Meet The Digital SAT: INTRODUCTION
Every decade, it seems, gets its own version of the SAT. This exam–one of America’s most influential and controversial tests–has endeavored to reflect college readiness and the nation’s educational priorities since 1926. The newest revision charts a bold path to the future of standardized assessments while still channeling the reading, writing, and quantitative problem solving priorities that have been foundational to SAT success for nearly a century. The most visible and glaring change will be an entirely digital SAT and PSAT for just about every student. The dSAT, as the new version of the test is known, has been the only SAT available outside the United States since March 2023. Domestic students will experience the revised exam in two stages: October 2023: Students will take the digital PSAT. March 2024: Students will begin taking the digital SAT. At this time, College Board holds that the switch from the current version…
How The SAT & ACT Can Make Us Proud of America
When the 4th day of July rolls around, we citizens of the United States sometimes ponder questions deeper than just where to watch the best fireworks. We think of patriotism and pride, and even the most cynical among us contemplates what really makes America great. If you sometimes–or often–what’s so special about this particular country, here’s something to consider about American excellence… According to a 2014 tally, over 300,000 students outside the United States took the SAT in more than 1,000 international test centers across 175 countries. In Hong Kong alone, one 2013 SAT administration was inundated by 10,000 test takers. The ACT commands similar–and, in some countries greater–numbers of international test takers, and both tests have seen more test takers last year than ever. While a string of practical incidents and ideological arguments have impacted the availability of testing overseas (and access to more current data regarding those…
Always Know More Than The Proctor
Do you know that feeling when something you’ve anticipated or even dreaded for a long time finally occurs? Now that the new SAT looms just a few days away, many teens are experiencing that exhilarating mix of expectation and anxiety. But smart students prepare for tests, and we’ve had the privilege of seeing some really bright and motivated high schoolers integrate information about the new test into their existing understanding of the ACT and former SAT. In fact, I fully expect some of our students, for better or worse, to know more than the test proctors. Standardized tests offer valuable data to admissions and licensing authorities because of the rigid consistency with which each exam is meticulously designed and administered. Yet for all the psychometric precision applied to test development, much less standardization occurs at the point where many important tests meet the testing public. For example, most SAT and…
Create Your Own Hoops
At this moment when so many are completing their studies in high school, college, or graduate school, we’d like to share artist Grant Snider’s inspiring message to a graduate: To get an education, you must jump through many hoops. Some are ultra-competitive. Others require perfect timing. Many will seem unreachable at first. There will be moments of boredom. You will be burned. And even embarrassed. But often, your imagination will be sparked. With luck and coordination, you will reach the final hoop… and arrive at a place where hoops are scarcely seen. Should you stop jumping? No! Now you must create your own hoops. Good luck, graduates!
Mastery Requires Both Impatience and Patience
Author James Clear offers pithy and prolific insights into many aspects of life. His wisdom hits home quite often the realms of productivity and success. I’m partial to this statement about mastery: “Mastery requires both impatience and patience. The impatience to have a bias toward action, to not waste time, and to work with a sense of urgency each day. The patience to delay gratification, to wait for your actions to accumulate, and to trust the process.” Test prep is all about reaching for mastery, attaining mastery for a moment, and displaying mastery when called upon. Be impatient to earn your best test scores: embrace a bias toward action and get to work. Be patient to prove your best test scores: Create a clear plan for success and work that plan. Leverage spaced repetition and the testing effect to improve over time, ideally under the tutelage of an expert coach.…
Top Earning College Majors
Education pays off in so many intangible ways that we tend to focus on the intellectual, social, and emotional benefits of the college experience. That said, looking for a return on a sizable investment is not a bad idea. While research consistently suggests that college graduates earn much more on average than those who do not earn 4-year degrees, those economic advantages are distributed unevenly; not every major sets a student up for immediate financial success after graduation. So which majors do? The HEA Group, which aggregates and analyzes federal higher education data, explored how much graduates earn depending on the college program they majored in. Here are their findings of the ten college majors where graduates earn the highest salaries: Alas, these are far from the most popular majors! Check out the full article for how well graduates with degrees in the most popular majors do right out of…