Preparing your high schooler for college can be an intimidating process that starts earlier than you might think, and it takes dedication. It’s important for your teen to develop the right habits to help them smoothly transition from high school to college. These moms believe their homeschoolers will be more than ready for college, and they credit a big part of their preparedness to the Abeka homeschool curriculum.

Start Early

There’s no time limit around when your young student can begin preparing for college – as soon as high school begins, the conversation can start. And practice tests are a sound place to begin gauging how much work needs to be done.

Laura’s daughter will be graduating soon and has been taking college courses already to get ahead. She’s taken the standardized tests since the 9th grade, each year, improving her scores. Because of those impressive scores, she’s received scholarships and was able to start college courses before graduating – making all As so far.

Laura said, “Because of the Abeka curriculum, she’s going in confident and knows she has the foundation.”

How to Handle Practice Tests

There are some great, free practice SAT and ACT tests online for your teen can take to prepare for the real thing. It’s common practice to take three separate practice tests in their entirety – one at the beginning of their studies, one in the middle, and one at the end, in order to gauge progress.

By the time your high schooler is a junior, they should have taken the PSAT prior to taking the official SAT test. Strong scores on the PSATs can lead to scholarships, so don’t discount their value.

Keep Track of Credits 

Colleges will require a certain number of credits for each subject. You can easily track them to make sure you’re on schedule by downloading this template. Just remember, each state has different requirements to graduate from high school, so be sure to check what your state requires. Or, if you’ve used our accredited curriculum, you’ll already know where you stand.

Develop Good Habits

College presents a new set of challenges. Young freshmen will have a heavier burden to be proactive by taking notes, setting aside study time, accomplishing homework, and the list goes on. Your homeschooler will need to develop a toolset of good habits – otherwise, it can be overwhelming.

A big part of preparing for college is the simple act of developing good study habits that will continue over when college begins and your child has less guidance and more independence.

At Abeka, we utilize a “spiral approach” which exposes students to the same important themes across subjects and grades, each time, building new information on top of the previous knowledge. This creates a pattern for students – repetition, patience, and diligence.

Ann’s daughter has already begun college classes prior to graduation, and she feels ahead of the game. She’s proudly reported back, “It’s so easy for me to write these papers.” The professor gives her new students pointers for how to tackle these college-level papers, but Ann’s daughter was already up to speed and knew these pointers from memory. 

“She was surprised that it wasn’t more challenging,” Ann said.
The Abeka curriculum prepared her to not only meet college standards but to exceed them.

Your child can’t be too prepared for college – whether they’ve taken 100 practice tests or perfected the art of studying, there will always feel like there could be something more to do. The good news is, by simply following the Abeka curriculum, your child has developed the important educational building blocks they need to succeed in college. All the added preparation is just icing on the cake.