In many ways, independent/private school admissions mirrors college admissions… — timelines are similar, both applications generally require personal statements, transcripts, testing and teacher recommendations, and on-campus interviews play an important role in helping both the school and the family decide if they are a good fit. The independent school admission process, like that of selective colleges, involves a level of competition that should not be ignored. With enough time and good planning, however, your family’s experience can be relatively stress-free and even enjoyable! Whatever the outcome, you will learn an enormous amount about your child through the process.

Whether you are considering kindergarten or high school for your child, now is a great time to learn about different schools that suit your child’s personality and needs. If you are new to the independent school scene, you should explore www.nais.org, a helpful website that is sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools. The site provides all visitors with access to a database of over 1100 schools throughout the country. Alternatively, the Association of Boarding Schools hosts a website at www.schools.com that focuses exclusively on boarding schools. In addition, Peterson’s Guide to Private Secondary Schools is a useful book that can be found in libraries and bookstores.

Late spring and early summer are great times to visit schools and collect brochures. Unlike autumn tours, when both students and teachers are new to their settings, a springtime tour can yield important information on the true character and functioning of a school. By late spring, routines have been established and teachers and students are fully engaged in the process of teaching and learning. This is also the time of year when school activities such as theater and music productions are plentiful. It can be fun and informative to attend a performance or game to check out the talent and resources of a school. If you are unable to visit a particular school, you should call for admissions material and explore the school’s website. If you decide to add yourself to the school’s mailing list, you will receive important information on scheduled Open Houses and other events open to the public.

Starting in the spring will also allow you to conveniently solicit advice from your child’s current teachers. These teachers, having taught your child for almost a full school year, will be able to accurately assess your child’s current strengths and weaknesses and offer ideas on the types of environments that seem most conducive to the future success of your child. Furthermore, talking openly with your child’s teacher now can make a big difference when it comes time to ask for teacher recommendations.

Getting an early start is beneficial in many ways. Although application deadlines may be a full 9 months away, it’s never too early to start school lists. You can also plan summer activities that will enhance your child’s academic and extracurricular experiences. Most importantly though, starting now opens up the dialogue with your child and begins a planning process that can take shape over the summer months.

The Post Graduate Year (trascript)

I want to talk to you about something called a post graduate year of high school. It is otherwise known as a “PG year.” When I was a kid I had no idea what a PG year was. However, as an adult I accepted a teaching position at a private school that regularly accepted post-graduate students. That was when I first learned about PGs and PG years. So here’s the deal. A lot of kids try their best in high school and apply to amazing schools. Unfortunately, many fail to gain admission at the schools they really want to attend.

Rather than enroll at a “safety school” or a school they are not thrilled about, some kids decide to do a post graduate year. In other words, rather than enroll at a college they are not happy with, they go and take an extra year of high school at a private high school. This extra year of study, again, is called a post graduate year. During a PG year the fifth-year student is a student like everyone else. However, the PG usually has a reduced course load to make time for other important activities. (By the way, a typical high school senior will take six to seven classes, while a typical PG takes four or five.)

PGs use (or at least they are supposed to use) the extra time during the academic year to, among other things, improve their standardized test scores — usually the ACT or the SAT. Additionally, if they are athletes or participants in other extracurricular activities, they try to hone those extracurricular skills with the hope of getting recruited more seriously by their first-choice colleges.

I have seen a lot of kids over the years apply to colleges with high hopes and expectations. Unfortunately, many get disappointed when they realize how competitive the process really is. Again, rather than settle, they do a PG year. In my experience, limited thought it may be, most kids look back and say that taking the extra year was probably the best thing they could have done for themselves. I look back on my high school and college careers and, to be honest, I think I could have used an extra year before college to mature. Don’t get me wrong; I did get into a great college, but I think I was pretty immature when I arrived as a freshman. If I had taken a PG year, I probably would have gotten more out of my four years in college.

A lot of kids are really immature at the age of 18 and they think, “My entire class is moving on to college; my whole senior class will become freshmen next year and, if I do a PG year, I will fall behind everyone else.” My response is this: Don’t worry about that and don’t think like that. Most of the people that you were friends with in high school you are not going to see again regularly anyway. High school offers a clean break. As your classmates go off in their own directions, don’t be afraid to do the same. The bottom line is this: whether you finish college at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three is immaterial. Put another way, your age at retirement is not likely to depend on whether you graduated from college and began working at the age of 22 or 23. You have decades to work after college.

If taking a PG year means possibly getting into the school you really want to go to, I think it is worth it. There you have it; you now know what a PG year is. Welcome to the club. Think about it; it might be something you can take advantage of and it might, ultimately, change the course of the rest of your life for the better.

Karl Schellscheidt
ePrep, Inc.

http://blog.eprep.com

This leads me to this gem of a video recently posted on YouTube, which lampoons this professionalization of admissions. Entitled “Saplan Test Prep Course” (mocking the well known test-prep firm Kaplan), the video ridicules the college-planning corporate-machine that can deliver your college dreams, but at what cost? That is a subjective question….

Students in the 10th and 11th grades will take the “Upper Level” SSAT test, which is geared toward students in grades 8 all the way up to grade 11 (Junior Year). Join me in this video as I discuss what you can expect on the SSAT.

SSAT Test Prep for 10th and 11th Graders (transcript)

First bit of advice: don’t stress out about the test; it is not that big a deal. The SSAT is not going to make or break you in the admissions process. Just go in, do the best you can and be done with it. Your parents are going to love you regardless of how you do on test day!

You guys have to understand that you are taking the upper level test. The upper level SSAT test has been designed to challenge 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. You are at the higher end of that. You will be taking a test that also challenges 8th and 9th graders. The material for 8th and 9th graders will come at the beginning of each section. Therefore, when you take the test you are likely to blow through the first half or the first two thirds of any given section. You are going to get through that initial material very quickly.

You are going to have a lot of time for the material at the end. That part of the test has been designed to challenge you. So when you get to the end of the test, be alert. Hopefully you are in a good groove by then and warmed up. Throw everything you have into it. Just skip the ones you can not answer. Do not start guessing wildly.

What is likely to happen is this: You are going to get through to the last question and feel like you have 5 or 10 minutes left before time is going to be called. This is what I have seen a lot of older kids do: They wind up going back to the questions at the beginning and re-thinking and misinterpreting them. They end up changing some answers and messing up on the SSAT scores.

Remember, this test has been designed to challenge 8th and 9th graders and they are given the same amount of time as you! That is probably the appropriate time for them but too much time for you. So when you get to the end and you have that extra 5 or 10 minutes, please do not go back and start changing right answers to wrong answers. You are probably better off just putting your head down, relaxing and waiting for time to be called. Then you pick your head up and you dig right into the next section. That is the way you can maximize your SSAT score.

Karl Schellscheidt
ePrep
www.eprep.com

Copyright 2006 — All Rights Reserved, ePrep, Inc.

Students in the 8th and 9th grades will take the “Upper Level” SSAT test, which is geared toward students in grades 8 all the way up to grade 11 (Junior Year). Thus, you can expect the test to be challenging. Join me in this video as I discuss what you can expect on the SSAT.

SSAT Test Prep for 8th and 9th Graders (transcript)

Parents of 8th and 9th graders, welcome!

First bit of advice is this – do not stress out about the test. If you get anxious and stressed about the test, your child is going to pick up on that and they are going to get anxious and stressed out. It is definitely not going to help them. Downplay the importance of the test. It is not going to make or break them in the admissions process. Just let them know they should go in, try the best you can and you are going to love them regardless of how they do on the test.

Now you should understand that your child is going to be taking the upper level test. Now the upper level test has been designed to challenge 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. What that means is your child is going to have a relatively easy time with the problems at the beginning of any given section. It may get challenging towards the middle but when they get to the end of a section they will be confronted with the problems that were designed to challenge the older kids (the 10th and 11th graders). So it is important to make it clear to an 8th and 9th grader that when they take the they are going to be taking a test that ha been designed for kids in a four year range.

So when they get to the end of a section and it starts getting too difficult for them – they should not stress out and they should not start guessing. The problems that they do not understand should be left blank. They should just let it go and not stress out about it. When they get they get back the scores and they get a percentile rank; they are going to be ranked relative to other kids in their grade. If you are the parent of an 8th grade boy for example: When he gets his percentile score back it is only going to give you an idea of how he did relative other 8th grade boys on the day he took the test and the prior two year period. So they break it down by grade and they break it down by gender. So as long as he is at the top of the 8th grade boy category, he is going to do fine regardless of how questions many he leaves blank at the end. So if you want to help your child maximize his/her score, make sure they understand that they are going to get a lot of problems at the end they may not be able to do. Importantly, instead of guessing they should leave them blank. That is the way they maximize their score.

Karl Schellscheidt
ePrep
www.eprep.com

Copyright 2006 — All Rights Reserved, ePrep, Inc.

SSAT Test Prep for 7th Graders (transcript)
Parents of 7th Graders, welcome!
First bit of advice is this — relax, don’t stress out about the test. If you get anxious about the test, your child’s going to pick up on that and they’re going to get anxious too. Downplay the importance of the test. It’s not a big deal – it’s not going to make or break them in the admissions process. They should just go in and do the best they can. You’re going to love them regardless of how they do and it’s all going to be good in the end!

The thing that I want to make very clear to the parents of 7th graders is this: You’re child will be taking the lower level test and that test has been designed to challenge 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. Because a lot of the questions are geared towards 5th and 6th graders, your child is likely to blow through the beginning part of each section. Not until the very end of the section will they get problems that challenge them in any way.

So what happens is this, they’re going to blow through the beginning so fast that they’re going to have a lot of time towards the end of the test. This is what I’ve seen especially of a lot of 7th graders: They go in and they blow through the beginning of the SSAT. Then they have a handful of problems to do at the end with plenty of time. Once they get through those problems they have to skip some, they get others, and what they do is that they find themselves with 5 or 10 minutes left on their hands with not a whole lot left to do. Instead of putting their head down and relaxing and getting ready for the next section, a lot of kids make the mistake of going back to problems in the beginning! They’ve done well but end up kind of rethinking, tinkering, and second guessing themselves, so they wind up changing right answers to wrong answers and ultimately lowering their score.

So make sure you make it clear to your child, who’s a 7th grader, that they may feel the luxury of time on the SSAT. If they have a 5 or 10 minute period at the end with not a whole lot to do, instead of going back and changing a lot of answers and winding up with a lower score, they should probably just let it go. Put their head down, relax, and get ready for the next section. That’s the way they can maximize their score.

Karl Schellscheidt
ePrep
www.eprep.com

Copyright 2006 — All Rights Reserved, ePrep, Inc.

Unlike the SAT test, the SSAT is given to students at two (2) levels:

1) Lower (for students currently in grades 5-7)
2) Upper (for students currently in grades 8-11)

As you might imagine, the wide range of grade levels in both the Lower and Upper versions of the SSAT test creates different sorts of test preparation challenges for students in all grades. Join me in this four (4) part series which gives an overview of what to expect at each grade level.

SSAT Test Prep for 5th and 6th Graders (transcript)

Parents of 5th and 6th graders, welcome!

First thing to remember is this — don’t stress out, just relax. If you’re stressed out about the test your child’s going to pick up on that and they’re going to get stressed out. That’s certainly not going to help them! Downplay the importance of the test, it’s not going to make or break them in the admissions process. Tell them to go in, give it their best shot, and not worry about it. You’re going to love them when they come home regardless of what happens.

The first formal bit of information that you need to know is this, the test that your child is going to be taking is the lower level test. That test has been designed to challenge 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. So what’s going to happen is this:

Your child is going to start a section, they’re going to be feeling pretty good, and they’ll be getting a lot of questions right. Towards the end of a given section is when the child’s going to see a lot of problems that were designed to challenge the older kids. When they get to the end of a section, they’re not going to be able to get those answers.

They should not start guessing wildly. Please tell your child to expect to leave a lot of blanks at the end of each section. It’s not a big deal. When they get their percentile score back they’re only going to be ranked against students in their own age group, same grade and also same the same gender.

So if you’re the parent of a 5th grade girl and she goes in, her percentile score back is going to be based on how she did relative to other 5th grade girls on the day she took the test and for the prior two years. That’s what the percentile rank is all about and it will even things out. So again, it’s one test for 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. If you’re the parent of a 5th or 6th grader there’s likely to be a sea of many problems towards the end of each section that they can’t do. They’re not going to be able to get the answer. Make sure they skip it and they feel comfortable about skipping. This should not stress them out.

Last bit of advice for the parents of the 5th and 6th graders is this, before the test even begins a lot of kids get rattled and this is what happens:

They’re asked to answer their last name, their first name, their middle initial, their address and information of that nature. When you get to the first name, a lot of hands go up and kids will often say things like, “Well my name is William but everybody calls me Billy. What should I put down Billy or William?”

The answer is they should put down the name that is found on their admissions ticket. Whatever name you sign them up as is the name they should enter on test day. The other one that a lot of kids don’t know is their zip code and they feel weird raising their hand and asking the administrator what their zip code is. So make sure your child knows their zip code. The last one is the month of their birth in numerical form. So if they’re born in April they’re going to have to enter a 04 for April, if they’re born in December a 12 for December. So make sure your child knows the number that corresponds with the month of their birth. If you give them those bits of information and a heads up on that, it will help reduce anxiety before the test begins.

Again, when the test begins make sure they know that they’re likely going to have to leave a lot of blanks at the end. It’s not a big deal. They’re only being judged against kids their same gender and same grade. If they know that I think they’ll have a pleasant experience, you’ll have a pleasant experience, and they’ll maximize their score!

Karl Schellscheidt
ePrep
www.eprep.com

Copyright 2006 — All Rights Reserved, ePrep, Inc.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. Maybe we aren’t pushing our kids hard enough