While high school grades are a very useful indicator of how students will perform in college, there is great variation in grading standards and course rigor within and across high schools. More than 80 years ago the College Board created the first standardized college entrance test to help colleges and universities identify students who could succeed at their institutions and to connect students with educational opportunities beyond high school.

Today, the SAT is the benchmark standardized assessment of the critical reading, mathematical reasoning, and writing skills students have developed over time and that they need to be successful in college. Each year, more than two million students take the SAT. Nearly every college in America uses the test as a common and objective scale for evaluating a student’s college readiness.

Educators trust the SAT as a useful part of the college application process because the SAT is:

• The most researched standardized admissions test
• The standard in reliability and validity
• An internationally recognized, accurate measure of college readiness and scholarship potential

The SAT is offered 6 times per year for international students and 7 times per year for American students. The test dates are always in: January, March (USA only), May, June, October, November and December.

You must register at least one month early from http://www.collegeboard.com. I highly recommend you register earlier than 1 month because many centers worldwide fill up.

The SAT does NOT have to be a hard or complicated test. In fact, the ETS designed the test to be an indication of your academic ability throughout high school and secondary. As such, the ETS recommends to NOT study. Even still, millions of students prepare with books, classes, seminars, and courses every year. Why? Because competition at the best universities worldwide is stiff. Competition for scholarships and acceptance letters is even more difficult.

The admissions process is complicated. The SAT is only ONE part of your process. A high SAT score won’t guarantee admission, but a low score might guarantee rejection. See, the schools must have a minimum score to filter out students they do not want to admit. If you take a practice SAT and do not score high enough for your target schools, preparing for the SAT with a company like Craig Gonzales Tutoring might be the smartest and most effective use of your time.

Could  you do it on your own? Sure, of course. Could I get a six-pack on my own? Yes, and I have. But a personal trainer helps me get fit faster, smarter, and more effectively than trying it on my own.

Hiring a tutor or paying for an online course is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of maturity and recognition in what is important. I nerd out on the SAT so you do not have to.

The SAT math tests three general topics: arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. It tests those three topics in two ways: Problem solving and grid in.

Problem solving questions are the typical multiple-choice questions that you are used to. Math questions can be combined to increase difficulty. For example, there may be a geometry problem with variables, thus mixing algebra and geometry. Or there may be a ratio question with triangles, thus mixing geometry and arithmetic.

There is a strict order of difficulty. The first few questions are considered easy while the final few questions are considered difficult. The key to success of SAT math is to focus on finding the hidden meaning in each question and isolating answer choices that just cannot be correct.

The SAT reading has two questions types: sentence completion and reading comprehension.

Sentence completion tends to test vocabulary and logic. You are given a sentence with one or two blanks and you are asked to pick the correct word(s) that make the sentence complete. If you cannot analyze sentences and if your vocabulary is weak, these can be very difficult. The key to success is identifying what the correct word should be and being very aggressive with your elimination of wrong answers.

Reading comprehension is tested in up to four ways. There are long-passages and short-passages and there are single-passages and double-passages. There is no order of difficulty, per se, but there is a devised or understood question-type difficulty. As you work through RC, you will notice trends and commonalities in the questions that can be used to identify wrong answers question. You need to be able to speed reading, paraphrase, and identify wrong answers to do well on the RC sections.

The SAT Writing section tests three things: essay development, grammar, and essay construction. You will be given 25 minutes to write an argumentative essay. You must be clear and concise while also giving a strong opinion with elaborate and excellent justifications. You will then be required to answer grammar questions in the form of error identification and sentence correction. Finally, you will be given a paragraph to edit and analyze in a section called improving paragraphs.

Yes, of course. If you do all your homework, try really hard, go to all the classes, watch all the videos, and really attempt to do well, and you don’t get your reasonable target, I’ll keep working with you until you do.
If you are taking the online course and you really don’t like how it works, we have a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.

Average score improvement is a tricky question. To be honest, students go up between 100 and 300 points, but that is only half the question. See, when you start your preparation with a high score, it’s a lot harder for you to increase points. if you start with a low score, it’s very easy to increase a lot of points, but that ultimate score still may be too low for good schools.

What you SHOULD ask yourself is if we help you identify the score you need, give you a smart and effective plan to get that score, and work with you diligently until you DO get that score. And the answer to that is YES. So, we average ~200 points, but we do not guarantee. Because where you start will determine how many points you earn.

Yes, it is 100% effective. We will include sample lessons soon, for you to watch and understand. But in the meantime, know that skype is 100% effective and useful for your learning. If you want an expert tutor to meet at your home, but we do not live in the same town, Skype tutoring ensures you get all the knowledge, practice, and assessment without the expense or hassle.

I teach all my courses, be it SAT, GMAT, or Academic tutoring, using a holistic and progressive learning system. I first identify your knowledge gaps, and use acquisition, debugging, and linking techniques to make sure your truly understand what you previously did not understand. We then work through strategy drills to make sure you can use your new knowledge as effectively as possible. The goal with all of test prep is to ensure you can answer questions quickly and effectively.

Finally, we make sure you can do all of this question The PLS is thus: Knowledge – Strategy – Pacing.

Yes, the online course is incredibly effective. Some students like it more than in person tutoring, because they are able to re-watch the videos as often as possible. It’s amazing when students work hard, do homework, try, and succeed. The online ecourse is effective IF you watch the videos, do your homework, and ask questions. If you just buy it and expect to magically learn, you will not succeed. But if you buy it intending to work. You WILL succeed.
The course is priced to be accessible to people worldwide. This truly is an international course and I hope students worldwide get access to the best preparation available. Our customer service is unparalleled, our course is amazing, and our instructors are brilliant. It’s inexpensive because it does not take our time to teach, like in person and skype require.

We can meet anywhere you like. I generally meet at students homes, because it enhances learning. But if you are outside of Bangkok, we can meet at a central serviced office. If you are well outside of Bangkok and request tutoring, such as students in Phuket, Chiang Mai, or Rayong, we can arrange a longer set of sessions to fit your needs. <em>Please note we’d have to increase rates to include transportation and accommodation.</em>

Yes, we do. If you are interested in Skype or In Person tutoring, we can arrange half courses (6 sessions) if you are short on time. The ideal way a half course works is if you only need to focus on math and reading and you can forgo writing. I don’t recommend trying to fit reading, writing, and math into a half course. For fee details, please contact me directly. As a note, prices decrease 45% (not 50%, because fixed costs stay the same).

For online courses, you can choose to purchase just math, reading, or writing. There are discounts if you buy more than one.

We do. We offer a deeply discounted rate for groups of 2-3 and groups of 4-5. Each SAT or GMAT group is arranged with friends or acquaintances. CGT does not set the groups up, rather, you must get a group of friends and come to me for assessment. The SAT and GMAT brochures give all the price details regarding group courses.

We also have the option for SAT/GMAT group with Skype. If you have several friends (2-3) and you want a discounted group Skype rate, we can arrange that. Please contact me directly, because logistics and technology must be assessed on your part. We do have skype conference and webinar technology. So if you contact us with that group request, we can certainly help you.