Wytheville Community College will offer a one-credit course this fall entitled “SDV 95-15: SAT Math & Verbal Skills Preparation Course” that should be of interest to all area high school students planning to take the SAT Reasoning Test and who would like to improve their scores on the test.

Interested students should register quickly, however, as this class is expected to fill up quickly.

Financial assistance is even available for Wythe County students who would like to take the course but cannot afford to do so. The Wythe County Public Schools Foundation for Excellence will provide scholarships and textbook assistance for students demonstrating financial need. Please check with your high school guidance counselor for more information or call the Foundation for Excellence at 228-5411.

The SAT course is scheduled for consecutive Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, beginning September 13 and ending October 18. The verbal skills portion of the course will covered first, on September 13, 20, and 27, with the math skills portion of the class meeting on October 4, 11, and 18. All class meetings will be held in Room 217, Grayson Hall on the main WCC campus.

Tuition and fees for this course are $87.15. The text used in this course is The Official SAT Study Guide by The College Board and is available at the WCC Bookstore.

Students who take the course are expected to see an average of an 85-100 point improvement. Pre- and post-tests are used to measure student improvement during the course.

The reading and writing portion of the course is designed to help students:

• with sentence completion questions that test vocabulary;
• improve comprehension for the passage-based reading questions;
• improve writing by strengthening sentences, identifying sentence errors, and improving paragraphs;
• structure the five-paragraph essay for a “timed test”;
• improve the five-paragraph essay through revision and editing; and
• improve coherence of ideas within paragraphs.

Also addressed will be the “stress” associated with taking a timed test. Students will learn test-taking techniques for both reading comprehension and writing. The course will explore suggestions for successful management of time, becoming “test-wise” in answering multiple choice math questions, knowing effective uses of the calculator on the math SAT, and “memorization or calculation” techniques.

Deanna Bradberry will teach the verbal skills portion of the course. She currently teaches English 11 at Rural Retreat High School, has been an adjunct member of the English faculty at Wytheville Community College for eight years, and has experience scoring the essay portion of the SAT.

For the math portion, the course is designed to help students:

• strengthen basic mathematics skills and problem solving;
• improve strategies for handling the toughest math questions, whatever their format;
• improve solving skills for the trickiest “straight math” questions found on the SAT;
• strengthen skills needed for solving word problems found on the SAT;
• practice the tips and strategies needed for success on the SAT math sections; and
• become comfortable with the methods of entering math answers on the SAT math grid.

Barbara Cassell will teach the math portion of the course. She has taught as an adjunct instructor at WCC for more than 20 years. Currently she teaches the dual enrollment pre-calculus and calculus classes at George Wythe High School. In the past she has taught SAT prep classes for WCC at the main campus and in surrounding counties’ educational centers.

For more information or to register for SDV 95-15, call 223-4758 or call toll free (outside Wythe County) 1-800-468-1195, ext. 4758. For information on financial assistance, please call the Foundation for Excellence at 228-5411.