Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

ACT Test Taking Strategies: English

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

English Test Strategies

 First, thakfully, spelling, vocabulary, and verbatim recall of rules of grammar aren’t tested.  In fact, the test consists of five prose passages, each one accompanied by multiple-choice test questions. Different passage types–history, science, literature, music– are included to provide variety.
 Some questions refer to underlined portions of the passage and offer several alternatives to the underlined portion. You must decide which choice is most appropriate in the context of the passage. Do not read the questions before you read the passage.  Memorize the “type” questions that you will encounter before you take the exam.  Then, during your active reading experience (mark it up!) you should naturally identify possible questions.
 Some questions ask about an underlined portion, a section of the passage, or the passage as a whole. You must decide which choice best answers the question posed.
 Many questions include “NO CHANGE” to the underlined portion or the passage as one of the choices.

FINALLY (College Prep)

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Finally, my 30 years of coaching remind me how important stress reduction is to high SAT I scores. In fact, in my opinion, it is the most important preparation variable. For Christians, at least, stress reduction is best accomplished by a frequent and rigorous devotional and Bible memorization program and disciplined devotional time.

Here are a few common-sense sorts of things to know about college admission:

  • Don’t be discouraged by high tuition charges. Private colleges, for instance, especially the costly ones, usually have much more money to give away in financial aid than state-supported schools. While cost consideration is an issue, many competitive colleges are very generous with financial aid.
  • Financial aid is offered according to SAT scores, need, race/gender, transcript/ recommendations, zip code—in that order. The financial aid process is separate from the admission process.
  • A college will look at your entire high school record, from ninth grade on. But a college knows that a transcript is subjective and still want an SAT I or ACT score.
  • Keep good records of interviews. Use your prayer journal to record what God is doing in your life through the process.
  • You should make sure that you have taken pre-algebra, algebra I, algebra II, geometry, and advanced math (optional). If the way is clear, for practical considerations, take a consumer math course senior year.
  • Playing a musical instrument and participating in debate are two events that many colleges consider special, and applicants with special talents get special consideration, above and beyond those who do nothing in school but get good grades.
  • A second language helps your college application but I recommend Latin as one of your languages. By all means, take at least two years of each language.
  • The volume of your mail is an early indication of how desirable a college applicant you will be. Colleges only recruit students they really want. The more mail you get, the more colleges want you.
  • Show interest in the college. Be assertive.
  • Be creative on your transcript. Advanced Literary Analysis: Beowulf to Ben Jonson sounds a whole lot better than English Literature I.
  • Take the SAT I in the spring of your junior year.
  • Take the SAT II if necessary. The SAT II is a subject area exam. Besides many competitive colleges require that all students take 2-3 exams, it is a way to show special knowledge. For instance, engineering majors who wish to attend Georgia Tech may find it advantageous to take a subject area in physics.
  • Consider taking a CLEP or AP test or two.
  • In your junior year visit the college(s) you are considering.
  • If you apply to a college, you want the admission officer to have a favorable impression of you, even before reading your application. The interview when you visit the campus is your shot at creating that impression. The interview is important-especially to a home school student.

QUADRATIC EQUATIONS

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Students do not have to know how to solve quadratic equations to do well on the math portion of the SAT I. Some algebra and basic geometry is helpful, but I have found that the key to high performance on the math portion is the same as it is on the verbal portion: critical thinking and critical reading skills. Thus, best scores come from individuals who think well and read well-even if their math skills are average. The 2005 SAT I math section will not only cover concepts from geometry and elementary algebra, it will contain concepts from Algebra II. The math computation on the SAT I is usually not difficult. What makes the math portion of the SAT I so difficult is that it is presented in a word problem format. Thus strong critical thinking and advanced critical reading skills will increase SAT I math as well as SAT I verbal scores. The addition of Algebra II computations should not alarm good students. Good students, especially good home schooled students, usually have had or are taking Algebra II before or during the junior year when the SAT I should be taken.

The best time to take the SAT I is May or June of one’s junior year. This allows students to retake the SAT I October of their senior year if necessary. Preparation is very helpful if the student implements a long- term program–as advocated in The SAT and College Preparation Course. Without long-term coaching, there is no correlation between the frequency of taking aptitude tests (e.g., SAT I and IQ tests) and increased scores. Therefore, the author recommends that students take as many unofficial, old, real (i. e., from the College Board) SAT I tests as they can. Students should avoid the high cost of taking stressful official tests at their local high schools and universities. They are much better off if they take practice tests. Practice SAT I tests can be obtained by contacting me (www.forsuchatimeasthis.com) or they can be borrowed from some libraries. Remember, there is evidence that a small percentage of colleges average SAT I scores (rather than accept the highest score). Therefore, students should anonymously obtain as many unofficial scores as they can and then take the test one or two times officially.

The PSAT is the major determinate of the National Merit scholarship. As you know, for years I have advocated ignoring the PSAT unless students are legitimate National Merit Scholar possibilities. I observe that since 1% of Americans actually are National Merit possibilities, since there is no correlation between PSAT and SAT I scores, and since some students are discouraged by low PSAT scores, it is unhelpful or even harmful to take the PSAT. I argue that the best preparation for the SAT I is the practice SAT I and years of advance preparation. Students should use practice SAT I tests as practice for the SAT I. They should not use the PSAT.

DISTANCE LEARNING

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Some of you will consider distance learning programs. Obviously these alternatives are growing very popular. With good reason. More and more of them are accredited. But be careful. Not all are accredited and some are actually more expensive than resident education. You should contact several graduate schools and ask them how they feel about admitting online students from your preferred undergraduate school.

There are four major components to college admission:

  • An SAT or ACT score
  • A Completed Transcript
  • References
  • An Admission Essay(s)

By far the most important component to college admission is the SAT/ACT tests.

It is important to understand that the SAT I is an aptitude test, not an achievement test (like the Iowa Basics or Stanford Tests). The SAT II or Subject Area Exams are achievement tests. The SAT I is a math and English test—there is no history, science, or any otheer subjects on the exam (although students will need these other subject for college admission).

The College Board® claims that almost 4 out of every 5 American colleges require the SAT I. That is not bad news. Christian students in general, home schooled Christian students in particular, are doing very well on the SAT I. Evangelical Christians should view preparation for the SAT I as an opportunity to grapple with an important question: Can they become what God is calling them to be? They won’t have the whole answer to this vital question at the end of their SAT preparation, but this can be a first step.

Students usually take the SAT I during the second semester of their junior year or first semester of their senior year. It measures their potential success in college, but it does not necessarily measure their information acquisition and assimilation skills. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with a student’s worth or esteem in God’s eyes.

The math portion and the verbal portion of the SAT are much different from the SAT some of us took several decades ago. There are more analysis questions, vocabulary is understood almost entirely in context, and there will be exercises requiring students to compare two reading passages. They will even have to write in some answers, instead of just picking a letter! There will be no antonyms on the SAT I, but double the number of reading comprehension questions. Finally, students will be allowed to use a calculator to help them with the math portion of the exam.
Vocabulary development is critical. As a matter of fact, I judge that 40 percent of the questions on the 2004 verbal portion of the SAT are related to vocabulary. Since analogies will be dropped and vocabulary problems will be increased, there are indications that that percentage will decrease on the 2005 exam. But that does not mean that students should ignore vocabulary development. Therefore, more than ever, it is vital that students learn the Latin/Greek roots of words. Also they should learn to define words in context. It is a waste of time for students to memorize the 500 most frequently used words on the SAT I. A better approach is to read good books (a list is included in the back of The SAT and College Preparation Course for the Christian Student).

Higher level critical thinking is important to high SAT I scores. The SAT I is a cognitive, developmentally-based exam which assumes that students learn in stages. Bloom’s Taxonomy is frequently a reference resource for cognitive developmental thinking. Bloom’s Taxonomy argues that students learn in six stages. Most of the questions on the SAT I are based on the bottom and most challenging three levels: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. As a matter of fact, unless students are able to function at these higher thinking levels, they are doomed to manifest scores below 1000.
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Sixty percent of the 2004 SAT I concerns critical reading exercises. That percentage will increase to eighty percent with the 2005 exam. In fact, the College Board is renaming the verbal section of the SAT I “Critical Reading Section.” This change in titling shows how serious the College Board folks are about critical reading. The verbal section will no longer include analogies. Instead, short reading passages will be added to existing long reading passages. A new section called the SAT writing section will be added. It will contain multiple-choice grammar questions as well as a written essay. That is good news to most classical-educated students who have spent years studying grammar and writing.

BOWING DOWN AT MOUNT HOREB

Friday, October 16th, 2009

PREPARING FOR THE SAT I

Maturation calls into sharp focus our views of reality, the meaning of life, and other existential concepts. In the book Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy, the protagonist Augusto Perez shakes his fist at God and asks, “Am I a creature of fiction?” This is the central question haunting modern society. In a way, too, it is the question I hear many young people ask.

In 2009 Western society, we are asking that question at the university.

The first modern university was Halle University, founded in 1694. From the beginning, universities have wrestled with accepting truth as an absolute reality or seeing truth as an objective intellectual quest. The quest, unfortunately, has led us to many dead ends.

The modern university is a hostile environment for most Christians. It appears to be King Belshazzar’s feast (Daniel 5), an undisciplined intellectual orgy of knowledge worship, instead of a time on Mount Horeb, a humble recognition of God’s omnipotence. Moses, at the burning bush (Exodus 3), freely admits his human limits and extolls God’s holy name. Like Moses, present-day Christians must know who they are and who their God is.

Christian students are called to act as if they are on Mount Horeb even if they are in the middle of Belshazzar’s feast. They are called to be salt and light in a hostile environment.

Where do they begin? As far as college admission goes, the Scholastic Assessment Test__SAT I–is a critical first step.

It is important to understand that the SAT I is an aptitude test, not an achievement test (like the Iowa Basics or Stanford Tests or ACT). The SAT II or Subject Area Exams are achievement tests. The SAT I is a math and English test–there is no history, science, or any other subjects on the exam (although students will need these other subject for college admission).

The College Board® claims–and I believe it–that almost 4 out of every 5 American colleges require the SAT I. That is not bad news. Christian students in general, home schooled Christian students in particular, are doing very well on the SAT I. I sensed that this was true when I wrote The SAT and College Preparation Course for the Christian Student (Eugene, Oregon, 1998, 2005, 2009). However, I had no idea how well Christians would do on the SAT I and how important spiritual preparation was to those high scores.

Christians should view preparation for the SAT I as an opportunity to grapple with an important question: Can they become what God is calling them to be? They won’t have the whole answer to this vital question at the end of their SAT preparation, but this can be a first step.

Students usually take the SAT I during the second semester of their junior year or first semester of their senior year. It measures their potential success in college, but it does not necessarily measure their information acquisition and assimilation skills. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with a student’s worth or esteem in God’s eyes.

The math portion and the verbal portion of the SAT are much different from the SAT some of us took several decades ago. There are more analysis questions, vocabulary is understood almost entirely in context, and there will be exercises requiring students to compare two reading passages. They will even have to write in some answers, instead of just picking a letter! There will be no antonyms on the SAT I, but double the number of reading comprehension questions. Finally, students will be allowed to use a calculator to help them with the math portion of the exam.

Vocabulary development is critical. As a matter of fact, I judge that 40 percent of the questions on the verbal portion of the SAT are related to vocabulary. Since analogies will be dropped and vocabulary problems will be increased, there are indications that that percentage will decrease on the 2009 exam. But that does not mean that students should ignore vocabulary development. Therefore, more than ever, it is vital that students learn the Latin/Greek roots of words. Also they should learn to define words in context. It is a waste of time for students to memorize the 500 most frequently used words on the SAT I. A better approach is to read good books (a list is included in the back of The SAT and College Preparation Course for the Christian Student). This is time_consuming and arduous, but I can’t see any better way to learn vocabulary for the SAT. Being fluent in Latin and Greek would help our children show off at the Dunster House in Harvard Yard, but probably not necessary to do well on the SAT as long as they knows their roots. Spelling skills will not increase SAT scores. In conclusion, the best preparation for the SAT I is a rigorous reading program that will both increase vocabulary and reading skills. My 30 years of coaching experience confirms to me that the student who reads more, scores higher. The single best preparation for the SAT I, therefore, is reading a lot of good books. Parenthetically, a classical approach to education, based on reading classics, which includes a whole book, essay-based language arts curriculum will ultimately generate the highest SAT I scores. This approach increases reading and thinking skills that will no doubt increase SAT I scores.

Higher level critical thinking is important to high SAT I scores. The SAT I is a cognitive, developmentally-based exam which assumes that students learn in stages. Bloom’s Taxonomy is frequently a reference resource for cognitive developmental thinking. Bloom’s Taxonomy argues that students learn in six stages. Most of the questions on the SAT I are based on the last three levels: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. As a matter of fact, unless students are able to function at these higher thinking levels, they are doomed to manifest scores below 1400.

The SAT I will require abundant critical thinking. Therefore, any SAT Preparation Coaching course should be supplemented with a classical-based, critical thinking high school program. Inevitably, for instance, a critical thinking-friendly language arts program will teach literary analysis of whole books. That is a litmus test for higher level thinking. Critical thinking-friendly math programs will offer numerous world problems.

60 percent of the present SAT I is critical reading exercises. That percentage will increase with the exam. In fact, the College Board is renaming the verbal section of the SAT I “Critical Reading Section.” This change in titling shows how serious the College Board folks are about critical reading. The verbal section will no longer include analogies. Instead, short reading passages will be added to existing long reading passages. A new section called the SAT writing section will be added. It will contain multiple-choice grammar questions as well as a written essay. That is good news to most classical-educated students who have spent years studying grammar and writing.

Students do not have to know how to solve quadratic equations to do well on the math portion of the SAT I. Some algebra and basic geometry is helpful, but I have found that the key to high performance on the math portion is the same as it is on the verbal portion: critical thinking and critical reading skills. Thus, best scores come from individuals who think well and read well__even if their math skills are average. The 2005 SAT I math section will not only cover concepts from geometry and elementary algebra, it will contain concepts from Algebra II. The math computation on the SAT I is usually not difficult. What makes the math portion of the SAT I so difficult is that it is presented in a word problem format. Thus strong critical thinking and advanced critical reading skills will increase SAT I math as well as SAT I verbal scores. The addition of Algebra II computations should not alarm good students. Good students, especially good home schooled students, usually have had or are taking Algebra II before or during the junior year when the SAT I should be taken.

The best time to take the SAT I is May or June of one’s junior year. This allows students to retake the SAT I October of their senior year if necessary. Coaching is very helpful if the student implements a long- term program–as advocated in The SAT and College Preparation Course. Without long-term coaching, there is no correlation between the frequency of taking aptitude tests (e.g., SAT I and IQ tests) and increased scores. Therefore, I recommend that students take as many unofficial, old, real (i. e., from the College Board) SAT Is as they can. Students should avoid the high cost of taking stressful official tests at their local high schools and universities. They are much better off if they take practice tests. Practice SAT Is can be obtained by contacting me (www.forsuchatimeasthis.com) or they can be borrowed from some libraries. Remember, there is evidence that a small percentage of colleges average SAT I scores (rather than accept the highest score). Therefore, students should anonymously obtain as many unofficial scores as they can and then take the test one or two times officially.

Finally, my 30 years of coaching remind me how important stress reduction is to high SAT I scores. In fact, in my opinion, it is the most important preparation variable. For Christians, at least, stress reduction is best accomplished by a frequent and rigorous devotional and Bible memorization program.

I am excited about the SAT I. It is tailor-made for Christian believers. Never has an exam so heavily depended on empathic stress reduction and critical thinking. Shorter, leaner, and meaner to most, to Spirit-filled Christians–particularly Christian home schooled students–theSAT I is a gift from God. It is not knowledge that trips up Christian students most of the time. It is the time restrictions and inexperience with test-taking. In my wildest and fondest dreams I could not have created a better test for my brothers and sisters in Christ. With its emphasis on higher math, increased reading passages, writing samples and grammar, the SAT I should generate unprecedented high scores for students who devote themselves to a one-to-three-year discipline of preparation that includes Bible readings, Scripture memorization, critical reading samples, and test-taking strategies.

One final question: why go through all this hassle of preparing for a man-made test? God is in control of our lives, right? Yes, but perhaps He has put this test in front of us, not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to witness for our Lord. We shall see.

SAT vs. ACT

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

HOW ARE THE SAT AND ACT SIMILAR & DIFFERENT? HOW SHOULD STUDENTS PREPARE FOR EACH TEST?

On one level the SAT and ACT are indeed different.

Some differences are obvious. The SAT is a math, verbal (language arts), and writing test while the ACT includes math, verbal (language arts), writing, social studies, and science questions. SAT test-takers are penalized .25 points for guessing. There is no penalty for guessing on the ACT.

Other differences are not so obvious. The SAT is an aptitude, critical thinking test in the same family as the IQ test. The ACT is an achievement, or knowledge-based test, in the same family as a Stanford Achievement or Iowa Basics test. What this means, is that test takers must spend a lot more time in SAT preparation than in ACT preparation.

Students will not increase their IQ scores in six weeks nor will they increase their SAT scores in six weeks. Not so with the ACT. ACT scores, based on knowledge acquisition more than critical problem solving, can be increased with the most basic review hours before the exam.

There are more similarities, however, than differences between the exams. Both are predominately math and verbal exams. The math on the ACT is somewhat more difficult, but it often is presented in math problem format (like the SAT). The verbal section is very similar—with a huge emphasis on critical reading and vocabulary. Even the ACT writing section is similar (although students will need to include a counter argument in the ACT to get a high score).

But the greatest similarity is in stress reduction. Stress reduction (in my book stress reduction is alleviated through Bible memory verse memorization and Scripture prayers) will increase immensely SAT and ACT scores.

In summary then, here are my conclusions:

  1. The ACT and SAT are very fine tests in so far as they predict fairly well the success of a college freshman.
  2. Home school students in particular are doing well on both. Students should probably take both the SAT and ACT.
  3. Most colleges prefer and some even require the SAT.
    4. The coaching resistant, critical thinking SAT requires a great deal of test preparation. The knowledge-based ACT requires a strong academic background, but no particular test taking skills. So it will require less preparation.
    5. At the same time, most of the components of both tests are similar, and, without a doubt, stress reduction preparation will boost scores on both tests.
    6. Therefore, why not kill two birds with one stone? Prepare for the SAT and students will be sure that they are ready for the ACT too!

    One final note: THE SAT AND COLLEGE PREPARATION COURSE (2009), with its emphasis on critical thinking, critical reading, math computation, and writing skills, therefore is really a preparation for the SAT and ACT. It is all students will need to prepare for both tests!