That best possible approach for striving for excellence, he said, starts years before students even considers post-high school education. In an effort to boost scores, the Department of Defense Education Activity has imposed an aggressive tutorial approach for military schools in both Europe and the Pacific, from offering prep courses after school, on Saturdays or as a semesterlong electives to preparing students primarily for the SAT exam. Each high school offers some type of voluntary program so students can better themselves, Ohman said. Schools offer the SAT-preparation courses to give students better insight on how they can expect to perform and improve their scores. But it's our place to offer whatever we can so and try to help them as best we can.
Some schools offer the tutorial as an elective during the school day.
Students are taught using old SAT exams, which universities and colleges use as a gauge to determine how students might perform in higher education settings, Ohman said. The exam once was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test and then the Scholastic Assessment Test, but no longer is an acronym. The test typically is given to juniors and seniors planning to further their education at colleges and universities. In the United States, the Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools saw a rise in both verbal and math scores for 2000. The verbal scores increased to 496 in 2000, from 483 a year ago, and the math score went up from 474 in 1999, to 493.