Sylvan Prep Facts

Which test is right for my child?

SAT - is 84 years old and was only accepted at Ivy League schools. Today all colleges accept the SAT. The SAT covers Critical Reading, Math and Writing. It is a logic, reasoning test and is written at a very high level and has deliberately confusing questions. It is typically taken by juniors and seniors.

ACT - is 50 years old. The ACT is based on facts learned in school (content knowledge) and measures the ability of the student to complete college-level work. The ACT covers English, Critial Reading, Math and Science.

One test may be a better fit for some students. For example, students who perform poorly on the ACT may find that they do better on the SAT and vice versa. Since there's a good chance of doing well on at least one of these exams, a student would be wise to take both. In fact, more and more students are opting to take one of each test rather than repeating the same test over again to try and improve their score.

We can help you decide - Sylvan offers free practice tests and analysis with no obligation.

Guaranteed Satisfaction

We are so confident in our test prep program that we guarantee it. If after attending the first class your child is not satisfied with the material, you can call us within 48 hours to receive a full refund.

Small Class Sizes

The college admissions process can be extremely stressful on your child and you as a parent. Why not alleviate the stress of taking college admissions tests by getting the best prep around? Sylvan features smaller class sizes and personalized attention that other popular test prep programs offer. In fact, with a maximum class size of 6-8, students can expect to have about a half to a third the size of the average college prep test class.

Test preparation should entail more than independent study. Sylvan classes are small enough to give students the individual attention they need. Students are assigned homework on different test sections, and they work together through these problems in class.

How long has Sylvan Prep been around?

Sylvan Prep was originally developed by California-based Ivy West Educational Services and taught to more than 150,000 students over more than a decade. The program stresses a personalized approach to test preparation at the highest standards of excellence in customer service and quality. Ivy West has become, and still remains, the leading test preparation program in California for college admissions tests. The program has raised the scores of tens of thousands of students in California, and now, as Sylvan Prep, is offered through Sylvan Learning Centers throughout North America.

Why is Sylvan Prep better?

Other prep courses usually work with about 12 to 15 students at a time. Because of the large size, instructors are forced to teach to the general skill level of the class. Students with the ability to extract the information pertinent to them, while filtering out the information that is not ,may do fine in a setting like this. Because Sylvan Prep’s programs feature small group lessons, we are able to focus on the particular strengths and weaknesses of each and every student in a way that would not be possible in a large classroom-based program.

Students who take Sylvan Prep enjoy a more personalized approach addressing their individual needs. At Sylvan Prep, we wanted to offer something different than those large-class prep courses, so our classes have only 3 to 8 students and are geared more to the individual’s needs.

Everything we do is geared to personalizing the program to the handful of students in each class. Our instructors are so focused on the individuals that they will even be able to answer the un-asked questions that a student may have. In a large class the teacher may never know that a student is missing an important concept, whereas with our program the teacher is 100% focused on all of the students every step of the way

Motivation and Encouragement: At Sylvan Prep, our instructors teach students strategies and skills in a context of encouragement and positive reinforcement. A student’s anxiety is reduced as they learn exactly what to expect on the test, strategies they can use to tackle each type of question, new vocabulary and grammar. They practice applying these skills on full-length practice tests throughout the course.

Call today for the next available class.