The first part of the post laid out some of the skills/knowledge areas the standardized tests seek to test the student on.

Also, a logical base was built for the argument that the target perfect score for every student would vary.

The Perfect Test Prep thus starts with a unique perfect target score for a student.

The next target for the PTP has to be to determine where the student stands at the start of the program. For this, a smart assessment has to be devised which essentially goes about this skill-gap assessment in two steps: Step 1 is to map various knowledge/skill/attitude attributes tested in the SAT and ACT to the corresponding scores. This task becomes inherently complicated because:

a) Construction of a mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive list of attributes tested in standardized tests is a non trivial job - more so because it is difficult to agree upon an exhaustive list of attributes tested and because these attributes are frequently interlinked with each other. Another point to remember is that it may not always be possible to divide the set of attributes in mutually exclusive categories, in such cases, it is important to at least clearly mark out the interlinkages.

b) The second part of this task is to map the attributes to the scores they fetch. This is complex because different combinations of attributes could bring the same score and it is important to determine the difference, a change in each attribute would cause in the scores obtained, keeping all else constant (more like partial differentiation)

Step 2 is more standardized, once attributes are marked out, methods can be determined to assess the candidates level of proficiency on each of those.

The skill assessment (Step 2 above) will also reveal the pattern of attribute configuration (i.e. whether the student is naturally inclined to do well in math or english). Next, keeping the attribute configuration same, one can arrive at the required proficiency level in each of the attributes corresponding to the student’s attribute map (Thus, Jack and Jill, with Jack more mathematical and Jill, more “English types” gunning for the same score will arrive at different target proficiency levels on each attributes corresponding to their respective attribute configuration).

Once skill gaps are mapped, the subsequent task is to determine the set of interventions which would enhance the attribute proficiency scores to the desired levels.

Continued in part 3.