
Trung Ngo from LA TUTORS 123 asked me his top 5 questions:
1. All parents want their kids to excel on the SAT, but few make the effort to study and simply take the test with them—much less simply take the test 7 times. Beyond maintaining your son motivated to succeed on the SAT, what kept you going from one test to another location?
Well, first of all, I would personally say that any parent can do what we did (in other words. motivate a teenager to study for the SAT), and it generally does not take 7 tests! Any amount of hot engagement from a parent is going to do (even if they don’t behave like it in the beginning. Be patient. They will!). What kept me personally going had been that I actually just like the SAT (crazy as that noises). I enjoyed it … like a crossword puzzle.
2. The school Board reports that 55% of juniors improved their score once they took the SAT again inside their senior year. What is your advice for students retaking the SAT? How do they get the maximum benefit from the jawhorse?
Oh, wow, let me see if I can here be brief: Be methodical with the planning. The more vocab, the better. Sit in the row that is front test day, if feasible. Just Take the test in a classroom that is smallnot just a cafeteria or gym). Try to get a desk that is regulari.e. maybe not a arm/chair desk tablet).
3. You took the SAT 7 times during the period of 10 months: how did your scores improve from the test that is first the final?
4. Having tried a variety of test prep methods, which did you find the most effective? What set it apart from the others?
5. On your blog, you offer shmoop essay helper a whole lot of practical SAT tips that are circuitously regarding taking the test, for example, SAT snacks that are best or picking the right test location. From your experience, what is the single many essential tip of this kind?
The Concealed Faces of Test Optional
Many prestigious colleges and universities including Bates, Bowdoin, American University, Sarah Lawrence, Smith and Wake Forest now do perhaps not require SATs. The movement has even spawned a sub-category, referred to as ‘test flexible,’ which allows a student to decide from a variety that is wide of, like the AP, the ACT, or the SAT Subject tests, as alternatives to the SAT.
But it doesn’t mean that high schoolers should forgo the drudgery and anxiety of attempting to do well on SATs or just about any test that is standardized they have to. For while test policies that are optional the impression that colleges would like to diversify their applicant pools, they’re perhaps not always as noble as they sound. Moreover, a college can determine it self as ‘test optional’ for admissions purposes, then again need test scores in terms of awarding scholarships or class placement that is determining.
Critics argue that ‘test optional’ universities are simply gaming the system to gain status in the positions, especially the U.S. News & World Report ranks, which have produced a frenzy of colleges vying to move up in prestige. A test-optional policy means more applicants, which means more applicants to reject, this means more ‘selective’ so far as the rankings go. Test-optional also means that the school’s SAT average are artificially inflated because applicants who do submit ratings have actually higher scores 100-150 points greater, on average than candidates who don’t.
There is also the fact that ‘test optional’ means various things to schools that are different. Students with low SAT scores might be dreaming about the opportunity to be viewed as a person that is whole than a test rating, but it’s not always that facile. There are policy nuances, such as test optional for students with a particular GPA. Or, test optional state schools, but not if you’re an applicant from out of state or abroad.
On the side that is flip there’s a opportunity for some pupils with a high test scores to get results the system to their advantage because the applicant pool at test optional schools is presumably filled with score-free applications. High ratings might even mitigate the consequences a low GPA at a test college that is optional.
There is no doubt this 1 test should perhaps not determine an applicant’s chances, but in 2009, the faculty Board began offering ‘Score Choice’ where students can decide whether to send SAT ratings from a certain test day or, when they had a particularly bad morning, omit the ratings for that day (there are exceptions). And yes, there are definitely other limitations towards the SAT’s ability to capture a whole individual, and certainly inequalities whereby those that can afford expensive test prep and multiple testings can gain a bonus. But for most students, ‘test-optional’ is more difficult than it may first appear.
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