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Dedicated and experienced teachers: Many test prep academies hire part-time instructors who might be college students, recent college graduates, or high school teachers.

These instructors would not—and could not—invest enough time and energy in lessons before, during, and after the class. On the contrary, Brix hires full-time teachers with many years of experience who constantly analyze ACT/SAT test materials and evaluate individual student’s needs. Students’ scores prove the point.


Much more than understanding grammar and reading passages: Standardized tests such as SAT and ACT have evolved, and simply knowing grammar and memorizing vocabularies do not translate into high scores. Yet, many test prep academies rely on the old skills. Teachers at Brix have dissected SAT and ACT tests, figuring out why SAT or ACT asks specific types of questions and building strategies for each question type.

For example, students need to fully understand the context of culture because SAT Writing and ACT English is not about choosing the correct answer but choosing the best answer. In other words, multiple answer choices are grammatically correct, and students have to choose the best answer. Without understanding the context of culture, students may fall into the trap by selecting the shortest answer. Brix helps students avoid such mistakes.

Furthermore, reading without thinking—or passive reading—leads to nowhere. Spending much time reading short posts on social media or watching video clips, students reading abilities have steadily declined. Some students have said that other teachers simply told them to read thoroughly and chose the answer carefully without telling how. Students at Brix learn to read actively and systematically so that they know which sentences are more important than others, ready for the questions.

BRIX’S SAT/ACT PROGRAM

COMPLETE COLLEGE ESSAY AND APPLICATION WORKSHOP

With the guidance of instructors experienced with the college application process, students will have the chance to plan, develop, and write excellent college application essays and polish their application and resumes to enhance acceptance into university.

 

As the process is daunting and often overwhelming for students, BRIX has provided a package workshop course where students are given direction on where to start and how to start.

 

After completing the most important common application essay, students will be able to tackle various types of supplement questions and will learn the basics of school research, filling out the application to one’s advantage, and improving their resumes. This workshop is hands-on and students will be writing and rewriting after being given direct feedback. After workshop hours, students are welcome to stay and continue writing or editing their essays as the instructor will be able to periodically check their work and give them direct feedback even after class.

SCHEDULE

Week 1 - Common Application Essay 
Week 2 - Common Application Essay 
Week 3 - UC/Supplement Essays
Week 4 - UC/Supplement Essays
Week 5 - UW Essay 
Week 6 - The “Why Our School” Supplement Essay/ How to do School Research
Week 7 - Common Application Process + Tips
Week 8 - Resume Polishing

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5 levels: 3-8

The “Literature with Writing” course will cover a broad range of literature - a classic novel, contemporary best-sellers, poetry, and short stories. Throughout the course, students will be able to explore similar themes across a wide source of material, synthesize the knowledge, discuss their thoughts and opinions in class, and make connections to the real world. With an emphasis on writing, the course will allow students to develop fundamental analysis and essay writing skills which are necessary academic skills.

Materials 

The majority of the class will cover the following 2 books - a classic literary novel and contemporary best-sellers recommended by Bellevue School librarians. Additionally, short stories and poetry of similar themes will be incorporated throughout the course and students will be able to discuss and synthesize knowledge across a wide range of materials. 

 

L1 - The Girl Who Drank the Moon + The Little Prince

L2 - The War that Saved My Life + Number the Stars 

L3 - Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation + Animal Farm 

L4 - Inside Out and Back Again + Of Mice and Men

L5 - That Hate U Give + The House on Mango Street

BOOK CLUB (LITERATURE WITH WRITING)

Grades 8-10

BRIX’s “Academic Prep: Literature” is an advanced literature and writing course for students who want to prepare for the rigors of upper-level, high school, and college literature. The class will dive into the key literary and stylistic devices necessary for higher-level analysis of literature and texts and later students will read, analyze, and discuss a wide range of literature from different time periods. Finally, based on what the students have read and learned, they will write critical literary analysis papers as well as argumentative and compare/contrast essays which will allow them to hone their writing abilities. This class will prepare students for classes in the future, as well as courses and examinations such as the IB English Literature, AP English Language & Composition, and AP English Literature.

Materials

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Short Stories from authors including Dante Alighieri, Thomas More Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Kate Chopin, Nathaniel Hawthorne...

Poetry from poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, William Shakespeare

Old Study

ACADEMIC PREP: LITERATURE

Pupils during break

BRIX DEBATE

3 levels
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle

Brix’s debate classes develop fundamental skills such as logical thinking, reasoning, argumentation, and public speaking. Being able to think logically and persuasively argue one’s point is essential in essay writing and beneficial for standardized tests such as the SSAT and SAT and our debate classes give students the opportunity to learn and practice these skills. With three different levels, students will participate in mock-debates every week with their peers and argue their positions with self-written speeches backed up with evidence. Not only will the classes be enjoyable, but they will be an excellent learning opportunity that boosts confidence and public speaking abilities. These classes will also help prepare students for local and national speech and debate tournaments for those interested in competing.

BRIX 5 TYPES OF WRITING

Novice
Intermediate
Advanced

This course will cover the fundamentals of writing that are necessary throughout one’s academic career.
Students will learn the basics and develop their writing abilities for the following types of writing: narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive, and literary analysis. Each week students will learn about each type of writing, analyze sample essays, and then write their own pieces. This course will allow students to practice writing these various writing forms and gain fundamental writing skills in terms of planning, organizing, outlining, and researching for their writing. This class will help students who struggle with writing and also help students already comfortable with writing enhance their abilities and write with higher quality. 

Writing with Pen
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Grades 7-9

This course will teach the basics of reading comprehension which are necessary for stellar grades in high school and test prep (SAT, AP/IB, DAT, LSAT, GRE etc.) in the future. The class will use passages from the PSAT/SAT and articles from news outlets such as the New York Times and BBC. Students will learn how to identify the main points and purposes of various text types, understand structural components and answer detail, inference, and prediction-based questions. In addition to building up fundamental reading skills, students will be exposed to upper-level vocabulary words to help them understand texts and also enhance their spoken language and writing.

Materials

PSAT/SAT Passages, NYT, BBC articles, Science Journals

PSAT: READING COMPREHENSION/ VOCABULARY

SSAT SOLUTION TEST PREP

Our comprehensive “SSAT Solution Test Prep” course will prepare students for the upcoming 2022 test dates - October 15th, November 12th, and December 10th. Mondays and Fridays will be dedicated to Reading Comprehension and students will learn how to read the passages and efficiently find the correct answers. Verbal Reasoning will be covered on Wednesday and students will be able to apply the vocabulary words they memorize and be taught the various patterns of this section. Tuesdays and Thursdays will cover the necessary math concepts that students will be tested on. There is a weekly mock test available on Saturdays so we will be able to track the students’ improvement and make progress so students can reach their target scores. 

 

Schedule

M, W, F - Reading Comprehension and Verbal Reasoning

T, TH - Quantitative (Math)

Writing a test
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