Advice on How to Improve SAT scores often focus on:
- Getting and using accommodations, especially extra time and read aloud option
- Learn how to use the calculator
- Practicing SAT tests, especially under timed conditions
- Get the right SAT Tutor
We believe it is incredibly important to focus on where your child’s is at and what their goals are:
Let’s take three cases:
- A student who had 1000 on their SATs and a 2.8 GPA going into his senior year. He wanted to qualify for the Gold Medallion Bright Futures Scholarship – a Florida scholarship that could be worth $20,000 if he went to either a public or private school in Florida. That means he has to improve his GPA his senior year to a 3.6 and to score a 1210 on the SATs.
Note, this student was a visual neurodivergent learner — who needed to both understand the benefits of working hard and a more visual approach. He was considered unmotivated and was not operating anywhere near his potential.
On the present Digital SAT, that would mean he had to go from 61 questions right out of 98 questions to 76 questions. We discussed that he could earn the scholarship or work 2000 hours at $10 an hour. This student put a $20,000 check above his desk made out to him and worked hard. The results:
-
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- A 3.7 GPA his senior year
- 1230 on his SATS
- Earning his $20,000 scholarship
- Another student had a 4.2 GPA that was high enough to earn the academic scholarship worth $30,000. He was at 1100 on the SATs. On the new Digital SAT, that would be equivalent to increasing the number of questions right from 67 to 82. He also got advice that the higher SAT score would allow him to get into the University of Florida. We helped him to improve his SAT scores to 1370.
- International College Counselors help students to target a stretch school and to have a clear vision of what is needed to get into their dream schools. The student wanted to get into the University of Michigan, where the lowest quartile got a 1350, the average SAT was a 1435 and the upper quartile averaged an SAT Score of 1530. The student set a goal to get an SAT score and achieved it with help and hard work.
At 3D Learner, we agree with all these recommendations and believe it helps to set goals and to improve foundational skills including:
- Attention, as many students lose focus during the test
- Reading speed. While the read aloud option on the SAT helps, we know that many students read slowly.
- Visual processing — many students skip words and lines when reading and make too many mistakes in math problems as they miss signs and small words
- Vocabulary.
- Inference skills
- Reading comprehension
- Understanding key math concepts used in the SAT
- Developing what we call a Hawk like skill, to identify the trick that is required to either understand the question or to solve it quickly
Improving reading fluency and reading comprehension can really help. One student could not get accommodations, because, while he read slowly, he did not have a qualifying condition. While his comprehension was at the 12th grade level, he read at only 125 words per minute. We were able to improve his reading speed from 125 to 300 words per minute, while improving his comprehension 2 grade levels.
The Right SAT Practice Works Best
Many students take multiple SAT tests, but do not make significant gains. The 3D Learner approach is to help the students in their practice to:
- Start with clear goals and plot their progress – the goals may come from advice from others on what is needed to get into the college of their choice.
- Better understand the math concepts and the formulas to use.
- How to draw out questions – so they can see the answer
- How to check their work
- How to understand questions – for punctuation, grammar and inference questions, this are often skills they have not mastered
- Adjust their approach if they are not making progress
- Be over prepared
Three Steps on How to Improve SAT Scores
1- Understand your child’s present leve of performance and how many more questions they need to get right to achieve their goal. The right college admissions counselor is best suited to know what is needed to get into specific colleges or universities.
Website for calculating SAT Scores
2- Get help from the right SAT Tutor who can help your child achieve their goals – which may include both improving foundational skills and SAT Scores — which can also improve your child’s GPA.
3- Put in the time on task and learn new skills
If you would like to discuss How to Improve SAT Scores for your child, you can reach us at 561-361-7495 or give us a call to have a “How to Improve SAT Scores” for your child
At 3D Learner, we address parents’ concern on how to improve SAT Scores. For years, we have worked with International College Counselors, a highly reputable and experienced company that has helped thousands of students to plan for and be admitted into the just right college or university.
On Thursday evening, September 12th, we will be part of a webinar hosted by Nicole Jobson, a longtime member of the International College Counselors team.
Nicole will:
- Provide college preparation, selection, and application strategies which address the unique needs of neurodivergent students.
- Offer insight on how to balance a competitive application process with compassion, while meeting the student’s specific needs.
- Ease the anxiety often faced by families during the college application process by equipping them with practical tools and resources specifically designed for neurodivergent applicants.
We will be addressing how to improve SAT scores, and how to improve reading comprehension and GPAs for:
- The bright right brain, neurodivergent learner who needs to improve their reading comprehension, attention and other issues to improve SAT scores. We define a right brain neurodivergent learner as one who learns best when they see and experience information.
- The motivated student who wants to know how to improve SAT scores to get into a better college and/or to earn a scholarship — like Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship
- How increased SAT scores can help a student in Florida earn scholarships that may be worth $20,000 to $30,000
Help your child to get into a better college and to be far better prepared to succeed in college.
The Digital SAT was introduced in March 2024. The new Digital SAT was hard for all students. For right brain neurodivergent learners, the Digital SAT was even harder. While the new digital app worked well, there were several comments that were shared by a number of students we have spoken with:
- The math section of the Digital SAT was very hard, with a number of new and different types of questions.
- The reading section was different – with a number of new questions on punctuation, “dependent” and “independent“ clauses and many questions that required inference skills.
- Overall, the SAT scores were close to historical levels, since the test was curved to do that.
The bad news is that those who struggled with the new format did much worse.
A positive note is that once a student learns how to solve the problems, they can see significantly improved SAT scores. It’s about learning new skills, looking for the tricks and finding patterns!
We have been helping students improve SAT scores for many years. What we have found is that many students struggle and:
- Lose focus during the test
- Read slowly and have problems with vocabulary and reading comprehension
- Struggle with the SAT because the questions are tricky. It is not straight forward, so being able to understand multiple meaning words is vital
3D Learner has a unique approach, where we can help a student:
- Improve their attention. This helps them to score better and do better in school and athletics
- Increase their vocabulary, reading speed and reading comprehension
- Then work on improving reading and math SAT Scores
- Show the student even more effective ways to solve the problems
- Increase their test scores, often by a significant amount
Advice to All Parents
- If your child complained about the March 2024 or June Digital SAT test — listen and respect their frustration. As with any new test, change is hard.
- If you are using books from before 2024, get new books. The questions are quite different. We use two 2025 Princeton Review Books for the Digital SAT 2025. Here are the books and a link to Amazon for each one:
- Practice with the new questions can be very helpful. We recommend you consider:
- Working with a professional who has had experience with these tests
- Having your child practice more than normal
- Be prepared to have your child take the test more than once
- Set goals with your child. This is especially true for students who want to get into a top flight school or one who wants to earn a scholarship
For example, in Florida, a student needs a 1210 combined SAT to qualify for the Bright Futures Scholarship that might be worth $20,000 over 4 years, and a 1340 combined SAT score to earn a Bright Futures Scholarship that might be worth close to $30,000 over 4 years.
We had a rising senior who needed to get a 3.6 GPA and a 1210 on his SAT to qualify for the Bright Futures Scholarship. This was a challenge given his cumulative GPA was 2.8 and his initial SAT scores were 1010. With our help and the motivation provided by the scholarship, he got a 3.75 GPA and a 1220 on his SAT score. Motivation matters.
Have your child set goals, track their progress and reward their gains.
Advice to Parents to Improve SAT Scores and Get Into the Best College for Them
- Work with professionals whose expertise is helping kids like yours get into the best possible schools. International College Counselors helps both:
- Neurodivergent learners get into a school that meets their needs
- Neurotypical students get into top universities
- Do all of the above and consider working with someone who understands your child’s specific strengths and challenges and can help them succeed. These might include:
- We have a number of students who lose focus during the test, and this happens elsewhere. At 3D Learner, we use the Interactive Metronome ® to improve attention. It also:
- Improves reading fluency by one grade level
- Improves math fluency by two grade levels
- Improves sports and related skills
- Creates new neural pathways that appear to be permanent
- Improving vocabulary, reading speed and reading comprehension
- The wording is different, and it helps to have someone who can explain things in a hands-on visual approach, that will allow your child to understand the concept
- Reading speed is often a challenge for the right brain neurodivergent learner. We have been able to significantly increase a student’s reading speed, while also improving their reading comprehension
We had a student who read at 125 words per minute and could not complete the test. With training, he increased his reading speed to 300 words per minute, while improving his reading comprehension 2 grade levels. His reading SAT score increased by 140 points.
- Reading comprehension is an issue for two different groups:
- When reading comprehension is well below grade level, getting a good SAT score can be very difficult. When one improves reading comprehension by 2 or 3 grade levels, GPAs and SAT scores both improve
- When a student wants to get into a really competitive school, improving reading speed, reading comprehension and vocabulary combined with SAT Prep can result in a significant improvement in their SAT score
- Finding someone who can show them an even easier way to solve the problems and who share it in a way that your child will accept their advice
- Having someone who can explain the new grammar questions and how to address them
- Having the availability to schedule extra sessions to help your child adjust and master the necessary skills. All of this training is done remotely-
- Be flexible and consider having your child take the test more than once, with enough time in between to significantly improve their results
Due to the significant changes in the Digital SAT, we expect those students who get the right help and practice enough, to see even greater benefits than normally. For a right brain neurodivergent learner, the new Digital SAT presents both significant risks and opportunities.
If you would like to discuss your child’s unique situation and explore how to improve SAT scores, please
call us at 561-361-7495 in Florida or
at 919-371-5295 in North Carolina.
For personalized guidance on the college preparation, selection, and application process for your child, please contact Nicole Jobson, MS. Ed. at 954-414-9986 (office) or 954-288-4496 (cell).
3D Learner helps two groups of students to improve SAT scores:
- The bright right brain, neurodivergent learner who needs to improve their reading comprehension, attention and other issues to improve SAT scores. We define a right brain neurodivergent learner as one who learns best when they see and experience information.
- The motivated student who wants an approach to significantly improve SAT scores to get into a better college and/or to earn a scholarship — like Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship
The Digital SAT was introduced in March 2024. The new Digital SAT was hard for all students. For right brain neurodivergent learners, the Digital SAT was even harder. While the new digital app worked well, there were several comments that were shared by a number of students we have spoken with:
- The math section of the Digital SAT was very hard, with a number of new and different types of questions.
- The reading section was different – with a number of new questions on punctuation and “dependent” and “independent“ clauses.
- Overall, the SAT scores were close to historical levels, since the test was curved to do that. The good news is that this allowed students who did better on the new format to score even higher.
The bad news is that those who struggled with the new format did much worse.
A positive note is that once a student learns how to solve the problems, they can see a significantly improved SAT score. It’s about learning new skills, looking for the tricks and finding patterns!
We have been helping students improve SAT scores for many years. What we have found is that many students struggle and:
- Lose focus during the test
- Read slowly and have problems with vocabulary and reading comprehension
- Struggle with the SAT because the questions are tricky. It is not straight forward, so being able to understand multiple meaning words is vital
3D Learner has a unique approach, where we can help a student:
- Improve their attention. This helps them to score better and do better in school and athletics
- Increase their vocabulary, reading speed and reading comprehension
- Then work on improving reading and math SAT Scores
- Show the student even more effective ways to solve the problems
- Increase their test scores, often by a significant amount
Advice to All Parents
- If your child complained about the March 2024 or June Digital SAT test — listen and respect their frustration. As with any new test, change is hard.
- If you are using books from before 2024, get new books. The questions are quite different. We use two 2024 Princeton Review Books for the Digital SAT 2024. Here are the books and a link to Amazon for each one:
- Practice with the new questions can be very helpful. We recommend you consider:
- Working with a professional who has had experience with these tests
- Having your child practice more than normal
- Be prepared to have your child take the test more than once
- Set goals with your child. This is especially true for students who want to get into a top flight school or one who wants to earn a scholarship
For example, in Florida, a student needs a 1210 combined SAT to qualify for the Bright Futures Scholarship that might be worth $20,000 over 4 years, and a 1340 combined SAT score to earn a Bright Futures Scholarship that might be worth close to $30,000 over 4 years.
We had a rising senior who needed to get a 3.6 GPA and a 1210 on his SAT to qualify for the Bright Futures Scholarship. This was a challenge given his cumulative GPA was 2.8 and his initial SAT scores were 1010. With our help and the motivation provided by the scholarship, he got a 3.75 GPA and a 1220 on his SAT score. Motivation matters.
Have your child set goals, track their progress and reward their gains.
Advice to Parents to Improve SAT Scores
- Do all of the above and consider working with someone who understands your child’s specific strengths and challenges and can help them succeed. These might include:
- We have a number of students who lose focus during the test, and this happens elsewhere. At 3D Learner, we use the Interactive Metronome ® to improve attention. It also:
- Improves reading fluency by one grade level
- Improves math fluency by two grade levels
- Improves sports and related skills
- Creates new neural pathways that appear to be permanent
- Improving vocabulary, reading speed and reading comprehension
- The wording is different, and it helps to have someone who can explain things in a hands-on visual approach, that will allow your child to understand the concept
- Reading speed is often a challenge for the right brain neurodivergent learner. We have been able to significantly increase a student’s reading speed, while also improving their reading comprehension
We had a student who read at 125 words per minute and could not complete the test. With training, he increased his reading speed to 300 words per minute, while improving his reading comprehension 2 grade levels. His reading SAT score increased by 140 points.
- Reading comprehension is an issue for two different groups:
- When reading comprehension is well below grade level, getting a good SAT score can be very difficult. When one improves reading comprehension by 2 or 3 grade levels, GPAs and SAT scores both improve
- When a student wants to get into a really competitive school, improving reading speed, reading comprehension and vocabulary combined with SAT Prep can result in a significant improvement in their SAT score
- Finding someone who can show them an even easier way to solve the problems and who share it in a way that your child will accept their advice
- Having someone who can explain the new grammar questions and how to address them
- Having the availability to schedule extra sessions to help your child adjust and master the necessary skills. All of this training is done remotely-
- Be flexible and consider having your child take the test more than once, with enough time in between to significantly improve their results
Due to the significant changes in the Digital SAT, we expect those students who get the right help and practice enough, to see even greater benefits than normally. For a right brain neurodivergent learner, the new Digital SAT presents both significant risks and opportunities.
If you would like to discuss your child’s situation
and explore how they can significantly improve SAT scores,
call us at 561-361-7495 or at 919-371-5295 in North Carolina.
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