Mindfulness

Shedding Light on the Dark Ages of Junior Year

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Back when I was in high school, revisionist history notwithstanding, teachers sometimes referred to 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 European Renaissance—nothing very interesting happened as far as historians were concerned. Hence, it was dark. (Sidebar: Readers of Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior know there’s something interesting happening every moment, but the term was coined long before the book was written ;-)). By analogy, the long period in the junior year sandwiched between […]

Dr. Yo’s 3 Tips for School Supplies

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Quick word about school supplies. ‘Tis the season, fa la la la la. Here are Dr. Yo’s guidelines for purchasing school supplies: If your teachers recommend certain types of notebooks, paper, and other school supplies, always get what they want. It shows respect, willingness to learn their way, and who knows, they might actually have a good reason :-). If you haven’t done it their  way before, don’t prejudge – give it a shot. If you know what organizational scheme works best for your learning style (either because you’re an older high school student or a younger precocious student who uses words […]

Got ACT Soon? 5 Tips for Cramming

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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 school, start of summer, yada yada yada—do not despair. You don’t need to spend nearly as much time prepping 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 Arithmetic, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and ~15% of Precalc) and 10 key grammar rules. Send us a text @ 413-329-7540 […]

Summer Strategies for High School Students

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With standardized test preparation, application writing, and summer reading assignments ramping up as the fall looms on the distant horizon, summer is no time to go academically soft. Just as athletes lose ground without regular practice and training, students can forget math facts and vocabulary words, or begin to slip in writing skills and study habits, if they aren’t intellectually challenged through the summer months. There are three specific areas in which students can get substantially ahead during the school break: standardized test preparation, academic (math, English, and other study) skills, and summer reading. Prepping for Standardized Tests Junior year […]

Writing College Applications in the Sweet Spot: June, July & August

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Many college-bound students make one of two critical mistakes when it comes time to thinking through and writing college applications: they do it too soon, or they do it too late.  Too soon, you say? Clearly you haven’t met my mother. Is there really such a thing? Yes, there really is. Emphatically so. Many high school teachers and administrators, both public and private, do their juniors a disservice when they stress them out about writing college applications during the spring of junior year. It’s one thing to go through the personal essay prompts and even write a MOCK essay for the […]

Six Quality Summer Activities for Success in the College Admissions Game

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Ah, summertime. The long awaited break from the rigors of academia during the seemingly interminable haul between September and June. Time to sleep in every day and finally get to new levels in all your favorite video games and indulge all your other couch potato fantasies.  Right? Um, wrong! The last thing you want to do in the college admissions game is be a complete couch potato over the whole summer. There are plenty of productive, meaningful, and FUN things to do between final exams and back-to-school BBQs that will give you a feeling of accomplishment AND impress college admissions […]

12 Hot Tips for SAT and ACT Game Day

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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 […]

A1 Tip for High School Success and College Admissions

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If you’ve done any reading at all about writing compelling applications to college, whether on this blog (see, for example, Passion Is No Ordinary Word) or elsewhere, you know that the number one buzz word is passion. People are passionate about millions of things, from ideas and principles to sports and other collaborative activities to music and other performing arts to computers and technology to volunteer work and community service and on and on), but all these varied manifestations of passion share one thing in common: a deep commitment, a visceral inclination, a kind of love. Admissions committees can tell […]

Be Mindful of When You Choose Not to Be

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Be Mindful, But Give Yourself a Break In his beautiful compendium of teachings, Peace Is Every Step, Vietnamese Mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh gives us the secret to finding happiness every instant of every day. “Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.” The whole book, as well as Thich Nhat Hanh’s other Mindfulness teachings, is all about what it means to be awake, alive in the present moment. Through meditation and focused awareness of what’s going on in our bodies, starting with […]

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. […]

4 Tips for Using Your Vacation Wisely to Prep for Winter and Spring SATs, ACTs, and SSATs

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You’ve worked hard this semester—or at least that’s what you’ve told your parents ;-). You deserve a relaxing vacation, and at CPE we wish you a great time skiing, beaching, playing, hanging, reading, vegging, keeping your mask on and social distancing from others, and whatever else you like to do to unwind and recharge your batteries for the second semester. If you’re facing February-June SATs, ACTs, or SSATs (see dates here) and you’re honest with yourself, you know you can have a kick-butt vacation, do all the things you want to do, and/or spend LOTS of time doing nothing at […]

Why the PSAT is More Important than Ever

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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 simply to be “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 THE […]

Leaving Soon for College? Dr. Yo’s 7 Simple Tips for Guaranteed Success (What are YOURS?)

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If you’re lucky enough to have a college open to attend this fall, this one’s for you! I wouldn’t take much of the advice I have to offer. If you know me as a friend, or if you’ve been working with me a while, you know I’m full of all kinds of advice (cut it out, not just full of it). If I start telling you where to invest your money, or what car you should buy next, politely nod and walk away. Quickly, if you know what’s good for you. But when it comes to getting the most out […]

Application Packaging: FIVE Helpful Hints in Choosing a Personal Essay Topic

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Most of the calls into CPE over the past few weeks have been from increasingly anxious parents and students seeking guidance on college applicants’ personal essays. Am I available to help brainstorm or critique or overhaul or edit or polish? Yes, I am, for all of the above, as are a number of junior tutors/consultants at CPE. 🙂 But to help students get started right here, right now, here are five helpful hints to choosing a topic. 1. Think about your essay topic in the context of the forms leading up to the Writing section of the CommonApp (or any […]

6 Reasons and 1 Analogy Why Many CT Juniors Should Take TWO SATs in March

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Many states now require high school juniors to take either the SAT or ACT (see, for example, Education Week) for the states’ federal accountability, a fact that presents new strategic standardized testing options for college bound students. This year here in Connecticut, public school juniors will take an SAT (NOTE without the Essay, or even the option to pay for and add the Essay) on the state’s nickel on March 27 or April 4 (check with your school) with makeup dates on April 23 and 24.  For students applying to competitive colleges, the best strategy to maximize their scores and […]