Keep Teens on Their Toes with College Prep

August 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Here is a helpful article from NewsOK:

Keep teens on their toes with college prep

Important quotes:

Since these tests are critical to college admission it is important your teen prepare early. Fortunately, several websites provide free online test preparation materials and practice tools that help your teen get started. A good one to start with is the College Board website, www.collegeboard.org. The website offers official SAT questions, preparation materials and daily emails with a SAT “Question of the Day.” The website also advertises “it is the only place to take a full-length official SAT and get immediate scores.”

Both number2.com and sattutors.com are free websites that offer tutorials and practice sessions for the SAT and ACT. Number2.com requires users to set up a free account to access the information.

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Both the SAT and ACT test emphasize the areas of reading and writing, so encourage your teen to do activities that strengthen these areas. Summer is the perfect time for teens to pick up a few books that interest them. The reading topics are not as important as is the habit of reading regularly.

Encourage your teen to write in a journal or create a memory book of his or her summer experience. If your teen spends a lot of time online, ask him or her to write a blog, read and comment thoughtfully about online articles, or create a free online memory book using websites such as glogster.com. The writing skills also will help students prepare for the essays required for college applications. Websites such as petersons.com have college search and application sections that can help students understand how to write these essays.

Increasing your teen’s vocabulary also is important for test preparation. Many of the answers on the test rely on the test-taker not only knowing the words, but also understanding how they are used in the questions. Again, fortunately, there are websites that offer free methods to increase your teen’s vocabulary. Vocabsushi.com and freevocabulary.com are just two of many sites that offer vocabulary words specifically for the SAT.

In addition to the free resources mentioned above, you can also come to C2 Education and schedule a diagnostic SAT or ACT examination. For more information, please call us at 703-467-2005.

Filed Under: College Search, Critical Reading, Math, Summer Tips Tagged With: , , , , ,

Keeping Kids Intellectually Engaged During the Summer

July 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this month, NPR covered the phenomenon of “summer slide” – i.e., the loss of skills that students experience over the summer. The full transcript of the program can be found here:

Keeping Kids Intellectually Engaged During the Summer

An important highlight from the program:

…what research shows is that all kids, regardless of their income level of their family, experience over two months of setback in math computation skills during the elementary school grades, and low-income kids lose over two months of reading performance each and every summer of their elementary school years, while middle-income kids typically stagnate or experience a slight gain in reading performance.

C2 Education recommends the following to keep your kids on track:

  • Purchase a few math workbooks and spend a little time each day reviewing math basics with your child. Sinapore Math and Spectrum Math are excellent (and inexpensive) series to use for review.
  • Sign up for the summer reading program at your local library. This is totally free, and your child can earn prizes!
  • Arrange some weekend outings to the zoo or to some museums. (Choose based on the age and interests of your child.)

But remember, don’t fill the entire day with academic activities. Allow time for fun as well!

(And if you would like more information on our formal summer tutoring programs, please call us at 703-467-2005.)

Filed Under: Summer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Active Reading on the SAT (and Similar Tests)

February 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Over the years, I’ve noticed the universality of a particular rule of thumb: the stronger the reader, the more notes that reader takes. No passage on the SAT – or on any other critical reading test, for that matter – should be left unmarked. Making annotations is key if you want to keep your focus.

So what kind of annotations should you make when you are reading a passage during a test like the SAT? Well, the first thing you should remember is not to get bogged down in the details. The SAT does not require you to understand everything you read; reading for the SAT is not like reading a text for a class. Your goal is to suss out the main idea. That’s it. When the subseqent questions ask you about the details, you can search for those details then.

While you are reading a passage for the SAT (or a similar test), you should write short notes in the margin that keep track of the main ideas of each paragraph.  You can also underline what you feel to be the key phrases or sentences. To identify the main idea, ask yourself what the author is trying to accomplish with each paragraph.

Be careful, though, not to get carried away with your notetaking or underlining; again, finding the main idea is your ultimate goal.

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