Frequently Asked Questions

Students usually take the ACT and/or SAT two to three times, will begin prep no sooner than upon the conclusion of their sophomore year, and prefer to be done by the end of their junior year.

Everyone wishes to be done with their testing in the summer after their junior year so that they can turn the page and begin working on their personal statements, essays, and applications.  A lot of colleges and universities have early decision deadlines of November 1st or December 1st, so, if possible you would rather not have to submit an incomplete application that shows a score still pending from a final effort in October of the senior year.  When you factor in sports, clubs, activities, part-time jobs, AP/ACC courses, and so on, the junior year becomes very full, very quickly.  Having a plan in place for your standardized tests ahead of time can help smooth out a few wrinkles that might otherwise turn into huge hurdles.

Don’t panic! Please call our office at 314-344-9010 to discuss how we can help.

Every senior’s story is different and presents opportunities and hurdles.  Although test prep typically begins in the junior year, many circumstances might alter this timeline for your student.  We are here to help put a plan in place for these unique cases.

Strategy-based test prep breaks down standardized tests into their question order and pacing first, while content-based focuses directly on subject matter.

There are two different schools of thought when it comes to preparing for standardized tests.  The first and most common is content-driven prep, which is designed to review foundational principles of the subjects that constitute the ACT and/or SAT exams.  Content-based test prep can be very helpful, especially if your student has struggled a bit with any of the subjects included on the test.  Many students find content-based test preparation to be a positive experience overall, even if it does not necessarily move the needle on their ACT or SAT score, because of the detailed review of the subject matter.  However, there are two limiting factors inherent. First, if your student wrestled to master one or more of those foundational concepts in their class(es) the first time around, a short review may not be enough.  Even if there are only a couple of basic grammar or mathematical principles that present a bit of trouble, the pace of content-driven prep seems to be much too fast for concepts not quite grasped the first time and way too slow when plodding through those concepts which are already well-known by your student.  Secondly, if your son or daughter mastered all of the basic principles just fine, has the A in the class to prove it, but is now missing 15% or more of the questions on an ACT, a content review will usually do little to bridge that gap. It is not uncommon for students to begin content-driven prep with the best of intentions but eventually fade away from it or drop out altogether, labeling the pace of the class or the tutor either too fast or too boring – or both! – but rarely do they consider it just right. 

The second school of thought when it comes to test preparation is the method which breaks down the standardized tests into their pedagogical goals, analyzes their structure, and develops strategies for either removing or hurdling the pacing roadblocks built into the question order within each section of the test.  This approach is called strategy-based test prep.  Dr. Kleitz did not invent strategy-based test prep, but he is the brain trust behind a number of new and different strategies for both the ACT and the SAT.  In addition, he has developed specific and unique tactics so that, while the students are practicing his strategies, he (and all of our tutors, who use Dr. Kleitz’s approaches to standardized tests) can help address content weaknesses and deficiencies as much as possible within the time available to them.  The idea is to combine essential aspects of content-driven prep – but solely on an as needed basis – with what we believe are the very best strategies, techniques, methodologies, and tactics necessary for success on these tests. 

Private tutoring capitalizes on a student’s individual strengths in order to move the score as much as possible, and classroom or small group prep must focus on offering strategies that are likely to work for most of the students much of the time.

When Dr. Kleitz or any of the Kleitz Education Group tutors prepare an individual student for an ACT exam, students usually work one-on-one with their tutor for somewhere in the range of 14 to 18 hours and do 2-3 hours of homework for every hour of tutoring.  Most students arrange for this tutoring to be completed across the course of two or three different administrations of the ACT exam.  We see something similar with the SAT, in that students meet with their tutor for 12-15 hours and have 2-3 hours of homework after each appointment.  Our SAT students also spread their tutoring out over two or three administrations of the SAT exam. 

The Kleitz Education Group does not have contracts or tutoring packages for one-on-one tutoring – families pay only for the time that their students actually need and use.  Many students are able to reach their goals in significantly fewer tutoring hours than the average, and we absolutely love it when that happens!  Our goal is to have your child complete the tutoring in as few hours as possible so that he or she peaks on test day, not three weeks early and then starts to burn out.  This may mean that a student and tutor end up agreeing to cancel a scheduled session or two, perhaps, or requesting that a time may be found in order to add another or session or two in an effort to align the tutoring more closely with the anticipated test date. 

Our private test prep tutors meet with only one student at a time, and all of the tutors are able to cover every area of the applicable exam (Verbal and Math for the SAT; English, Math, Reading, and Science, as well as the Writing section, in the rare cases when it is requested or required, for the ACT).  About 50 minutes of the student’s hour with the tutor will be interactive, with the tutor reviewing the student’s homework from last time, introducing and explaining new strategies, and addressing any specific content weaknesses or deficiencies; it will find the student both asking and answering questions, analyzing misses, highlighting successes, reviewing goals, etc.  There is almost always a stretch of time, maybe 5-10 minutes, when the tutors ask students to work through a few sample problems.  This is done to demonstrate that any new strategy or strategies are completely understood before the student is off to do the homework at home on their own time (and not on your dime).

When ACT preparation is done in the smaller group or classroom setting by the Kleitz Education Group tutors, the goal is to have roughly 12 hours of course instruction scheduled to help handle the additional questions raised by having multiple students tutoring together.  As with private tutoring, the classroom time is pretty interactive, with much of the time together spent analyzing homework, asking and answering questions, introducing and demonstrating new strategies, covering common content deficiencies, and so forth.   The students will have 2 to 3 hours of homework each week during the course.

Classroom-based preparation is not necessarily the best test prep format for all students.  If your child will be granted testing accommodations (such as extended time or untimed pacing and/or will have scribes, readers, etc.), or has scored a 15 or below on a practice ACT, then you might choose to reach out to us immediately to discuss alternative approaches to his or her testing preparations.  It may be that classroom prep will still work quite well for your son or daughter regardless, but we want to have that conversation beforehand and be certain.  This is also true if your student has scored 1280 or above on the sophomore PSAT and/or 27 or above on his or her practice ACT.  These students usually need a much more specific level of assistance to break through to the 99th percentile scores that tend to be their – sometimes as yet unstated – goals.

Private tutoring is more effective and efficient overall, but, without a doubt, classroom-based tutoring is the more cost-effective option.  Please do not hesitate to ask us to help break this down further in light of your student’s scores, goals, and availability, not to mention your family’s budget.

Our private tutoring rates begin at $100/hour and can go up to $275/hour.

The fee for private test prep tutoring with a Kleitz Education Group tutor depends upon a tutor’s years of experience with our company.  Our tutors are professionals in their own right and in a variety of areas – lawyers, doctors, professors, and engineers, just to name a few.  Tutoring fees are $100/hour for tutors who have been with us for roughly 5 years; tutors at $150/hour have been with us for approximately 6-8 years; and the tutors who have been here at the Kleitz Education Group for about a decade or more are $200/hour.  Only Dr. Kleitz himself is $275/hour.

Our group options begin at $595 per student for a small group six-week class; our Tutoring Trios are $895 per student for an eight-week course.  The fees for in-school and after-school courses offered by our tutors at area schools and colleges differ due to the amount of supportive funding provided by the host school.

For individual ACT prep, our average score improvement is 4.5 points; for one-on-one SAT prep, it is 190 points.

It may not seem like much, but each point in a composite ACT score represents a whole lot of hard work on behalf of the student.  As an illustration, to move the English score on an ACT just 1 point, you have to answer approximately 3 additional questions correctly.  So, to move the English a total of 4 points, which will move your composite score, or overall score, by 1 point, you need to get about 12 additional questions right.  There are only 75 questions in the English section, which means that you need to get 16% more of them correct than you did last time.   Doing this is like asking a student who routinely gets an 80 on English tests to go in and get a 96 next time . . . and then do that on Math, Reading, and Science, too, please, while at it, . . . and in a single sitting of about four hours’ length, . . . with a solitary break of 10-15 minutes after English & Math but before Reading, & Science, . . and perhaps Writing, too, . . . without disrupting any time devoted to extracurricular activities, clubs, games, and practices while preparing for it, . . . nor while taking away anything from the regular schoolwork routine when getting ready for this test, . . . and, as is the case for many students, doing all of that while also holding down a part-time job throughout the entire test prep window. 

It sounds a bit more difficult now, doesn’t it?  Yet that is exactly what we are asking our children to do, all while we’re telling them that this is one of the most important tests that they will ever take.  Their scores here may dramatically increase or drastically reduce their choices of colleges, which will have an almost immeasurable impact on their careers, lives, and livelihoods, too.  Really, though, could they please just hurry up and fix that ACT or SAT score right away so they can move on to answering all the rest of these questions about their futures?  Alli often tells parents that this entire scenario – starting from how a simple question about moving one section score ends up deep into a conversation about how the rest of a young person’s entire life might play out – well, this whole thing always reminds her of David Bowie and Queen:  Under Pressure!  Our apologies for the long answer, but we’re proud of the work our students do to see such an improvement.

Our score improvements of 4.5 points for ACT and 190 points for SAT are roughly three times the national score improvement averages of 1.5 points for ACT and 60 points for SAT. 

Here at the Kleitz Education Group, our average ACT score improvements are comprised of students who do indeed only go up 1 or 2 points, as well as students who move their scores 6 or more points.  As a company, the Kleitz Education Group average score improvement is 4.5 points for private tutoring students who are pursuing full-prep and usually over two administrations of the ACT exam.  This is true whether a student begins with an 11, a 21, or even a 31, and anything in between.  The average, or mean, is one way to measure score improvements, but another way to gauge success is by reporting the mode (the most common score improvement).  Over 65% of our one-on-one students see an improvement of either 3, 4, or 5 points.  Many parents find this reassuring, as it indicates that our 4.5 point average improvement is not the result of a few, oddly fantastic score improvements that are raising the entire group’s mean.  Rather, it is representative of solid, consistent, routine improvements.  (SAT score improvements are very similar – over 65% of our SAT prep students see an improvement of between 160 and 210 points.)

The score scale is a bit different for classroom prep, as the instructor needs to keep the class moving at a pace that is effective for most of the students in the room.  Our average score improvement at the Kleitz Education Group for classroom-based preparation is approximately 2.5 points, and this holds true whether a student begins with a 16 or a 26, or anything in between.  As indicated earlier, students who are coming to us with a score of 15 or below, or someone beginning with a 27 or above, may wish to discuss their scores with Alli or Jane prior to enrolling in one of our courses or smaller groups. 

It is quite rare for our students to see no improvement at all, but a stagnant score does happen once in a great while, as much as we wish it could be otherwise.  Even if a score does not budge at all on the first or second test, with additional practice and repetition within the testing environment, almost every student will eventually see a score improvement on test day that is more in line with their practice scores.  Quite often, the student does not even need to meet further with the tutor for this process, as he or she knows exactly what to do and is able to do it in practice routinely, and our tutors are happy to give the student as much practice material as they could possibly want or need to continue practicing and drilling on their own.  Sometimes, the parents and students do choose to continue meeting with one of our tutors – almost serving more like a coach at this point – to give the students someone to whom they can be accountable in terms of completing practice sections.  The additional practice and growing confidence finally pay off, and the needle will move on their scores.  Less than 10% of our students have this happen to them (needing a third or further test to see their score improvement materialize on test day), but the end result is still an average score improvement of 4.5 (or 190) points; it just takes them an additional administration of the exam… or two or three extras.  

Unfortunately, sometimes the anxiety or self-doubt that student is battling will be simply too ingrained to be overcome, and despite the combined efforts of student and tutor, there is no score improvement at all.  Again, these situations are rare (fewer than 100 students out of the 20,000+ students with whom we’ve worked since 2006), but they do occur. 

Via the ACT.org website for ACT and/or the CollegeBoard.org website for SAT.

To register for a standardized exam, you first need to create an account for your student on either the ACT.org or the CollegeBoard.org website, whichever represents the test you wish to take.  Although ACT and SAT suggest that the process takes about 40 minutes, we want to warn you that it might in fact be more likely an hour or two, simply because you will be asked for all of your student’s high school course information and grades by semester, which may not be easily accessible.  You will also need to upload a headshot photo for the admission ticket your student must print and bring along on each test day.  Students are regularly turned away from test sites for a poor photo or an improperly uploaded photo, so it’s worth the time spent to do it correctly.  Once the regular deadline has passed, there is usually a 2-week window in which you can register late for a test.  An additional fee is assessed for late registration.  Please reference ACT.org or CollegeBoard.org for official testing dates. 

Call and chat with Alli or Jane!

Preparing for the PSAT looks much like preparing for the SAT, with the PSAT itself often standing in lieu of one the aforementioned two or three administrations of the SAT.  There are significant pressures associated with success on the PSAT when in pursuit of National Merit Commended Scholar or National Merit Semi-Finalist Scholar status, so having a detailed conversation with Alli or Jane about your student’s starting scores and goal scores will help shed some light on how best to navigate this aspect of standardized testing.

Absolutely!

Alli and Jane are always willing to chat with you about your student’s situation in greater detail, and we are happy to lend an ear if you simply need someone to play the devil’s advocate.  We may not have the answers, but we are familiar with some of the questions that you will want to discuss with your junior, so we will always do our very best to help you develop a plan to navigate this whole process.   The Kleitz Education Group office hours are from 9am to 6pm, Monday through Friday, and we are also available most Saturdays from 11am to 2pm.  In fact, Alli is frequently in the office until nearly 9pm on weekday evenings.  Please do not hesitate to give us a call and speak with us right away!