For some students the next couple of weeks might be pretty stressful. For other students who are currently studying at Get Smarter Prep, there is a feeling of confidence and surety. The ACT standardized testing is scheduled to be taking place very soon all across the metro area. To find out a bit about how students can better prepare themselves for the ACT and many other standardized tests, we met up with Linden Schult at Get Smarter Prep in Overland Park.
Ben: Good afternoon this is Ben Hartman with Blogger Local Kansas City, sitting down with Linden Schult at with the president of Get Smarter Prep here in Overland park. The test prep season is in full swing with the ACTs coming up soon. If you can just tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got into this and then let us know a bit about all the services you guys offer.
Linden: Well, here at Get Smarter Prep we help students prepare for all different kinds of standardized tests. Primarily for high school students we work with the ACT and SAT. We also work with graduate students in the LSAT, GRE, GMAT and MCAT as well as various other placement tests. We have been in Kansas City since 2006 so we’re a local business and we also have an office in St. Louis.
Ben: You guys are down in Blue Valley as well, right?
Linden: We have an Overland Park office and then a location in Leawood.
Ben: I noticed here in your office you guys have a wide variety of students, some from public and some from private. There isn’t much need based difference between the two different types of school?
Linden: We have a lot of students from all over the Kansas City Metro area and we have a variety of services. We have some shorter express classes and longer standard courses and then also private tutoring so a variety of options to fit the student and what they need.
Ben: For some students that don’t have the option to travel is there any online accessibility for them?
Linden: We do online tutoring, which we’ve seen to be very effective as well. We track all of our score increases and our online students are doing very well. Some of those students are from across the U.S., even in South Carolina. Some of them are students who spend half of the year in Kansas City and half of the year at boarding school or with a parent in another city.
Ben: Do you guys find that people that do well on the ACT also do well on the SAT or some people are an ACT kind of person and some people are a SAT kind of person?
Linden: It really depends on the student. So, here in our Overland Park office we offer free practice testing every Saturday morning and we advise students to take both the free ACT and an SAT and then we’ll sit down and look at the scores. Some students do about the same on both tests, but maybe they really like one test or they really like the other, whereas other students will have a clear test that they’re stronger in. If you’re better in one you might as well prepare for that one and not even worry about the other.
Ben: Okay. What is next big test coming up?
Linden: Coming up now we have the September 21st ACT followed by the October 26th ACT. We have a lot of students in or our office who are seniors who are taking that test,but also juniors who are taking the test for the first time. We also have the October 5th and November 2nd SAT coming up.
Ben: Do you think that cramming for this September 21st ACT is going to work or do people need to spend quite a bit of time coming here to get the full benefit?
Linden: Cramming is not ideal. For some students who have prepared before, reviewing some of the strategies and practice problems can help, but for first timers, having a little more time to really learn the strategies and practice and really get used to the test makes a big difference, so for them the later test would be better.
Ben: Are there currently any open positions here at Get Smarter?
Linden: We actually are going to hold a winter training class for new tutors. We’re looking to hire a good number of new tutors to serve the needs in our office. Anyone who’s interested is welcome to apply.
Ben: What would be some of the prerequisites for that? Do you need to be someone with teaching assistant experience or just somebody in a college level educational program?
Linden: Really we’re looking for anyone who has completed at least their sophomore year of college. We have different tutors here who have completed college, who have other graduate degrees who have a wide variety jobs – some are engineers, some are lawyers, a variety of different things. Really we’re looking for people who like teaching, maybe not necessarily as their full-time job, but enjoy working with students and presenting ideas.
Ben: Okay. Well, once again this is Ben Hartman with Blooger Local Kansas City. We just caught up with Linden Schult, instructor and president of Get Smarter Prep in Overland Park, KS. Give her a call if you’re interested in finding out a bit more about some of the positions available at Get SmarterPrep. Thanks again, Linden, we’ll check back here with you soon.
Linden: Anytime
(09/11/13 Weather Kansas City – 84 degrees and sunny)
