How to Prepare Your Student for an Ivy League School

This is from an article in The Washington Times...

I would add that while it's a great idea to take the tests so students understand the types of questions, they also need to learn the test-taking strategy and tricks of the SAT.

In pre-college prep years

Take standardized tests early. In junior high, get copies of standardized tests and at least one weekend a month or every two months have your child take prep test sections of the SAT or ACT exams. Courses offered by Kaplan and other professional testing companies can get expensive, but sample tests are available at the local public library for free. It may seem to be an intense thing to do, having your junior high or middle school student taking practice tests, but there is no better way to prepare for the testing format of the SAT or ACT than through practice exams and as early as possible. You don’t have to put pressure on them getting all the answers right. The purpose of the test exams is to get them comfortable with standardized testing and the type of questions they will see on the actual exam. Reviewing how your child does in these practice tests can give you clues on areas where they are good in and those where they may need extra help. Rather than discovering these fault areas with one year to prep, you’d have an extra two to four years to focus on those areas simply because you start early.

Get Tutors to help with challenging subjects. Even if a parent cannot afford a $90 per hour tutor, there are low cost programs and even some free peer tutoring sessions available in many school systems [in the United States]...

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AFP: S.Korea holds breath as students sit college entrance exam

AFP: S.Korea holds breath as students sit college entrance exam

This story isn't about the SAT, but the article shows the how important a college-entrance exam can be...


By Park Chan-Kyong (AFP)

SEOUL — Flights were delayed, rush hour rescheduled and military exercises halted as hundreds of thousands of young South Koreans on Thursday sat a college entrance exam seen as crucial to their careers.

The stock market and private companies in the education-obsessed nation opened late to ease traffic congestion as students headed for test centres, with police on call to escort latecomers.

The test weighs heavily on students' careers in a society where colleges and universities focus closely on its results when choosing applicants. Attendance at a prestigious alma mater is crucial in obtaining a top job.

Extra buses and subway trains were laid on to take students to the test and a variety of noise control measures were imposed in the crowded nation.

The transport ministry said landings and takeoffs were banned during an English listening test in the morning and another in the afternoon, affecting a total of 118 flights.

Drivers of vehicles and trains were told not to sound horns during the listening test.

The military was ordered to suspend firing exercises and traffic was halted within 200 metres (660 feet) of each of the test centres.

For fear that the trip might cause traffic congestion, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-Sik delayed his departure for a ceremony in the southern provincial city of Gwangyang.

More than 668,000 students took the day-long standardised College Scholastic Ability Test at 1,206 centres nationwide, the education ministry said, with the absentee rate rising slightly from last year to six percent.

The date was pushed back a week because of the November 11-12 G20 summit in Seoul.

CSAT day is nerve-racking not only for students but for their parents, who crowded churches and Buddhist temples to pray for good results.

"I feel as if the past few days were longer than the 12 years that I spent financing my son's schooling," Kim, a 45-year-old parent, was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

"At a Buddhist temple near my house, I've been engaged in 100 days of prayer for my son."

At a high school on the southern island of Jeju, teachers and students taking the exam performed a traditional shamanistic ritual. They knelt and touched the ground with their foreheads before a table spread with rice cake, fruit and boiled pig's head, Yonhap said.

Department stores cashed in on the anxiety, selling gift sets for students composed of rice cakes and rice candies. Superstition has it that sticky rice cakes help students cling on to their knowledge.

Newspapers published pages advising students how to psych up for the exam -- and advising mothers how to fill their children's lunch boxes on test day.

"Avoid meat and other greasy food," Chosun Ilbo said, recommending tofu or fish to prevent drowsiness.

To prevent cheating, electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and electronic calculators were banned.

Cheaters are expelled from the once-a-year exam and banned from sitting it the following year.

Education professor Kim Dal-Hyo of Dong-A University in Busan said the annual fever stems from the nation's obsession with academic background and with links formed through schools and universities.

"Parents spend fortunes on tutoring their children to send them to good schools," he told AFP. "Unless the highly ossified stratification of colleges is resolved, this annual nationwide craze will never disappear."


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Caution with College Board question of the day

Be cautious with explanations from College Board. Sometimes the website doesn't give a full explanation of what's wrong with the question.
Check out this question...

A By the time Mitzie and B myself got to the box office, C all of the tickets for the show had already D been sold. E No error
Answer Choices

* (A)
* (B)
* (C)
* (D)
* (E)

Here's the College Board explanation:

The error in this sentence occurs at (B), where there is improper pronoun use. The reflexive pronoun “myself” is used incorrectly. The first-person singular pronoun “I” is needed instead so that the sentence communicates clearly that two people “got to the box office.” (“Mitzie...got to the box office” and “I got to the box office”)

But it doesn't help much to say that "myself" is wrong so that the sentence would communicate clearly that two people got to the box office.
The reason "myself" is wrong is that the reflexive (myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, themselves) is used when the person performing the action (the subject) is the same as the person on whom the action is performed (the direct object).

Correct:
I shave myself.
He saw himself.
They shave themselves.

If the subject and direct object are not the same, don't use the reflexive.

Correct:
I saw him.
The barber shaved me. (not myself)
By the time I dragged myself out of bed...
I was so tired my mother had to pull me out of bed.

Wrong:
By the time Mitzie and myself got to the box office...
By the time I dragged me out of bed...
I was so tired my mother had to pull myself out of bed.

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On SAT, ACT, they answered with perfection | ajc.com

A perfect SAT score -- 2400 -- is possible.
But it involves more than just studying for the SAT.
Advanced placement and honors courses can help, too.
Read about some Atlanta students who got a perfect score on the SAT.

On SAT, ACT, they answered with perfection | ajc.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

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Educating Mom - latimes.com

Educating Mom

Picking a college is a big step, but not too big for an independent young woman.

My daughter will not be going to UC Berkeley this fall. When I broached the idea of applying to my beloved alma mater, she couldn't have been clearer. "I'm sorry, Mom," she said, gently patting my hand, "but it's not my kind of school."

Not her kind of school? What did that mean? That the crown jewel of the University of California was too urban and overwhelming for her? That she didn't want to attend a campus lauded for its protest politics and Nobel laureates? Or maybe, I thought in a brief flash of enlightenment, she simply wasn't interested in attending the same college as her mother?

...

Since she took her first SAT, I have been continually humbled by my expectations of my daughter, expectations that had very little to do with her and everything to do with me.

Read more... Educating Mom - latimes.com:

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Georgia sees slight rise in ACT scores, but SAT performance is true test of state’s high schoolers. And that comes in the next few weeks. | Get Schooled

ACT results are in. The SAT results will come in the next few weeks. Here's an analysis of SAT results in Georgia.

Georgia sees slight rise in ACT scores, but SAT performance is true test of state’s high schoolers. And that comes in the next few weeks. | Get Schooled: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

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Can my child with a disability get testing accommodations for the SAT?

Yes, but you must apply.

From College Board:

Information about testing with accommodations on the SAT

To take the SAT with testing accommodations, students with disabilities must be approved for accommodations by the College Board’s Services for Students with Disabiltities. See Applying for Accommodations for more information. The following information explains many of the details about accommodations on the SAT.
Once a student is approved by the College Board for accommodations, how can he or she register for the SAT?

When a student requests accommodations for College Board tests, he or she receives an SSD Eligibility Code. The student must use this code when registering for the SAT. If registering by mail, the student should include a copy of the Student Eligibility Letter in the envelope with the SAT registration form. For more information, please visit SAT registration.

For more information, see...

SAT Testing - SSD - SAT With Testing Accomodations: "

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Which calculators are not allowed on the SAT Reasoning test?

SAT Reasoning Test - Acceptable SAT Calculators: "The following are not allowed:

* Calculators with QWERTY (typewriter-like) keypads
* Calculators that contain electronic dictionaries
* Calculators with paper tape or printers
* Calculators that 'talk' or make noise
* Calculators that require an electrical outlet
* Cell-phone calculators
* Pocket organizers or personal digital assistants
* Handheld minicomputers, PowerBooks, or laptop computers
* Electronic writing pads or pen-input and stylus-driven devices (the Sharp 9600-EL can be used without the stylus)

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College Corner: SAT or ACT? - The Local – Maplewood Blog - NYTimes.com

Should I take the SAT or the ACT? Here's an article that should help you make the decision.

College Corner: SAT or ACT? - The Local – Maplewood Blog - NYTimes.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

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Washington paperback bestsellers

Check out what's on the bestseller list in the Vancouver area: The Official SAT Study Guide.

Washington paperback bestsellers

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SAT error

Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.

They use light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sun, and tropical nocturnal sweat bees leave their nests to forage for food.

A. They use light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sun, and
B. By using light that is 100 million times dimmer than midday,
C. In light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sun,
D. With the light being 100 million times as dim as midday,
E. When the light is 100 million times as dim as with the midday sun,

College Board says the correct answer is C. This answer shows that you must pick the best of the worst; the choice is far from ideal because C has a problematic comparison. It should compare light to the light of the sun. "In light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sunlight,..."

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Eliminating Answer Choices

Here's a great example of eliminating answer choices.

Add 8x to 2x and then subtract 5 from the sum. If x is a positive integer, the result must be an integer multiple of
A. 2
B. 5
C. 8
D. 10
E. 15


Well, if 10 is a correct answer, then 5 would be correct, too. You can't have two correct answers. So 10 could not possibly be an answer. The same goes for 15. So two answers are eliminated.

There are two ways to do this:
Add 8x and 2x and you get 10x, a multiple of 10. If you subtract 5, it's no longer a multiple of 10, but it's a still a multiple of 5.

OR
substitute for x. Let's make x=4.
8x plus 2x = 40. Subtract 5, and you get 35, which is a multiple of 5.

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Good News on SAT: Girls Are Improving at Math

Overall, women face hurdles in sciences but they have seen improvement on the SAT.

Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences

A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released Monday, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success.

…

At the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented, the report found that the gender gap is rapidly shrinking. Among mathematically precocious youth — sixth and seventh graders who score more than 700 on the math SAT — 30 years ago boys outnumbered girls 13 to 1, but only about 3 to 1 now.

 

Read more...

Don't Cheat on the SAT

It's unethical, and it could get you in a lot of trouble.
Here's an interesting article about cheating...

The month of March means different things to different people. For college basketball fans, March may mean March Madness; for those seeking more daylight, March can mean "springing forward" as we change our clocks for daylight savings time (Sunday at 2am, by the way); for others March means bursting flower bulbs (daffodils and hyacinths are my favorites), and for still others March gives hope that shorts and t-shirts will soon be coming out from their hibernation. But for college-hopefuls, March means the SAT, more formally known as the Standardized Aptitude Test.

March 13th is the big day this year, the 14th for those who celebrate the Sabbath.
While the students will spend the better part of four hours worrying over Math and English questions, the biggest concern for those in the security office of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administers the test, is cheating. The security surrounding the SAT is so high that it conjures up images of the Declaration of Independence, pre-National Treasure.

Considering the numbers, security should be a big concern. On an average SAT-administering day, there are 6-thousand centers conducting tests.

Read more...

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Writing Section - Pronouns - Finding Antecedents

TIP: If you see a pronoun, always try to find the word referred to by the pronoun (its antecedent).

If the antecedent doesn’t exist, then there’s an error.

If the pronoun is ‘they’ but the antecedent is singular, then there’s an error.

If you find two potential antecedents, then the pronoun is ambiguous.

You should always be searching for antecedents for any pronouns you see in the writing section.

This is something I review in more detail in my lessons, using examples.

Error ID: Be Skeptical of Prepositions Underlined Alone

	The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E.    Between 1508  to  1512, Michelangelo,  working on  a    A     B      scaffold 60 feet above the floor, painted the     vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome      with hundreds of  giant figures  that represented   C     D      his vision of the world’s creation.  No error     E    A.     (A) B.     (B) C.     (C) D.     (D) E.     (E)

 

 

C isn't ideal. But you can't fix it without changing a portion that is NOT underlined.

If something doesn't seem right, see if you could change it by fixing only words that are underlined.

If the only way to fix it is to rework other non-underlined portions of the sentence, then it's not the right answer.

Answer A can be fixed merely by changing the word to "and."

Another tip: Be really skeptical when a preposition is underlined by itself.

 

Should I take the SAT or ACT?

It’s a tough choice because the tests are very different.

Here are comments from Your Score Booster SAT / ACT test prep tutoring, followed by an article on the topic...

Your Score Booster analysis

The ACT has a science section; the SAT does not. Don't be too intimidated by the science itself; it's not that difficult, and most of the information is provided in a passage. Your Score Booster provides tips on doing well on the science section. But the sections require students to work very fast, getting through seven sections on science (40 questions) in 35 minutes. Students must be quick thinkers.

The ACT writing section consists of several passages, and students have to correct the grammar.
The SAT writing section has individual questions that are not part of a larger passage, except for six questions in a 35-question section.

Again, the ACT requires more speed, as students must answer 75 questions in 45 minutes.
For two writing sections of the SAT, students must answer 35 questions in 25 minutes and 14 questions in 10 minutes, respectively (a total of 49 questions in 35 minutes).

The writing section on the ACT is more straightforward than the writing section on the SAT.

The ACT tests for style, whereas the SAT doesn't do so. For example, students should recognize an academic style of writing shouldn't include colloquial phrases. The ACT also tests for knowledge of the use of apostrophes -- pretty easy. The SAT tests more for misplaced modifiers and complicated use of parallelism. I have run some SAT questions by former colleagues who edit a major newspaper in New York, and they have questioned the validity of the questions. But most of the SAT writing questions have a clear answer. Both tests check for correct subject-verb matching, verb tenses, redundancies and idiom usage.

With some tips and practice, the writing section is one of the easiest to master on both the SAT and ACT.

The ACT math section deals with trigonometry and imaginary numbers, which are not included on the SAT. Again, the ACT requires students to work very quickly and to work longer without a break between sections, answering 60 questions in 60 minutes.

The ACT math section is all multiple choice. The SAT is mostly multiple choice but does include 10 questions in which the students provide an answer that can be any number from 0 to 9999, including decimals and fractions.

The SAT gives students more time to answer questions. One section includes 20 questions to be completed in 25 minutes. But the SAT questions can be trickier and require students to think outside the box.

The bottom line is that the ACT requires more knowledge of the math and has more math topics but is more straightforward. The SAT only covers a limited ranged of math topics but is trickier.

Again, the SAT reading section gives students more time but the questions are trickier. Students must rush through the ACT reading section.

Here's an article on the topic of the SAT vs. ACT...

By Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Should your teenager take the SAT or ACT test?

…

Teenagers who earn high ACT scores are more likely to:

• Possess a strong memory.
• Be fast readers.
• Process information swiftly.

Teenagers who earn high SAT scores are more likely to:

• Possess a strong vocabulary.
• Be a strong reader.
• Enjoy test-taking strategies.

Teenagers who ace the ACT are able to speed through the test. The ACT, for instance, requires a student to answer 40 questions in the reading section in 35 minutes. In comparison, the SAT reading section seems downright leisurely. Students receive 70 minutes to answer 54 SAT reading questions.

…

Some students like the ACT because it’s more straight forward. The ACT, for instance, doesn’t contain obscure vocabulary and the reading passages aren’t tough. In comparison, the SAT reading section is loaded with tricky questions. Even though the SAT typically directs students to the very line in a reading passage where the answer can be found, pinpointing the correct answer can still be tortuous.

Read the full article…

Police arrest four, probe brokers in SAT leak scandal

January 27, 2010

 

Police said yesterday they are investigating reports of brokers who habitually leak test sheets from the United States-based Scholastic Aptitude Test, trading questions for big sums of money - and they’re looking into whether major private institutes and parents are involved in the get-ahead-by-cheating scheme.

Police are also investigating the sale of another U.S.-based exam, the Secondary School Admission Test, which is aimed at students looking to enter private high schools in the United States.

Since the cash-for-questions scandal broke, it has been growing legs. Two security staff members from the office of testing integrity of the Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT, were dispatched to Korea ahead of last Saturday’s exam to head off the illegal practices.

Despite their presence, on Sunday police arrested four suspects on charges of stealing mathematics and physics questions from Saturday’s test. The suspects allegedly either cut out the questions or input them into scientific calculators students are allowed to carry into test centers.

On Monday, an official with ETS said that SAT centers in Korea would remain open despite the investigation.

A police official who asked not to be named said, “We must closely examine the scandals that are circling the private academy circle in Gangnam, southern Seoul.”

A head of private language institute in southern Seoul said Monday that a broker was behind the recent alleged leak of the SAT and SSAT tests.

The head, who asked not to be named, said while he was a lecturer at a different private academy in 2005, he witnessed someone ask a head of that academy to buy stolen SSAT test sheets for 50 million won ($43,500).

He said he talked with the head about how to deal with the proposal.

“As far as I know, the head at the time did not buy the test papers, but said that the person who was trying to sell the sheets was definitely a broker,” said the head.

“After I established my own institute later, alleged leakages of SSAT test sheets continued. Even students and parents kept asking me how to get the questions in advance.”

In addition, police are probing whether some SAT lecturers tried to raise their competitiveness, and their wages, by telling people instructors can release test sheets in advance.

“They allegedly praised themselves when they leaked test papers,” said a police official who asked not to be identified. “Some lecturers acted like brokers in order to make a deal with many private academies and parents.”

Meanwhile, in Thailand, a probe is being conducted over whether a lecturer surnamed Kim obtained the SAT test and answer sheets from a test-taker in Bangkok, then passed them on to two students in the United States.

From: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2915835

 

Police broaden probe into alleged SAT test leak

Police said Monday they are widening probe into leakage of the U.S. college entrance exam following a series of scams involving private prep centers in Seoul that receive high tuitions from students in return for guaranteeing high scores, according to Yonhap News.

Police have questioned four people, including an instructor at a private institute, over allegations of stealing a copy of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at a high school in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul on Saturday.

The 36-year-old lecturer, who taught a test preparation class at a private institute in Seoul, told police that he took the test papers outside the test room to use them as instruction material for his students.

The investigation comes on the heels of a similar case last week, when another lecturer at a private institute was arrested after allegedly obtaining copies of the SAT test from a Thai student who took the SAT in Bangkok last January and sent questions to students who were about to take the same test.

The lecturer confessed that he helped two Korean students in the United States cheat on the SAT exam by sending the materials via email, taking advantage of time zone difference.

The U.S.-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organizer of SAT tests, strictly bans the disclosure of all SAT test

 

FW: Korean Police Asked to Probe SAT Leaks

Educational Testing Service, the U.S. company that administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test and various other English proficiency tests, has dispatched staff to conduct an independent probe into the leak of SAT test papers following the arrest of two Korean lecturers who allegedly helped students cheat. The staffers handed over their findings and filed a complaint with Korean authorities.

The two ETS staffers arrived in Korea last Thursday on a fact-finding mission and handed over to police data they had compiled since 2007 about such incidents. ETS promised to investigate all incidents thoroughly and inform universities where students found to have cheated on the test are studying. ETS said it may beef up security measures for all SAT tests taken in Korea depending on the results of the investigation.

Korean police on Sunday said the ETS data included a blacklist of suspected cheaters on the SAT.

Just when the ETS staffers were visiting, another test leak was reported on Saturday, prompting police to widen the investigation. The incident follows less than a week after the first one, where an SAT lecturer at a private crammer in the affluent Gangnam District obtained a copy of the SAT from a Thai student who took the exam in Bangkok in January and, taking advantage of the time difference, allegedly emailed the test paper and answer sheets to two Korean students who took the same test twelve hours later in Connecticut.

Private crammers in Gangnam blame the back-to-back instances of cheating on the highly competitive atmosphere in the industry. "SAT crammers charge high fees because they teach only during vacation when students abroad return to Korea," said one owner of a crammer in Gangnam. "Students and parents expect to see scores improve significantly given the money they spend, and I am aware of frequent instances of leaked tests."   

Gangnam crammers offer special vacation crash courses and charge millions of won. One crammer in Apgujeong-dong charges W5 million a month (US$1=W1,146) for five hours of lectures a day. Successful tutors can make nine-figure salaries. Another owner of a crammer said since there are more than 100 SAT crammers in Seoul alone, getting hold of leaked copies of the SAT is a sort of "survival tactic."

 

SAT Question of the Day

From SAT Question of the Day...

Read the following SAT test question, then select your answer.

If a, b, and c are numbers such that a/b=3 and b/c=7 , then (a+b)/(b+c) is equal to which of the following?

A. 7/2
B. 7/8
C. 3/7
D. 1/7
E. 21

College Board solution:

From is implied that (1)

And from is implied that (2)

If we multiply (1) and (2) together, we have that ( b is canceled out).

There's an easier way. Just get a fraction that has just b and c.

a=3b
b=7c

so (a+b)/(b+c) = ...

3b+b
----- =
7c+c

4b
--- = 1/2 (b/c)
8c

b/c=7, so the answer is 1/2(7) = 7/2


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Is the international SAT the same as the U.S. version?

The test is overseen by the same organization worldwide.

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What is the range of scores for the SAT?

You can score below 200, but College Board won't report it; the organization will assume you meant to cancel your scores if you submitted your name and other information but left the answer sheet blank.

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