Q&A with Aaron: How Command Education Senior Tutors Help Low-Scoring Students Reach Their Goals

A: Typically, I would categorize a student as “low scoring” if they earn below a 1200 for the SAT and below a 28 for the ACT; anyone who scores above this threshold on an initial diagnostic is higher scoring. Students scoring in these ranges often need more foundational content review before they can focus on testing strategies, time management, and structure. At the same time, a low standardized test score truly varies widely from student to student based on their goals. What may be a high score for one student could constitute a low score for another. For example, if a student’s dream school has a median score of 1500 for admitted students, then anything significantly below that could be considered “low” in the context of their profile. Assessing this is really just a way for Command to “diagnose” the strategy for moving forward—does a student need targeted instruction to meet knowledge gaps or strategies for overcoming test-taking anxiety? Will the process of improving the score realistically take six months, or will it take a year and a half?

A: The timeline for test prep depends on a student’s starting point. For an average student aiming for a moderate increase in their score, a six-month timeline is typically sufficient. This includes a combination of content review, strategic test-taking practice, and iterative mock testing leading up to their official test date.

However, for students starting with lower scores, a longer timeline is usually necessary. For instance, a student with a goal of 1500 who begins with a sub-1000 score will require over a year of instruction, preparation, and practice. Regardless of a student’s goal, I generally recommend that low-scoring students work with a Senior Tutor for at least a year, with 8-9 months dedicated to mastering content and building foundational skills, followed by 3 months of intensive practice testing and fine-tuning strategies. In some cases, our tutors have worked with students for over a year and a half. Ideally, students should begin preparing in the spring of their sophomore year (with diagnostic testing to determine if the ACT or SAT are best suited for them) and sit for the test during the spring of junior year. This allows the advantage of summer prep and content review, shifting to practice and strategy implementation in the fall of junior year and final testing by the end of spring. Students can also begin learning early in junior year and sit for the test during the fall of senior year, but they will need to juggle standardized testing with college applications, which can add to feelings of stress and overwhelm them.

A: Students who score low on the exam overwhelmingly struggle with the content. Both the SAT and the ACT cover an extensive range of material—essentially all four years of high school math, grammar, and reading comprehension. Many students struggle not because they lack intelligence but because they haven’t been exposed to all the necessary concepts in a way that “clicks” for them. Additionally, much of this material is cumulative, so if a student lacks the foundational knowledge in English grammar or algebra, they will struggle with more advanced topics.

When preparing for standardized tests, students don’t often think about reviewing basic grammar concepts they learned in elementary school and never revisited—but going back to the basics is absolutely essential. At Command, we start with foundational content regardless of a student’s background to ensure that they have a strong conceptual foundation and leave no stone left unturned. I want to know: Do you understand precalculus? Do you understand why a comma goes in this place in the sentence? Can you tell me what pronoun agreement is? And, most importantly, what is your reasoning for your answer? It doesn’t make sense to go over quadratics or how to handle complex clauses if you don’t know what a linear equation is or what constitutes a sentence.

If the student is high scoring, Senior Tutors can typically cover this ground quickly, ensuring no unexplored gaps in content. However, we linger over this material with lower-scoring students, as these concepts are usually the source of their issues. Our job is to help them connect the dots by showing them how topics build upon one another. We don’t just teach students to memorize formulas or rules—we show them how the concepts interrelate and cohere, which in turn enables them to develop a deeper conceptual understanding, critical thinking skills, and long-term retention.

A: In my experience, students who struggle with standardized testing often also face challenges with executive functioning skills, such as time management, study habits, and information retention, which can impact their performance in school. Many students adopt a “cram and forget” mindset—learning material for a test, regurgitating it on the exam, and then immediately discarding it from memory. While this might work as a short-term strategy, it will always hurt students in the long run—especially on standardized tests, in which the material is cumulative and comprehensive.

In light of this, our tutoring involves teaching students how to study more effectively. Instead of seeing learning as a series of isolated tasks, we encourage them to recognize how knowledge builds over time. For instance, I have students consider how learning grammar or rhetorical analysis will help them with their college essays and classwork, whereas math concepts may help them approach issues and topics more methodically and logically, which takes time to master. This is particularly evident in standardized tests, which are not tailored to a particular teacher or subject; they require the Herculean task of sitting for over two hours (standard time), rapidly switching between various subjects and concepts. Many students are not accustomed to preparing for that kind of test—and that is completely alright! This format is challenging, and students often arrive at the process without the tools or background to tackle it. Our work together is about first establishing the knowledge foundation through critical thinking rather than “cramming,” then acclimating to the testing format through practice tests. Usually, tutors will start students with one section or half an hour of testing practice before gradually moving to longer portions, a process that eventually culminates in full-length practice tests.