Pacing is one of the most common struggles—students either rush through questions and make careless mistakes, or they get stuck on difficult problems and run out of time. Tutors help you develop a strategic approach by teaching you which questions to tackle first, how long to spend on each section, and when to make an educated guess and move on. Practice with full-length, timed tests is essential for building the stamina and rhythm you need on test day.

The process starts with diagnostic testing—taking a full ISAT practice test under realistic conditions to pinpoint exactly where you're struggling. This might reveal that you're strong in math but need help with reading inference questions, or that you're losing points on editing and language conventions. Once your tutor knows your specific challenges, they can focus your preparation on those areas rather than wasting time on concepts you already know. Regular progress checks help track improvement over time.

Test anxiety often stems from feeling unprepared or unfamiliar with the test format. Working with a tutor builds genuine confidence through repeated practice with real ISAT question types, so the test feels less intimidating on the actual day. Tutors also teach concrete test-taking strategies and stress-management techniques—like how to manage your nerves during timed sections or what to do if you encounter a question you don't immediately know. Familiarity and preparation are the best antidotes to anxiety.

Practice tests do two critical things: they help you understand the exact format, timing, and difficulty of the real ISAT, and they reveal your specific weak spots. By taking multiple full-length practice tests under timed conditions, you build stamina, improve your pacing strategy, and get comfortable with the types of questions you'll face. Your tutor can review your practice test results to identify patterns—like whether you're consistently missing inference questions or struggling with multi-step math problems—so your tutoring sessions target what actually needs work.

A typical preparation timeline is 8-12 weeks with sessions once or twice per week, though this varies based on your current level and test date. Early sessions focus on diagnosing your strengths and weaknesses and teaching test-specific strategies. Middle sessions dive deep into your challenging sections with targeted practice. Final sessions include full-length practice tests, review of mistakes, and last-minute confidence building. Your tutor will create a personalized schedule based on your timeline and learning pace.

ISAT reading requires more than just understanding the text—you need to identify main ideas, make inferences, analyze author's purpose, and support your answers with evidence from the passage. Effective strategies include active reading (annotating while you read), understanding question types before you start, and distinguishing between what the text explicitly states versus what you have to infer. Tutors teach you how to approach different passage types and question formats strategically, rather than just hoping your comprehension skills are strong enough.