By admin
1. Buy a book with lots of practice tests. Take one at 8am on a Saturday morning, under test-like conditions.
*Go to a library or an office or someplace quiet.
*Time each section.
*Stop. Then begin the next timed section.
*Leave your phone at home. Use a watch.
*Take 5 minute breaks between sections. Make the experience truly test-like.
2. Grade the practice test.
3. Within two days of taking the practice test, examine each question you got wrong. See if you can determine what you did wrong — did you make a simple math error? Did you misread the question? Did you get the problem set up but then get stuck? The more specific you can be here, the better. Make a list of each question missed and the reason you think you missed it.
4. Read through the explanations in the back of the book of all your wrong answers. See if you can add to the reasons you might have missed a question.
5. Read through all the right answers (sometimes you get a question right for the wrong reason).
6. Review your list of errors that you made. Look for patterns (ie ‘I missed three questions because I didn’t pay attention to the word EXCEPT in the question’).
7. Choose two or three of your patterns and find solutions (’I will put a box around the word EXCEPT’).
8. Put your test materials away for a day or two.
9. Take another full practice test. Before you take it, review all of your notes. As you take it, make sure that you pay careful attention to the two or three patterns you identified in your errors.
10. Grade your test. Then repeat steps 3- 9. Eventually, you should know your patterns and habits well enough to be able to prevent most of your errors and raise your scores.
If you have trouble identifying your errors or don’t understand what you did wrong, meet with a tutor who can help you.
By admin
In June 2009, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling published the result of a survey. Here is a summary:
‘
“High School Survey
- Nearly three-fourths of high schools reported an increase in the number of students foregoing their “dream schools” in favor of more affordable options
- Overall, around one-third of all high schools reported budget cuts in the 2008-09 school year
- Nearly 60 percent of respondents indicated an increase in the number of students planning to enroll in public versus private colleges in Fall 2009
College Survey
- A majority of institutions reported increases for each of the following: inquiries (62 percent); total applications (62 percent); Early Decision applications (51 percent); Early Action applications (68 percent).
- Forty-five percent of respondents reported a decrease in their 2009 May 1 yield rates as compared to 2008
- About 35 percent of postsecondary institutions experienced budget cuts and 15 percent experienced staff cuts to the admission department during the 2008-09 academic year”
What will be interesting to me is what happens this year. Last year, lots of people has college plans in place by the time the market tumbled. This year, people are applying to colleges in a recession (though Bernanke has said we’re at the end of the recession, the recovery hasn’t yet picked up). I expect more Dallas students will be applying to state schools and will think longer and harder about full scholarships at schools they might not have thought about in flusher times. In either of these scenarios, test scores are going to matter. Higher test scores can help students get better scholarships, and if state schools do have an increase in applicants, well, the higher your test score, the better.
What I don’t know is if, conversely, it will be a smidge easier to get into upper tier private, expensive schools. Will they see a dropoff in applications overall? Will they see an increase in applications from students who really really want to go there — in other words, will students who once might have considered sending out twenty applications now reign themselves in to more affordable schools and the one expensive school they desperately want to attend?
I’ve talked with a lot of people and no one is sure what is going to happen. I’ll be very interested to see how this application cycle turns out…