SAT Prep NY

Applerouth’s awesome new ACT textbook

March 30th, 2013

applerouth_02 Standing out with the irreverently snappy title, “Get Your ACT Together: The Fabulous Guide to the ACT,” Applerouth presents its first ACT textbook with a bang. The bright cover features bold colors and smiling Scooby Doo-like cartoon characters. Is it all just a little too cute? Maybe. Is the book any good? Surprisingly perhaps, but yes!

Now that the ACT has surpassed the SAT in absolute number of test takers as more and more states are using it as a graduation requirement or for other standardized assessments, it’s high time for the publication of more and better ACT study resources. Until now, students have been limited to the usual suspects – The Princeton Review, Kaplan and Barrons – and the test maker’s “The Real ACT Prep Guide.” Unlike the College Board’s “Official SAT Study Guide” with ten real tests for practice, the ACT people only offer five practice tests. Like the College Board though, the makers of the ACT offer no more than a few pages of instruction in their book, which means that serious students will have to supplement it with a real textbook to guide them in test-taking techniques.

Applerouth seems intent in blowing the roof off the staid and scary atmosphere that infuses most test prep guides. Staid because the material is dry and boring. Scary because, well, these tests count a lot in competitive college admissions. Applerouth’s textbook has BIG type, lots of silly cartoon illustrations, corny mnemonic tools to remember key points, and a lot of excess white space. For some, the approach may seem juvenile and the silliness may be off-putting. At its heart, however, is an excellent teaching tool.

The book is organized by test subject: English grammar and rhetorical skills, Math topics, Reading, Science and Essay. Each one consists of a comprehensive approach to the knowledge base needed for the test and, most importantly, techniques to approach the questions. In the reading section, for example, the text introduces “the Sparrow” with a large cartoon of a bird representing the simple, unflashy answer and how to spot it. In the very time-pressured Science section, Applerouth walks students through the techniques of putting your finger on the graph as you find it mentioned in the question, with question and passage texts highlighted and grayed out to demonstrate the reading and skimming process. It’s almost like having a tutor by your side to advise you. As a test prep tutor of many years’ experience, I was surprised and gratified to see that Applerouth uses many of my favorite techniques, too, and shows students very clearly how to approach the passages and the questions. There are helpful arrows and explanations to all the lesson questions, and smart reminders in the margins, comparable to Barrons’ and The Princeton Review’s, but much more fun, and thus, memorable.

The book has its flaws, too. For more advanced students, it is probably too basic. Students already scoring above 30 in Math or Science should check out The Princeton Review’s “Math and Science Workout for the ACT” or Barron’s “ACT Math and Science Workbook.” And unlike The Princeton Review, Applerouth does not offer explanations to the answers in the practice tests. Furthermore, this expensive book ($29.95 on Amazon, compared to $13.59 for The Princeton Review’s ACT textbook) has only two full practice tests, while The Princeton Review gives two in the textbook plus one extra online and Barron’s has three in the book, itself. As a first edition, there are quite a few typos and other annoying errors. Most egregiously, on its inside cover the book touts “A World of Online Support.” There is, however, no online support at all. Applerouth says they are planning all that, but the promised “more fabulous materials” do not exist; the link on the textbook cover leads to a page promoting their tutoring services. It amounts to shoddy, deceptive advertising and is a major failing of this publisher.

On balance, though, this is a fun textbook and for those who don’t mind spending a little more, a useful tool in ACT prep that will help most students raise their scores. I’m a convert: I’ve chucked my old favorite, The Princeton Review, and have now adopted this book as the new companion to “The Real ACT Prep Guide” for my ACT students in New York and around the world. So far, everyone likes it, finds the material engaging, and is picking up points as a result.

Tags: ACT prep, ACT textbooks
Posted in ACT English Test, ACT Prep, ACT Reading test, ACT textbooks | No Comments »

New watch aids pacing on the SAT and ACT

March 23rd, 2013

A boy, a test, a watch: That’s the combination that made for success on the ACT – and a deceptively simple business idea.

Students have always struggled with time management on the SAT and ACT, but amazingly – despite the vast variety of stopwatches and timers on the market – no one has made one that was silent and allowable for use on these tests. When high school student Jordan Liss took the ACT, though, he decided to change that.

“This has been my vision since I took the test three years ago,” says Jordan, now a student at the University of Michigan. “It’s always been about me knowing how to do it the right way. I knew how the watch had to be designed based on my own test prep, using the training I had, using the textbooks and my test experience.” Like most students, Jordan didn’t start out using a watch to pace himself. He used his cellphone as a timer when practicing at home, but at the test site, no cellphones are allowed. Students may or may not be able to see a clock on the wall, and the proctor won’t be giving detailed timing notices.

But pacing is critical on the exam. The science section of the ACT, for example, has seven passages with complex experiments, graphs, tables and text. Students are expected to digest the material and complete thirty-five questions in thirty-five minutes – that’s a brutally slim five minutes per passage, including bubbling in the answer sheet. For students caught on a difficult question in an early passage, time is up before they reach the later passages.

Testing Timers is the first and only timer acceptable for use on the real tests.

Testing Timers is the first – and so far only – timer acceptable for use on the official SAT and ACT tests.

Jordan’s watch, Testing Timers, is a terrific tool for SAT and ACT prep and invaluable on the exam, itself. With a dedicated model for the SAT and a separate one for the ACT, the watch allows students to choose the test section by name and length, start timing, pause if desired, and go back to regular watch at any time. One of the cooler features of the watch is a digital running stitch border around the digital time that indicates time remaining. For some sections of the test, it is divided by passage number, which is extremely helpful on the ACT, in particular, where speed is a major factor in the test’s difficulty. Jordan says he came up with the unique feature as he was at gym, working out. Describing the epiphany, he says, “I was on the elliptical, wondering how far I was on my workout, when I suddenly realized that’s exactly what I needed for my watch! That was the last thing I put in the watch when structuring the conceptual design.”

One point that Jordan emphasizes is that students should do their timed drills and practice tests using the watch; don’t save it for test day. Before bringing the product to market, he shared it with high school students studying for the ACT and “wasn’t too surprised to hear students talk about raising their scores.” He advises students, “If you practice with this watch and you raise your score, I’m not surprised. Don’t sit in the kitchen eating your dinner, watching TV, using your iPhone to time yourself. Practice like it is the real test; keep pace.”

The Testing Timer watch is a unique and very helpful tool for test preparation and at $40 it is reasonably priced. It’s simple to use and the manual is even on the website, always convenient for the wired generation. Check it out and see if it helps your pacing on the test.

Tags: ACT test prep, SAT pacing, test pacing, Testing Timers, tools for test prep
Posted in ACT Prep, SAT Prep, SAT study resources, test prep resources | No Comments »

College Board reports intriguing SAT trends

October 27th, 2012

Karen Berlin Ishii preps students in New York City and Internationally online via Skype. Karen teaches TOEFL, SAT and ACT Math, Reading, Verbal sections, Science, and the college application essay.

The College Board’s annual “SAT Report on College and Career Readiness” is interesting reading for teachers and other education professionals. It’s no surprise to find that the report praises the College Board (its author) for its test’s fairness to all students, generous charity in granting fee waivers to low-income students, and awesome validity in predicting college success. In between the self-laudatory puffery, though, some striking trends can be gleaned.

According to the report, among SAT takers in the class of 2012, 45 percent were minority students, the largest minority contingent ever, and a huge jump up from even recent years. This percent was almost the same for public as private schools, suggesting minorities are proportionately represented in all kinds of schooling in this country, a positive trend, on the face of it.

As the number of minority students taking the test has sharply risen, so has the percent of test takers for whom English was not exclusively their first language, now 28 percent. And a huge 36 percent of all SAT takers reported that their parents’ highest educational achievement was a high school diploma or lower.

So, clearly, more and more students from an ever-widening range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds are taking the SAT, thereby indicating their goal of attending college. A generation ago, students’ horizons were much more likely to be defined by their parents’ highest academic achievements. Today, a high percent of students see college as the next step after high school.

Since the increase in student participation in the SAT – 1.66 million in the class of 2012 according to the CollegeBoard – reflects such a huge leap in diversity of background, one might wonder how that change might be reflected in the scores. With so many test takers coming from homes where resources for test prep are not easy to come by or English is not the first language spoken, wouldn’t the overall test scores show a decline? As noted by Jennifer Karan, Executive Director of the SAT Program, in a statement on the report, interpretation of this data really is a task for those with a “deep and abiding interest in psychometrics.” However, it is interesting to note that despite the rapidly evolving demographics of the test taking class, scores have remained relatively stable, with Math quite constant for at least the past five years. Critical Reading and Writing scores have dropped a few points, but still a shallow decline in the context of the vastly increasing range and number of students for whom this test is now accessibie and within real aspirations.

One statistic from the report does raise concern: the high percentage of students who did not achieve the “SAT Benchmark.” This benchmark, as explained on page 22 in the downloadable report, measures the probability of a student’s achieving a first year college GPA of B- or higher, based on the student’s SAT scores in high school. As documented in the report, there is a strong correlation between SAT success and college success (which college admissions officers must also believe is true since they rely heavily on these test scores in admissions decisions). Among the class of 2012, only 43 percent achieved the benchmark. So, it follows that over half the students did not do well in their freshman year of college, and that is presumably related to the statistics on page 10 of the same report, showing the much lower college retention rates of students with low SAT scores.

All these statistics and more in this report raise as many questions as they purport to answer, and some of the questions are big: Should so many students be taking the SAT and aiming for college? Are more students also preparing for careers that do not require college testing? Does the SAT measure the right aptitudes and achievements for the skills students need to be successful in college and beyond? What should be done to help and guide the students who are NOT achieving SAT Benchmark results in college – a majority of the test takers? These are big, controversial and thought-provoking questions, indeed. The first step to grappling with them is to study the data.

Tags: College Board, SAT and college readiness, SAT statistics
Posted in College Board, controversy | No Comments »

Basics plus logic equals SAT math success

September 9th, 2012

SAT prep, ACT tutoring, New York test prep, tutor New York, college test prep

Write in your test booklet to keep alert, avoid simple arithmetic errors, and help visualize the answers.

At first glance, the SAT math section may appear impenetrably mysterious: a blend of obscure and long-winded word problems bubbling in a stew of algebra and geometry, with the occasional question on permutations or other odd challenges bobbing to the surface. In reality, the math tested is quite basic; most of the actual math knowledge required to score high on this test is covered in the first semester of high school (or even middle school) algebra and geometry courses. Here are some tips for achieving top math scores on the SAT.

• Know algebra and arithmetic basics cold. Be able to quickly reduce fractions, move from fractions to decimals to percents, work accurately with positive and negative numbers, and simplify expressions with one and two variables.

• Memorize basic formulas. Yes, the test does have a row of formulas at the start of every math section – that should serve as a heads-up that you’ll indeed need to use them, not that you should flip back to that page each time you do. Knowing these formulas by heart means, too, that you will instinctively recognize which ones you need to use and be able to apply them without losing precious time or focus.

 • Be nimble. Get good at using those formulas that you’ve memorized so you can switch from area to perimeter formulas for rectangles or circumference to area for circles. Many problems require more than one operation.

• Love brackets. It’s better to over-organize your order of operations than take shortcuts that might encourage you to make an error.

 • Think radii. Geometry problems often can be cracked by recognizing that an additional radius can be drawn, a line whose length – and relation to a given radius – you already know.

 • Think 180 degrees. Triangles, of course, come to mind, but also straight lines. If you see a straight line, you know the total number of degrees radiating from a point on it and can often use that knowledge as a key to the solution.

• Be a quick-change artist with exponents and radicals. Know how to manipulate exponents from negatives to fractions and be comfortable multiplying and raising exponents to exponents. When you encounter an equation with a radical on one side, square both sides to get rid of it.

 • Bone up on question types you can count on appearing. These include word problems involving distance (typically one person travels at one speed while the other drives at a different speed to the same destination), ratios (bags of colored marbles, classrooms with variable numbers of boys versus girls), inequalities, number lines and averages (mean, median and mode: know one from the other).

 • Remember that absolute value means both positive and negative. These questions can be tricky when in the form of an equation set between unequal signs. Review these.

• Be alert to the classic trick in rate and cost problems. Many start with a given amount (first day’s cost, first minute’s rate). Eliminate answer choices that do not start with that figure and also calculate the extended answer on the basis of n minus the first amount.

Strengthening your skills in these basic areas will yield points on the SAT. Do math sections in the College Board’s big blue book, checking your answers. For those you get wrong or take too long to solve, be sure to study the explanations. Find them in Tutor Ted’s SAT Solutions Manual or, for Tests 4-10, online at Khan Academy (see key to using Khan Academy SAT answers with this resource). For any areas in which you recognize a weakness, pick up help from Barron’s SAT Math Workbook or great online resources for math basics such as Purple Math or West Texas A&M University’s Virtual Math Lab.

Tags: SAT Math, SAT Prep
Posted in SAT Math, SAT Prep | No Comments »

10 dos and don’ts for college applications

July 8th, 2012

Karen_Berlin_Ishii_college_application_essay_07.08

Good organization is crucial in the college application process!

College applications can quickly become an overwhelming task: so many details, unyielding deadlines, and so much at stake. Here are some key tips to enhance your applications and make the process go more smoothly.

1. Do check spelling, grammar, punctuation, dates – and have at least one teacher, counselor or parent go over it all, as well.

2. Do start out organized. Use a calendar or chart dedicated solely to your college applications and note due dates for all materials, letters, tests and any actions you must do. Check the calendar daily to plan, remind yourself of deadlines, check off completed tasks. Here‘s a checklist to print out and get started.

3. Don’t stop there. Keep a separate folder for each college and each essay. For the essays, rename every draft by adding a numeral to the file name so you keep track of changes. It is very helpful to review older drafts of an essay, as original ideas may get lost in the editing process. Keeping track of your drafts allows you to reconsider original ideas and find the happy medium between diamond-in-the-rough and overly polished cliché.

4. Don’t forget your online presence. Most importantly, clean up your Facebook page. Review which posts and images are viewable by whom. Ask friends to de-tag you from all photos which you would rather admissions officers not see. Get a mature, clearly identifiable email address for college correspondence (your_name @gmail.com or similar) then be sure to check it daily.

5. Do follow directions. If the essay is limited to 500 words, try to write about that much, but not a word over. While updates to the Common App may correct the problem of over-limit responses getting cut off, don’t take the risk. Admissions officers generally do not look kindly on candidates who cannot follow their directions, either.

6. Don’t send extra letters of recommendation or non-traditional application items (multimedia presentations, artwork, cookies, etc) unless you know that they will be welcome. Find that out by asking the admissions office directly.

7. Do keep records of all correspondence with the colleges and note names and dates of telephone contacts.

8. Don’t forget to ask for the business cards of your interviewer and tour guide, as well as any faculty you spend time with during your college visit. Send each a thoughtful, but short, thank you email. (A letter sent by snail mail is not necessary – post is so 20th century!)

9. Do take time to think about and write your application essays, starting your first drafts in the summer before application season. Give each essay ample attention. That means at least several drafts each.

10. Don’t neglect the short essays in which most colleges require you to sing their praises specifically. Do your research: Before you even visit the college or have an interview, find out what is special about that school and then leverage your interview and/or campus visit to learn more. Use that knowledge to write a smart, thoughtful reply that shows that you care and have a good reason to choose that college. Colleges want to admit students who understand and want them, too.

With organization and focus, you’ll gain control over the application process and be happier with the results. Once that last envelope is sealed and you’ve clicked “send” on the final application supplement, breathe a sign of relief. You can now enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’ve presented yourself to your best advantage and made the best choices for your goals.

Tags: college application essay, college applications, Common App
Posted in College admissions, college application essay, College applications | No Comments »

Best online resources for SAT prep

June 23rd, 2012

For test prep in New York City, Karen Berlin Ishii teaches Reading, Verbal, the ACT, SAT, Math, and Writing in Also, she teaches many students online via Skype for college application editing their essays, helping students with TOEFL and more.

Online resources enable students to study wherever, whenever it’s convenient.

While it is certainly possible to prepare successfully for your SATs using books alone, why not take advantage of the additional resources online? Below are a few of the best. They are all free and really do supplement the best of the paper resources.

1. The Collegeboard’s online companion explanations for their Official SAT Study Guide (2nd edition and new edition with DVD) – Finally, the CollegeBoard is providing explanations to every question in all of the 10 real tests they publish. Find them (plus option to take the practice tests online) here. After you login to your CollegeBoard account, choose your textbook and type the key word: for 2nd edition book it’s “passage,” for DVD edition it’s “reference.”

3. Khan Academy online – Something bad has happened to the wonderful Khan Academy collection of clear, step-by-step explanations to the CollegeBoard math sections: Someone has reorganized the site, making it hard to navigate. Here is the updated link to the new, confusing list of sections. The test numbers as identified on the Khan site refer to the first edition of the CollegeBoard book, so either pick up a lightly used copy of that one (cheap on Amazon) or go to SAT Prep NY for a key to which Khan lesson applies to which test in the 2nd and 3rd editions. (Tests 4-10 in the newer editions are identical to Tests 2-8 in the 1st edition, so these terrific, patient lessons by Salman Khan are still very useful once you finally locate them.)

You can also download the entire collection to your computer or iPad – and it’s all free. Go to the Khan Academy Downloads page for a link to their collections at Apple’s iTunes U, go here for the iPad app.

3. Testive.com – Want to hone your skills with a free new quickie SAT diagnostic tool? Check out their free SAT timed drills. The website claims to use special MIT-developed algorithyms to adjust the test questions it throws your way for each of the 25 minute sections (one each for Math, Critical Reading and Writing/Grammar) in order to give you a fine-tuned prediction of your SAT score. Take the tests over again to raise your scores; the website keeps your records on your account. One tip: No explanations or identification of errors are provided, just your score, so take a screenshot as you go if you want to go over the questions later, especially any that you skip or guess on. (Mac users: hold down Command-shift-4 to take a screenshot. PC users: Here’s an explanation of your options.)

4. Quizlet.com – Quizlet is an online flashcard app that allows you to make your own vocabulary flashcards or take advantage of premade sets, such as their roots/word webs collection which will help you guess well on new words which have familiar roots. Start with their SAT word collections and then add your own words based on new words you encounter in practice tests and in your readings and drills. There are also collections of flashcards for SAT Math formulas and fun vocab cards with pictures to help you learn the words more effectively. Combine others’ sets with your own, too, to benefit from already created sets that you customize for yourself.

Tags: ACT, college test prep, SAT Prep, SAT vocab vocabulary words, study tools, test prep
Posted in ACT Prep, College test prep, online study tools, SAT Prep, SAT study resources | No Comments »

The 4 Best Books for SAT Prep

March 31st, 2012

SAT prep ACT tutoring New York test prep tutor ISEE tutor New York SSAT tutoring PSAT prep NYC SHSAT Manhattan in-home tutoring Karen Berlin Ishii

Here they are: the most helpful SAT prep books.

By the beginning of April, high school juniors should be well into their SAT studies in prep for the May or June exams. Students planning to also take SAT Subject Tests are recommended to take the SAT in May, SAT Subject Tests in June. All students taking the May SAT should take advantage of “Question and Answer Service” ($18, ordered through your CollegeBoard SAT registration account), a great study tool for the fall retest.

Whether you take a class, work with a tutor, do an online program, or study on your own, good study resources are key for this test. While there are also great resources available oniine (see my next column for the best of those), there is no substitute for practicing with paper and print to build skills that are directly transferable to the real test – which you will take on paper, not on a computer screen. Allow yourself at least 8 weeks to craft a full study plan and use a good text to guide you. Here’s a list of the best ones for SAT prep:

1. The Official SAT Study Guide with DVD - There is no substitute for the CollegeBoard’s book of real tests. Every SAT student should study with this book. The new edition of the CollegeBoard “blue book” is not much different from the 2nd edition; it has the same 10 tests. The best addition here is access to a new section on the CollegeBoard website where you can find explanations – finally! – to every question in all of the tests.

2. Tutor Ted’s SAT Solutions Manual - This thin, concise and engaging guide to the CollegeBoard’s book of practice tests is still very convenient and may offer quicker, smarter explanations of the questions, especially for the more advanced student who gets it and is able to move on more quickly.

3. Barron’s SAT Math Workbook (not to be confused with the nearly identical-looking Barron’s SAT Subject Test Math workbooks) – Barron’s is the model for all great math instruction: Clear, simple lessons with important formulas and procedures highlighted, comprehensive drills at the end of each short lesson, and clear explanations to every single question. Nearly every student will raise his or her score by working patiently through this book, even without mastering all the topics included.

4. Cracking the SAT by The Princeton Review - The Princeton Review still has their magic touch (even though the 2012 edition of their book is EXACTLY the same inside as the 2011 edition). Strong basic test-taking strategies and techniques which they pioneered still work. Their vocab lists are good, practice tests the best copies of the real SAT around, and grammar chapter is particularly helpful.

Have you used these textbooks and have an opinion to share? Do you have your own favorites? Please share your tips for great SAT textbooks in the comments section below!

Tags: autumn SAT prep, SAT Critical Reading, SAT grammar, SAT Math, SAT study resources, SAT vocab vocabulary words, SAT Writing
Posted in Math for SAT and ACT, SAT Critical Reading, SAT Grammar and Writing, SAT Prep, SAT study resources | 3 Comments »

Writing a terrific college application essay

March 29th, 2012

One great essay topic is your cherished friendships.

High school seniors: You’re finally seeing the light at the end of the college prep tunnel, but the application essay is still hanging over your head.

Cheer up! While it would be great to have the essay done by now, the fact is, you are suddenly in a different phase of your life in the fall of your senior year, and your perspective may have changed a lot since July or August. And sometimes the pressure of impending deadlines actually help you buckle down and do your best work.

Here are some tips to help you get going.

1. Brainstorm freely. Jot ideas about your best traits, your most meaningful experiences – both academic and otherwise – an important influence in your life, what’s key about you that isn’t represented otherwise in your school grades and test scores.

2. Write freely for a ten minutes each on 2-3 of your favorite ideas. Review what you’ve written and then write more on whichever one most excites you. If none do, then brainstorm again.

3. Once you’ve got a great personal topic, write freely more. Don’t worry about organizing or length, grammar or style. Just let yourself go so that you can get those ideas flowing.

4. Think small! If your theme is perservence and you want to write about your experiences on the hockey team, bypass the usual “big game” narrative and focus instead more narrowly, for example on your relationship with your teammates, one big play in slow motion, or what your team jersey represents to you.

5. Start to organize your essay, keeping clearly numbered copies of each draft. As you edit and refine, you may also lose some of your earlier spontaneity, so you want to be able to go back to review and renew.

6. Review your final draft for cohesion, spelling, grammar and typos. Run it by your parents, a teacher and a friend for comments. If you are feeling burnt out, let it rest for a few days and then do your final edit.

Here are some great resources for brainstorming and writing your college essay:

.
Books:

“On Writing the College Application Essay” by Harry Bauld
“The College Application Essay” by Sarah Myers McGinty
“Writing a Successful College Application Essay” by George Ehrenhaft

College advisors in New York who specialize in essay consulting:

• Debra Resnicoff, Sundial Academic Success
• Elizabeth Wissner-Gross

Tags: college application essay, Debra Resnicoff, Elizabeth Wissner-Gross
Posted in College admissions, college application essay, College applications | No Comments »

SAT or ACT? ISEE or SSAT? Tips and advice

March 29th, 2012

Here are some test tips and advice I recently shared with the website visitors of Aristotle Circle in New York, as a Featured Expert.

Q: When should students take the SAT or ACT? Does it make sense to take both tests?

I generally recommend that students take the SAT or ACT in the spring of junior year and retake that same test in the fall of senior year. Ideally, that’s two tests, total. May is a perfect month for the SAT since students can order “Question and Answer Service” (which is only offered three times a year), a terrific study tool for the next round. Taking the May SAT also allows students to take SAT Subject Tests in June, close to the end of the semester in which they are studying those subjects.

The ACT Q&A service, “Test Information Release,” is offered in April and June. June is the best time to take the test, when courses are nearly over and students have learned more math, which is relevant on this test. Then take the test once more in September or October.

Most students score comparably on either test and colleges accept both. For students applying to colleges that require the SAT + SAT Subject Tests, or ACT alone, and who do not have strong SAT Subject Test options, the ACT is appealing. For students who are weak in reading and vocabulary but strong in math, the ACT is often the better option. Otherwise, the SAT is generally considered the more coachable test. Students can take a practice test in each to get the definitive answer of which test is a better fit for them.

Q: Under what circumstances should students retake the SAT or ACT? How much better should a student expect to do the second time around?

Although the trend is to take more and more tests, there are several reasons students should not retake the SAT or ACT more than once. For one, colleges look askance at the records of students who had to take the test numerous times in order to compile a competitive score selection. Students’ time could be put to much better uses than prepping for and retaking tests, too. Students who study for these tests tend to make a big jump in scores after their first course of study: 50 points or more in each SAT section, 2-4 points in each ACT section. After that, many students plateau out, but still manage to raise their scores in the fall, sometimes an additional 50 points per SAT section, and a 1-3 points on the ACT.

Since colleges cherry-pick the best scores to make a superscore, nearly everyone should take the test again in the fall. Many students pull it all together then: They are a half year older than when they first took the test; they’ve grown and matured over the summer, too. A number of factors lead some students to see big improvement in the fall test. Even if they only pick up a few points here and there, it adds up and overall is likely to be much higher than initial scores.

Q: What is your advice for parents, when it comes to helping your child juggle the necessary components of admissions (exams, essays, paperwork, tours, etc)?

Every student and family is different, but the demands of college applications and admissions are the same: burdensome and confusing! Students need to be willing to accept some parental help and guidance but may rightfully reject meddling. Families should sit down early in the process and establish roles, boundaries, and procedures for making sure everything gets done. Personally, I have no objection to allowing a student to delegate much of the logistics and bookkeeping to parents. Some students are not ready to take on that responsibility or are too busy juggling school and test prep and all the rest of their myriad responsibilities. It does not mean that they are not ready to go on to the next step. Essays, however, and anything that is supposed to be in the student’s voice should not bear any parent’s fingerprints.

Q: How early should students begin studying for the SSAT or ISEE? Do you ever recommend that student take both tests?
Students generally start studying for these tests a few months before the exams, but there are great ways to boost performance over the longer term. Reading lots of challenging books, building vocabulary, or doing math games and practice over the prior summer are great ways to up those scores!

The tests are very similar but have subtle differences. The SSAT may be a better choice for students whose reading skills and vocabulary are stronger, while the ISEE may be better suited to students with stronger math skills. If the school does not require one test over the other, students might take one test and if the score is low, give the other test a try.

Note that students may only take the ISEE once in a six month period and may not take the test as practice; a formal application must be made to at least one school for each test application and old scores are superceded by new ones. Students may take the SSAT multiple times, however, and then just submit their best individual score to schools, although the score report will note that the test had been taken more than once.

Q: Should students ever cancel their scores on the ACT or SAT? If you feel you did particularly bad is it a good idea to cancel your test?

Both ACT and SAT scores may be cancelled within a few days of the test, but students should really have a good reason to do so, not just nerves. It really is difficult to predict one’s score based on a gut feeling after taking the test, but if the student was ill or had any other extraordinary circumstance that would have affected his or her test performance, cancellation is a last resort. Remember though, most colleges will superscore the results from all the SATs taken, and a growing number of colleges will do so for the ACT, too, so even if the results in one or two sections of the test are poor, a higher score in another section generally makes it all worth keeping, since that score would benefit the overall score compilation.

For students taking the SAT Subject Tests, note that score cancellation affects all tests taken that day. Even if the student is concerned about one of two or three tests taken that day, it probably would be wiser to keep all the scores. Most colleges allow Score Choice, so any weak scores can be suppressed later.

Tags: ISEE vs SSAT, SAT vs ACT
Posted in ACT Prep, College admissions, College test prep, ISEE prep, ISEE vs SSAT, private high school entrance exams, SAT alternatives, SAT Prep, SAT Subject Tests, SAT vs ACT, SSAT prep | No Comments »

Top tips for ACT success, Part I: English and Reading tests

February 4th, 2012

Feeling like a confused hippie when it comes to ACT prep?

For students strong in math and science, but weaker in vocabulary questions and open-ended essays, the ACT is often a better option than the SAT. Many students prefer the ACT for its predicatble organization: all the questions for each subtest (English, Math, Reading, and Science) are presented in a single section, and subjects always appear in the same order. Another advantage of the ACT is that many colleges which require SAT Subject Tests for students who take the SAT will waive that requirement for ACT testers. So, you’ve decided to take the ACT. Now, time to prep!

Here are some smart tips to help ensure success on your ACT English and Reading tests:

- Study rules of grammar, especially use of commas and apostrophes. Master who vs whom and be alert to misplaced modifiers. Be sure to read all the passages; don’t skip a few lines if you don’t see any questions for a while. Reading takes a few seconds and it enables you to understand flow and nuance, something you’ll need for the inevitable rhetorical questions that follow! Find links here to great websites for grammar review.

- When answering rhetorical questions in the English section, underline the key point in the question and make sure that your answer choice supports that idea.

- If one of the answer choices is to omit the sentence underlined, ask yourself what the passage would lose in that case. Omit is often the best choice.

- If you are a slow reader, practice reading bits and pieces of the reading passages to get the general meaning for starters: Read the first inch, the first sentence of each paragraph and the last inch of the passage. Then answer questions that reference specific lines in the passage by reading 5 lines above and 5 lines below that line. Bit by bit you will have read all that you need in the passage as you answer the questions following this procedure.

- Whenever possible, come up with your own answer for reading questions before looking at the choices! Avoid answers that seem too nice or too specific. Often, one word, such as an adjective, can help you eliminate a wrong choice.

- Don’t feel you have to do the questions in order. If any question stumps you, circle it and move on. If time permits, you can come back and narrow down the answer to guess well. Otherwise, choose “C” (or your favorite letter of the day).

- Answer questions about the author’s tone or purpose last. After you’ve answered all the other questions, tone and purpose are much more obvious.

- If confronted with a pair of “Yes, because … ” and a pair of “No, because …” answers, draw a line between the two pairs and decide if the answer is going to be yes or no. Then choose between the two answer choices only.

- If the question has a pair of opposite choices among the answers, one of those two is probably the correct answer.

- Choose your favorite letter position of the day for all the questions you skip for which you haven’t had time to eliminate any of the choices.

If you find these tips helpful, check out next week’s column for tips on other sections of the ACT, too.

Tags: ACT prep
Posted in ACT English Test, SAT Vocabulary novels, special accommodations, SSAT prep | No Comments »