Category: Testing

Winter and spring of junior year is the best time to prepare for the SAT or ACT—and if you have a student planning on taking one of those tests, it’s time to start getting prepared! Taking test prep classes is a great option for all different kinds of learners: visual, auditory & kinesthetic.

For the visual learner:

Taking a prep class as a visual learner often works better than “just studying”. Having a teacher in the front of the class gives students something visual to focus on, in order to better help them understand important concepts that will be on their tests.

For the auditory learner:

Auditory learners need to HEAR the material they need to know. Engaging with a teacher and other students in an audible environment can help them immensely. Through discussion, they’re able to speak aloud what they’re learning and hear others interpret it, creating their optimal learning environment.

For the kinesthetic learner:

Class participation and engagement for the kinesthetic learner can mean the difference between merely doing well on a standardized test and truly excelling. Your student will be given strategies for approaching any section of the SAT or ACT that work well for kinesthetic learners.

For any learner:

FEELING well-prepared for the test is an integral part of achieving the best results. Taking a test prep class can instill the necessary confidence that can alleviate the stress associated with the exams.

Many students feel considerable pressure to do well on college entrance exams—and they’re likely well aware that, to an extent, their future could hinge on the test. Register now for one of our upcoming SAT or ACT courses to help your son or daughter reduce test anxiety and to achieve the best possible scores.

Last month, we published a list of helpful college preparation tips. At the top of that list was our suggestion to take a diagnostic test to determine whether the ACT or SAT is a better test for your child. Now is the critical time to bring your child in for a FREE diagnostic test. We are open most days during the Winter Holiday break for diagnostic testing.

As a reminder, our ACT test preparation courses for the February 8th, 2014 exam begin in the first week of January. These courses can be taken on Saturdays beginning January 4th in Bellevue, or Sundays starting January 5th in Seattle.

If the diagnostic test reveals that the SAT is a better exam for your student, he or she can prepare for that test with Sandweiss Test Prep in our SAT prep courses. We have courses to prepare for both the January 25th exam and the March 8th exam.

  • The courses for the January 25th exam are condensed, due to the quickly approaching test date. These can be taken by Seattle students starting on January 4th, and Bellevue students begin on January 5th.
  • For the March 8th exam, your students can begin the full-length SAT prep course starting on January 11th in Seattle, or beginning January 12th in Bellevue.

If you have not yet scheduled a diagnostic test to determine the best college entrance exam for your student, now is the time to do so! Here are the next steps toward successful test preparation:

  1. Register for the February ACT, or for either the January or March SAT.
  2. Get your student registered for his or her test preparation courses with Sandweiss Test Prep. Also keep in mind that we offer both individual and small group tutoring if your child needs more targeted preparation help or if the course schedules don’t work with your availability.
  3. Finalize your college visit list. Last month, we recommended that you and your child plan college visits – have you started that list? It’s time to get those trips on the calendar! Mid-winter break and spring break are usually excellent times to visit campuses.

Check back here on our blog for more college preparation and testing tips in the future. We hope to help guide your student smoothly through the testing and college prep process.

Happy holidays from Sandweiss Test Prep!

Is your high school junior on schedule with the necessary college preparation steps? Now that your son or daughter is settled into the school year, winter break is an optimal time to determine which big college entrance test your child should take.

It’s important to keep in mind that all colleges will accept either the SAT or ACT. We offer free diagnostic testing for both exams in order to determine which test is best suited for your child. In addition, we will provide a recommendation about the appropriate preparation options, how long the process will take, and the approximate cost.

Here’s a list of to-dos and helpful college preparation tips to get your student ready for a productive junior year.

  • Take a diagnostic test. Now is the time to take diagnostic exams to determine whether the ACT or SAT is the better test for your student. If your child took the PSAT in October, you will not receive results until January, which is too late to begin our courses to prepare for late winter test dates.
  • Based on the diagnostic results and our recommendations, register for either the February or April SAT, or the March ACT. This will allow sufficient time to re-take either exam later in the spring if necessary.
  • Think about college visits. Winter break or mid-winter break are the ideal times to plan college visits, since classes will be in session and your student will get the best sense of campus life. Begin thinking about a list of colleges that your son or daughter might be interested in applying to. Click here for College Board’s interactive college search tool. As you plan your child’s college visits, consider visiting different kinds of schools in the area. Your child can get an idea of what his or her experience might be like at a school with or without fraternities/sororities, a private school vs. a public school, an inter-urban school vs. a rural school, etc.
  • Now is the time to get as much information about colleges as you can. Visit your local public library (or our Sandweiss Test Prep office!) to look at college guidebooks. Check your high school counselor’s office and/or their newsletters to learn about college representatives who might be visiting your high school. You should be ‘window shopping’ for colleges as you and your child put together the list of places he or she might be interested in attending.

Stay tuned for more college preparation tips here on our blog. Remember that while test prep is important, colleges put more emphasis on grades! Study hard and focus on keeping your junior year grades at their best.

Some of you who applied to college via early decision or action programs may currently be living in the purgatory known as “deferral.” When colleges can’t decide yet whether to accept or reject students, they defer them. What this basically means is that they’d like a little more information about them before making a final decision. Here’s how to help yourself on the journey to that decision:

1. Don’t freak out or slack off.

2. Contact admissions for information on how to boost your application.

3. Update your application with a recent grade report, as well as a cover letter stating your intention to attend if accepted.

4. Consider a campus visit.

5. Send another recommendation from someone who knows you well.

6. Try retaking the SAT or ACT if your scores may have been a barrier to your admission.

7. Work as hard as you can at academics.

8. Step up community or school involvement to show colleges that your commitment to service doesn’t end when your application is submitted.

9. Add any recent accomplishments to your mid-year report.

10. Get excited about the other schools you’ve applied to! Remain open-minded about the future.

December 2, 2011

How to Prepare for a College Admissions Interview

Filed under: College admissions — Sandweiss @ 9:01 pm

Lee Bierer at The Charlotte Observer offers these tips for a successful college interview:

Do your homework. Demonstrate how well you know the college. Research the website thoroughly, including possible majors of interest, study abroad programs, extracurricular activities, etc.

Be yourself, but don’t be shy. Allow your personality to shine, but if you are a natural introvert, use this as an exercise to try coming out of your shell.

Make it a conversation and not an interrogation. Change up the pace and rhythm of your responses. The more you can make it a two-way street discussion with questions for the interviewer, the better off you’ll be.

Share new information, but not too much information. Don’t restate your application, don’t blame teachers and don’t talk about boyfriends/girlfriends or conflicts with your parents.

Don’t sound rehearsed. You want your responses to be fresh and not sound as if you’re reading off a teleprompter.

Come prepared with questions. You can count on the interviewer leaving time for your questions. Make sure your questions are ones that can’t be answered on the college website.

Dress for success. Use your common sense. Boys don’t need to wear a suit, but everyone should look neat and professional.

Remember the basics. Arrive early, bring a copy of your resume, thank the interviewer and go it alone. Parents should not be seen or heard from in alumni interviews.

Be prepared for a variety of questions. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes alumni want to “test” applicants and will ask questions such as “If you were a color, which one would you be and why?” Practice thinking on your feet in a mock-interview with your parents.

Stay in touch. Be sure to send a thank you note. Handwritten and delivered via postal mail is the best, but email will suffice.

November 23, 2011

What You Don’t Learn in Law School: How to Be a Lawyer

Filed under: Uncategorized — Sandweiss @ 8:35 pm
The New York Times has an interesting article, to the effect that law school doesn’t prepare law students to be lawyers.

Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful, with classes that are often overstuffed with antiquated distinctions, like the variety of property law in post-feudal England … “The fundamental issue is that law schools are producing people who are not capable of being counselors,” says Jeffrey W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, a Houston company that makes oil drilling equipment. “They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.”

 

Because law schools don’t teach the ins and outs of lawyering, law firms have to train new associates on the client’s time. Clients have begun to complain about seeing the names of first- and second-year associates on their bills.
So what’s the final analysis? Law school grads “will need to know less about Contracts and more about contracts.” Change to law school curriculum will be slow, but it is inevitable.

Amidst the recent flurry of articles about the crushing debt and terrible job market associated with law school, prospective law school students may find themselves thinking: Should I even bother?

Well, yes–that is, if and only if you are passionate about the law, and think you will be able to gain admission to a relatively high-ranking law school.

Don’t go to law school just because you’ve graduated from college and don’t know what to do with yourself. Law school costs about 60k a year, or 180,000 total, and there’s no reason to accumulate that kind of debt unless you know there’s at least a decent chance you’ll be able to pay it off.

That leads to our second point: Do try to get into the best law school you can, especially in this legal job market. All law schools cost about the same (that 60k a year), and the better the law school, the higher the chance you have of obtaining a decent job after graduation, and therefore of paying off that fairly massive student debt. This is why it’s crucial  to achieve the highest LSAT score you can–because law school admissions is based almost entirely on GPA and LSAT scores.

One sidenote: There’s a current movement in the U.S. to reduce law school to two years rather than three, which would decrease the cost and the time spent in school before you can get a job. At the moment, the most prestigious of these accelerated J.D. programs is probably Northwestern’s.

On August 1st, it’s coming: the revised GRE.

The Good: The new GRE will more accurately measure test-takers’ skills that they will need in graduate school. This means no more analogies, but much more reading comprehension. (Check out the linked Times article for sample questions.) And students will be allowed to use calculators. Test-takers will also be allowed to return to previous questions on each section, and even skip questions.

The Bad: It’ll be harder, and 30 minutes longer, for a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes. But that’s why we’re here for you!

Stay tuned for everything you’ll need to know to conquer the new GRE.

The new GRE format will be:

Analytical Writing: 1 Issue topic: 30 minutes

Analytical Writing: 1 Argument topic: 30 minutes

Verbal Reasoning: 2 sections, approx. 20 ques. each: 30 minutes

Quantitative Reasoning: 2 sections, approx. 20 ques. each: 35 minutes

Plus a possible unscored section, and a possible research section.

Please do check out newgre.org for more info.

 

Over at the New York Times’ college admissions blog “The Choice,” the deans of admission at Penn and Michigan reveal how they consider test scores on a college application.

The Takeaway:

  • SAT and ACT scores aren’t everything, though they are important. Admissions counselors go over scores quickly, and there are no minimum cutoff points.
  • In order for your application to be competitive, you’ll want to aim for the scores of a college class’s middle 50 percent test range.
  • Academic grades are as, if not more important than test scores.