Episode 339 | Gus Elmashni | Ivy Advantage | Part 2 | The EdisonOS Podcast

Key Topics Covered

Families are still catching up on changes that happened years ago. Gus says some families are still surprised to learn the SAT is now digital, and still do not fully understand that the ACT's science section is now optional, that both tests have become shorter, and that the test optional landscape is still shifting, with the UC system currently test blind while top schools like Stanford, the Ivies, Georgetown, Purdue, and Texas have brought testing back as a requirement.

Old strategies still work but Desmos has changed the math game. Gus says that strategies like plugging in numbers when you see variables in the answer choices are the same as what he used thirty years ago and are still applicable, but that knowing how to leverage Desmos is now a major part of SAT preparation because it is built into the digital exam and can be a real game changer for students who learn to use it well.

ACT math is the biggest deciding factor between the two tests. Gus says a lot of the SAT versus ACT decision comes down to math, that the ACT requires strong pre-calc skills, covers more advanced topics, and mirrors what students see in a typical high school math classroom, while the SAT is more abstract with questions involving equivalent expressions and constants that are not commonly tested in class, and that he would not recommend the ACT at all for a student who has only completed algebra two after junior year.

The SAT is more forgiving than the ACT when one section goes badly. Gus explains that the ACT averages three section scores and that a single bad section is very difficult to recover from, with a seventy percent on English potentially dropping a student to a twenty two or twenty three composite that strong math and reading scores cannot fully offset, while on the SAT he has seen students miss seven or eight questions overall and still score close to fourteen hundred.

SAT pacing strategy means doing vocab first, grammar second, and saving dense reading for last. Gus explains the specific pacing order he advised a student that same day: take care of the first five vocab questions, then skip to the grammar and standard English conventions questions starting around question sixteen because they require less reading time, and then use the remaining time for the dense middle reading comprehension questions that might require rereading two or three times, so that students are not caught rushing through difficult passages at the end with no time left.

Module one of the SAT has to be nearly perfect. Gus says that getting above the seventy to seventy five percent threshold on module one is what unlocks the harder module two questions, and that a strong math student with laser focus really should not be missing any questions on module one at all, and that careless mistakes at that stage can cost students thirty or more points on the final score.

Sleep is one of the most overlooked parts of test prep. Gus says he makes a point of talking about sleep with students because he thinks it is a very overlooked facet of the whole process, that students who are night owls and stay up until one in the morning are not going to perform as well, that practice tests should be done on Saturday mornings around eight in the morning to replicate the real test environment, and that getting seven or eight hours of sleep the night before is genuinely important for preventing the kind of careless mistakes that cost points.

The hybrid diagnostic exam cuts the time needed to choose a test. Gus says his framework for the SAT versus ACT decision starts with a hybrid exam he built himself using portions of both tests, combined with a spreadsheet that automatically generates a projected score for each, and that even though it is on paper and only covers portions of each test, it gives valuable data without requiring students to take two full three-hour exams, and that he always follows the data with a direct conversation with the student because sometimes the numbers point one way and the student's comfort points the other.

Submitting both a strong ACT and a strong SAT score can validate an entire application. Gus says that students who have done both tests and scored well on both sometimes choose to submit both scores, and that this can be valuable because it validates everything else in an application, and that with super scoring now standard across schools, students can strategically choose which scores to send and which sections to highlight from different test dates.
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Conclusion

This conversation is a practical and experience-grounded return from a tutor who has spent decades watching students navigate tests that keep changing while the fundamentals of good preparation stay largely the same. Gus covers every major decision point families face in 2026, from understanding what test optional actually means at different types of schools, to building the right pacing strategy for the adaptive SAT, to choosing between two tests that are more similar in length now than ever before, to the simple but consistently ignored advice to get a full night of sleep before any practice test or real exam. Listen to the full episode for the complete methodology and actionable strategies that could transform how any student or family approaches the SAT versus ACT decision, section strategy, score reporting, and the test prep habits that hold students back far more than any content gap ever could.

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