Good Grades

The single most important part of your application is your program of study and your GRADES!

Choking: Testing and Performing Well Under Pressure

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   Have you ever choked on a big test? Have you ever done a bunch of practice tests and felt confident going into the SATs, ACTs, or a final, only to get far worse results on the actual exam? Have you ever missed a goal with a wide open net when the team was counting on you to put it in? Find out why and what you can do about it as Dr. Yo discusses the phenomenon of underperforming in high stakes situations with Dr. Sian Beilock, Ph.D., Professor of […]

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The PSATs Are OVER!…Now What?!

 tagged ACT / PSAT / SAT / standardized tests by

So you took the PSATs this past week. For many of you, sophomores and juniors alike, that began your foray into the wonderful world of high-stakes (college entrance exam) testing. That’s the bad news. The good news is that sophomores have a really long break before the next one (PLAN and/or Subject Tests next spring) and juniors get a little break in the otherwise nonstop bombardment that is the junior year in American high school. As far as standardized testing goes, the vast majority of juniors don’t sit for another exam until January (SATs) or February (ACTs). Some may choose to […]

Introducing CPE’s “Finishing Strong” Workshop

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It’s a fact that THE MOST important criterion for college admissions is your grades. And the most important quarter of the year for determining your final grades is the 4th quarter, i.e., now to the end of the year. Want to ensure you get the very best grades you can by staying focused, motivated, and on top of your final essays, projects, tests, and exams without having to pay for private tutoring? For as little as $27/hr (!!), enroll in CollegePrepExpress’s Finishing Strong Workshop today! What is CPE’s Finishing Strong Workshop? CollegePrepExpress’s Finishing Strong Workshop is a series of 4, […]

End-of-Year Tips for Juniors

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ATTENTION JUNIORS.  It’s that time on the academic calendar when most of the year’s grades are already in the books. March SAT scores just came in and this weekend marks the penultimate ACT exam of the year. Think there’s not much you can do between now and the end of the year to bolster your chances for college admissions? Think AGAIN! Grades Still Matter. The grades you earn between now and the end of the year are more important than those of any other time during the year, so muster that reserve energy and practice good study habits, and you will […]

The PSATs are Over!….Now What?

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So you took the PSATs this past week. For many juniors, so begins your foray into the wonderful world of high stakes, college admissions standardized testing. That’s the bad news. The good news, though, is that you get a little break in the otherwise nonstop bombardment that is the junior year in American high school. As far as standardized testing goes, the vast majority of juniors don’t sit for another exam until January (SATs) or February (ACTs).  At CollegePrepExpress, LLC, we advise most students to start with the SATs in January, and then alternate ACTs and SATs every month through June. (Click here […]

Using Mindfulness Techniques to Enhance Learning and Raise Test Scores

 tagged ACT / mindfulness / SAT / test anxiety by

“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will… An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.” – William James, 1890 Reducing stress and anxiety surrounding the entire college admissions process is so important at CollegePrepExpress that it’s part of our mission statement. A highly effective and increasingly popular set of techniques to reduce tension, heighten awareness and concentration, and instill a deep sense of well-being is MINDFULNESS.  Mindfulness techniques are now widely and successfully used in business, sports, health, and, slowly […]

Preparing for SAT Subject Tests

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Like I Need to Take Another Test? Why is taking SAT Subject Tests a good idea? Because they CAN help your admissions prospects, but they CANNOT hurt them. With the CollegeBoard’s Score Choice policy, you need release to colleges only those scores with which you’re happy. That’s true even if you take three tests on the same day and choose to release none, one, two, or all three.  It’s a bit different for the big SAT exam, but that’s the topic of a different blog (see SAT & ACT Score Reporting: Facts and Fiction). So if you’re on the fence about one or two […]

Quizlet.com: Fun, Free, and Effective

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I’m a self-proclaimed and sometimes evangelical technophile, but I’m willing to admit that twenty-first century educators can be guilty of using technology simply for the sake of using technology. Just because you can use computers to accomplish certain academic tasks doesn’t necessarily mean you should.  In some cases, old-fashioned technologies like paper and pen or—gasp!—paper and pencil are superior learning tools to laptops and the internet.  I discovered during my graduate studies that electronic devices are BEST used not when they simply replace old-fashioned technologies, but when they empower educators and students to teach and learn in ways that simply are not possible […]

Finishing STRONG!

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It’s easy to forget during spring standardized test crunch time—which would be, um, NOW—that the most important thing you can do to get into college is to earn the best grades you can in the most rigorous curriculum you can take. Here’s some good advice to remember down the stretch: Don’t forget. Conventional wisdom is that the first impression we make is the most important, but when it comes to grades, our LAST impression is the most LASTing. Take it from a 20+ year classroom teacher: When teachers go to enter students’ final grades, what we most remember is your most recent […]

Daily Diligence is the Key to College Admissions

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I last posted a blog in early November with a stern admonition not to fall into the abyss of the junior year Dark Ages. To move away from history and to borrow a metaphor from the sports world, if the fall is the pre-season and the winter the regular season, we are now at the beginning of the post-season.  And like any good sports team, you should be buckling down for your very best effort over the last few months of the school year. As for your academic performance, i.e., your grades (which are ALWAYS the first things admissions committees will […]

Shedding Light on the Dark Ages of Junior Year

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Back when I was in school, historians sometimes liked to call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages.  Although today’s historians might say such an appellation applies more to those who coined and used the term than the actual historical period, it was meant to suggest that during the Middle Ages—the period in Western History between Antiquity (Greeks and Romans) and the Renaissance—nothing very interesting happened.  Hence, it was dark. By analogy, the long period in the junior year sandwiched between Oct PSATs and winter/spring SATs/ACTs might well be called the Dark Ages of the Junior year. I see it happen […]

Back to School, Zen, and the Art of Bodysurfing

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One of my favorite things to do is to bodysurf.  I remember when my dad taught me how on a Florida vacation back in the early, gulp, 1970s.  He explained how good timing enables you to harness the full force of the swell just as the whitecaps begin to break at the crest of the wave.  If you jump too early or scramble to catch up, you’ll miss it: all the puny human exertion you can muster in the face of the wave’s power proves useless if you try to fight it.  The trick is to catch the wave just […]

Being Smart on Summer Vacation — Seniors Take Note

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It’s Saturday August 1 at this writing, but you won’t hear any talk from this educator about the end of summer. Not yet! The glass is still almost half full, and, as a 45-year old man, I put a lot of stock in the half that’s still there. Continue to beach it, golf it, camp it, work it– whatever you’re doing to recharge those batteries in preparation for the new school year. I apologize in advance for the length of this blog, but it’s all intended to help (okay, I’ll model some honesty here, and increase sales ;-)). Even though […]

Annual Summer Gratitude Sale

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On May 29, 2009 the Hartford Courant ran an article entitled, “SAT: Unfair? Elitist? Overrated? All Of The Above” (click here to read the whole thing).  It’s a fascinating piece about the efficacy of standardized test prep, the rising cost of such prep, and social justice. The author draws several conclusions: 1) “New research suggests that colleges pay even more attention to the dreaded SAT than we thought”; 2) test prep, like college, is expensive; and 3) test prep, if you can afford it, actually works. This is good news on all three counts at CollegePrepExpress.  While we don’t put much stock […]