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Variation in SAT Scores for Girls and Boys

Leon Baranovsky — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:43:13 +0000

Average SAT scores and ACT scores for the high school class of 2009 have remained close to flat according to data released by the College Board. While girls performed better by 13 points on the writing test, they scored 35 points lower in math and 5 points lower in critical reading than boys. The full report [pdf] by the College Board is available for free download. A summary can be found here.

Stress-free ACT & SAT Preparation

Leon Baranovsky — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:39:39 +0000

Gearing up for college entrance exams can be stressful, but smart time management helps. Students who allow adequate preparation time prior to taking the SAT, PSAT, or ACT, find their stress levels come down as their scores go up.

Studying gradually can be a tremendous advantage, particularly when it comes to challenging areas and vocabulary building. When students leave only a short while to get ready, the workload is far more intense and exhausting. If you have a tendency to procrastinate, consider the following schedules:

Student A	studies 60 hours over 12 weeks
	2.50 hours of tutoring per week (2 sessions @ 1.25 hours each)
	2.50 hours of homework per week
	= 5 hour weekly investment
Student B	studies 60 hours over 3 weeks
	10 hours of tutoring per week (5 sessions @ 2.00 hours each)
	10 hours of homework per week
	= 20 hour weekly investment

Wouldn’t you rather spread the 60 hours (30 hours of tutoring plus 30 hours of homework) over three months rather than three weeks? Obviously, Student A will feel less overwhelmed and absorb far more of the material than Student B. So, get a head start, pace yourself, and feel more relaxed as you prepare to face these important tests.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/saranv/ / CC BY 2.0

Why You Need SAT Prep Help

Leon Baranovsky — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:17:00 +0000

If you’re getting ready for the SAT, then you know there’s a lot to learn. In addition to the material — the math, the vocabulary, and the writing — there’s the vagaries of the test itself. Taking the SAT is not like taking a test at school.

The SAT lasts over three hours
On the SAT, easy and hard questions are scored the same
No partial credit

“Look, there’s just no way you’re going to do anywhere near your best unless you prepare for the SAT; that just stands to reason.” But practicing isn’t enough. After all, “if you’re practicing the wrong way, all you’re doing is getting really good at doing the wrong things.”

Want to learn more? Check out this list of articles at FamilyEducation.com. And if you want to get serious about preparing for the SAT, contact us at teamuptutors.com.

Colleges Ignoring SAT Writing Test

Leon Baranovsky — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:44:00 +0000

The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, outscored Earnest Hemingway (& others) on the writing portion of the SAT, as reported by the Atlantic Monthly in 2004. Now, hundreds of universities, including several top schools, ignore students’ scores on the writing section of the SAT in admissions decisions, according to a story in the Boston Globe.

The College Board, which administers the test, said its surveys and checks of university websites show that 56 percent of the roughly 1,000 four-year colleges do not use the writing section for admissions, although the overwhelming majority of the nation’s 61 most selective colleges use it in some fashion.

Criticism about the essay has been building for more than a year since an MIT professor’s experiment indicated that students could get high scores simply by writing longer and throwing in big words.

A claimed advantage of the writing test is that students who prepare for it see a general improvement in their writing. Not so, says Les Perelman, director of MIT’s writing program.

“They’ve learned to write paragraph essays where they don’t care whether the facts are correct,” Perelman said. “We have to spend a year in freshman composition deprogramming them.”

Relinquish control of this Junebug or burn!

Leon Baranovsky — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:55:00 +0000

Manga – Japanese-style graphic novels – account for 20% of books checked out from libraries, according to this Bloomberg News story. So it must have seemed a great way to help teens build their vocabulary in preparation for SAT and ACT tests.

Kaplan has produced three vocabulary building manga, each with 300 prep words, their definitions in the margins. Characters shout threats like, “Relinquish control of this Junebug or burn!”

Students can learn definitions in context. But really, how does “relinquish control” make for better reading than “let go!”?