SAT/ACT

Course Objective:

• To teach students the skills and techniques instrumental in achieving high scores on the SAT/ACT
• To familiarize students with the structure and nature of the test
• To illustrate the unique challenges of the SAT/ACT and help students to overcome them

Course Description: 

Developed by The Edge’s test preparation experts with over a decade of experience, The Edge’s SAT/ACT Essentials Course is designed to prepare students for the SAT revised in 2023/ACT assessment test. The Regular SAT/ACT Essentials Course consists of 10 classes at 2.5 hours each class. The SAT classes focus on individual sections of the test: Writing, Reading, and Math and the ACT classes focus on individual sections of the test: English, Math, Reading, Science, and the Essay.

Through 25 hours of instruction, the class learns the fundamental concepts tested by the SAT/ACT–such as geometry or English punctuation–as well as how these concepts are tested through classic questions and effective strategies for quickly and accurately answering questions. Students learn specific ways to approach SAT/ACT questions and common problems facing Hong Kong students. Alongside instruction and practice, SAT students take an online mock exam and ACT students take three mock exams over the duration of the course to map progress. They will receive personalized recommendations for further action upon completion of the 25 hours.

Recommended For: 

The Edge’s SAT/ACT Essentials Course is recommended for any and all students considering applying to US universities. After completing the course, students may move on to more advanced instruction, such as The Edge’s SAT Boot Drilling course and/or ACT Power Series course. 

Course Schedule: 

The Edge’s SAT Essentials Course – 25 Hours of Instruction (Cost: HK$16,300)

The Edge’s ACT Essentials Course – 25 Hours of Instruction & 3 Mock Tests  (Cost: HK$16,300)

Next Intake*:

SAT Essentials

Christmas Intensive B : 23 Dec 2023 – 6 Jan 2024 (Mon – Sat 14:00 – 16:30)

Winter Regular : 27 Jan – 2 Mar 2024^ (Wed 16:30 – 19:00 <Math> & Sat 10:00 – 12:30 <English>)

Chinese New Year Intensive A : 7 Feb – 15 Feb 2024^ (Mon – Sat 10:00 – 12:30 & 13:30 – 16:00)

Chinese New Year Intensive B : 7 – 17 Feb^, 24 Feb & 2, 9 Mar 2024 (Mon – Sat 10:00 – 12:30)

ACT Essentials

Winter Weekend Intensive B : 13 Jan – 23 Mar 2024^ (Sat 10:00 – 12:30)

Chinese New Year Intensive : 7 Feb – 15 Feb 2024^ (Sat 10:00 – 12:30 & 13:30 – 16:00)

Winter Regular : 20 Feb – 21 Mar 2024^ (Tue & Thur 16:30 – 19:00)

*Do not hesitate to reach out to our program team with any inquiries you may have regarding our Regular Courses and Chinese New Year Intensive Courses.

^No classes on Sundays and Public Holidays.

SSAT/ISEE

Course Objective: 

• To teach students the skills and techniques instrumental in achieving high scores on the SSAT/ISEE
• To familiarize students with the structure and nature of the test
• To illustrate the unique challenges of the SSAT/ISEE and help students to overcome them

Course Description: 

The course will prepare students for the SSAT/ISEE test. The SSAT/ISEE Essentials course consists of 10 classes at 2 hours each class.  Classes focus on individual sections of the test: Reading, Verbal, Quantitative, and the Essay.

Through 20 hours of instruction, the class learns the Fundamental concepts tested by the SSAT/ISEE –such as algebra or vocabulary–as well as how these concepts are tested through classic questions and effective strategies for quickly and accurately answering questions. Students learn specific ways to approach SSAT/ISEE questions and common problems facing Hong Kong students. Alongside instruction and practice, students take three mock exams over the duration of the course to map progress and receive personalized recommendations for further action upon completion of the 20 hours.

Recommended For: 

The Edge’s SSAT/ISEE Essentials course is recommended for any and all students considering applying to SSAT/ISEE secondary, private, or boarding schools. After completing the course, students may move on to more advanced instruction, such as The Edge’s SSAT/ISEE English Builder course.  

Course Schedule: 

20 Hours of Instruction & 2 Mock Tests (Cost: HK$9,800)

Next Intake*:

Winter Regular B : 27 Jan – 13 Apr 2024^ (Sat 11:00 – 13:00)

Chinese New Year Intensive : 7 – 15 Feb 2024^ (Mon – Sat 11:00 – 13:00 & 14:00 – 16:00)

*Do not hesitate to reach out to our program team with any inquiries you may have regarding our Regular Courses and Chinese New Year Intensive Courses.

^No classes on Sundays and Public Holidays.

Interested in one of the above courses?

Submit the form below if you want to be contacted by one of our staff to find the most suitable course for you.

About The Edge

Established in 2008, The Edge Learning Center has grown into a premier one-stop provider of educational services for Grade 6 through Grade 12, targeting students who intend to pursue overseas education. Our three departments – Academic Tutoring, Test Preparation, and Admissions Consulting – offer a broad range of educational services spanning from SAT and IB Test Prep to colleges and boarding schools application counseling. The Edge Learning Center operates in multiple regions including Hong Kong, China, and Vietnam.

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The festive season is here! Families are congregating, people are loving/hating their presents, and many Christmas carols are being sung to the merriment of all. Sadly, not content with disrupting the busy schedules of high school juniors, the SAT has even managed to steal Christmas from us by putting it into a practice Reading passage! What horseplay! What tomfoolery! Can I see this passage?

Below are two excerpts from the practice Reading passage in question. It is a narrative passage. At this point, our bibliophile narrator is about to receive a Christmas gift from a friendly bookstore:

One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I have ever received. It was an old volume, read and experienced to the full.

“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read on the cover. 

(Lines 47-51)

…

That afternoon I took my new friend home, hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead, and I read Great Expectations about nine times, partly because I had no other book at hand, partly because I did not think there could be a better one in the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done. 

(Lines 59-68)

Let’s now use this Christmas-specific portion of the passage to examine a Detail-Evidence question pair from the passage’s accompanying questions:

Question 5 is what we call an Implicit Detail question. The word “inferred” tells us that we are looking for a detail from the passage that is not explicitly written down. However, the answer will be a detail that the reader can arrive at after combining two details that have been explicitly written down. 

First, let’s first recall the moment when the narrator introduces the gift:

One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I have ever received. It was an old volume, read and experienced to the full.

“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read on the cover. 

(Lines 47-51)

We learn that Great Expectations was the best gift he had ever received. Next, let’s go to the moment where the narrator discusses his experience with Great Expectations:

That afternoon I took my new friend home, hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead, and I read Great Expectations about nine times, partly because I had no other book at hand, partly because I did not think there could be a better one in the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done. 

(Lines 59-68)

Based on the highlighted portions of the excerpt, we can see that the narrator:

1. 1. Thinks that there is no way there can be a better book than Great Expectations
   2. Wonders if Charles Dickens had written it just for him
   3. Wanted nothing else in life but to “learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done”

Notice how point 3) is just answer A), but reworded! Plus, if we use our logical reasoning, it’s perfectly reasonable to infer that the fact that Great Expectations is the narrator’s favorite book would be linked to how the book compelled him to want to be a writer (i.e. “learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done”). 

Of course, without the context of the entire passage, it’s valid for us to wonder if some of the other answer choices could also be acceptable. That’s where Q6, an Evidence question, comes in. These questions often follow a Detail question and will ask the test-taker to justify his or her choice for the previous qeustion. 

For this example, notice how Q6’s answer D) corresponds to the last sentence of the paragraph – the same one we used to work out the answer to Q5. Secure in the knowledge that we have found the evidence for Q5 that the test wanted us to find, we can go ahead answer A for Question 5 and D for Question 6.

Merry Christmas! For additional SAT help like this, or for help with the ACT, SSAT, English proficiency tests, or any other standardized tests, why not give us a ring to see how we can help.

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About The Edge

The Edge Learning Center is Hong Kong’s premier Test Preparation, Academic Tutoring, and Admissions Consulting services provider. Founded in 2008, The Edge has helped thousands of students improve their ACT and SAT scores as well as their IB and AP grades. The AC team has just finished off another successful EA/ED period in which student gained early acceptance to schools such as Stanford, University of Chicago, Brown, and more! Check out our latest Admissions Results!

The post How the SAT Has Ruined Christmas? 🎄 appeared first on The Edge.

With 8+ years of teaching experience, James has taught Clinical Medicine to medical students and he was a Research Assistant in Department of Chemistry at Hong Kong Baptist University.

James has published articles in international journals in the field of Analytical Chemistry and Haematology. Outside of work, he is a concert violinist.

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He started tutoring as a freshman in the USA, and with 17 years of full-time teaching experience in the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong, Najeeb has taught the following:

• Test Preparation (ISEE, SCAT, SSAT, ACT, SAT, GRE, and GMAT)
• Math (university courses, IB, IGCSE, A-Level & AP)
• Physics (IGCSE)
• General Science

Najeeb knows how to use the soroban, the Japanese abacus, for simple arithmetic calculations, and recently taught it to his 14-year-old daughter; little did he suspect that with a few weeks of practice, she would become three times as fast as him!

He is an adrenaline junkie who has driven single-seater open-wheel small formula cars twice and skydived and paraglided, has an almost encyclopedic knowledge about food and nutrition, speaks 5 languages, and is learning 2 more.  He also knows several neat mental math tricks; come and ask him!

Blog written: A Systematic Approach to Building Vocabulary for Standardized Tests

Demo class:

• Mathematics – Logarithms
• Mathematics – IB Math Studies 2018 #6 – Logic

Sign up a trial lesson with Najeeb

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With 7+ years of teaching experience, Ivy has taught the following subjects:

• English (IB/IGCSE/A-Level)
• IELTS/TOEFL
• English Study Skills for Academic Purposes (Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening)

Ivy believes that teaching involves plenty of reciprocal interactions that allow her to share knowledge with her students and get inspiration from their brilliant ideas. She encourages inquisitive and reflective thinking in the learning process. She enjoys teaching because it is dynamic and connecting.

Given that the world is rapidly changing and the human race has encountered numerous challenges in the previous few years, Ivy successfully guided her students to adjust their learning routines and adapt to overcome learning difficulties. Ivy not only teaches but also demonstrates resilience in her class.

Ivy loves reading, watching movies, and writing journals. She also enjoys going into nature, visiting museums, going to the gym, and doing cardio.

Sign up a trial lesson with Ivy 

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Jakob had been helped through adversity through his time as a student. That inspired him to strive to become a teacher and help others to expand their horizons and grow as he did.

With 2 years of teaching experience, Jakob has taught the following subjects:

• IB/IGCSE English & Writing
• IB/IGCSE/HKDSE History
• IB MYP Individuals & Societies
• IB PYP Mathematics
• HKDSE Chinese History
• SSAT

Jakob always tries to be playful and fun in his lessons to be personable with his students, cracking the jokes to break tension and ease anxiety. At the same time, he works to nurture student’s independence and critical thought by teaching them how to do crucial tasks on their own, while guiding them to think on their own and ask for help when it is clear they are unable to complete something alone. He always uses positive affirmation to encourage students when they do well, and help them feel less pressured when they encounter difficulties by reminding them to keep trying. He always tells his students failure and struggle are not signs of weakness.

When Jakob has spare time, he loves travelling and exploring. He also loves playing retro video games. He has strong passion for other languages, culture and history and loves to research and discuss with people.

Read our student reviews on Jakob

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With 6 years of teaching experience, he has taught the following subjects:

• IB Biology
• Biochemistry
• Clinical Medicine

As a doctor, John is constantly learning. He feels very passionately about teaching and aims to let students think through the problems themselves. He firmly believes that students need to develop their ability to think about complex problems and the content they tackle should not just be limited to their curriculum.

When John has spare time, he loves playing piano, Latin dancing, and cooking.

John is also the admissions consultant at The Edge. Click to view his profile.

Sign up a trial lesson with John

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