Here’s my situation, i’m taking the SAT for the first time this October (gonna be a junior).

K, like I get really really good grades (everyone at my school thinks i’m a genius), but i can’t figure this SAT out. My parents are telling me that this is the last step before getting into an ivy leagure college or something..

I took the PSAT sophomore (and yes, i studied), and i my exact score was 189. 62 in reading, 57 in writing, and 70 in math.

Nowadays, (like i’ve taken more than 7 practice tests from books like official study guide and princeton), my score seems to near 190 STILL.

which is very very bad. I still make about a 70 in math, a 65 in writing, and a 55 in reading..!!! iono, it seems like my reading score dropped (but to tell u the truth, i got REAL lucky on the PSAT to get a 62).

so guys, experts, whatever, what should I do? I really really need at least a 2100. I used to think that i would be able to get a 2200 with some studying, but even that now seems like an unrealistic goal. Everyone i know think that i can ace the SAT without even studying…, this sucks.

help help help (oh yea, i’m self studying, don’t have the time for SAT classes and they don’t seem to help a lot of my friends)

and ps, for the reading, iono why i get a low score. i finish it on time, its just that the passages, and the vocab are hard to understand. I’ve always made an A in english… and i even studied flashcards just to improve on the reading section

please help..anyone. thanks!

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i am going to be a senior in september….but now that i have an option to apply for colleges in us i am going to take SAT test in january or december for the first and only time (i am alittle tight on finance and cant ask my parents to help cuz they already said no)
HOW DO I PREPARE FOR IT????????
as SAT score is not mandatory in the local colleges it isnt available in my schools so my school doesnt offer any prep either…and the prep centers dont start working with SAT until next july so i need to prepare myself in the next two to three months to take the test in december or january…sooo what do i do??? how do i prepare??? there arent many book stores around so i cant get my hands on the prep books…
(i had a hard time getting the SAT book i have)
are there any free online tests???
anywhere i can prepare for them????

please help me!!!
appreciate your time and help… thank you:)

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I have a 4.2 G.P.A. (taking AP courses allows you to get a GPA higher than 4.0) and I’m taking 6 AP courses. It’s very time consuming. I don’t go out like my friends do, I don’t go to clubs and partys because I hardly have time because of all the homework I have to do. Now its summer time and I still have to work because my parents bought me 6 thick SAT books they want me to work through.

I’m just thinking of taking normal classes because they are less time consuming and require less preparation. I just wanna be able to go out and have more free time and I don’t feel like working anymore. I could have so much more fun if I had more time.

What do you think I should do?

Technorati Tags: ap courses, free time, gpa, homework, parents, summer time

Isn’t 0-0 a bit extravagant? I know how the money has to pay for electric, water bills, the proctors and finally the people that own the company, but we shouldn’t have to pay since taxpayers’ money should go towards that. The classes are in total 40 hours, which means the students’ parents pay around -20 an hour. I know I’m just a high school kid (going to be a junior), so I don’t really understand the big picture, which is why I’m hoping someone could enlighten me. Shouldn’t the program be paid for by taxpayers’ money? Our money goes towards lots of crappy programs that aren’t really necessary for the well-being of the public. I mean like more than half the stuff I am currently learning in high school won’t benefit me for the SAT because on the first day of class, we took a practice SAT test, and I received a dismal 1,500…

These classes should be available as electives or extracurricular activities because my assumption is that the majority of students or their parents don’t have 0 lying around. Why do we even have to pay a fee just to take a test, i mean really? It’s like charging us a fee every two weeks when we have a test over the material we’re learning.

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I have a 4.2 G.P.A. (taking AP courses allows you to get a GPA higher than 4.0) and I’m taking 6 AP courses. It’s very time consuming. I don’t go out like my friends do, I don’t go to clubs and partys because I hardly have time because of all the homework I have to do. Now its summer time and I still have to work because my parents bought me 6 thick SAT books they want me to work through.

I’m just thinking of taking normal classes because they are less time consuming and require less preparation. I just wanna be able to go out and have more free time and I don’t feel like working anymore. I could have so much more fun if I had more time.

What do you think I should do?

Technorati Tags: ap courses, free time, gpa, homework, parents, summer time

Underperforming US Kids: Grave Concern for Parents & Educators

In the article titled “U.S. Teens Trail Peers Around World on Math-Science Test”, Washington Post elaborates the state of US students. CNN echoes the same in its article named “U.S. students behind in math, science, analysis says”.

These are just some of the articles that explain the growing concern among parents and educators in the United States. Isn’t it ironical that a country that is the most developed in the world fails to keep up with its counterparts as far as the school educational system is concerned?

A country’s future depends on the development of its children. Someone has rightly said “Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future”. The picture below taken from one of the articles on The New York Times is self explanatory:

According to the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the scores and rankings of 12 nations in the 2003 International Mathematics Assessments for Grades 4 and 8, US did not stand anywhere close to the top (read http://www.air.org/news/documents/Release200511math.htm).

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan did not shy from speaking the harsh truth in front of a room full of Math & Science experts of the National Science Board “We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways, I think we have become complacent. We’ve sort of lost our way”.

Developing nations like South Korea showed better results in the tests. All these have not alarmed just the academia in the United States, but also the business world that has started questioning America’s future on account of its faulty education system.

What are the causes behind the underperformance of US kids? Let us examine them one at a time.

Teaching Methodology

The way teachers teach Math and Science in schools in the US do not quite help kids develop interest in these subjects. Compared to Asian nations, US schools do not teach ‘real’ math until children reach upper grades.

Hatred for Math

Ask any child in the US about his take on Math and his expression would answer your question. American kids fear Math. Again, this is due to their disinterest in Math, which is due to ‘established prejudice’ and boring teaching techniques.

One Size Fit All approach of NCLB

Standardized tests have worsened education system in the US. Unless we try to access the child’s problem solving process, we cannot just measure his performance on the basis of some tests. Children, each one of them, have their own unique identity. Applying a one-for-all test pattern can NEVER improve the education system.

Blame-Games between educators and parents, educators and government make matter worse. It is time parents and educators sit together and ponder over the current scenario and work out ways to improve the same. Last but not least, let us not sing to the tunes of the No Child Left Behind Act. I am sure school administrators voice the same opinion. An Act that cannot do any good to the education system should not exist!

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I am a U.S. Citizen, but my first language was not English. My parents are from a foreign country and never was able to teach my English. I learned primarily through school and was in ESL for a while.. Reading is definitely not my strong point.

on the psat 10th grade (1st attempt) i got 162 (W:47 R: 52 M: 62)
on a practice psat test i got (W: 69 M: 64 R: 46) = 179

It does not seem I can improve my CR score but I really want to! I read and read but I just don’t get it! What are your suggestions and do you think it is still possible to get my reading score up 200 pts (~20) more or less? so i can achieve a 2000 sat score?
official psat was without practice then with some studying i got my writing up a lot more

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Why Parents and Students Are Choosing Distance Learning Courses Over Traditional Courses!

Many parents are not only themselves opting to take classes online but are also starting to sign their children up for study courses that they can participate in online. A major reason for this is that parents are taking more and more control over their children’s education. Distance learning courses allow them to find courses around the U.S. and the world that will enrich their child’s learning experience. With online learning study courses, children can work with expert tutors and teachers who live outside their cities, states and even countries. They can improve their foreign language skills with an educator who is a native speaker and can work with that tutor or teacher easily using new online technology. They can even work with expert tutors who specialize in certain subject areas, including the SAT and ACT, who have proven results helping students achieve their goals and who can easily use interactive online whiteboards to help them as well.

Formal distance learning courses are similar to traditional courses in that they require textbooks, are led by an instructor or homeschooling teacher, easily facilitate class discussions, and require writing assignments, quizzes and tests that are submitted online and then graded by the class teacher. Yet, in distance learning courses, students often develop a rapport with their homeschooling teachers, who because of the nature of homeschooling courses, can provide consistent one-on-one guidance that is not regularly offered in traditional course settings. The convenience of being able to work from the comfort of one’s home instead of having to drive through traffic also makes distance learning courses a great choice for parents who usually have many extracurricular activities to juggle within their households.

Students also often find it less intimidating working online with teachers and tutors during distance learning courses and study courses. Questions that a student may not feel comfortable asking in a traditional environment in front of many other students can be immediately asked during one-on-one conversations with their homeschooling teacher, course facilitator, or tutor. This maximizes the amount of knowledge the student can gain from the course and helps him or her to not continue on to the next course the following the year without fully understanding key concepts required in the next class but never clarified in the preceding one.

Working in an online environment through distance learning courses and study courses also helps improve the student’s technological ability, and many students who enjoy working with technology love that they can engage with other students and teachers around the country and the world. Homeschooling teachers for distance course learning courses, which often provide discussion forums, ensure that students interact with each other. This introduces students to other children their age who live in other places. For example, a child living in California can take a study course with a child their age who lives in Nebraska or perhaps even in England, for example. In addition, parents can sit in on any and all classes and tutoring sessions and monitor them as well as their child’s progress. Sitting in on a class, of course, can be extremely difficult in traditional school settings.

Study courses administered online are becoming extremely popular. More and more universities are developing and expanding their catalogue of distance learning courses, allowing students to take courses at prestigious universities that before they would never have the opportunity to take because they reside far away from the campus.

Distance learning courses can often require a lot of work, but students can manage the coursework and also find that they gain a great deal of knowledge from these courses. High school students can benefit from taking distance learning courses and study courses online and working with university or homeschooling teachers who will help ensure that they receive a thorough education in the subject in which they are studying.

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Making the School Year Successful and Stress Free, Parent’s Guide to Ensure Their Children’s Success

—>Yogi Parenting: More Joy (latest verstion)

With the conclusion of summer comes the inevitable stress of getting your children arrange in favor of an extra instruct time. This, of track, is stressful in favor of parents, children, siblings, and even grandparents. We all anticipation with the aim of our kids preference take place safe, get serious teachers, and act well in the sphere of instruct. Under are more or less things to consider in the sphere of order to help your baby get a booming instruct time.

1. Complete not compare children to siblings. Dwell in act better in the sphere of distinct areas and it is testing to live up to unrealistic expectations. Children are folks and ought to solitary take place encouraged to act to the preeminent of their facility. In favor of more or less, with the aim of might take place a 95 usual, while in favor of others, it might take place a 75 usual.

2. Celebrate all and each unquestionable instant and downplay the negatives. Nothing puts a baby in the sphere of close the shutters down mode new quickly than being scolded in favor of bad grades or else incomplete research assignments. Understand with the aim of students who struggle are looking in favor of an excuse to block off working altogether. Too often, parents provide with the aim of excuse by yelling, taking away privileges, and making the baby feel worse than he or else she already feels. You need to get back old hat what did you say? The delinquent is in the past you can establish it. Are the assignments too testing? Has your baby passed on in favor of in addition help? Get you contacted the teacher? Is a tutor crucial? You need to amble in the past you run and you have to besides investigate in the past you “fly rancid the handle”. Catch your kids liability something fine!

3. Program up a propose. Don’t take privileges away; add new privileges into the mix. Not solitary does this help to motivate your baby, but he preference certainly think you get passed on crazy and the shock on your own preference throw him to the books! If your baby wants complimentary spell of 20 minutes, say “NO, you can get 45 minutes but solitary past your exert yourself is made.” Students ought to take undersized breaks from exert yourself each 20 minutes in the sphere of order to re-energize. Breaks ought to take place taken away from the study area. Such as the instruct time progresses, you can wean the rewards. Many dwell in think this is bribery but it is not. Noticeably you are ready to create your baby a excellent while let him or else her know with the aim of whether they require the complimentary spell or else not, the exert yourself have to grow made. In addition privileges are simply a bonus.

4. Don’t OVERHELP! Of track near is rebuff such word such as overhelp, but so many parents fall into this con with the aim of I unambiguous to cause it up. Enabling is a enormous inaccuracy. Students realize by figuring things old hat in favor of themselves. They complete NOT realize by characters down regurgitated data with the aim of they recite from their parents. Don’t caution, ASK. If your baby asks in favor of the investment of contemporary York say, “What complete you think it is? Someplace can you look up the answer to with the aim of question?”

—>Less Stress Parenting (latest verstion)

5. Grow them well thought-out. Depending on the level, students exert yourself preeminent in the sphere of looseleaf notebooks. Spiral notebooks cause it testing to save exert yourself as it is returned. Spiral notebooks besides force children to lob their exert yourself in the sphere of a folder which gets very unsystematic. All ID ought to get your child’s celebrity and blind date. The notebook ought to get distinct sections. Examples of appropriate sections are Classwork, research, Tests and Quizzes. Students need to realize with the aim of as studying in favor of a section test, they can appraisal all applicable classwork, research, and quizzes in the sphere of order to appraisal material with the aim of they get learned. Supply them with a holepuncher in favor of teacher assistance so they can take place placed CHRONOLOGICALLY in the sphere of the proper section of the notebook.

6. Communicate. You ought to have a word on the phone, via email or else snail mail with your child’s teacher such as often such as on the cards. Progress reports happen old hat each five weeks and by in that case partly the quarter is in excess of and this is too later than usual. Look by your child’s grades and tests each so often WITH your baby. Complete NOT cause no observations. Your baby ought to county show you all contact of his or else her notebook and explain to YOU how the notebook is well thought-out. Don’t say, “This notebook is a untidiness.” as a replacement for, say, “This is a respectable start but what did you say? Can you complete to cause this even better?” (Warning: If you touch a chord your child’s notebook you preference grow the cooties so stay away)

7. Don’t compare. If your child’s lonely is getting a superior grade in the sphere of a order than your baby, with the aim of has rebuff influence on your child’s performance. All children realize in the sphere of distinct ways. Near are a variety of modalities with which children realize and more or less children react better to one teachers and act differently in the sphere of one subjects.

8. Clean Learning seat. A child’s desk ought to take place neat, well lit, get a semi-comfortable chair. Rebuff studying ought to take place in the sphere of bed. Pens, erasers, pencils, paper, paper clips, stapler…All ought to take place surrounded by scope.

9. If you need to take your child’s cell phone in study spell in that case complete it. You are paying the cost so you cause the rules. If you need the central processing unit rancid as your baby is studying in that case complete it. Otherwise text messages and instantaneous messages preference declare their universe. Near are far too many distractions in the sphere of our society and while you can’t until the end of time limit folks outside of your abode, you can certainly control them inside your own in.

10. Team effort. If your baby is to succeed, he or else she needs you, the teacher, and individual allegiance to exert yourself fast. You have to program expectations from top to bottom and excluding rebuff a smaller amount than 100% effort. You need to all exert yourself composed with your baby on a each day basis in the sphere of order to succeed. If grades start to fall or else problems take place, you have to acquit yourself suddenly and take place in the sphere of well thought-out mode, not panic mode.

If on the cards, it is a respectable point to visit colleges with your baby at this moment. If a baby is solitary ten years old this is still a serious spell to assent to them check what did you say? Fast exert yourself can accomplish. Near is nothing like the look on a ten time old’s realize as he or else she sees a college files, swimming pool or else sports club.

Preeminent of providence in favor of a booming and stress complimentary instruct time.

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Busy Parent’s Guide to Smart Babies – Part 1

Are you juggling career and family? Do you find your free time stretched between your baby and older children? If you think you’re too busy to learn about early education, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to pick up the basics in less than 10 minutes.

Why is early learning important?

The first years of life lay the neurological foundation for intellectual growth into adolescence and adulthood. This time represents a unique window of opportunity for learning.

Each of the brain’s neurons is connected to roughly 5,000 others. In general, the more dendrites (branches between neurons) and synapses (connections between neurons) the brain has, the greater its processing power. More pathways mean information can travel in a number of ways, opening the door to faster and more complex thinking.

This is true in the adult, but not in the infant. Your baby’s brain actually has more neurons and synapses than yours – but only because it hasn’t passed an important developmental stage, known as pruning, in which the brain deletes unneeded neural connections in the interests of organization and efficiency.

“Use it or lose it”

The process of pruning is illustrative of the high plasticity (adaptability) of young brains, which are literally sculpted by the environments in which they are raised. Scientific testing of how exactly experience shapes the brain has led to the theory of “critical periods” – specific time periods in which stimulation must occur, or the chance to develop normal functioning will be lost.

The same principle holds true in humans. Scientists have discovered, for instance, that certain areas of the brain are larger and more developed in children who play musical instruments than in those who do not. These include the cerebellum, which processes rhythm and timing, and the corpus callosum, which acts as the conduit for communication between the brain’s left and right hemispheres – vital for musicians coordinating their right and left hands.

Sowing the seeds of intelligence

Early learning programs such as Head Start in the US are producing measurable cognitive and emotional benefits in children – benefits that can last into middle and even high school. In general, the younger intervention is staged, the more significant and long-lived the effects. Full-day educational programs for infants have been shown to produce IQ gains lasting into adolescence.

The question is: why only provide such positive stimulation to children from disadvantaged backgrounds?

Many leading childhood development experts believe that we all have far greater potential in our early years than society gives us credit for. Waiting until school to begin providing consistent intellectual stimulation to a child is no disaster. But in doing so, we miss a unique window of opportunity for learning.

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