Like any other high school junior going into his/her senior year, I was insecure about my SAT scores and if my current score would get me into a good college or not. Before going into Elite's summer SAT boot camp of 2015, I took the test once and got a score of 1760 without any formal preparation for the exam.
Upon signing up for Elite, I had to take a diagnostic test, which scored me somewhere in the high 1500s... I was told that Elite tests are generally more difficult than the actual tests, which was one of the reasons why I greatly admire this program. I knew that by signing up for this program, it would challenge and push me to learn more about and do better on the test.
For my particular program, everyone was broken up into several classrooms, each with approximately 20 students. We had 4 teachers: one for math, one for writing/grammar, one for critical reading, and one for vocabulary. On the first day, we were given a backpack, 2000 flashcards with vocabulary, and workbooks to use in class and as homework assignments. The program was 8-weeks long with each day filled with a certain schedule. Every Monday, we would take a practice SAT exam (including writing) and the following day, we would get back the results and assess our errors. Test corrections were due at the end of the week. Every day, we were also assigned to learn 50 vocabulary words and be tested on 40 of those 50. Certain days of the week, there was also writing assessments, math assessments, and reading assessments. We had to score an 80% or better on all of the tests; otherwise, we would have to stay after class approximately a half an hour to an hour to relearn and retest on the material.
Doing this for 8 weeks was quite intense... but I definitely got into the groove of it eventually. My scores on their tests did increase, and I was able to learn the structure of the test and understand what I needed to work on to improve my score. Ultimately, my scores in math and writing did go up, but my scores in reading remain around the same since the beginning since reading is something that requires yourself to focus and really work at to assess and understand the context of passages and articles.
I had Ms. Jennifer Lambertis, Mr. Jihwan Kim, Mr. Bill Wang, and Mr. Turner as my instructors for these subjects. All did great and brought me to a greater understanding of all test elements except for Mr. Turner, who I believe fell short a bit, mainly because reading is such a broad and subjective area to teach and also to improve upon; also, he taught and brushed through many topics fairly quick and his reasoning for each answer was explained but it was difficult for me personally to grasp and fully understand how he concluded to the answers. Everyone else was fun and engaging, and I was able to take back a lot from what they taught me. Some were more stern than the others, but they all ultimately got me to push myself to improve on the other areas.
In the end, I took the test another time (2 months after the program ended), and I scored a 1830 with areas in math and writing improved, but reading remained the same. This is accounted to many factors that I would blame myself for (not properly preparing, worrying too much on extracurricular activities, etc.) , but I must say that SAT scores are not everything that colleges look for. I did ended up getting into all of the schools that I applied to and I believe that it is due to holistic review of each college applicant. I know that Elite can also provide further assistance with these areas as well, but I did not take up on that offer and all of the applications by myself. I do have friends that have had remarkable SAT score increases due to this program; therefore, in judging the program in their goal of getting their members a better score on the SAT and a quality education of the material on the SAT, I would like to give them a high rating for all that they do because it is absolutely outstanding.
Special shout out to Ms. Karen Kim, who works at the front desk and manages most of the workings of the building. :) read more
