Want to help your teen ace the SAT? The key is to establish a schedule for studying and then stick to it. Sure, spending an hour or more studying may sound like a drag. But by the time the big day rolls around, your teen will be the most relaxed student in town while his classmates are wishing they’d trained to get into SAT shape. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting underway.

I. Time frame:

The best study schedule will encompass a period of 1 to 2 months. Your schedule should be for five days a week over the entire period.

II. Finding Time:

Decide how much time can be devoted to studying each night, while making allowances for homework and extracurricular commitments. It should be at least one hour, and preferably 2 – 3 hours, per night.

III. Making a Plan:

Write out a schedule for studying. Each night focus on one area of the SAT. If your study time extends past an hour, be sure to schedule a break every hour. Each week re-make the schedule to fit what needs to be studied the most.

IV. Studying:

When it comes time to study, ensure your child has a place that is quiet and free of distractions (no computers, phones, television, video games, etc). If needed have them go to a library to study.

V. Practice Tests:

Finish each week’s schedule with a timed practice exam. This allows you to refocus next week’s schedule, and also to gauge your son or daughter’s progress.

VI. Sticking to the Plan:

It isn’t enough to just make a plan. Obviously you have to ensure that your teen sticks to the plan. A gentle reminder each night will probably be enough to keep them from procrastinating.

A Sample Schedule (for one week):

Monday: Study vocabulary for 1 hour. Take a break. Further improve reading comprehension by going over the answers to a practice test for 1 hour. Focus on the wrong answers and learning why they are wrong.

Tuesday: Study Geometry rules for 1 hour. Take a break. Practice by doing 30 practice questions in two different sections of previously released SATs.

Wednesday: Work on reading comprehension. Do three long passages from a practice SAT and then answer the questions accordingly. Take a break. Work on English grammar (writing) skills by studying questions from a practice exam.

Thursday: Do four sections of the math test on a practice SAT. Take a break. Study the areas where you got the most answers wrong.

Friday: Take a timed practice test. Use the exact breaks allotted on the Reat SAT .

When the week is finished, hone your schedule for the next week (based on the practice test results). For example: If your teen needs to focus on one area more than another – rearrange next week to compensate. Working this way over the course of a month will ensure they’re ready when the test comes.

Articled appeared in Education.com magazine, April 2008.
Ross Blankenship has been an instructor and tutor, and worked in college admissions at Cornell University. He is the founder of Top Test Prep, a test prep and admissions company, offering test prep, college admissions counseling and advice for students and parents

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There are several college admissions myths which should be exposed before you apply. These myths often scare certain students from applying to the best schools. Never limit yourself from applying to top colleges because you believe these things:

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Applicants are pre-screened.

Whether using the common application or a school-specific application, college admission offices have enough staff members to read your entire application. After all, you pay an application fee for a reason and colleges want to make sure you get your fair chance. However, if your application is incomplete or missing crucial components (essays, transcripts, or supplements) this might explain why it is rejected, or pre-screened out, before it reaches the full committee.

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You must choose your major and stick to it.

When you apply to college, admissions officers know your major is bound to change. In fact, many admissions offices have reported that the majority of their students change their major by the end of their freshman year. Don’t worry about choosing your major. Pick a department or major where you have a genuine interest, and be open-minded to changing it once you’re enrolled.

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You must apply early decision or early action.

Yes, applying early decision or early action shows a student is committed to a particular college. But you do not have to apply early to be accepted, even to top colleges. In fact, if you’re deferred in the early decision or early application round, your application goes right back into the regular pool and will be re-evaluated again.

(7)

Colleges have a certain profile of the “perfect” student.

While colleges strive to admit students who will fit into their college, there’s simply no way for a college to predict whether a student will be happy or whether they will actually succeed at their college. This is why colleges don’t set a particular admissions profile for the “perfect” student.

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Ivy League schools don’t give scholarships.

Although Ivy League schools say they only allocate “need-based” scholarships, there’s no doubt that certain schools issue other grants and fellowships based on other criteria. If you’re a top athlete, recruit or a national merit scholar, an Ivy League school will go out of its way to make sure you can afford their school.

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International students don’t receive scholarships or loans.

More colleges are looking to diversify their student body with international students; major banks and financial institutions offer the same financial opportunities for international students as they do American applicants. Scholarships and fellowships are available for international students.

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You should pad your resume with extracurricular activities.

Every admissions officer is a human being. Imagine that. Applications aren’t accepted or rejected by a computer. So when filling out this section of the common app, know that admissions offices can (and do) spot superfluous extracurricular activities. Further, they can certainly tell whether you added an extracurricular because you have a genuine interest or because it “looks good” on your resume.

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Recommendations don’t matter.

Great recommendations are vital. You cannot expect to be admitted simply with high scores and great grades. If an admissions officer sees a perfunctory or suspicious recommendation, it will set off a red flag. Bottom line: choose the recommender who knows you best and make sure they know where you’re applying and what your qualifications are.

(2)

There’s a GPA Cut-Off.

Colleges generally don’t have a GPA cut-off. The reason admissions offices don’t have a GPA “cut-off” is because students come from all sorts of different high schools with varying curriculums and grade structures. Some students attend public schools, others private schools where the GPA ranges could be wider or narrower. Further, there has been much discussion about grade inflation, and colleges do know what particular high schools tend to have higher GPAs than others. Whether this is so-called grade inflation or not, the schools have an idea of what schools have a more competitive curriculum, including more AP, IB and honors courses. Be aware of your GPA and explain discrepancies in your transcript.

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There’s always an SAT/ACT Cut-Off.

Some state colleges do have a cut-off for SAT/ACT scores. But the majority of American Universities do not. So keep working on your test scores but don’t fear the mythical cut-off.

If your SAT or ACT Prep isn’t as strong as you’d like it to be, Top Test Prep.com will help you improve your score.

Hope these admissions myths were answered. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Top Test Prep team.

-Ross Blankenship, Admissions Expert and Founder, Top Test Prep

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We have had a lot of questions about the new college rankings, particularly what sort of methodology was used to assess hundreds of schools throughout the country. Although there’s an entire school of thought on the efficacy of the rankings themselves, what we believe is that the criteria should at the very least be modified. One of the key criteria we believe should be factored into these rankings is post-graduation statistics, namely what students are doing from these prestigious colleges after they graduate.

We believe that much information could be gleaned by adding an additional category on post-graduation employment and/or statistics on graduate school entry. Adding an additional category would reflect a college’s ultimate purpose, i.e. providing employment opportunities and/or graduate program opportunities.

There are two reasons why adding this criteria into the rankings would be helpful: (1) this information would show the public exactly what the graduates do after college, and (2) it would create an incentive for colleges to improve their career services and graduate program counseling. If a parent were comparing two top schools, let’s say Cornell University and Washington University in St. Louis (both ranked 12th respectively), would it not serve the public well to know which school provides its graduates better career opportunities and/or graduate program opportunities? Further, colleges have for generations been adjusting their core curriculum and admissions based on the U.S. News rankings. Whether this is a good or bad thing could be debated for just as long. However, if parents are going to spend 40 to 50 thousand dollars per year on their son or daughter’s education, it would be helpful to know what exactly their son or daughter will do after graduation.

The U.S. News Rankings do provide valuable information on colleges, both public, private, as well as liberal arts and graduate schools. But the methodology could be improved with additional criteria like graduation statistics specific to employment and further education pursued by students. This addition would create major incentives to improve student resources, would give valuable information to parents and students and lastly, would provide a greater ability for parents to differentiate these schools.

-Ross Blankenship, Co-Founder, Top Test Prep

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You can use those big SAT words on your college essay, but do so gingerly (“cautiously”). Well placed “big words” are effective and they can really make your essay stand out. Over-use of those words will make your essay seem “disingenuous” – another SAT word. Here are some tips to keep you sounding smart and genuine.

• If you are going to use a word that you do not normally use, be sure you know the all of the meanings of the word and know how to correctly use it in a sentence. You want the admissions committee to see that you have a great command of Standard English. If you use your word processor’s thesaurus, make sure that the word you choose is in the correct form and tense for your sentence and paragraph.

• Practice writing fresh sentences for newly acquired SAT words. For example, if you’re studying new words, write original sentences next to the words in the SAT prep book, as well as in a new vocabulary journal. Mastery of vocabulary takes months. Thus, you should practice writing these sentences months before the application is due and keep sentences with fresh content inside a special journal or notebook.

• Here is an example of what not to do, we will use the following sentence as an example. “Most varanid lizards are large, conspicuous carnivores, making them important elements in terrestrial vertebrate fauna…” This is fine for an essay talking about monitor lizards at a college level. Nothing needs to change in that sentence. If we want to try to make that sentence sound smarter using a “big” word and we substitute the word meretricious for conspicuous; the sentence now reads: “Most varanid lizards are large, meretricious, carnivores, making them important elements in terrestrial vertebrate fauna…” We have changed the meaning of that sentence considerably. Our monitor lizard, instead of being a noticeable or important carnivore as the original text implies, is now a tawdry or flashy carnivore perhaps even behaving in a manner consistent with a prostitute. You see how substituting “big words” can get you into trouble.

• On the other hand, if we use the same original sentence as above but in a watered down version, our essay sounds like a 9th grade science project. “…most monitor lizards are large meat eaters, making them an important part of the land based vertebrate group…” This is where knowing when to use “big” words and when not to can make a difference.

• Remember keep it reasonable. Your essay should reflect your intelligence level. Your choice of words should not make it difficult to read and it should not change your intended meaning.

• Get a good dictionary, do not use the one that comes with MS Word, and get a good thesaurus. This way you will have the proper tools to create your essay using a sprinkling of big SAT words instead of a paper consisting of 500 words you can use to study for the SAT’s.

• Practice writing fresh sentences for newly acquired SAT words. For example, if you’re studying new words, write original sentences next to the words in the SAT prep book, as well as in a vocabulary journal. Mastery of vocabulary takes months, thus you should practice writing these sentences months before the application is due.

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The ACT, a test administered to high school students, is designed to assess a potential college student’s academic progress and to determine their ability to perform college level work. The ACT is a multiple choice test. There are 4 required parts to the ACT Test.

• Math: There are 60 multiple choice questions to this section. You have 60 minutes to complete this part of the exam.

• English: There are 75 multiple choice questions. You have 45 minutes to complete this section.

• Reading: There are 40 multiple choice questions on this section. You must complete this section in 35 minutes.

• Science: There are 40 multiple choice questions. The time allotted for this part of the test is 35 minutes.

• Writing – OPTIONAL: The ACT Plus is the test that contains the writing exam. This test consists of writing a short essay. You have 30 minutes to complete this test. You should check with your college advisor, like those at Top Test Prep, to see if this is required for your situation.

Here are some ACT facts. All of this information is based on 2007 school year data, as this year’s data has not yet been compiled.

A perfect score on the ACT is 36. This score does not include the writing test. For the 2007 school year 1 in every 4,000 students achieved a perfect score. It is not an easy task to accomplish.

There are 5 test dates every year. They are October, December, February, April and June.

Most students take the ACT twice. Once in their junior year and once as a senior.

Of those who took the test more than once in 2007; 55% of increased their test scores, 22% saw no change, and 23% had a lower score.

The ACT is the most widely taken exam particularly in the Midwest and South. Its popularity is due to the fact that the test is based on the standard high school curriculum. All of the Ivy League Schools accept the ACT. In addition, if price is a factor, it is the least expensive of the college admission exams. This test is a good choice for college admissions. Be sure to check with the admissions office or with your admissions counseling (or you can call Top Test Prep for a free consultation) to confirm your particular requirements for this test. Call Top Test Prep at (800) 501-7737.

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Interviews are nerve racking to say the least. This is it: just you and the admissions committee. You need to convince this committee why they should let you attend their school. Talk about pressure! There are plenty of ways not to have a total nervous breakdown at the interview; all it takes is time and a little practice.

• Prior to the interview, start thinking about what you are going to say. You should consider what makes you a unique and vital addition to the school. Think about your interests, your strengths, all of your activities. For example, there are plenty of applicants with a 4.0 GPA and awesome test scores. The usual sports, cheerleading, school clubs and band are all the same. What makes you different? Are you a leader at your school? Do you write – have you been published? Have you started a non-profit or been a head volunteer for a major organization? These are the things that set you apart from the crowd.

• Take a good look at yourself and know your strengths and weaknesses. The admissions committee may ask you what your weaknesses are. Even Superman had kryptonite. Be prepared to answer this question. If you are expecting this question it will not catch you off guard and you will already know what you are going to say.

• Now that you have some idea of what to say, let’s work on the sweaty palms, the stuttering, the nausea…. The best way to do this is to learn how to speak in front of people and this is really difficult for many of us. Practice talking to people in a confident way. Never look down; it is a sign of weakness. Look the admissions committee straight in the eye when you address a single person. When speaking to a group, find a focal point on the area in back of them that is at eye level with the majority of the group. Talk to that spot. Confidence is very effective, having an over inflated ego is not. Be sure you know the difference.

• Think of the interview from a different perspective. It is not a final judgment of you. It is an exchange of ideas to see if this situation is a good fit between you and the school. Come armed with a few questions for the admissions committee. It will show that you are as interested in them as they are in you and that you put some thought into the interview.

• Being well prepared is the best defense against nervousness. Most likely you will feel butterflies in your stomach. A little nervousness is expected and it is a good thing. However, don’t let fear paralyze you.

A final recommendation is to consider turning the interview theme into how you will help contribute to their particular institution. The interview on the surface is about you, but beneath it all, it’s about how you can represent, enhance and contribute to the academic milieu of that particular school.

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In a school system that prizes grades more than anything else, ability rather than hard work, and conformity over individuality, it is no surprise that many high school students lose their motivation. When your child was a toddler they were full of curiosity, and had a real motivation to learn about their environment. As they started school they immediately began to form opinions about their own abilities and self worth. Many times these initial opinions carry with them through school. It is reflected in their grades, and in their drive to succeed.

Today, they are facing high school, SAT tests, and college preparation. They need to find that drive to learn.

For many parents this is a huge concern, but, it doesn’t have to be. Here are five things you can do to help motivate your child:
1. Show them the value of hard work at this stage: Instead of yelling at your son or daughter for their poor grades (and effort), teach them. Show them what an education, from a good college, can do for them. Sit down together and research the starting wages for a few different jobs. Further look at the difference between an education in a good school, and that of a community college. A simple “Google” search is all that is required to find this information (if you don’t know how, they do).

2. Get involved and stay involved: Use a positive, interested attitude towards their school work. Know where your child’s grades are and monitor their progress. Help with school work that they are struggling with. The key is to show interest in them, and not make it seem like another chore.

3. Acknowledge hard work: Instead of making the focus all about grades, reward them for hard work. If they have made an improvement, show them that you noticed. This can further motivate them to make more improvements. Of course you want them to ace everything! But, if they are working to improve, they are taking the first important steps.

4. Support them in their individuality: Another important part of college planning is extracurricular activities. Help your teen to develop their own interests, by supporting them in their activities outside of school work.

5. Develop a plan together for the SAT(s): Instead of leaving this important test in their hands, get involved. Sit down together and make a plan to study for the SAT. Their marks on these tests can determine their eligibility to many good schools.

Help them by showing them how important they are, and getting involved with planning (and even studying). Motivation in this stage of your child’s life is important. By getting involved in all aspects of their high school year, not only will you develop a better relationship with them, you will also help to rekindle that sense of curiosity that they had when they were younger.

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Choosing your college essay topic is a very important decision. Whether the essay is from a select prompt or one of your choosing, what you write about and how you write it speaks volumes about who you are, your values, your intelligence, and your organizational skills. Even a seemingly easy prompt such as what recent world event has affected you most, will reveal a great deal about the type of person you are. Here are some tips on choosing your topic.

Keep your topic very specific even if you are given a general topic to write about. Keeping it to a very narrow subject will keep your writing focused. In addition, a narrow topic will require more thought than a general topic.

In the above example, writing about the War in Iraq may be too general. However, focusing your essay as to your perspective on the situation that occurred when the dictator of Iraq was suddenly removed from power will be a far better choice and it will tell the admissions committee all about you.

Pick a topic that you can write about passionately. If you are able to convey your passion through your written words you will make a good impression. For example, if you feel strongly about how high gas prices are shaping the economy, write about it. However, write about how it has changed your life and those around you. It is ok to write about “hot” topics or ones that can be controversial. Just keep it in good taste and never write from a perspective that shows a narrow, parochial point of view. You should probably skip the essay on your favorite drinking games.

General topics, sloppy essays, choices that seem insincere or ones in bad taste will only hurt your chances for admissions.

Your college essay exhibits your command of standard written English. In addition, your reasoning skills, your ability to put forth a persuasive argument, and your organizational skills are all reflected in this essay.

The college essay should exhibit your ability to speak cogently about a topic, matter or subject that is important to you.

Think before you write. Get your thoughts organized and be prepared to spend some time on this. A “killer” essay will be on a very specific topic, it will be well written and well organized. Proof read it, spell check it, and check for grammar prior to submitting it.

Top Test Prep can help you construct the best college application and personal statement.

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Part of applying to colleges is knowing how colleges value early decision or early action applications. Here’s some more data on other top schools. Note the most selective colleges have a goal or “quota” for the number of students taken from each in coming class vis-a-vis early decision pools. Top Test Prep can help you figure out exactly how to get into top schools whether you apply early or regular decision.

This article on top college admissions tips was written by admissions expert, Ross Blankenship.

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