Podcast
2019-08-25 09:00:00/Jenni & Jody
We can not count how many times smart kids with great grades, even valedictorians, bomb the SAT or the ACT. Why is that?
In today’s podcast, Jean Burk, creator of the award-winning program College Prep Genius is talking to us about how to beat these standardized tests. They are tests of critical thinking, she says. “If you understand the strategies and shortcuts behind the test, you could skip pretty much 75% of the passage and get every answer right.”
“It takes a different skill set to beat an SAT. This is why you’ve got these very smart kids, even valedictorians bombing it all the time because they approach it differently, like a normal test, and cannot do that”
Jean is a homeschool mom whose program has helped thousands of high school students prepare for the SAT & PSAT/NMSQT. Her expertise has been featured on FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, WE, ION, Forbes Living TV, UShopTV, and The Homeschool Channel. She has been a keynote and featured speaker at numerous homeschool conferences, schools, clubs, college nights, and is a Fox News contributor. Jean currently travels across the United States speaking about how to go to college for FREE!
As a homeschooling mom, Jean did not have the financial resources to send her children to college. When she discovered the SAT and PSAT were the keys to getting huge scholarships, she began to research the tests to understand how to prepare her children for them. She discovered that these tests could be taught! They weren’t IQ tests, but rather critical thinking exams.
After both her children received full-ride scholarships, Jean began teaching these secrets to other homeschool, public, private and charter school students. Her program College Prep Genius is the culmination of more than a decade of research, classroom experience and SAT expertise. Her daughter also earned free grad school and her son earned free law school!
Preparing our kids to ace the SAT and ACT should be an official subject in any college-bound homeschooler’s schedule, no different than math, science, or social studies. During the interview, Jean talks about the similarities between the two tests and reveals that if you prepare well for one, you can ace both tests.
Because this episode comes during our series on reading, Jean talks about the importance of reading to prepare for standardized testing. She reminds us of the famous quote, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend two hours, chopping it down and six hours sharpening my tool.” Reading is sharpening the tool to ace the SAT and ACT. In fact, Jean tells us that kids who read 20 minutes a day can automatically find themselves in the 90th percentile!
She also talks about our role as parents in encouraging our kids to read and offers some title suggestions for the college-bound high schooler. If your homeschool student has his sights set on higher education, be sure to visit College Prep Genius.
For information on the SAT, visit the College Board website. Click on the link for more information about the ACT test.
“If you understand the strategies and shortcuts behind the test, you could skip pretty much 75% of the passage and get every answer right.”
During this episode, Jean talks about the importance of building critical thinking skills. Below is a list of resources that can help.
As you tune in, you’ll get to hear our super cool theme music. All of the music on the C2C Podcast was written, performed and produced by Jenni’s daughter Sky. Be sure to visit her on Instagram.
Please write to us and let us know what you thought of the show. AND...head over to whatever platform you used to listen to this Podcast, and give us a rating (a great one, we hope). That is SUPER important!!
Then connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. AND...come interact us with in the Facebook Group “Homeschooling From Cradle to Calling.”