Standardized Tests: Maya's SAT Story

“Phone! It’s Maya*,” Akshay’s mother said.

He made a face. Maya was cousin who lived in a small town in Karnataka. She was a year younger and could be fun, but mostly, he scene-zoned her. And now she’d called on his mother’s phone. 

“Hi, Maya, I’m just about to take a test and can only talk for two minutes. Tell me quickly,” he said. 

“I think I want to go abroad to study. Papa and Ma say that if I ace the standardized tests, they’ll seriously consider sending me. What should I do?”

Akshay couldn’t believe his ears. “This is great, and I have the most awesome news for you. You can study with Collegify, the ones who are training me and helping me get to the college of my dreams.”

“I can’t come to Delhi. The vacations are already over.”

“You don’t need to come here! Collegify has launched a revolutionary E-learning platform for SAT prep and ACT coaching. It uses artificial intelligence, AI, to pinpoint the level at which you are comfortable, gives you tests at that level to build confidence, identifies weak topics in each test area, gives you more practice in those–”

“Slowly! I’m trying to write this down. Can you repeat after ‘gives tests that build confidence’?”

“The platform personalizes your learning. You’ll get more practice in areas where you’re weak, and as you get better, AI will begin giving you more challenging tests,” Akshay said. 

“I tried a few tests from books. The thing that really kills me is Critical Reading. The choices are so tricky!” Maya said. 

“I found Writing impossible,” Akshay said, “but with just five days of practice, I feel better about myself and my ability to tackle the Writing section. And you know the best part? You can take tests with others online and get your percentile score. Of course, we’ll be taking the test against many thousands of others on the actual day, but this way, at least we know where we stand against some others, instead of just our score alone.”

“Percentile score? I’ve just begun exploring standardized tests, so I don’t really understand what this means,” Maya said. 

“The short way to understand this is that even if you scored 1450 out of 1600, which is a pretty good score, it won’t be of much use if most of the students who take the test on the same day score 1450 or more. What matters is relative scores on the test.”

“Oh! That’s scary,” Maya said.

“Which is why it’s great that Collegify’s e-learning platform gives you some idea of your percentile score. And these tests are conducted every week, so you can see how good your scores are when compared with others taking the test at the same time.”

Akshay’s mother said, “Didn’t you say you had only two minutes? You’ll go on for two hours at this rate. Let me talk.”

She spoke with Maya’s mother, who had two concerns: how good the training was, and what it cost. 

“Akshay began just five days ago, and because he gets instant feedback on his answers and detailed exam reports, he’s getting better really quickly. Also, the system is built such that he can take any number of tests. In fact, that’s almost all he’s been doing since he joined the platform. This is Collegify’s expertise available to you at home. You can’t miss this chance!”

“Sounds good,” said Maya’s mother, “but how much does it cost?”

“You would probably be paying more for tuition in one subject per month,” came the reply. 

“Really? Well, I guess we’ll get Maya to join then.”

Akshay grabbed the phone for one last sentence with Maya. “Listen, just join, and let’s take next week’s test and compare scores!”

Maya is intrigued, but unsure. Akshay has had in-person SAT prep too. Will this E-learning platform work for her, who cannot attend actual classes? And did she dare take the weekly test alongside the confident-sounding Akshay? To find out, and to see how you can make your 'study in the US' dreams come true stay tuned and follow our blog posts. 

*Names have been changed to protect the individual’s identity and privacy.