AP Students – NOW is the time to start studying!

January 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s the new year. We’ve all been well stuffed with holiday meats and sweets and have (hopefully) enjoyed our visits with extended family members. But now the vacation is over; it is time to get down to business.

If there is one thing that has always worried me about many of my AP students, it’s their tendency to procrastinate. In previous years, I’ve noticed a definite spike in our center’s enrollment come late March. Formerly nonchalant students see early May bearing down on them like a freight train and suddenly feel the need to seek out assistance with the mounds of difficult AP vocabulary or the concepts they never mastered the first time through. But the month of April is not the time to get serious! Studying for the AP exam in any subject should, ideally, be a year-long process.

If you haven’t started studying for the AP exam by this point, you need to start now. The following are some of the things you need to do before February rolls around:

* Buy a review book. In my experience, Barron’s has the most challenging, highest quality sample questions, but REA and Kaplan are also excellent sources.

* Get organized. Collect all of your old tests, notes, and vocabulary worksheets and sort them by topic.

* Make flashcards for all key terms. This is especially important in history, geography, English, and biology, courses that are heavily dependent upon knowing the terminology.

* Start looking at sample questions from previous years. You can find sample questions at the College Board site here.

* Find someone to study with. This can be either a tutor such as myself or a peer. Getting feedback from someone else is crucial to the process of studying.

Again: the earlier you start taking the May exams seriously, the better off you will be!

Filed Under: Advanced Placement - Advice Tagged With: , , ,

When Applying to College, Consider the Small Schools!

December 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Often, while instructing my teenaged students, I have found myself spontaneously playing the role of college admissions counselor. In that capacity, I have noticed a distinct trend: my students, by and large, only consider Virginia’s larger and/or more well-known schools. Ask one of my typical students which colleges they are considering, and you will hear a rather predictable answer: “George Mason.” “UVA.” “VCU.” “William and Mary.”

Granted, these schools all have excellent programs; I myself attended the College of William and Mary for the final two years of my undergraduate education and quite enjoyed myself. And there is also something to be said for the power of name recognition once you hit the employment market. But I believe students should be made aware of the disadvantages of attending “brand name” schools – and the advantages of attending a school that is a little out of the mainstream.

Back in the mid nineties – the dinosaur age for my students – I was a college-bound Virginia high school student with strong test scores, a nine-out-of-ten passing rate on my AP exams, and a B to B+ grade point average. I was also a student who had checked that little box on the PSAT form that granted permission for colleges of all sorts to send me information, which means that I had, in my bedroom, a box full of colorful college brochures from places as far flung as New England, New York, and California. And I thank God for that box of mail, because it broadened my perspective on college admissions most considerably. Indeed, when it finally came time for me to start applying to college, two Massachusetts schools made it onto my master list: Harvard, my reach school, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a little engineering school (enrollment roughly 2000) in central Massachusetts that I had visited with my mother and adored.

I was rejected by Harvard, which I had expected, and admitted to WPI. And ultimately, I decided to enroll at WPI. There was much about WPI’s program that appealed to me. First, the class sizes were manageable. Second, the professors were accessible. Third, the curriculum was project based; in fact, all WPI students were, at the time, required to complete three research projects in order to earn a bachelor’s degree. Bottom line, WPI, like many smaller schools, was more equipped to cater especially to undergraduates and more able to provide a curriculum outside of the standard.

When I told people at school where I was going, the response was usually the same: “Where the heck is that?” I suppose that even in the dinosaur age, Virginia students were staying in Virginia. But I don’t regret the choice I made back then, even though I ultimately changed my major and transferred to William and Mary to complete my BS. The student culture at WPI is something I will always remember fondly – and thanks to the individual attention I received during my first two years of college, I believe my science and math education in particular is world class.

Because of the positive experience I had at a small school, I try to inform my students of those out-of-the-way opportunities that seem to escape the average young Virginian’s imagination. Just the other day, actually, I encouraged one student to consider Sweet Briar College, a private school for women that, yes, is located in Virginia. And that moment got me thinking: now that I have a platform – i.e., this blog – on which I can share my thoughts about education and college admissions, why not take advantage of it?

Thus, in the future, I will be featuring small area schools like Sweet Briar on this blog in the hopes that Virginia students like mine will expand their college search. Consider that a sort of mission statement.

Filed Under: College Search Tagged With: , , ,

Rational Expressions – Fractions in Algebra

December 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

At the end of last week’s lesson on fractions, I left our readers with a challenge problem to solve:

X2 + 3X + 2
X2 + 4X + 4

Simplify.

This week, we will discuss in detail how to solve this and other problems involving the simplification of rational expressions.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Math Tagged With: , , , ,

Attacking Sentence Completion Questions on the SAT

December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Last week, I discussed how to build an excellent foundational vocabulary. However, to earn a high score on the critical reading section of the SAT, you need more than mere word power. You also need to become familiar with the common question types you will encounter on the test – and how best to approach each.

This week’s topic? Sentence completions!

Sentence completions can be cracked via the following process:

  • Cover the answers and read the whole question. Think about its main idea.
  • Underline clues and key words. Clues are those words and phrases that help you identify the main idea of a sentence. Key words are those words that provide critical information on the structure of the sentence; they can include contrast words like despite, although, even though, and but, or reinforcing words like since, and, and because.
  • Make a guess in your own words. If you’re stumped, just write down the expected relationship between the blanks, whether it be “good/bad,” “opposite,” or “same.”
  • Start eliminating answer choices that do not match your guess. If you know the answer, mark it on your answer sheet. If you’re unsure, mark the question, make your best guess, and move on.
  • Read the question again with your answer included. If it doesn’t sound right, choose a different answer. SAT sentences are relentlessly logical and grammatical. The right answer will not “sort of” fit.

Let’s run through an example to illustrate the above-described process:

Hoping to __________ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ___________ to both labor and management.

(A) enforce… useful
(B) end… divisive
(C) overcome… unattractive
(D) extend… satisfactory
(E) resolve… acceptable

Cover the answers and read the whole question:

Hoping to __________ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ___________ to both labor and management.

What is the main idea of this sentence? Apparently, there was an argument between labor and management that required negotiation.

Underline clues and key words:

Hoping to __________ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ___________ to both labor and management.

Which words in the sentence helped us determine the main idea? Well, there is “the dispute,” which means argument. There are the words “negotiators” and “compromise.” And there is the phrase “both labor and management.” All of these will help us determine the purpose of the two blanks.

Make a guess in your own words:

Hoping to __end?_____ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ____okay?__ to both labor and management.

Here’s where you have to apply your logic. What are “negotiators” supposed to do? They are supposed to end arguments. What mind end an argument? A “compromise” or solution that both sides can accept may end an argument.

Start eliminating answer choices that do not match your prediction:

Hoping to __end?_____ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ____okay?__ to both labor and management.

(A) enforce… useful (enforce means to uphold, not “end”)
(B) end… divisive (end is correct, but divisive does not mean “okay”)
(C) overcome… unattractive (unattractive does not mean “okay”)
(D) extend… satisfactory (extend does not mean “end”)
(E) resolve… acceptable

In this case, the answer is relatively easy to discover. (E) is the best fit. Resolve is another word for “end,” and acceptable is another word for “okay.”

Read the question again with your answer included:

Hoping to __resolve_____ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ____acceptable__ to both labor and management.

That sounds good! Now you can move on to the next question.

Ideally, this sentence completion strategy should take a maximum of one minute. For easy questions (like the one above), you will probably be able to mentally run through the five-step process in less than 20 seconds. For harder questions, you will have to do more work. For example, consider the following question:

Moths are nocturnal pollinators, visiting scented flowers during the hours of darkness, whereas butterflies are ____ , attracted to bright flowers in the daytime.

(A) diurnal
(B) quotidian
(C) colorful
(D) ephemeral
(E) brilliant

The average student, in my experience, finds this question difficult. Three out of the five answer choices are words that are not used in ordinary conversation. However, we can still apply our strategy to increase our chances of guessing correctly.

Cover the answers and read the whole question:

Moths are nocturnal pollinators, visiting scented flowers during the hours of darkness, whereas butterflies are ____ , attracted to bright flowers in the daytime.

This sentence seems to be discussing the habits of butterflies and moths.

Underline clues and key words:

Moths are nocturnal pollinators, visiting scented flowers during the hours of darkness, whereas butterflies are ____ , attracted to bright flowers in the daytime.

The big key to this question stem is the word whereas. Whereas is a contrast word. It indicates that what follows is the opposite of what has come before. Thus, the word that fits in the blank is the antonym of “during the hours of darkness.”

Make a guess in your own words:

Moths are nocturnal pollinators, visiting scented flowers during the hours of darkness, whereas butterflies are _day animals___ , attracted to bright flowers in the daytime.

Using my logic and my awareness of opposites in this sentence, my guess is that the word in the blank means “is active during the day.”

Start eliminating answer choices that do not match your prediction:

Moths are nocturnal pollinators, visiting scented flowers during the hours of darkness, whereas butterflies are _day animals___ , attracted to bright flowers in the daytime.

(A) diurnal ??
(B) quotidian ??
(C) colorful (butterflies are colorful, but that has nothing to do with being active in the daytime)
(D) ephemeral ??
(E) brilliant (brilliant means bright or smart, which also has nothing to do with being active in the daytime)

If you can at least get to this point, you will still have increased your chances of guessing the right answer. Make a guess and move on.

(The answer, by the way, is (A). “Diurnal” means “active during the day.”)

Filed Under: Critical Reading Tagged With: , , , ,

Fractions Clinic

December 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Many American students are uncomfortable with fractions. Unfortunately, fractions definitely have a place on college entrance examinations like the SAT or the ACT. If you are one of the many who scream at the sight of a rational number, look below the cut for some helpful hints!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Math Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ideas to Build Your Vocabulary for the SAT

November 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

If sentence completions are the bane (*) of your test-taking existence, be assured: you are not alone. In my four years of experience teaching with C2 Education, I have encountered many students just like you – and most of the time, what these students lacked was a good vocabulary foundation. How can you boost your word power and conquer the sentence completion questions on the SAT? What follows are a few suggestions:

Make Reading a Part of Your Daily Routine

The vocabulary used in print media (newspapers, books, etc.) far surpasses in breadth the vocabulary used in televised media. Studies have shown that newspapers and books contain, on average, 30 – 70 rare words per 1000 words, whereas television shows average around 20 rare words per 1000. So if you spend your free time watching television or playing video games, you need to change up your routine. Take 20-30 minutes out of every day to sit down with a newspaper or book of your choice. If you dedicate just a little of your time to extra-curricular reading, you will increase the probability of encountering unfamiliar words in helpful contexts.

(By the way, comic books count as print media; comic books average 50 rare words per 1000. So you don’t have to give up your manga! Internet reading, however, is a more iffy area; studies have shown that we do not read comprehensively and retain less when we read from the web. Thus, you should use the net in moderation; I suggest that 30 minutes to an hour of net time a day be your maximum.)

Be a Collector of Words

When you read, either for fun or for school, you should always be on the look out for new words and have a dictionary at hand. When you come across an unfamiliar word, look up the word in the dictionary and write it down in a vocabulary notebook.

What should an entry in a vocabulary notebook contain? Well, say you didn’t know that word I highlighted in my opening sentence – bane. Your first step would be to write the word down in your vocabulary notebook along with its dictionary definition, like so:

bane – (noun) – a source of harm or ruin.

Secondly, you should try to produce your own example sentence. For example:

Spending hours on the internet instead of studying your vocabulary for the SAT will prove to be a bane for your score.

Thirdly, you should try to write the word in its other forms:

baneful – (adjective) – harmful.

Lastly, you should include a list of synonyms:

synonyms: curse, harm, ruin.

If you keep up such a notebook on a regular basis, you will remember more words come test time.

Be Aware of Word Parts

Many words in the English language derive from Latin or Greek. If you become familiar with Latin and Greek roots, you will be able to guess the meaning of many unfamiliar words. For example, consider the ben/bene group:

benefit, beneficial, beneficent, benevolent, benign

All of these words have related meanings:

benefit – (noun) – something that is good or helpful for someone.

beneficial – (adjective) – helpful.

beneficent – (adjective) – describes someone who is helpful: kind.

benevolent – (adjective) – good: kind.

benign – (adjective) – will not cause harm.

From this group of words, which all have the word part ben/bene, you can see that ben/bene means good or helpful. If you know this, you can guess the meanings of other words that contain the same root. For example, you may be able to predict that the word benefactor means someone who is good or helpful – and you would be right!

Filed Under: Critical Reading Tagged With: , , ,
« Previous Page