How easy do you want it to be to increase on the SAT and ACT? The latter probably seems like a very simple answer: as easy as possible. But, I think with more consideration you might revise that statement.
If it is easy to increase on the SAT and ACT, then everyone would do so. And, because the SAT and ACT are graded on a curve, if everyone does equally better, then an individual’s score will not increase at all. For example, a 30 on the ACT puts students in the 95th percentile of test takers. If everyone performs equally better on the exam, that student with a 30 will simply receive a 30 on the next test as well because they will still be in the 95th percentile. Thus, do we really want it to be easy to increase? No. There is no such thing as making it easy to increase on the SAT and ACT. The better everyone does, the harder the test will become and the steeper the curve.
The only way to increase on the SAT and ACT is to do better than other students. The better and better you do than other students, the higher your percentile goes. Significant improvement and success on the SAT and ACT, just like success in life, takes hard-work: specifically, working harder than others. We often think ill of competition, but it is the driver of innovation and pervades many spheres of life: work, school, dating/marriage markets, etc.
There is rarely a short-cut to significant success: if there was, others would find it as well, everyone would take it, and then no one would have succeeded above anyone else. Anything worth doing takes hard-work and determination. The SAT and ACT are no different. If students are willing to work-hard and determined to improve, then they can achieve almost any score they set. Some of our students have increased over 400 points on the SAT and 14 points on the ACT (one recently went from a 21 to a near perfect 35; it took a lot of time and effort, but everyone would agree it was worth it). On the SAT/ACT and in life, amount of success is typically in proportion to amount of perseverance and hard-work.
