Arts Scholarship for Texas 8-12 Graders
The Texas Commission on the Arts has a great scholarship for artistic students — it’s called the Young Masters program. Read this to learn more.
The deadline for applying is November 15.
Practice ACT and SAT tests: A quick guide to preparing yourself — from your Dallas SAT tutor
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.
How the Recession Changes College Admissions — from your Dallas SAT tutor
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…
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness — from your Dallas SAT tutor
From an article in the New Yorker, by Malcolm Gladwell:
“Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material. That difference amounts to a year’s worth of learning in a single year. Teacher effects dwarf school effects: your child is actually better off in a “bad” school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher. Teacher effects are also much stronger than class-size effects. You’d have to cut the average class almost in half to get the same boost that you’d get if you switched from an average teacher to a teacher in the eighty-fifth percentile.”
There are other factors that affect student learning, of course. But a good teacher can make a big difference. An enormous difference, as most folks know. Which is why I tell parents who ask about me as a tutor about my nominations for teaching awards from students and parents. Having an exceptional tutor doesn’t guarantee you a score on the SAT or ACT or ISEE. But it does make it much more likely that you’ll get the score that you want, given that a great tutor helps you learn more and learn it faster.
Real SAT Essay Questions from your Dallas SAT tutor
People often ask for sample SAT essay questions so they can practice writing essays. Here are four real SAT essay questions from the June 2009 test, as published by the College Board. (I’m quoting them directly from the College Board website.)
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
The discovery that someone we admire has done something wrong is always disappointing and disillusioning. Yet even when people we consider heroes have been tarnished by their faults, they are no less valuable than people who appear perfect. When we learn that an admired person, even one who is seemingly perfect, has behaved in less than admirable ways, we discover a complex truth: great ideas and great deeds come from imperfect people like ourselves.
Assignment:
Do we benefit from learning about the flaws of people we admire and respect? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Some people say you should be content with what you have and accept who you are. But it is possible that too much self-acceptance can turn into self-satisfied lack of ambition. People should always strive to improve themselves and to have more in their lives—friends, things, opportunities. After all, where would we be if great people, both in history and in our own time, did not try to have more and to improve themselves?
Assignment:
Is it best for people to accept who they are and what they have, or should people always strive to better themselves? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
So-called common sense determines what people should wear, whom they should respect, which rules they should follow, and what kind of life they should lead. Common sense is considered obvious and natural, too sensible to question. But people’s common sense decisions may turn out to be wrong, even if they are thought to be correct according to the judgment of vast majorities of people.
Adapted from Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy
Assignment:
Can common sense be trusted and accepted, or should it be questioned? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Prompt 4
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Winning does not require people to be against someone else; people can reach their goals through cooperation just as well as they can through competition. Winning is not always the result of selfish individualism. People achieve happiness by cooperating with others to increase the happiness of all, rather than by winning at others’ expense. Ours is not a world in which the price of one person’s happiness is someone else’s unhappiness.
Adapted from Gilbert Brim, Ambition
Assignment:
When some people win, must others lose, or are there situations in which everyone wins? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
SAT Scores: Ten Point Increase Can Get You In (updated) — from your Dallas SAT tutor
“The potential benefits of test preparation are clear,” according to a new study from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Even a gain as small as ten points on the SAT can significantly impact an admissions decision at some schools, especially if you’re applying to a selective school.
The study also found that 21% of the schools admitted to having an SAT cutoff score and 24% had an ACT cutoff score — as in, ‘If you don’t get X on the test, you won’t get in, no matter what your grades are.’
It’s worth noting that both the College Board and the ACT folks encourage colleges to use the tests as part of a more holistic admissions process — and that the researchers seemed surprised by many of the results of the study. (The cutoff score information was a surprise to me.)
To read the whole study, click here.
Colleges That Are Free — information from your Dallas SAT tutor
I was reading the Wall Street Journal and came across a list of schools with no tuition. Some schools require you to work — at the all-male Deep Springs, for example, some students work as ranch hands as well as study intensively.
And the schools are:
Deep Springs College
College of the Ozarks
Berea College
Olin College of Engineering
Cooper Union
Curtis Institute of Music
Alice Lloyd College
Additionally, Cooper Union in Manhattan has an endowment that has done remarkably well, despite the current economic crisis.
Welcome to the new site!
The revisions are complete. Welcome to the new Test Prep Texas website! I’ll be posting here every other Monday morning, so check back for details on the latest news about tests, scores, and scholarships.
For example, the Irene S. Wischer foundation offers up to $10,000 a year to Texas students who demonstrate financial need, with a preference for students who are Christians. The scholarship is brand-new, having just awarded its very first scholarships at the end of May. For more information about it, click here.
Under Construction
This website/blog is in the process of being redesigned. The new version should be live by June 15. In the meantime, feel free to browse old entries and to contact me at moiramuldoon@gmail.com.
The Best Test Prep with the Best Teachers
The percentage of colleges that say testing is very important has grown by more than ten percent since 1995 (Inside Higher Ed). Recent studies show that an excellent teacher can triple the amount of material taught, putting students ahead of the curve.
One-on-one tutoring – with its focus on individual student needs — is the most effective way to prepare for the PSAT, ACT, and SAT. Test Prep Texas offers in-home tutoring for these tests with extraordinary teachers.
The SAT and ACT are becoming more important to college admissions. College education is key to lifetime success. Getting your student the best scores for the best college is our goal.