Among other things, like being a father and a coach, I have been an SAT tutor in New Jersey for the past sixteen years. Members of my “Class of 2007″ were recently admitted to schools that include Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Georgetown, NYU, Princeton, and UPENN. In my last post, I described the positive and negative aspects of traditional SAT prep services. My take on existing SAT prep products and services, in short, goes something like this: (more…)

SAT test preparation can be confusing and expensive. If you’re motivated, you can prepare yourself well for under $25. (See video post entitled “How You Can Prepare for the SAT on a $25 Budget”) If you are not super motivated or are willing to spend some more money, there are plenty of options. Below is my take on the options currently available. I hope my thoughts help you make informed decisions about how you can best prepare for the SAT.

The SAT Self-Help Book:

For between $15 and $30, a student can purchase a book that contains practice tests, answer keys and answer explanations.

• Positive Aspects: Self-help books are relatively inexpensive and, thus, very affordable.
• Negative Aspects: Self-help books tend to be dry (i.e., boring) and working through them is typically a very labor intensive process. The answer explanations contained in self-help books are static in nature, they often fail to offer adequate solutions and, for practical reasons, they typically present only one solution to each problem (even when multiple approaches are valid). An obvious shortcoming of self-help books is that they do not offer parent feedback.
• Conclusions: Self-help books are best suited for students who are extremely talented academically and extremely independent and motivated.

The SAT Prep Classroom Course:

For between $800 and $2,500, a student can (more…)

1. I saw ePrep Guest Expert Seamus Malin on TV yesterday. Seamus was part of ESPN’s presentation of the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool. I saw him during the halftime show. (Seamus, in addition to being a former administrator at Harvard University, is a world-famous soccer commentator.) Great job, Seamus.

2. Bob Bradley, my old soccer coach at Princeton University, was recently named Head Coach of the United States Men’s National Team. The team will attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Good luck, Bob.

3. The movie “Gracie” will be out in theaters across the United States starting on June 1. I actually play the referee in the movie, which has a sports/soccer theme. The movie was directed by Oscar-winning director, Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”). You can check out the trailer at www.graciemovie.com. Good luck to my friend, Andrew Shue, who produced the movie, which happens to be inspired by his family’s real life events.

Enough about soccer, back to the SAT.

Spring of junior year is typically the time students get really focused on the SAT and the ACT. What a lot of juniors don’t know, however, is that many selective colleges require applicants to have taken one or more SAT II Subject tests.

Since fall of senior year is typically packed with AP classes, extra-curricular and social activities, SAT I and/or ACT prep work, applications, etc., I advise most juniors I tutor to take one, two, or even three SAT II Subject tests in June. (more…)

Are you considering switching your child from public school to an independent school? Perhaps you are contemplating a change from one private school to another as your child transitions from middle school to high school. In either case, it’s never too early to start exploring resources and learning about potential new schools. In fact, late spring and early summer hold many opportunities that may not be found as easily next September.

In many ways, independent/private school admissions mirrors college admissions… (more…)

Our thoughts and prayers are with families and friends of Virginia Tech. We are all Hokies at this time.

According to an article appearing on the website examiner.com, some students in San Francisco have found a creative way to deal with college rejection letters; its called “Class Rejection Therapy.” Students brought their rejections letters to class where prizes were awarded in categories that included: The student who received the highest number of rejection letters and the college that distributed the most insincere rejection letter (Harvard). Students also reviewed rejection letters for the least number of words before the recipient knew that he/she was getting rejected. Sounds like the therapy session was a lot of fun.

Insidehighered.com featured an article today entitled Fooling the College Board. I thought it was very interesting. It’s about an MIT professor, Les Perelman, who allegedly trained a young adult to write a high-scoring essay that contained various types of errors, including misspellings and inaccurate facts. One of Professor Perelman’s points was that students can be trained to write essays that earn high scores without improving their writing skills in a meaningful way. In fact, Professor Perelman argues that the College Board’s essay requirement is doing damage because, instead of working to become better writers, students are spending time merely learning how to ace the SAT’s essay. (more…)

If you are not familiar with the term “holistic admissions”, you may want to read this article by Scott Jaschik. In short, holistic admissions refers to the efforts of some colleges to individualize the process they use to review applications. In essence, holistic admissions de-emphasizes grades and test scores. Advocates of the practice claim that its emphasis on the qualitative elements of an application can help admission staffers predict more accurately the academic success of applicants and their future contributions to society.

One of the students I tutored yesterday afternoon is a football player who will be attending an Ivy League school next year. He told me about an Ivy League football movie in the making and about a trailer for the movie. I did a little digging and found the trailer on ivysport.com. I am a little annoyed with fellow blogger, Eric Barnes, (just joking) who founded ivysport.com several years ago and neglected to tell me about the movie and the trailer. Anyway, you can access the trailer at www.ivysport.com by clicking on the image of the football-player gargoyle. Below is some additional information about the movie that I obtained from Eric.
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