About The TACHS

Test for Admission to Catholics High School

What Is Gemm's TACHS Test Prep Program?

As described below, the TACHS tests language and reading knowledge. This overlays exactly with what Gemm provides on a remedial basis to children who are behind and to ACT and SAT test prep students who are at or above grade level but still feel there is room for improvement in reading and test taking skills.
More on Gemm's Test Prep Online Program

What is the TACHS Test Content?

Reading

There are two sections: vocabulary and reading comprehension. In the vocabulary test, students will be asked to answer questions that measure their understanding of the words from the general academic reading vocabulary. This test will evaluate general word knowledge rather than understanding of specialized or technical vocabulary.

In the reading comprehension test, content may include fiction, poetry, interviews, biographical sketches, a social studies topic, or a science topic. The questions will measure students' ability to answer questions in factual, interpretative, and evaluative comprehension. They may have to answer questions about main idea, author's purpose, the meaning of a word in context, and other types of comprehension questions.

Language

This is four short tests measuring spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and usage and expression. The spelling test will present the student with four word choices per item, only one of which is correctly spelled. The capitalization and punctuation tests will measure proper use of capitals and punctuation, ability to discern incorrect use of capitals and punctuation, and capitalization and punctuation measured in context. The usage and expression test will be in an edit-and-revise format that requires students to consider possible revisions to written drafts.

Mathematics

This test will have two sections: concepts and estimation and problem-solving/data interpretation. The mathematics concepts test will require minimal computation, but will test the students' understanding of mathematical relationships and processes, such as number properties and operations, measurement, probability, and statistics. Estimation will be a separately timed test and measure a variety of estimation skills, such as rounding.

The emphasis of the problem-solving test will be on process, and it requires students to choose and apply various operational procedures and problem solving strategies. Data interpretation will present various data displays to the students. Students will be required to analyze and interpret the data, demonstrate their ability to read the information, compare the data, and determine trends and relationships.

Ability 

This test will assess general abstract reasoning ability. The items present novel tasks to students and offer an excellent appraisal of their ability to generalize a principle and apply it to a new situation. Thus, the items appraise how well students use their general reasoning skills to solve problems they have not been directly taught

Our TACHS Test Prep program is primarily home based -- it's a unique, computer-based program that not only strengthens the underlying abilities these high stakes tests assess, but also works on test-taking skills.  We also includes in center sessions your child with the ISEE test.

Let Gemm Learning help your child make the most of their natural smarts on their private school admissions tests. 

About The Program

This is a 30-minute a day program that takes two to three months depending on the student's starting point and goals.   We provide this program nationwide.

After an in center or phone consult and student evaluation, we develop an individualized protocol for the student, choosing from 70+ cognitive, vocabulary and reading exercises in Fast ForWord software, targeting the best opportunities to add points based on his or her specific cognitive and test taking skill set.  The most common opportunities include:

Improved reading skills.   Quicker, more accurate reading will improve test taking efficiency.

Critical reading, comprehension.  The ability to draw inferences from the text and to reason are core competencies being tested.  Our program builds these skills, a powerful source of points.

Better retention, faster test taking.  We can build processing speed and improve retention with working memory exercises that help avoid time-consuming re-reading, and improve multi-choice efficiency.

Test taking stamina.  Fast ForWord can reduce impulsiveness, i.e., less careless errors, by improving working memory, so critical in multiple choice and in reading long passages.  The program also specifically works on test taking focus and attention stamina if needed.

Vocabulary and language.  Fast ForWord builds sophistication in vocabulary and metalinguistics -- dexterity with language -- that will serve the student well in the upcoming NY or CT college test and beyond.

If the essay portion will be challenging for your child, we have exercises that build the critical thinking and abstract reasoning skills that directly impact essay writing.   If essay writing is a particular concern we have a series of structured essay assignments that can be completed at home.

Our Test Fundamentals program successfully boosts test scores because it works directly on the underlying talents and skills being tested in high stakes tests like the ISEE.  These are abilities (and point gain opportunities) that traditional test prep does not address.  Our goal is to help each student make the most of his or her natural smarts.