Throughout 2018, the College Board came under fire from test-takers across the country for, among other things, applying wildly varying score curves to different test dates.
To find out why, we need to take a trip back in time.
Once upon a time, the College Board partnered with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administered the SAT. ETS included experimental sections in the old SAT in order to gauge difficulty levels and adjust score curves so that each iteration of the SAT was of roughly the same difficulty as other iterations of the test.
Around the time the SAT was redesigned, the College Board and ETS parted ways. The College Board started only offering experimental items to students who weren’t taking the SAT essay section. Back then, most top schools recommended the essay section, which meant that most top students weren’t in the pool of experimental test takers.
The result: The College Board’s data suggested that test items were harder than they really were, so too many students were getting supposedly hard questions right.
And that’s why curves got wonky.
The College Board is trying to recalibrate test difficulty by changing the way they pretest questions. The 2016 Advising and Admission Handbook for the Redesigned SAT included this tidbit:
To allow for pretesting, some students taking the SAT with no Essay will take a fifth, 20-minute section. Any section of the SAT may contain both operational and pretest items.
As more and more students have opted out of taking the SAT Essay, this experimental section has become more common. This is from the Spring and Summer 2019 The SAT and SAT Subject Tests Supervisor Manual:
At some centers, certain administrations will include an additional 20-minute section to be completed by all SAT test takers, including students taking the SAT with Essay.
In other words, students can expect to see this fifth section more often.
Does the fifth section count?
The College Board has been fairly mysterious about this fifth section, so no one knows for sure.
It’s certainly likely that at least some of the items in this extra section count. In order to get the most accurate data possible, it makes sense for the College Board to scatter experimental questions throughout all five sections of the test, making them virtually undetectable to test-takers, than to lump them all in one section that students know is experimental and thus doesn’t count.
Rumors have also indicated that this section might be used to identify possible cheating. If a student scores perfectly on all the other sections and bombs the fifth surprise section, that might be a red flag.
In either case, here’s our best advice: Try your best on every single question.
It’s not worth gambling your score on the possibility that the fifth section won’t hurt you.
SAT Math Strategies to Reach Your Score Goal
SAT, TEST PREPThe math section makes up half of your total SAT score, so success is vital for those hoping to get into a top college. Bad news: we can’t wave a magic wand and improve your math score. Good news: we’ve got SAT math strategies tailored to help you hit your goal scores.
What is your math score goal?
How you’ll approach SAT math prep will differ based on your goal score. After all, someone hoping to hit 800 (or get really close) will need to strive for perfection; someone hoping for a 600 can afford to miss quite a few questions and still hit that goal.
We’ve divided our strategies into two groups: strategies for good scores and strategies for really good scores.
SAT Math Strategies for Good Scores
If your goal is in the 600-650 range, you can afford to miss around one-fourth to one-third of the questions on the math sections—you don’t have to try to get every question right. In fact, if this is your goal, you probably shouldn’t try to get every question right.
For REALLY Good Scores on the SAT Math Section
If your goal is in the 750-800 range, you can’t afford to miss much—if anything. Depending on the test form, you can sometimes get an 800 even if you miss one or two questions, but there’s no guarantee. On other test forms, missing just one question can drop your score by 20 points. So when you’re striving for a top SAT math score, you have to try for perfection.
Focus on timing.
Since you can’t afford to miss a question, you also can’t afford to waste a single second on the SAT. Try out different SAT math strategies that focus on pacing to perfect your math performance so that you have enough time to tackle every question on the test.
Getting SAT Math Help
Following these strategies is a great start to achieve a good SAT math score. It can also be beneficial to get some additional help to make sure you maximize your test prep efforts. If you’d like to get a free consultation for personalized SAT prep, reach out to your local 宝博体育 Education center today.
Are You Getting the Best College Counseling?
COLLEGE ADMISSIONSMost students think they’ll get plenty of help from their school guidance counselors when it’s time to apply to college. Unfortunately, although guidance counselors are dedicated to helping their students succeed, they are too often overworked, under-resourced, and unable to provide the best college counseling. Here’s why you need a good college counselor.
On average, there are 482 students for every one school counselor nationwide. This ratio is nearly double the 250-to-1 ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association. With a single person supporting hundreds of students, the quality of college counseling that students receive in school is often lacking, which is why so many students turn to outside sources to receive the best college counseling available for help with the process.
What will a great college counselor help you with?
Getting into your dream college is a big undertaking, so getting the right support can make all the difference. Your college counselor will help with:
Here are some things to look for in a college counselor:
Contact your local 宝博体育 Education center to find out how 宝博体育 can help you get into your dream school!
5 SAT Prep Mistakes to Avoid for Maximum Results
TEST PREPYou’ve got your SAT prep book. You’ve sharpened your #2 pencils. You’ve got your favorite coffee mug/energy drink/IV of caffeine ready and waiting. It’s time for SAT prep. But before you leap head-first into your test prep, make sure to avoid these common SAT prep mistakes.
#1: Waiting until the last minute.
There aren’t many areas of life in which procrastination is helpful—and SAT prep definitely is not one of them. Thorough SAT prep requires that you master key foundational knowledge and skills: reading comprehension, speed, and analysis; mathematical reasoning and numeracy; and an understanding of the nuances of language. None of these skills can be learned in a week or two—good SAT prep requires months, not days.
#2: Drill and kill test prep.
The phrase “drill and kill” might sound like something out of a first-person shooter game. It’s so much less cool than that. “Drill and kill” test prep is when you just do practice set after practice set, drilling each type of question until your trusty pencil is worn down to a nub.
In a way, this test prep approach makes sense. After all, if you want to be really good at free-throws, you go to the basketball court and practice free-throws over and over again, right? You’d think the same would apply to acing the SAT—just do a lot of SAT practice.
There are two problems with this approach to SAT prep: first, it’s not really that effective at maximizing scores, and second, it doesn’t help you beyond your test date.
There are a lot of variables at play on the SAT—too many to account for through drill and kill. To be able to roll with the punches, you need to truly master the underlying skills needed for the test, and drill and kill doesn’t help you master anything other than how to answer a multiple choice question that’s presented exactly the same way as the multiple choice questions you practiced on.
Since drill and kill doesn’t actually lead to mastery of key skills, it won’t help you beyond test day. Sure, SAT practice is intended to increase your SAT scores—but wouldn’t it be nice if all that time and effort you put in also helped you excel in college classes later on? Mastering reading analysis strategies and mathematical reasoning skills will help you succeed in a lot of different classes later on.
#3: Skipping strengths.
A lot of students focus their SAT prep on their weaknesses—makes sense, right?
Wrong.
If you only practice areas where your performance is weak, you risk losing ground in areas where you were already doing well. Boosting your score in one area won’t help if your score drops in another area, so it’s important to incorporate practice on areas where you’re already strong as well as areas where you have the greatest room for improvement.
#4: Cramming in the days leading up to the test.
Cramming is bad. There’s virtually no situation in which cramming for a test is going to be helpful.
Don’t cram. The sleep you gain will help your scores much more than those last-minute cram sessions.
#5: Refusing help.
Did you ignore the notices for free after-school SAT prep in your halls? Did you decide not to check out online offerings? Did you turn your nose up at the idea of a test prep tutor?
SAT prep help isn’t for the weak. The students who score the highest are those who take advantage of every available resource, from free online resources to school programs to private test prep. Find people who know the test inside and out and soak up everything they know.
Keep these SAT prep mistakes in mind in your efforts, and you’ll be on your way to maximizing the results you need to score big on test day. If you’d like some personalized SAT prep, be sure to contact your local 宝博体育 center for a free consultation.
What’s on the ACT Science Section?
TEST PREPA lot of students shy away from the ACT because of the science section, but don’t be scared off by it. The ACT Science section isn’t particularly science-y.
The bulk of the 40-question, 35-minute science section focuses on reading comprehension and data analysis.
Breakdown of the ACT Science section
To succeed on the ACT Science section, you need to be comfortable with visual data and have a firm grasp of the scientific method and experimental design. You do not need a deep and meaningful understanding of advanced scientific concepts.
Passages on the ACT Science section
When you first look at an ACT Science section, you might be surprised to find that it resembles a reading section more than it does a math section. You’ll see a series of six passages, each accompanied by six or seven questions. Each passage might contain graphs, charts, tables, experiment summaries, or conflicting scientific viewpoints.
ACT Science success definitely requires a working knowledge of the scientific process and experimental design. You’ll need to be able to identify controls, independent variables (the ones scientists manipulate), and dependent variables (the ones scientists observe). You should feel confident identifying why an experiment was designed the way it was or how it could have been better designed.
Recalling your basic science knowledge
You certainly don’t need to be an expert in any area of science to get a top ACT Science score. On average, there are about four to six questions on the entire science section that might require background science knowledge. These questions assume that you know certain information from your previous science classes. Here are some examples of the outside knowledge you might be expected to recall on the ACT Science section:
How much time to prep for these science-based questions?
That depends on your current score and your score goals.
If you’re not scoring particularly well currently, you’re going to see a more significant boost to your ACT Science score by focusing your prep efforts on the data interpretation and reading aspects of the test. Get comfortable with intimidating-sounding science terms so that you’re better able to tackle dense passages. After all, the questions that focus on data interpretation and reading analysis make up a much bigger portion of the test.
If you’re striving for a perfect or near-perfect ACT score and you’re already scoring fairly well (upper-twenties to thirties), you should probably brush up on your basic science knowledge. The 10-15% of questions that involve prior science knowledge can easily be the difference between a 31 and a 36 on the ACT Science section, so getting your score into the upper range will require the knowledge needed to get those questions right.
If you want some personalized ACT prep help, 宝博体育 can help maximize your score for test day!
Get A Head Start on College Admissions During Summer Break
COLLEGE ADMISSIONSHigh school can be tough—especially when you combine extracurricular activities, tough classes, SAT or ACT prep, and something resembling a social life. So it’s no surprise that most high school students anticipate the unstructured days of summer break with a thirst equal to that of a man crossing a desert. While every student deserves a break now and then, high school students have at least one concern that should motivate them to keep busy during summer break: college admissions. Summer is the best time to get a head start on college admissions. It’s the one time of year when you have the freedom to dictate how you spend your days. What you choose to do when you have this freedom says a lot about who you are as a student and as a person, so college admissions officers pay attention to what you do during summer break.
When it comes to summer vacation, it’s not what you do that really matters—it’s that you do something. Colleges want to see that you like to put your free time to good use. That doesn’t mean that you can’t while away a few afternoons by the pool, as long as you use the rest of your afternoons to accomplish something. Here are some ideas for how to use your summer break to boost your chances of college admission.
College Visits
Since you’re out of school, you have a bit more freedom to travel, so you may be able to visit the campuses of some of the colleges you’re interested in applying to. If the colleges you really want to attend are just too far away for a visit, consider visiting some local colleges that you’re not particularly interested in. Such visits can give you a better feel for the difference between, say, an urban and a suburban campus or a public and a private college. And you never know: You just might find that a local school that you’ve overlooked has everything you want in a college.
Some related posts on college visits
5 Things You Should Do On Every College Visit
How to Have a Successful College Visit
Test Prep
Admittedly, test prep is not the most fun way to spend your summer days—but summer test prep is hugely advantageous. It’s tough to balance SAT or ACT prep with the demands of the school year; summer break lets you focus on test prep without worrying about that upcoming physics project or the lit paper you haven’t yet started.
With summer test dates, you might be able to get your college admissions testing out of the way entirely—prep and test all in one break. Check out Four Reasons to Take the Summer SAT or ACT to see if the July or August test dates might work for you.
Contact your local 宝博体育 Education center to find out how 宝博体育 can help you maximize your SAT or ACT scores this summer, or check out our Top 10 SAT and ACT Prep Tips for tricks to prep on your own.
Passion Project
Throw yourself into your interests. Don’t worry so much about “what colleges look for” because what they look for is people who have genuine passions and who take the time to pursue those passions. Love baseball? Go to a baseball camp, start a baseball blog, or join a community baseball team. Love knitting? Take a class, teach a class, knit blankets/scarves/hats and donate them to a worthy cause, or start your own knitting business. Love animals? Volunteer at the shelter, see if you can shadow a vet, take a dog training class, or start an animal charity.
Whatever your interest might be, use your free time in the summer to explore them more fully. Show colleges that you’re a three-dimensional person, not just a GPA and some test scores (and, incidentally, get some great stories to share in your college application essays).
Volunteering
Among the thousands of reasons to volunteer your time in the service of others, gaining an edge in the college admissions race is pretty minor. That said, many high schools set community service requirements that can be met during the summer, and most colleges seek students who are engaged within their communities, so volunteering during the summer offers both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits.
Many students worry that their volunteer efforts might be somehow subpar – that mucking out kennels at the local shelter simply can’t compare to building wells in Sub-Saharan Africa. In truth, what matters most is that you actually care about what you’re doing. If you care about animals, volunteer at the local shelter. If you care about quality healthcare, volunteer at the local hospital. No college admission officer is going to deem your volunteer work unworthy just because it doesn’t seem profound enough.
Brainstorming College Essay Ideas
COLLEGE ADMISSIONSA lot of students struggle to come up with great college essay ideas. After all, most college essay prompts seem to ask for a pretty big accomplishment or a transformative experience. What if you haven’t helped dig a well for an impoverished South American village, or heroically ran into a burning building to save a litter of puppies (don’t do that), or invented a computer program that does your homework for you?
If you worry that your everyday life is just too boring for good college essay ideas, we have good news!
You don’t have to have had some sort of unique, tragic, or spiritual experience in order to write an absolutely amazing college application essay. You don’t need to have stared death in the face or climbed El Capitan or made the Olympic Tug of War team as long as you write about whatever topic you choose really well.
In other words, the secret to a great college essay has very little to do with your topic and everything to do with how well you write about your topic.
So to start: Set aside the idea that your essay topic needs to have some monumental importance. Next, start brainstorming some non-monumentally important ideas. Here are some brainstorming activities to get the creative juices flowing.
Think of Your Stories
When our tutors help students brainstorm college essay ideas, we like to call it “digging for essay gold.” This usually takes the form of an impromptu conversation in which the tutor tries to get the students to share stories about themselves.
Think about the little anecdotes you might share in a conversation with someone who’s getting to know you. After all, the purpose of your college essay is to help the essay reader get to know you, and such stories or memories perfectly suit this purpose.
Maybe some of your stories are funny. Maybe some are sad. Maybe some are neither. Don’t worry about that for now—you’re just brainstorming.
Interview Yourself
Answer some interview questions to gather ideas. Consider questions like these:
Example: I strongly believe that people should use the Oxford comma.
Example: I procrastinate, and unfortunately, I’ve procrastinated solving my procrastination problem.
Example: I got my Driver’s License, which was a big deal because ever since I was in a car accident a few years ago, I’ve been really scared of riding in cars, never mind driving one.
Example: I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about Australian history. Spoiler alert: It’s weird but also fascinating.
Example: The town motto is “Everybody’s Somebody Here,” which is super cheesy but also really reassuring—and true. It’s a small town, so you’re sure to meet someone you know pretty much anywhere you go.
Example: I gave up on learning to play the piano.
Rule Out Things That Don’t Work
In some ways, it’s easier to tell you what topics you shouldn’t write about:
There are also some topics that are just overdone. Avoid these college essay clichés.
Look At What’s Left
Look at the rest of your ideas. From which of these nuggets of a college essay idea can you weave a story that helps reveal something meaningful about you as a person? Let’s take a look at some of the examples above.
Write!
Pick an idea and run with it. Maybe it’ll work, or maybe you’ll run right into a wall of writer’s block. This is just a rough draft—if your first topic idea doesn’t work, go back to the drawing board. No one is grading your first effort.
Still need college essay help? Contact your local 宝博体育 Education center to find out how our expert tutors can help you craft the perfect college essay!
8 Test Day Tips for Success
STUDY SKILLSIf you’re like most students, tests are a pretty big part of your academic life. From AP exams to SATs to end of year finals, you’re going to face quite a few “test days” during the school year. Here’s a list of some of our best test day tips to help you get through with flying colors.
Bring your lucky charm.
Whatever your superstition of choice might be, indulge it. Logically, there probably isn’t a connection between wearing your lucky socks and acing your finals, but studies show that lucky charms can actually boost test performance. Researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany found that students who brought lucky charms on test day reported increased confidence and higher goals, which may explain why they outperformed students who did not have their lucky charms.
Wear comfy layers.
Multiple studies have shown a link between physical comfort and test performance. You won’t be able to adjust the thermostat in your testing room, but you can layer up so that you can make yourself comfortable even in a freezing classroom or stuffy auditorium.
Hydrate!
Most people don’t drink enough water, but recent research shows that being even the tiniest bit dehydrated negatively impacts brain function. A well-hydrated brain is better able to focus and recall information—tasks that are pretty important for good test scores. Avoid sugary drinks or drinks that are high in caffeine and opt for a glass of water before your big test. But maybe not too much water…you don’t have unlimited bathroom breaks, after all.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
There’s some debate about whether you really need breakfast every day, but on test day definitely eat breakfast. Studies show that students who eat a healthy breakfast are better able to concentrate and earn higher test scores than students who skip breakfast. Avoid sugar and opt for protein for sustained energy and focus during your long tests.
Make like a Boy Scout—be prepared.
Reduce stress and boost confidence by making sure you have everything you need the night before. If you’re taking finals at school, you might just need some pencils or pens, but if you’re taking the SAT, ACT, or AP exams, you’ll also need your photo ID, registration information, and approved calculator. Put everything in your bag the night before, along with your keys, a bottle of water, and a snack. That way you won’t feel rushed in the morning.
Take a deep breath—beat anxiety.
Nothing tanks a test score faster than nerves. If you’re one of the thousands of students who freeze up on tests, master some anxiety-busting techniques to pull out on test day. Some students swear by deep breathing while others prefer visualization. Sometimes even just shifting positions in your seat can help bust through the nerves. The University of Michigan has a great resource for mastering relaxation skills that combat anxiety. We also have a great post on how to deal with test anxiety.
Get a good night’s sleep.
Studies show that a good night’s sleep positively influences concentration, memory, and motivation—so it comes as no surprise that a good night’s sleep also leads to better test scores. In fact, one group of researchers found that students who got plenty of sleep during exams week score 10% higher than those who did not meet sleep recommendations. 10% can be 160 SAT points or the difference between a 4 and a 5 on an AP exam, all from catching some z’s.
DON’T cram.
If you have a choice between a good night’s sleep and several hours of last minute studying, go for the sleep. Studies show that the extra sleep will have a more positive impact on test scores than the extra studying. In fact, a last minute marathon study session isn’t likely to help your test scores even if you don’t sacrifice sleep for it. Studying slowly over a long period of time allows your mind to fully process and properly store new information, making it easier to access specific pieces of knowledge when you need to. Cramming, as the term implies, just jams a bunch of information in willy-nilly. Think of it like packing a suitcase: you can find the specific pair of socks you need much more easily if the suitcase is neatly organized than if you just crammed a bunch of stuff in there.
Getting Test Prep Help
Hopefully, these tips will help give you a confidence boost as you get closer to test day. But don’t forget the most important thing to ensure good tests scores – really knowing your stuff! That takes time and effort to truly understand the material you’re going to be tested. You can always visit your local 宝博体育 center for a free consultation on a personalized study plan.
Why Am I Bad at Math?
STUDY SKILLSEvery once in a while, someone floats a “new” math trick that astounds the Internet with its brilliant simplicity. To those who speak the language of math, these tricks usually aren’t new or brilliant—they’re just math.
It’s no secret that Americans are bad at math. On the 2015 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) Math Literacy test, we rank 37th out of the 64 countries that participated. In a New York Times feature, Elizabeth Green cites this example of just how bad Americans really are at math:
Green and others posit that our lack of math skills isn’t a result of an inability to do math but rather the ways in which we’ve long taught math in schools. Despite many reform attempts, many math classes have focused on the procedures for math rather than on why those procedures work. We memorized our times tables instead of learning why six times six is thirty-six. For many, the result is that math seems like an arbitrary system of numbers, symbols, and letters with no real meaning on our day to day lives. So when a viral math hack comes along to simplify that arbitrary system, we treat it like just another arbitrary math thing, albeit an easier one, rather than taking the time to understand why it works.
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) tried to fix the problem by changing the way our students learn math. The standards are intended to encourage teachers to unlearn old approaches that are based largely on rote memorization and to instead show students what each new mathematical principle actually means.
In theory, that sounds great. In reality, there has been a great deal of backlash against Common Core in general, and Common Core math in particular. That’s because Common Core makes simple math complicated, thus frustrating a lot of parents (and teachers) who learned math the “old” way.
316+100=416
416+10=426
426+1=427
100+10+1=111
When you do it in your head, it seems simple. When you break it down into steps like we did above or like the worksheet does with a number line, it seems ridiculously over-complicated. After all, we just took a simple one-step subtraction problem and turned it into four steps.
But that’s the point.
Math is hard because math is complicated. We can’t expect students to automatically learn the language of numbers without taking the time to teach them all the seemingly silly steps in between problem and solution.
If you’re frustrated by new math, you’re not alone. Parents and teachers nationwide are struggling to explain seemingly simple concepts in new and unique ways. 宝博体育 is here to help. Our tutors have long used some of the same methods seen in today’s math classrooms to help students better understand the why of math.
The SAT Experimental Section Explained
TEST PREPThroughout 2018, the College Board came under fire from test-takers across the country for, among other things, applying wildly varying score curves to different test dates.
To find out why, we need to take a trip back in time.
Once upon a time, the College Board partnered with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administered the SAT. ETS included experimental sections in the old SAT in order to gauge difficulty levels and adjust score curves so that each iteration of the SAT was of roughly the same difficulty as other iterations of the test.
Around the time the SAT was redesigned, the College Board and ETS parted ways. The College Board started only offering experimental items to students who weren’t taking the SAT essay section. Back then, most top schools recommended the essay section, which meant that most top students weren’t in the pool of experimental test takers.
The result: The College Board’s data suggested that test items were harder than they really were, so too many students were getting supposedly hard questions right.
And that’s why curves got wonky.
The College Board is trying to recalibrate test difficulty by changing the way they pretest questions. The 2016 Advising and Admission Handbook for the Redesigned SAT included this tidbit:
To allow for pretesting, some students taking the SAT with no Essay will take a fifth, 20-minute section. Any section of the SAT may contain both operational and pretest items.
As more and more students have opted out of taking the SAT Essay, this experimental section has become more common. This is from the Spring and Summer 2019 The SAT and SAT Subject Tests Supervisor Manual:
At some centers, certain administrations will include an additional 20-minute section to be completed by all SAT test takers, including students taking the SAT with Essay.
In other words, students can expect to see this fifth section more often.
Does the fifth section count?
The College Board has been fairly mysterious about this fifth section, so no one knows for sure.
It’s certainly likely that at least some of the items in this extra section count. In order to get the most accurate data possible, it makes sense for the College Board to scatter experimental questions throughout all five sections of the test, making them virtually undetectable to test-takers, than to lump them all in one section that students know is experimental and thus doesn’t count.
Rumors have also indicated that this section might be used to identify possible cheating. If a student scores perfectly on all the other sections and bombs the fifth surprise section, that might be a red flag.
In either case, here’s our best advice: Try your best on every single question.
It’s not worth gambling your score on the possibility that the fifth section won’t hurt you.