Trifecta Services: The Two-Step Test Preparation Strategy
Practicing is a two-step process: You sharpen the knowledge and skills required by practicing the content of the tests; and then, you sharpen your test skills by practicing on the tests themselves. These two activities are related but wholly different.
Step 1
You practice content on your own by exploiting free resources: The Khan Academy, the College Board, and the ACT Academy are outstanding resources for practicing content—free and official! Even tutor-learner online sessions are free, thanks to Schoolhouse.world, launched in Jan 2021. We do limited content practice sessions with you (see schedule).
When we assist you in Step 1, our tutors will use the official College Board guide or other resources for questions and practice during our sessions. Using the Educator Question Bank, families can create custom, targeted question sets to improve instruction. We are not permitted to use Khan Academy content for IP reasons. However, students should use Khan Academy resources for self-practice.
Step 2
To practice test-taking, both the SAT and ACT offer numerous free official mock tests that were previously administered. More on this below.To construct your schedule, we start backwards from the big test day, always a Saturday for the SAT. There are seven official mock tests offered by the College Board, and nine offered by the ACT.
You take the first official mock test (self-test) and send us the results, including the detailed answer explanations.Then, during the first review session, you would sit with our tutor to forensically diagnose where you went wrong.
That is, when reviewing the detailed explanations for wrong answers, our tutor will help you track if you had more than one wrong answer in a topic area, such as Congruence and Similarity (Math), or Possessive Determiners (English Grammar). If yes, our tutor will take you back to the impacted section (Step 1 above) and review the content with targeted instruction to close any learning gaps.
Many students are too eager to believe that their foundational knowledge is so strong that a remedial review is unnecessary. For well-designed tests such as the SAT/ACT, which pry on tricking students, such over-confidence could impact test-day scores.
Your tutor is trained to zero in on the problem, collaboratively work with you to detect knowledge gaps, help close them during the session, and give you additional homework and practice exercises if necessary so that you are better prepared.
The next week, you take the second official mock test, send us your results, and appear for the second tutoring session. The tutor will again forensically diagnose your answer responses, and apply instructional training to close knowledge gaps. You get the idea.
We repeat the above regimen until test day.
Pressure on Families
We understand the pressure families feel during the SAT campaign, especially when students are trying to improve their scores significantly and feel that they are running out of runway. This often happens when rising 12th graders take their August or September SAT.
We completed 270 tutor‑student sessions during the first six months of 2026. While each student is unique, we learned several lessons that enabled us to make some broad observations.
Reading Comprehension Is a Big Skill to Improve in a Short Time
The digital SAT features significantly shorter reading passages. The College Board reduced them from the traditional length of 500–750 words to brief, 25‑ to 150‑word paragraphs, with exactly one question attached to each.
Still, reading an English passage and understanding what the author is saying is not always easy. The only remedy is for students to develop a regular reading habit for pleasure and read short college‑level passages every day and analyze them.
Memorizing Grammar Rules Helps Enormously
When English is not the spoken language at home, overcoming grammar deficits can be difficult. We advise students to begin memorizing grammar rules and treat them as they would equations or Chemistry formulas.
Student Distraction Is a Major Factor
We found that some students were not fully committed to the sessions. They would come to class unprepared to engage our tutors about the topic areas that were bothering them. Others showed that their focus was elsewhere, such as missing out on time with friends. The homework was often incomplete or not as thoroughly done as it could have been.
Our Error Logs Can Help, but Only When Filled Out
We share error logs at the beginning of our sessions and ask students to fill them out thoroughly. During a short one‑hour session, the logs immediately set the agenda for the tutor to address open issues.
Here are a Few Facts that may Help you Relax
Despite what we said above, test outcomes do not depend solely on student effort. Several external factors influence performance. Test anxiety can affect students even when they know the material. The College Board uses an equating and scaling process that adjusts scores across different test dates. Question difficulty varies from one administration to another.
Conditions on test day can also influence results. We know of one student who forgot to take his ID to the testing center. The family scrambled to get a neighbor to enter the home through their garage, locate the student’s ID, and rush it to the testing center. By the time the student received it, the test had already begun and he was in tears. No one can expect a strong performance in such a situation.
While Bluebook and official tests are reliable indicators of rigor and spread, some students have reported that the second English section can feel more difficult than the Bluebook tests. We attempt to neutralize this challenge by offering more difficult English questions to help students prepare.
During your engagement, our approach will remain focused on the inputs. This is the part we can strengthen with structure and consistency. Step 1 is content mastery. Step 2 is the forensic review. This approach helps students understand concepts, apply methods, and learn from patterns in their practice tests.
Students who engage with us benefit from a clear and disciplined routine. The most effective students come to each session with questions or topics they found challenging during homework. When students participate fully in the review process, our tutors are energized. Students can then apply the strategies we discuss to their homework lessons during the week. These habits help students maximize the value of our tutoring.
Resources for Practicing Test-taking
Follow the three links below for resources on how to practice test-taking:Here's the link to the paper tests: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/practice/practice-tests/paper
Equivalent tests are available on Bluebook; this is the digital equivalent of the paper tests:
https://bluebook.collegeboard.org/students/download-bluebook
Here's the official College Board SAT Guide plus test package book. Our tutors use this book for all diagnostics review sessions. It is not necessary to have the latest edition.
How We Can Help
Our SAT/ACT/PSAT-11 product forms the bedrock of our test prep offering. Click here to understand how we are different. This link also contains a parent FAQ.For our 10‑hour packages, we offer a test‑drive option so families can feel confident before committing. You begin by paying only for the first three one‑hour sessions. If the fit isn’t right after those three sessions, we can switch tutors or end the engagement. If everything is working well, you may then pay for the remaining hours of the package. Contact us to take advantage of this option.
Example 10-week SAT Test Prep Schedule: Test Date June 6
Here is a clean 10‑week SAT plan, including 10 sessions of SAT English Prep and 10 sessions of SAT Math prep. Highlights
SAT test date: June 6
- Work backward exactly 10 weeks to determine first session. (03/28/2026)
Session 10: June 3 (English) and June 4 (Math)
Session 9–3: Each week has
Saturday AM: Practice Test
Saturday PM: Math Review
Sunday AM: English Review
Skip May 2–15 (AP exams); Resume on May 16
Sessions 1–2: content practice on Sat PM + Sun AM
A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions.
Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.
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