SAT

Guest Blog by Amanda Youmans, I Got the SAT Blues

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Why do I believe my standardized test scores are not a valid indication of my college readiness?      (A) I read Sian Beilock’s Choke and I lie on the spectrum between nervous test takers and those who suffer from full-blown test anxiety.      (B) I don’t think there exists a standardized test that reflects my passion for learning or intellectual interests or abilities.      (C) Bubble sheets are not well-suited to represent the breadth or depth of what I’ve learned in high school, in or out of the classrooms.      (D) All of the above. If […]

Why CPE’s 4-on-1 Super-Value Math Class (for SAT, New PSAT, New ACT, & Level 1 Subject Test) Is a Great 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 unfortunate 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 […]

Standardized Test Prep Made Simple: Tip Sheet for Preparing for SATs and ACTs

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Preparing for high-stakes standardized tests like the SAT or the ACT is not EASY, but it is SIMPLE. What I mean by that is much of the work is psychological: you need to make a decision to invest the necessary time, plan your work, and then work your plan. For years instructors at CollegePrepExpress have been helping students get high scores by showing them that preparation for these behemoth exams is really the same as that for any other test: it involves TWO basic activities: studying the material covered on the exam and taking practice tests to give you facility […]

Vocab on the SAT through March 2016

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One of the best-kept secrets for years about the current (soon-to-be old) SAT is that there is a FINITE word bank from which the 50-cent words appearing in Sentence Completion and Critical Reading sections are drawn. That means students reading five pages of the dictionary every night or cramming the box of 5000 cards mom or dad bought in a panic are wasting their time. One of the tricks to test prep is working smart, not necessary long. Wouldn’t it be great if we knew all the most commonly appearing words on the SAT? Hey, guess what? We do 😉 […]

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 […]

The Best Time for an SAT/ACT Combo Class: Long-Term SAT, ACT, and Subject Test Planning for Sophomores and Juniors

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The more experience I get, the less inclined I am toward generalizations. That’s true in life outside of work, and that’s true of the many students with whom we work at CPE, from public or private school, New England or Florida, state school or ivy bound. With all the athletic, extracurricular, personal, and academic variables in busy high school juniors’ lives, it’s very difficult to make recommendations based on sweeping generalizations that actually apply to all or even most juniors. Having said that, here’s a sweeping generalization and recommendation based on 25 years experience specializing in helping students get into colleges […]

The 1/24 SAT Retesting Dates and the College Board’s Anachronistic, Imperious Air

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Yesterday, the day after the 1/24/15 SATs were canceled for many New England students due to weather, the College Board announced its retesting dates and, in some cases, new test centers. It was issuing orders, not offering choices. For many students in West Hartford and throughout the region, the new date is 2/7/15, exactly two weeks after the originally scheduled exam. That date may not mean much to anyone outside the college preparatory universe, but those of us in the trenches know that 2/7 is the pre-existing, regularly scheduled ACT date. Hmmmm. If you’re one of the students who now […]

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 Top 2 Tips for Reading Comprehension/Concentration on the PSAT, SAT, ACT, Literature Subject Test, and AP Lit exams

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Reading  comprehension tests are, in most cases, a misnomer. Passages on the SAT, ACT, Literature Subject Test, and AP English exams do not typically test students’ ability to COMPREHEND the material; they test students’ ability to pay attention to what they’re reading. This is a very important distinction, particularly when it comes to confidence. When students perform poorly on a reading comprehension test, or at a level less than they’d expect,  the reason is not likely that they can’t COMPREHEND the passage, but rather than they weren’t paying close enough attention; that is, they weren’t concentrating on what they were reading. […]

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 […]

SAT and ACT Prep: Peaking at the Right Time

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First, three words about the “major” changes to the SAT coming in 2016: hype, hype, and HYPE. Don’t get me started about the ruse mounted by the College Board in creating more authentic test questions and bringing social justice to college admissions testing, the two huge flags they’re waving over this new campaign. Bottom line is that ANY test that asks ACADEMIC questions and forces you to work ALONE is inauthentic from the get-go: can you name ANY profession that requires you to answer academic questions and without the benefit of collaborating with colleagues? Besides teaching? And claiming to level […]

Root & Synonym Clusters 10: Short-lived, Temporary

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Nothing lasts forever, and the College Board knows it. Many fancy SAT words have the flavor, if not exact meaning of “short-lived” or “temporary,” and here they are: Follow Dr. Yo on Pinterest   temporary – adjective – lasting for only a limited period of time; not permanent: a temporary job. transient – adjective – lasting only for a short time; impermanent: a transient cold spell. noun – a person who is staying or working in a place for only a short time transitory – adjective – not permanent: transitory periods of medieval greatness. ephemeral – adjective – lasting for a very short time: fashions are ephemeral. evanescent – adjective – soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading ordisappearing: a shimmering evanescent bubble. fleeting – adjectivelasting for a very short time: hoping to get a fleeting glimpse of […]

College Admissions Secrets for Parents and Teens: Listen to Mom’s Advice

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By Kate Cryan, mom If you’re looking for an entertaining, informative, and inexpensive evening for you and your college-bound teens, head to Hall High School at 7pm on Wednesday March 12th, where Dr. Michael J. Youmans (aka Dr. “Yo”) of CollegePrepExpress will present a 90-minute “soup to nuts” overview of the college admissions process. College admission is a daunting process for both student and parents, and it makes no difference to the parents’ stress levels whether it’s the first or fifth child going to college.  (As a parent with one child nearly finished at college, I can vouch that starting […]

Root & Synonym Clusters 8: ARROGANT

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Don’t you hate it when you have to deal with people who think they’re better than you? People who make you feel like you’re not smart enough, classy enough, or just plain good enough to deserve their time and attention? Hey, EVERYONE is ignorant, just on a different set of subjects. But anyway, there are words that pop up frequently on the SAT for people who think they’re better than everyone else, and here they are: pompous – affectedly and irritatingly grand, solemn, or self-important: a pompous ass who pretends he knows everything. disdainful – showing contempt or lack of respect: with a last disdainful look, she turned toward the door. supercilious – behaving […]