SAT and ACT prep in Honolulu, Hawaii
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Honolulu, and we have no office there. If you want a person, this page says how we would look for one. If the question is which skill is missing, we can help with that part.
Public schools in Honolulu are run by Hawaii State Department of Education (Honolulu District). Hawaii pays for students in grade 11 to take the ACT at school, on a school day, with no registration and no fee.
A practice test measures. It does not teach.
Most SAT and ACT prep is practice tests, and a practice test tells a student the score without saying why. A student stuck at the same math score after four of them does not need a fifth. They need to know which skills the missed questions have in common, and it is usually a short list from Algebra I and geometry.
Both tests changed recently. The SAT is taken on a screen, and the second half of each section gets easier or harder depending on how the first half went. The ACT got shorter in 2025 and its science section became optional. Old prep books describe tests that no longer exist.
The problem on the page
A line passes through (2, 5) and (6, 13). Where does it cross the y-axis?
Linear functions in a word problem
SAT and ACT math
Slope-intercept form
Algebra I · rests on the one below
Slope from two points
Grade 8 · usually where it started
Subtracting signed numbers
Grade 7
What Hawaii tests, by grade
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested |
| Math | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | HSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | HSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- Smarter Balanced (Smarter Balanced Assessment): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8 and 11
- HSA Science (Hawaii State Science (NGSS) Assessment): science, grades 5 and 8
Testing dates, graduation rules and the one deadline families miss are on a separate page. Honolulu guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
Kolu is not a test-prep course and has no official practice tests. Use the free ones, which are Bluebook from the College Board for the SAT and the practice test on act.org. Then bring the result to Kolu. Tell it which kinds of questions were missed, and it builds a map of those skills, finds the ones that are not solid, and practices them with review spread over the weeks before the test.
Kolu does not call a skill mastered after one right answer. That takes correct work on different kinds of problems on different days, and a skill that fades gets brought back.
Kolu is not test prep for Smarter Balanced. It has no bank of released questions. It teaches the skills the test draws on, and it will not do tonight's homework.
When to hire a person instead
With less than a month to go, a human coach who can teach pacing and when to guess is worth more than skill-building, which needs more time than that.
In Honolulu, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Hawaii State Department of Education (Honolulu District) can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade University of Honolulu or Kapiolani Community College, who took these courses recently and usually charge less than an agency.
Whoever you hire, ask one question before the first session: how will you find out what my child doesn't know? If the answer is that they will go over the homework, keep looking.
Free for one subject, $15 a month for 5
Kolu is free for one subject at a time, with one full skill check every 30 days and up to 4 sessions a day. Plus is $15 a month, or $120 for a year, and covers 5 subjects at once with unlimited skill checks. A learner under 13 needs a parent or guardian to set up the account.