Stress reduction


12 Hot Tips for SAT and ACT Game Day

If you’ve been preparing over weeks or months for an ACT and/or SAT, then you’ve probably spent most of your time learning and reviewing all the math and English grammar covered on them. If you’re shooting for a competitive score at the most selective colleges on your list, I bet you’ve also been taking practice tests to develop effective strategies and recognize common question types. In the end, your SAT or ACT score won’t likely correlate with any meaningful aspect of your future, but it WILL be an accurate measure of two things: knowledge of highly refined academic material and […]


Old Class, New Format, Still FREE! Mindfulness-Based Academic Stress & Test Anxiety Reduction Workshop

The format has morphed, but the class in hardly new. Resuming Wednesdays on Jan 5, 2022, Dr. Yo will present and help students practice well-researched and effective techniques to stay focused, in-the-moment, and in control of their thoughts!   Come to one, or come to one a week, always FREE.   Wednesdays nights 7-8pm ET.   Click for FREE Registration


Working & Fighting With the CommonApp

(Please note there’s about 30 seconds of dead air before this episode begins….) Popular Education Internet Radio with CollegePrepExpress on BlogTalkRadio How frustrated have yo been trying to exercise patience while working with the NEW CommonApp? Are you ready to scream? Throw your computer out the window? Relax, Dr. Yo and his team of teen experts from Kingswood Oxford School and Conard High School and an experienced mom, Kate Cryan, will pass along tips and tricks to taming this beast and to answering as many questions as they can in 30 minutes on the air. Ok, and we might just […]


Winning the Battle of CommonApp ’13

If you’re a high school senior, the last few weeks might have been more fraught than you’d anticipated, even taking into account that college application season is never a relaxed time. Halloween party planning or watching the Red Sox’ march to victory in the World Series could have taken a back seat while, instead, you spent your evenings in front of the computer, watching the Spinning Beach Ball of Death on the screen and hoping that – this time, please, please, please – the CommonApp would cooperate and accept your college application before the deadline. Or before you hurled your […]


Got ACT on 9/21? 5 Tips for Cramming

If you’re taking the ACT next weekend and haven’t been able to prepare as thoroughly as you’d like—hey, we understand, end of summer, start of school, yada yada yada—do not despair. Because there’s no vocabulary on the exam, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time studying as you do for the SAT. The ACT is, in fact, a much more “beatable” test than the SAT, especially when time is short. There are two bodies of material you need to know: math (key topics in Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and a wee bit of Trig) and 10 key […]


Choking: Testing and Performing Well Under Pressure

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 […]


10 Tips for SAT/ACT Game Day

With the junior SAT (January, March and May/June) and ACT (February, April, and June) season upon us, I thought students could use some Game Day Tips. Hopefully you’ve been taking practice tests, reviewing items you’ve gotten wrong or left blank (only on SAT, since you NEVER leave an ACT question blank :-)), and studying the material you need to learn.  If you haven’t been, stop what you’re doing and call CollegePrepExpress at 860-519-1000: do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not even finish this blog. But seriously, as Game Day approaches, here are some valuable tips for squeezing out your maximum […]


Managing Stress in the College Admissions Game

Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   Join me and stress-management expert and author, Gena Rotas, LICSW, as we discuss a mindfulness-based approach to the entire college admissions process. Topics include:   Stressors in the College Admissions Process Why you NEED to be stress-free Brain Chemistry and MENSA Skills Managing general stress & anxiety Magic of breathing Power of meditation Mindfulness techniques Managing interviews, auditions and other “hot-seat” stressors Developing a Teen Self-Care Plan   And, of course, we invite YOU to pose questions and offer comments when you call into the show live or post […]


Preparing for Final Exams

Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   Dr. Yo is joined by teen experts Sam Udolf (KO 2012) and Michelle Dicke (Bristow 2015) as they discuss how best to get ready for finals and manage the stress and anxiety that tend to go with them. SaveSave


Using Mindfulness Techniques to Enhance Learning and Raise Test Scores

“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 […]


Shedding Light on the Dark Ages of Junior Year

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

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 […]


Preparation for Standardized Test Game Day

October marks the first big month of standardized testing for college bound juniors and seniors.  SATs, SAT Subject Tests, PSATs, and ACTs are all given this month.  Hopefully, you have been taking practice tests, going over every item you got wrong or left blank, and studying the material you need to learn.  If you haven’t been, stop what you’re doing and callCollegePrepExpress at 413-329-7540: do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not even finish this blog. No seriously, as your game day approaches, here are some valuable tips for squeezing out your maximum score on whatever exam you’re taking: […]


Reducing Stress is Part of Our Mission 2

In my very first blog entry back in May, I discussed the importance of stress reduction for students and their families throughout the entire admissions process, and how CollegePrepExpress can help.  With each passing day we seem to be hearing more and more about the adverse effects of stress on general health, productivity, and, of course, peace of mind. Not surprisingly, then, among the daily studies flooding this discourse on the evils of high stress are those suggesting a high correlation between stress reduction and academic success.  This is perhaps particularly true of high-stakes exams, like the SATs and ACTs, where […]


Reducing Stress is Part of Our Mission

Did you catch the FRONT PAGE of last week’s Wall Street Journal? (click here for full article).  The press has made it clear that 2008 has been the most competitive year ever for college admissions, with 2009 promising to be even worse. Junior year has always been a notorious rite of passage: the hardest classes, most demanding teachers, grades counting the most, and, oh yeah, standardized tests.  In September everyone’s talking about how college admissions committees look most closely at junior year grades, PSATs come up fast in October, and the work and pressure keep mounting through SATs, ACTs, Subject Tests […]