of the basic math topics they learned many years ago, while other students may not have mastered high school level math and require re-teaching. And some students just need to practice more advanced material. The SAT Math problems focus mainly on algebra and advanced math, with approximately 70% of the questions falling into those categories. The remaining 30% test basic concepts, geometry, trigonometry, and statistics.
