For the second consecutive year, Clark has offered the Princeton Review SAT Preparatory Class in order for juniors to work on improving their SAT scores. Princeton Review offers their SAT course at Clark — free of charge — for extra help to students.

All books and materials are provided by Princeton Review, and the company has trained two Clark teachers, Narine Tatevosian and Amir Ghavam, to teach the English and math portions of the SAT. According to Clark’s counselors, Susan Howe and Karine Turdjian, it’s important for students to take advantage of the SAT class, but only the first 80 juniors who signed up last November were able to enroll in the class.

On Saturdays, students come to Clark to take a practice test which takes about three hours, and on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (depending on which day the students chose), students go through the SAT manual and practice problems from 3-6 p.m. Students also receive their scores from the practice tests that they take on Saturdays. Tatevosian also provides snacks and drinks during the weekday classes, and all the snack money goes towards the junior class.

Tatevosian and Ghavam tell the students that they want them to improve their scores and achieve success on this exam. “Junior year is the most important year for us to impress colleges,” said junior Aline Zargarian.

Tatevosian and Ghavam expect students’ scores to increase as the six weeks of preparation lead into the March 9 SAT, and they also expect students to take the March exam. “Students are given practice tests that give them instant results and are able to learn test taking strategies that will prepare them for any test,” Tatevosian said.

Many students have are already seen improvements in their scores. “I got 40 points higher on my second practice test,” said junior Pauline Aghadjani.

There are many other educational institutions that prepare students in SAT and other exams such as the ACT and AP exams. For example, the Kaplan Test Prep center has different programs, online and in person, that prepare students; however, these institutions cost money for their tutoring programs. Kaplan has programs for SAT and ACT boot camps all year long at many locations such as Burbank High School Gateway and the La Canada Community Center. Kaplan’s SAT in person course starts at $899.