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We hope this blog finds you wherever you feel most relaxed, whether that’s on a beach with a soundtrack of waves crashing or taking a rest during a hike. Summer break is an important time for rejuvenation and unwinding after the demands of the school year. For recent graduates, it’s usually the last few months before a major change to the next phase of their lives away at school. But for high school students, July is a great time to prepare for college entrance tests and application essays – while students have more time and bandwidth for these important endeavors.
Here are some topics to mull over while you’re enjoying the warm weather:
- Set a few positive goals for the school year. Summer provides the opportunity to be a little flexible and experiment with what your body most needs at this stage of your life. It’s a great time to notice what an extra half-hour of sleep or a mid-afternoon snack can do for your ability to focus and feel energized. Set a few gentle goals to work toward during the school year and write them down to make them feel more official.
- Start thinking now about future college application essays. For incoming seniors, it’s a great time to start easing into the idea of writing an essay to accompany your college applications. Not sure where to start? We have a new course to help you craft your Common App personal essay from idea generation, to outline, to a completion of a first draft. Due to high demand, we’ve just added two more workshops this August. Reserve your seat now in these space-limited workshops.
- Consider taking an SAT or ACT prep class. In high school, there’s never a wrong time to take an SAT or ACT class, and summer is a great time to focus and prepare for the current pencil and paper SAT offered this August and throughout the fall. If you’ll be taking the SAT for the first time in March 2024, register for one of our digital SAT prep classes (more dates to be added).
- Brush up on some grammar and math skills. For students not quite ready for the SAT, reviewing skills and examples in grammar and math are an easy way to prepare for the PSAT. One of the major changes coming to the SAT-related tests is that the PSAT is going digital in October – just a few months away.
- Focus on joy. Preparing for a successful school year and doing well on standardized tests are both important, but they’re also both impossible to achieve if you are not in a content and healthy place mentally. Seek out a variety of ways to relax and find joy this summer, then see how many of these activities can be added to your school-year routine.