Got an iPhone?

If you don't--congratulations! You are not wildly addicted to a small handheld device that suddenly makes you feel as if you need/want stuff that you never knew existed. . .

If you do--welcome to the club. I have some news for you! I was browsing the App Store--for research purposes, of course--and I stumbled across some cool apps for our particular test prep purposes. Here they are:


Vocab Wiz SAT Vocabulary Lite

This is awesome. It has a master group of "flashcards" that you can go through, and you tap one of two buttons as you see each flashcard--unfamiliar word, or familiar word. That way, you are creating for yourself another group exclusively for you--words that you are unfamiliar with. Great way to kill time, impress your friends--oh, and DOMINATE that Reading Section. This is the free version, but it doesn't seem insufficient in anyway. Surely the version that costs money has more words . . . But you can always start here.


SAT Word Lite

Now, this one's pretty weak--the free version only has 26 words! On the upside, it has lots of cool features . . . In addition to flashcards, there are also self-quizzes and little tests, where you can make sure you're actually learning defintions. If you spring for the cost version, you'll probably find this handy. To my mind, though, there are so many cool free apps, that it's silly to pay.



Okay . . . So that's all I've found for now. There are other vocab and word-of-the-day apps, but I haven't seen any others that are directly related to the SAT. Also, I haven't seen any SAT Math or Writing apps yet. Maybe soon! Do drop a comment if you know about another helpful app. . .

ACT vs. SAT Revisited

Something else interesting . . . An article from the Washington Post published a couple weeks ago. Here are some highlights:

• Guidance counselors are stressing this strategy: (1) Take both the SAT & ACT once, (2) Decide which one you prefer, (3) Prepare for that particular test, (4) Take that test again--and again--until you get the score you want.
• Many students are submitting both SAT and ACT scores in their application.
• Colleges really don't care which test you take, if you only take (or submit) one.

Read the full article below:

ACT or SAT? More Students Answering 'All Of the Above'
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, November 12, 2008; A01

For students in the Washington region, picking a college entrance test has become a multiple-choice question.

The SAT has long dominated the bustling college-prep market in the District and its suburbs. But the rival ACT is making inroads, buoyed by a shift in conventional wisdom, which now holds that the tests are of about equal value and that a student would be wise to take both. Colleges are driving the trend because admission officers are spreading the word that it doesn't matter which test students take.

The ascendance of the ACT has brought Hertz-Avis style competition to the test-obsessed D.C. region. It's a boon to students, who find they have more ways than ever to impress colleges. The SAT tests how students think. The ACT measures what they have learned. Each is a better fit for some students than others.

"You'll do well on at least one of the tests," said Jordan Kirschenbaum, 15, a junior at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. He plans to take both.

ACT participation has doubled in Fairfax and Montgomery counties in the past three years, rising from about 2,550 seniors in 2005 to more than 5,100 this year. The SAT remains dominant, but the number of seniors who took the test in the two counties declined this year to about 16,900 from about 17,600 last year.

Melissa Goldberg, 17, a senior at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, took the ACT last month on the advice of her guidance counselor and her parents, who reminded her that the ACT had come up in all of her college visits. She has sat for the SAT three times. If she did well on the ACT, she might take it again. The ACT, she said, is "definitely something the colleges are looking at more now than before."

A decade ago, the ACT was virtually unknown in this region, reflecting the supremacy of the SAT on the East Coast. But in the past five years or so, colleges have stated "with unanimity" that they don't care which test students take, said Paul Kanarek, vice president of the test-preparatory company Princeton Review.

Guidance counselors in this area used to advise students to take the SAT as many times as necessary to yield an acceptable score. Now, they might tell students to take each test once, then retake the one they liked better, said Henry Broaddus, dean of admission at the College of William and Mary. "And I actually think that's fairly sane advice."

Although they operate as nonprofit groups, the New York-based College Board, which owns the SAT, and Iowa-based ACT Inc. have an interest in building market share and maintaining prestige among students and colleges in every state.

"We're growing everywhere, but it's especially dramatic down the East Coast," said Jon Erickson, vice president for educational services at ACT.

"We don't see this as a horse race," said Alana Klein, a College Board spokeswoman. "What's important to us is that students are prepared for and succeed in college."

The College Board recently unveiled an eighth-grade assessment and changed a rule to allow students to report only their best scores from multiple tests. Both moves could be viewed as responses to the ACT, which publishes an eighth-grade test and allows students to choose the scores they send to colleges.

College entrance tests remain vital to the admission process, even in an era when dozens of colleges have waived them as a requirement.

The SAT, introduced in 1926, has evolved from its origins as a quasi-intelligence test for Ivy League applicants. Today, the test spans three hours and 45 minutes and three sections in reading, writing and math, including an essay. The ACT was introduced in 1959 as an alternative, focusing on curriculum, with sections in English, math, reading and science and an optional essay. It is most prevalent in the middle of the country. The core test, not including the essay, takes two hours and 55 minutes.

Each SAT section yields a score from 200 to 800, while ACT section scores top out at 36. A typical applicant to a competitive college might boast section scores in the upper 20s for the ACT and above 600 for the SAT.

To an extent, the recent popularity of ACT reflects backlash against changes to the SAT. The College Board expanded the exam from two sections to three in 2005. The result was a longer test that some students did not care to take twice.

A Montgomery school system analysis shows that the number of students who retook the SAT dwindled from 5,049 in 2005 to 4,361 this year. About one-quarter of this year's Montgomery graduates took the ACT.

"They're voting with their feet," said Montgomery School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, who was among the first educators in the region to note the migration from one test to the other.
College Board officials did not furnish comparable data for the nation but confirmed that fewer students are retaking the test. Klein said the number of repeat customers stabilized last year after declining in 2006.

ACT hype has crept into the local test-prep field, "and with good reason," said Erik Kimel, founder of the Peer2Peer tutoring service in Montgomery. Local school systems recently have begun reporting ACT results alongside SAT scores. Parents at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda give practice SAT and ACT tests on different Saturdays.

"Clearly, the ACT is beginning to challenge the SAT's dominance in our local college testing market," said Christopher Garran, the school's principal.

College Board officials say the ACT's gain is not necessarily the SAT's loss. The number of students taking the SAT nationwide is up 30 percent since 1998. For the ACT, the totals are up 43 percent. In the Washington region, where the ACT is booming, SAT participation is steady.
Still, the College Board seems to be fighting back. Last summer, the New York publisher announced that students would soon be permitted to pick their best scores from multiple SAT tests to show colleges. At present, colleges receive all of a student's scores.

The change, effective with the Class of 2010, seems tailored to encourage repeat business. Vincent Abadsantos, a junior in the International Baccalaureate program at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, said the new policy is "the primary driving factor" for choosing the SAT for himself and his friends, many of whom will take it two or three times. He does not plan to take the ACT.

Last month, the College Board also announced a new test to prepare eighth-grade students for the rigors of high school. Promoters said the ReadiStep exam helps create a "college-going culture." Some industry insiders say the test is more about test-taking culture: steering ever-younger students onto the SAT track, a role filled by the Preliminary SAT.

"It's a business move, and it's an intelligent move," Kanarek said.

Klein, of the College Board, said the new test "is completely unrelated to the college admissions process." ReadiStep will be rolled out next fall. Maryland officials said it would be piloted in three middle schools in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties. Virginia and D.C. officials had no set plans.

Analysts say some of the region's best students take both tests to see which yields the better score.

Of 11,636 applicants to William and Mary for the class that entered this fall, 3,800 took the ACT, Broaddus said. Most of those students also took the SAT.

"What we see is more and more students who want to take both exams," he said.

Third World Challenge Exam

I thought this was pretty interesting.

A fellow named Bob Compton recently made a film called Two Million Minutes. The title refers to the two million minutes between the completion of eighth grade and high school graduation, and examines how different students across the globe spend these two million minutes--and how these choices affect these students economic future.

The website for the film includes a "Third World Challenge Exam." Here's what Compton has to say about it:

"Personally, I know that China and India are not “Third World" countries, but that is because I’ve traveled to those countries and I deeply admire their cultures and their people.

The inspiration for the name “Third World Challenge” came a statement made to me by a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education when I showed my film Two Million Minutes for the HGSE faulty. “We have nothing to learn from education systems in Third World countries,” he intoned with much gravitas, “Much less a Third World country that lacks freedom of speech.” To my surprise, no other faculty member rose to challenge that statement.

While I certainly expected a more open-minded and globally aware audience at Harvard, I have now screened my film around the country and a surprisingly large segment of the American population believes India and China’s K-12 education systems are inferior to that of the United States. While no American makes the statement with the boundless hubris of a Harvard professor, the conclusion often is the same – America is number one in education and always will be.

This of course is not true. American students’ academic achievement has been declining vis-à-vis other developed countries for more than 20 years. What is now surprising and worrisome is US students are even lagging the developing world.

If our athletic performance at the Olympics were as poor as our global academic performance it would be a national crisis and every level of government would be attempting to respond. That we blithely ignore the declining intellectual standards of American students seems almost insane. The cognitive skills of our children will determine both America’s economic future and the economic future of each child.

But perhaps I overstate the high standards of the developing world, particularly India and China. So, to test that assumption, my company Indian Math Online has created the “Third World Challenge” – this is a shortened and greatly simplified version of the multi-day proficiency test that every 10th grader in India must pass to go on to the 11th grade.

Think American education standards are higher than the Third World – well why not have your 11th or 12th grade son or daughter try the Third World Challenge? After all in just a few more years the challenge will be in the marketplace for high paying jobs – might as well find out now if your son or daughter is competitive."

Up for the challenge? Take the exam here.

More on Spy Pencils

So, here's the link for the Spy Pencil. It has a DVR in it and can hold 2 Gigs of files. Seriously? We live in the future.

Also, did you know that there are people out there obsessed with the assorted varieties of mechanical pencils out there? Yeah, I didn't either.

MID-YEAR SAT & ACT TESTING HEADS-UP!

Hard as it can be to keep yourself motivated once the holidays start and vacations abound, there are plenty of testing deadlines coming up that you need to be aware of—and to prepare for.

Upcoming SAT dates:

December 26, 2008 Registration deadline for January SAT
January 6, 2009 Late registration deadline (mail)
January 9, 2009 Late registration deadline (phone/online)
January 24, 2009 SAT & Subject Tests
February 10, 2009 Registration deadline for March SAT
February 24, 2009 Late registration deadline
March 14, 2009 SAT


Upcoming ACT dates:

January 6, 2009 Registration deadline for February ACT
January 16, 2009 Late registration deadline
February 7, 2009 ACT
February 27, 2009 Registration deadline for April ACT
March 13, 2009 Late registration deadline
April 4, 2009 ACT


So—are you ready? If you need help preparing, call us. We’re sort of total dorks about this stuff—we know exactly what’s on each test, and the best way to tackle it. And we get results.

OK, SERIOUSLY—THE WRITING SECTION—DOES IT MATTER?

There’s a lot 0f confusion on this topic. Do you need to study for the Writing Section of the SAT? Should you take the ACT plus Writing? We did a little recon on this for you. We picked a couple schools that you guys seem to really like, and got the skinny. Here it is:

VIRGINIA TECH

• Does not consider the Writing scores during the admissions process.
• Does consider the scores after you’re admitted, to place you in the appropriate Freshman English class.
• Requires you to take the ACT plus Writing.

GEORGE MASON

• Encourages you to take the ACT as well as the SAT.
• Doesn’t require you to take the Writing section of the ACT, but “recommends” it.
• Doesn’t consider the SAT essay score during the admissions process.

JAMES MADISON

• Does not consider the Writing scores during the admissions process. “I never even see the score!” says a JMU admissions officer.
• Does not require you to take the Writing portion of the ACT.
  

CALCULATORS, CELLPHONES & SPY-PENCILS—OH MY!

Here’s what you need to know about the SAT and technology . . .

• Mechanical pencils = not allowed. They say it’s because the lead might not be the right kind, or the sharp point might poke through your answer sheet . . . But really, they’re terrified of fancy space-future James Bond pencils with tiny spy cameras, snapping pics of essay prompts or what-have-you—seriously, we found one on the Google (see picture!). Don’t believe us? Two words: Spy Museum.

• STRONGLY CONSIDER leaving your phone, BlackBerry, iPod, camera, pager (pager? Is this 1998?), etc. at home. Why? Because if ANYTHING on your person makes ANY noise during the test, three things happen: (1) you get kicked out, (2) your scores get cancelled, and (3) the proctor will confiscate the offending object. No joke!

• YOUR CALCULATOR MUST NOT: be a laptop, cellphone or the like; have a QWERTY keypad; use an electrical outlet; make noise; have a paper tape; or have a stylus. Also, it can’t wear white after Labor Day.
  

HOW I GOT INTO COLLEGE

Hey there! Did you know we can help you with all those college admission essays you have to write? We can! And it’s easy, too—and inexpensive.

Just email your essay on over to us, and we’ll edit it so meticulously that even the scariest AP English teacher will look like a grammar light-weight, danglin’ participles left n’ right and misplacin’ modifiers willy-nilly.

It’s not just about grammar, though. It’s about making sure your essay does the best job it can do of selling you—what makes you special? What unique thing would you bring to your preferred college or university? We’ll help you make sure your essay brings all that into focus.
If you just want a quick and dirty revision, email your essay to us, and we’ll revise it and send it back with comments within 24 hours—for $50 per essay.

Need more help than that? If you want to start earlier in the process (Not sure what to write about? Afraid of the blank page?), we can work with you. If you received our edited version and you want help revising and rewriting, we can work with you on that too. We can come to you and work with you in person, for our regular hourly fee. But there is also the option of getting one-on-one help from us via the chat feature on GoogleDocs or over the phone, which would save you more than a couple bucks.

Call us. We’ll make a plan.

WOOHOO! NEW SCORE REPORTING OPTIONS FOR THE SAT—FINALLY...

So, the College Board finally caught up with one really great aspect of the ACT… It used to be that you couldn’t choose which of your SAT scores to send to schools you’re applying to (which you could do with your ACT scores)—but no longer.

Starting in early 2009, there will be a new feature that allows you to selectively report your best scores to colleges. Did you tank it in October, but rock the test in December? Now, no one needs to know about that unfortunate October score...

The upshot of this is that you can RELAX a little on test day—no college will see that particular score, unless you decide you want to share it.

This option goes into effect for the March 2009 test. If you’ve already registered for that test, good news: you can revisit your registration info online and elect to use this feature, as soon as it rolls out.

You know what else is cool? Selective score reporting is going to work retroactively . . . Which means if you’ve already taken the SAT once or twice, and you don’t want to share every score, you don’t have to.

Call us if you have any questions about this. We’ll try to ‘splain it.

You can also visit collegeboard.com for more info.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH . . .

SAT * ACT * AP exams * TJHSST entrance exam * TOEFL * SOLs * HSAs * GRE * MCAT * GMAT * Praxis * AP English * Biology * Chemistry * Physics * Biochemistry * Algebra 1 * Geometry * Algebra 2 * Precalculus * Trigonometry * Calculus * Statistics * French * Spanish * German * American Sign Language * ESL * American History * World History * European History * Geography * Philosophy * Economics * Business * Social Skills * Study Skills

. . . We can help. We’re big nerds that love knowing a lot about a lot of things, and we love sharing that knowledge with students and demystifying complicated subjects.

WE HEART NUMBERS & STATS

Did you know . . .

• We’ve worked with over 1,000 students.
• We’ve analyzed & broken down almost 100 real SAT tests.
• Our average increase in total SAT scores for 2007-2008 was 333 points (118 for Reading, 107 for Math, and 108 for Writing).
• Top score increases in SAT Reading were 200, 220 and even 270 points.
• Top score increases in SAT Math were 210, 240 and even 250 points.
• Top scores increases in SAT Writing were 240, 250, and even 260 points.

In other news:

• We’re planning another SIMSAT in February, gearing up for the March test. Get excited! Take a real SAT (not one of those fake Big Company tests) proctored by us, followed by an informative strategy session