SAT Test Scores are More Important Than Grades, Study Shows

SAT Test scores are a huge determining factor in college admission, and students need to take SAT test prep seriously in order to succeed. Good grades are not enough to get ahead. As the following article states, working with a private tutor to improve SAT test-taking strategies is the best method for achieving a high SAT score and gives you the highest chance of college admission.

Test Prep Proportionately More Valuable to College Admissions Than Grades

Anthony-James Green, regarded as one of the best SAT tutors in New York, is strongly urging students to spend more time on their SATs and ACTs, even if it means that their grades have to suffer slightly in the process. While Green acknowledges that grades are a more important part of the overall college admissions picture, he says that this generality obscures the reality of the situation.
Green, a career SAT tutor and author of multiple books on the subject of test prep, points out that SAT prep often gets short-thrift, to the serious detriment of many students’ college admission chances. “If there’s one grip that’s more common than any other in my industry, it’s this: people don’t realize how disproportionately important SAT and ACT prep are to the college admissions picture.”
Green reminds parents and students alike that a good SAT prep program doesn’t take more than three or four months to complete. “I work with most of my students over a 90-120 day period,” says Green of the prep process. “That’s all the time it takes to improve most of my students’ scores by at least 300 points.”
“View academics as secondary. View test prep as the main priority.” Green has seen students prevent themselves from gaining admission due to a lack of priorities during the test prep period. “I’ve had students who don’t do their homework because they need to finish a biology project. I’ve had students who pull two all-nighters in a row the week before their SAT because they need to finish up a paper. As a result, their scores plummet. It’s upsetting because they have the best of intentions – they just don’t realize that their allocating their attention inappropriately.”
According to Green, students who want to get into their dreams schools should view their test prep process as a complete and total priority. “If a student can spend an entire summer focusing on test prep, that’s the ideal. But if this isn’t a possibility, then school has to stand aside. It’s purely an issue of math.”