Test Prep Classes

What’s Next After the PSAT for Juniors: SAT or ACT?

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For many CPE students, the answer is….YES! Please allow me to explain. You know how you can tell a really bad college advisor? S/he gives the same generic advice to every student regardless of college dreams/goals and level of academic and extracurricular achievement. AT CPE, we don’t do that. So to help begin answering the question of the moment—What’s Next After the PSAT for Juniors?—use the broad-strokes categories below. But also feel free to schedule a one-hour consultation with Dr. Yo to discuss specifics about your or your kid’s standardized testing strategies, overall academic program, and athletic/extracurricular/community service/school spirit goals. […]

How and Why the PSAT “Counts”

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As most of us know, applying to college back in the day—and by “the day” I mean right through the turn of the twenty-first century—was MUCH less complicated than it is today. We were instructed to aspire to become the “smart, well-rounded kids.” Do your best in school, play a couple of sports, and get involved in some extracurricular activities. Community service wasn’t a big college admissions deal yet. And standardized tests were in the dark ages: those of us on the East and West coasts took the SAT and those in the Midwest and South took the ACT—ONE OR […]

Shedding Light on the Dark Ages of Junior Year

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Back when I was in school, teachers sometimes liked to call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages.  Perhaps a misnomer, the term Dark Ages 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 as far as historians were concerned.  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 to well-intentioned, high-achieving students every year: not a lot going on in terms […]

Why CPE’s Super-Value Math Class (for SAT, ACT, Level 1 Subject Test, and Final Exam Prep) Is a Genius IDEA 

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   For further details on the class, visit our 4-in-1 Super Value Math page Dr. Yo’s 4-in-1 Super-Value Math Class is one of those rare gems that makes excellent sense for the vast majority of high school students. The problem is, most students and parents either don’t know that it exists, or they don’t immediately see how it can prove so tremendously beneficial in their particular case. The purpose of this blog post is to redress that unfortuante situation. The concept underpinning the class is to offer high school students in grades 9-12 instruction and practice on the SPECIFIC BODY OF MATHEMATICAL […]

How to Interpret PSAT Scores in the College Admissions Game and What They Mean for your Standardized Test-Taking Future

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It’s been about a month since your PSAT scores came back, so it’s high time you stepped out from the darkness of denial and into the light of Holy crap! Can I still get into college? Do they count? What do they mean? What’s with the funny scale? How do they translate to SAT scores? To ACT scores? Can I use them to decide whether I’d be better at SATs or ACTs? Am I having fun yet? Settle down, young grasshopper. We got you. Most importantly, the PSAT only counts if you do well :-). There’s no downside, no way […]

Dr. Yo’s Short- and Long-Term Steps to Higher SAT Scores

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There are basically two ways to prep for the SATs and ACTs, otherwise known as the college entrance exams: slow-and-steady and cram-like-hell. Know which one’s better? BOTH.  If your goal is to be competitive at the nation’s top colleges, I recommend you prep slow-and-steady over the long haul (one to two years for most) AND cram like hell at the end. For those with less ambitious goals or where there are constraints of time and/or budget, you may choose to select a one vs. the other approach. This week I offer you CollegePrepExpress’s plans for short- and long-term prep for the SAT for students sitting for the exam between October 2014 […]

5-Point Checklist to Prep for the ACT in a Week…or Less!

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If you’re taking the ACTs this weekend and haven’t been able to prepare as thoroughly as you’d like—understandable given the SATs and/or January midterms many of you faced—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. Whereas the SAT requires a huge chunk of STUDY time to master all the abstruse vocabulary (see what I did there?), ACT prep places a premium on taking […]

How to THINK about Math

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As a teacher of both English and Math for over two decades, I’ve had a unique opportunity to witness how the same student OFTEN thinks completely differently about math and EVERYTHING ELSE. Every year I work with really bright, hard-working students who exercise impressive critical thinking and cognitive firepower in the humanities and in life in general, but as soon as a problem is written down in a math book or on a math section of a standardized test, their IQ seems to fall precipitously as their eyes glaze over and their shoulders start to shrug. I’ll tell you, people, […]

3 Things to Do with Your Recently Arrived PSAT Scores

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 So your wake-up call came this week in the form of PSAT scores from the CollegeBoard. Now what? Decide whether you’re an SAT kid, an ACT kid, both, or neither. Because the PSAT is a really good indicator of how well you’d do on the SAT (just add a zero to each score; e.g., a 53 PSAT –> 530 SAT), we typically advise students take an ACT in December or February with which to compare to your PSAT results. Use any number of freely available conversion charts e.g., ACT’s charts, CollegeBoard’s charts) to help you decide how to allocate test-prep […]

FREE 30-min SAT Prep Class with Dr. Yo

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   NOTE THE DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM TUESDAY, 3/5 to THURSDAY, 3/7 to include a small live audience! Join Dr. Yo and a live audience of teen testers for an SAT review  session in preparation for the March 9 SAT. Have your Official CollegeBoard Study Guides handy and be prepared for a whirlwind tour of all the major strategies followed by a question-and-answer period. Dr. Yo will be happy to answer any questions about the exam, strategies, differences between the SAT and ACT, and any problems in the book […]

4 Tips to Make Your CommonApp UNcommon

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Even though many colleges have graciously extended 11/1 deadlines on account of Hurricane Sandy, many students and their parents (especially the latter) remain in get-it-done mode. While the desire to remove this stressful boulder from your shoulders is understandable, it can lead to eleventh-hour rushing, inattention to detail, and ultimately disappointing mail come mid-December. While I am a huge fan of the CommonApp in general, one of its potential pitfalls is that it’s a web form, which to the net-gen means it can be done really quickly. And, strictly speaking, it can. With simple check boxes, drop-downs, text boxes, and […]

The 2012 PSATs are Over!….Now What?

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Some of you took the PSAT on Wednesday this past week, and the rest of you will take it tomorrow. For many, so begins your foray into the wonderful world of high stakes, college admissions testing. That’s the bad news. The good news, though, is that you get a little standardized-test break in the otherwise nonstop bombardment that is the junior year in American high school. So what’s the next best move? Good question, glad you asked.  THREE suggestions: FOCUS ON YOUR SCHOOL WORK. Remember you’re in school primarily to, um, get an education. So buckle down and try that […]

Prepping and Cramming for the ACTs

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   How is the ACT different from the SAT? Can I cram for it in the last couple of weeks before the exam? Exactly what math topics and are NOT on the ACT? How can I prepare for the English, Reading, and Writing tests? Is the essay different from that of the SAT?What’s up with the whole SCIENCE section? If you have these and similar questions about the ACT, join Dr. Yo and his panel of teen experts—Mike Laffin (Connecticut College ’15), AJ Fusco (KO ’12, Lehigh ’16), and Alex […]

Five Ways to Make Standardized Tests More Fun

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Standardized test prep and fun are not terms that ordinarily mix. Students don’t typically associate studying vocab, taking practice tests, and getting ready for the high stakes exams with a party. Well guess what? Prepping for standardized test CAN BE FUN! Here are five ways:  1) Change your attitude. Like most activities in life, it all starts with your attitude. If you think studying for SATs/ACTs and taking practice tests will be dull, tedious, and otherwise painful, they will. On the other hand, if you look at these activities as opportunities to become a better all-around student, to raise your scores on tests that […]