Fix the car, run to work, pick out soundproof room dividers, develop a blog, give a pre-test prep talk to a student in Germany, twitter (tweet?), advise a colleague, respond to thirty emails, rinse, repeat. All before my 8 AM client.

I multi-task as much as any person I know. There may be others who are worse, but how would I know? I�m too immersed in the multiple conversations I am having to notice what others are doing. I don�t think philosophers would say I am fully engaged in the present.

This seems like the summer of reflections on the harmful effects of too many gadgets. Tuesday�s Washington Post discusses the effects of �digital diversions� on sleep. This week�s most emailed article on the New York Times website is �Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime.� I know I am one of the perpetually plugged-in people whom scientists worry about.

Apart from spending time with my family, without question the most enjoyable part of my summer has been as un-technologically modern as one could imagine. I slept outdoors (no tent) and awoke to bright early morning sunshine and some VERY noisy birds (no alarm clock needed!). Fuzzy from a late bedtime, I sucked down some much-enjoyed coffee and toast and got to work. For the next eleven hours, I reconstructed a fallen rock wall at my family�s rural cabin in upstate NY. If you haven�t met me, suffice it to say, I am NOT built to be a stone mason.

It didn�t matter. My wall wound up kind of straight (but better than in ruins). I was terribly slow (but became more efficient). I was unbelievably sore (but thankful to the good folks who bring us ibuprofen). Apart from the interruption of phone calls from my wife updating me about her delayed flight, it was about as �off the grid� as I�ve been. And boy was it fun.

I was productive. I was focused. I felt accomplished. Nothing like moving rocks that weigh more than oneself to delete unread emails from one�s mind. It helped that it was beautiful, cool, sunny day. But, for a guy who tutors 10-14 hours a day and shoots off hundreds of emails day and night, the experience of not constantly flitting was satisfying in an incredibly visceral way.

I don�t think I could keep a roof over my head with my meager skills moving rocks and so happily I return to tutoring. But, I am hopeful of disconnecting more from gadgets and reconnecting more with the people and things that make up real (not just virtual) life.

This week�s New York Times carries a piece looking at �Your Brain on Computers,� basically, how the brain may respond and even adapt to constant connectedness and digital stimulation. A fascinating piece, it recounts an outing by a handful of preeminent scientists that literally makes them unreachable by phones, pagers, computers and the like to find out how technology can affect our thinking � and whether tech-less time can change those effects. Though some are fervent believers in the perils of an overly stimulated life, and others devout skeptics (is that intrinsically oxymoronic?), the neuroscientists came to share a recognition of the toll taken on working memory when the brain is on constant tech alert. In essence, constantly monitoring our digital apparati (and even anticipation of incoming texts or emails) leaves fewer cognitive resources available for full attention to the present or to deeper thought. Much like phone chargers plugged into a wall but not into the phone, ...continue reading

In his New York Times op-ed piece �The Medium is the Medium,� David Brooks explores questions of identity surrounding reading and whether the how (the medium) of reading matters beyond the what (the message) of reading. I read all sorts of pieces online (including Mr. Brooks� piece) and palpitate at the thought of my life without the internet. And yet, in my mind, I recoil even more so from an imagined world where books don�t exist. To wit, I reacted with some horror to the news from Amazon that its quarterly sales of Kindle e-books surpassed its sale of hardcover books . But why, as I debated the matter with colleagues, was this my reaction. Despite the amusing (to me) connection by name to Mr. Ned Ludd, I am no Luddite. I like modern technology. And yet� In part, I strongly share Mr. Brooks� point about identity: people with books see themselves as readers. Though I am sure I read more online than I do from books, I acquire books at pace multiples ...continue reading

Self-concept matters.   A psychologist friend points out that we are constantly acting consistent with our sense of ourselves. If you think you are a jock, you will act like a jock. Have a choice to watch football or an opera? You�ll likely choose the Redskins (good luck!). Think of yourself as preppy? You�re like to choose madras over black, even if you secretly think the Goth look is, well, pretty cool. It�s not who you think you are. In his Washington Post piece , writer Jay Mathews explores a study out of the University of Melbourne , which investigated the effects of home libraries on children. Even accounting for parents� occupations and education, the study�s authors found a correlation between the number of books at home and years of education. This isn�t entirely surprising; certainly, books at home can improve reading. Books at home often mean that parents are reading to their kids more (it would be hard, of course, to read books when there aren�t any). ...continue reading

One office, Two Office(s) Old Office, New Office! Red Office, Blue Office (we love colors) Green Office, Cool Office Upstairs, Downstairs No stairs, keep hair! (you think I�m kidding!) Hip space, new space You�ll love our place. Believe the news, believe the chatter On the move is PrepMatters! ...continue reading

We�ve all heard college counselors talk about finding the best �fit� for a student. Yet, somewhere in the back of our minds, we still think, �yeah, but, really what I want is the very best school.� It seems the counselors have the last word. A recent study looking at retention at a large university found that the best predictors of students staying enrolled were not grades or standardized test scores but attitudes. First-year students who reported after 8 weeks that they liked their school stayed in school. Students reporting a negative attitude toward their school tended to drop out or transfer. Perhaps that�s not a shocker. And, this article doesn�t argue that the most selective school cannot also be the ones that kids like best. But, for anyone advising kids (or even just opining), think about what school is best for the student rather than for the bumper sticker � at least if you�d like to keep that same bumper sticker on the car for four years. ...continue reading

Can the heavy-metal girl with purple eyeshadow see eye to eye with the pastel-clad Eagles fan?  Find out in this week's guest spot in the Washington Post's "The Answer Sheet" blog.

" Help!  My brother went to Harvard and I want to go to...not Harvard.  Is that okay?" This week, catch Eileen Wilkinson's guest spot in the Washington Post's "The Answer Sheet" blog.  Today's installment describes the plight of the younger sibling.

In a move of perceived magnanimity, and following the lead of Yale, Stanford and Princeton before them, Harvard has quietly decided to reduce its former requirement for three Subject Tests to two for the fall 2011 admissions cycle , opening its doors for more prospective applicants. Indeed, it will be good news for some, who could be Harvard material if not for one, measly little Subject Test. However, what at first blush seems purely beneficial to students will also be good for Harvard. This change will no doubt result in more applications for next year�s freshman class - and that�s a good thing, because what Harvard really needs is more applications, right? In addition, Georgetown University has decided to recommend three Subject Tests rather than requiring three, as it had done this past year. These latest decisions by Harvard and Georgetown have taken some pressure off students to scramble for that third Subject Test, but in �softening� their requirements for applicants, the ...continue reading

Venerable Harvard has relented. According to its website, Harvard University has changed its admissions requirements for students applying for fall 2011. Only two SAT Subject Tests will now be required, ostensibly following suit with Yale and Princeton. A few schools (Georgetown and Northwestern) still strongly recommend three Subject Tests. But, for those of you agonizing over what third Subject Test to take for admission to the halls of Harvard, take a breath: you only need two.

Jessica gazed deeply into Josh�s luminous, brown eyes. Every time he smiled she felt as if he saw only her, and she pictured herself walking across the quad with Josh�s arm draped casually over her shoulder.... Snap out of it, Jessica! Josh may be �all that,� but the purpose of this college tour is to see what the college�s campus and community have to offer, not to be wooed by a strikingly attractive tour guide (nor deterred by an especially uninspiring one). Since Jessica only had eyes for Josh, she completely overlooked the gloomy dining hall, and failed to notice that there are three girls to every one guy on campus. Lots of competition for ole� Josh there, Jessica. All kidding aside, as thousands of juniors hit the road for their campus visits this spring, there are a few �dos and don�ts� they would be wise to consider before embarking upon this life-changing quest. Plan ahead: Typically, colleges offer a student-guided tour and an information session for ...continue reading

Do you really hate the SAT or ACT? Think it is a complete waste of your time, totally unfair and a bad measurement of your strengths? Does it make you want to stomp all over it or clench two sharpened number 2 pencils in fists of fury and slash the test to pieces? You just might be on to something. A little well-directed aggression may not only be appropriate but also serve you well. We all know of people who have that killer instinct for sports, for business, for social competition�or even standardized tests. Well, it turns out that their instinct to kill (we�re being metaphorical here, ok?) may be the secret to their success. A New York Times piece highlights an interesting study by the Army on the connection between U.S. soldiers� frame of mind when under stress and their ability to detect I.E.D.s�the improvised explosive devices responsible for so many injuries and deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. In short, �researchers found that soldiers who were especially good at ...continue reading

Lynn O�Shaughnessy, a financial writer for CBS who often addresses the cost of education, recently blogged about a study that suggests Americans are losing confidence in higher education intuitions. O�Shaughnessy�s advice that students �act like a consumer� could not be more spot-on. In fact, it�s particularly relevant this time of year as high school juniors and their parents begin visiting prospective colleges.     Before any of my juniors leave for a college visit, I encourage them to act like conscious consumers and shop for the right college. After all, colleges are private entities acting, to a certain extent, in their own self-interest. Just as no one would buy a car without first test driving several options or shopping around for the best deal, students should approach their college search with the same level of scrutiny.   If you are a high school junior with plans to visit colleges over the next few weeks, keep this in mind: if you ...continue reading

Last January, I predicted CollegeBoard's new Score Choice policy might cause some confusion in the upcoming application year. So, one year later, how do things look?  Well, frankly, in many ways they are just as puzzling as they were back when the new policy was announced. Many colleges are allowing students to choose which scores they wish to submit; others are requiring for students to send all scores.  Some are asking for all scores so they can then "Super Score" (recalculate a student's score using the highest individual Critical Reading, Math, and Writing score from multiple test-days); others will only consider the highest score from a single test-day. And those were last year's policies. Who knows what colleges might do in the 2010 application year? What remains true is that discretion and preparedness are prudent.    To wit: a friend of one of my students took both the SAT and ACT many times.  Whether by mistake, or in a CollegeBoard glitch, ...continue reading

The  U.S.News & World Report rankings of America's Best Colleges are officially out.  Williams is #1!  (of liberal arts colleges.  Yes, my alma mater.  As though Harvard and Princeton REALLY matter). Among the biggest news items is that US News changed its formula for "student selectivity".  Half of that formula (and 7.5% of a school's total ranking) is comprised of board scores, either the SAT Critical Reading and Math score or the ACT Composite score.  In previous years, to calculate scores, US News used whichever test comprised the majority of a school's submitted scores.  That both sets of scores are now included is a great move.  Principally, it makes the data more complete and more accurate.  Secondly, it reflects the reality that the ACT has earned its well-deserved seat at the admissions table as a fully accepted alternative to the SAT for college admissions.  The ACT is not for ...continue reading

A recent study finds that the Montgomery County, MD school district has tied for having the highest graduation rate in the country. A remarkable 80.7% of its students receive their high school degree. This is surely a testament to the caliber of the county's schools, dedicated faculty, involved parents and, of course, diligent students. For many local students and their families, however, performing well academically is not the biggest hurdle they must surmount while in high school. A Washington Post Magazine article  from April looked at the disadvantages lower income students face in the college admissions process by principally focusing on how students from different backgrounds are given more or less access to SAT test preparation. Better scores do get students better choices; hence the time, money and effort spent in pursuit of higher SAT and ACT scores. Unfortunately, unequal access to test preparation services is only one of the many challenges that low income, ...continue reading

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently covered a story making a big splash on the other side of the pond, where the University of Cambridge Admissions Director has apparently stated point blank that personal essays and teacher references play no role in the university's admissions decision. This is an interesting commentary (or a disastrous public relations situation if you're Cambridge), but certainly not cause for panic here in the US that the same might apply to our college admissions process. Instead, it is an opportunity to juxtapose our education system with Britain's and, in turn, identify the "lines in the sand" that higher education institutions in all countries draw. First, the fact that UK universities have been making their admissions decisions based on hard academic data has long been apparent to those of us working in the college admissions world. After all, when an American student walks in my office and tells me that he wants to apply to Oxford, LSE, ...continue reading

I entered my teenage years as my parents' marriage unraveled. Over two brutal years, the usual flood of emotions that occurs with adolescence overwhelmed me as I watched my parents turn on each other. I fell from being the top student in my school into a hole of dysfunction and depression that took me another two years from which to recover. Happily for me, with time situations improved, stress decreased, my grades returned, and I "got back to normal." A new study by Gary W. Evans, a professor of human ecology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y, proposes that some children never get that same chance to "get back to normal." Evans'  study ) looked at the impact of the daily stress of living in poverty on the cognitive development of young children, namely on their ability to develop working memory - a significant factor in academic achievement. According to Evans, "the greater proportion of your childhood that your family spent in poverty, the poorer your working memory, ...continue reading

You've taken the SAT once, maybe twice. You've got a great set of scores. You're beginning to page through those thick college books and get excited. What now? The good news is that the two most important factors in college admissions are grades and SAT or ACT scores. Done. The bad news is that AP and Subject Tests are looming. Keep your cool, use your time wisely, and the spring of your junior year just might be doable! SAT Subject Tests are a great opportunity to show that you're ready for the rigors of college course work. Not all Subject Tests, however, are for everyone. If you've got a college list together, check with individual schools for their requirements: some don't require any, some require one or two, and very few require three. You should take only those tests for which you are the most prepared. Just because your math teacher has covered all of the topics on the Math Level 2 test doesn't mean it's for you. The idea is to reinforce strong SAT scores - not undermine ...continue reading

I like to snap. I do it all the time. I drive my colleagues a little nuts. "Ah...here comes Ned." Typically, I snap when striding off to find a document, attending to some task, or getting to a meeting. Partly, I'm what many might describe as "high energy." Less generously, I am kind of a spaz. One thing that seems certain, though, is that I am kinesthetic. I learn by doing. I'm rather fidgety. I like to be busy and rarely sit still. For kids built that way, tests offer an added challenge. They can do their homework lying on their beds, flopped over a chair, pacing their rooms. They can absently play with a pen or coin while also trying to absorb projectile motion in physics, or idly tickle their dog's head while reading Darwin. Whatever works. School and tests bring different rules. "Don't turn around." "Don't distract others around you." "Remove everything from your desk." A student I just met had four days of morning detention (egads!) for, among other things, chewing gum. ...continue reading

It was fun while it lasted. Score choice, it appears, is dead. No official proclamation. No unity, clarity or certainty. Of course - that would be too easy. But, score choice is not going to stick, at least not in the way originally designed. This week's "Chronicle of Higher Education" reports , "Yale University announced Thursday that it will require applicants to report all SAT scores, as the College Board has required in recent years, not just selected scores, as the College Board is now allowing students to do." So, Yale has joined Amherst, Princeton and enough other elite colleges denying their applicants score choice to pretty much explode the option for kids looking at top-tier colleges. What does this mean for students and their families? Certainly, as colleges can and will likely change their policies at the drop of a hat, prudent students will err on the side of caution: don't trust score choice to hold. High school students are back to treating standardized tests as ...continue reading

A recent front page article by Daniel de Vise of the Washington Post recounted what many in schools and the tutoring world have been observing for a number of years now: more and more students in the DC area are no longer taking just the SAT for college admissions. The ACT is on the march. The number of ACT test-takers area-wide has doubled in the last three years, a veritable sea change. Many students find that the ACT is simply a better test for them, and it�s great for them to have the option of a different test. They may like the structure better, they may find the content more their speed or the presentation more straightforward, or they may simply like that it isn�t the SAT. For these reasons and others, there is wisdom for pretty much anyone to look at the ACT as well as the SAT to determine which test is better. Please note, however, that the key is to examine both and then to make a determination. You might be surprised to hear that those who choose to take both tests ...continue reading

So a student of mine let me know that he ran a marathon the other weekend. "Oh, I didn't know you were planning to do that." "Well, I didn't either. It's just that the racecourse came right by my apartment, and since I wanted to go for a run anyway, I just jumped in. I was going to run five or six miles, but since everyone was cheering so much, I just kept going for, like twelve or thirteen miles. "Wow! Don't you have to register or something?" "Well, sure. I guess, but what were they going to do? Tackle me for not having a numbered racing jersey?" Hard to argue with that. "So, tell me about this test you just took. The grammar part didn't look as strong as you'd like. What did you do to warm up for the practice test." "I just came and took it." "Aha. Got it. Remember how we discussed the benefit of reviewing previous questions or sections of the test before doing a new one, that the grammar particularly is so different from that of real life that you have to ...continue reading

Reading comprehension on standardized tests is a clever thing. One of the more tricky aspects of the test writers' design is the need to craft wrong but compelling answer choices. A commonly used method is to his help students lose track of their thoughts. A student has to read a sometimes 100 line passage, parse a potentially convoluted question, consider his answer, and then consider the five different answer choices. That's quite a few mental balls to keep juggling. Appealing answer choices - even those that are wrong - can help a student lose track of his thoughts. One technique that we have often used is to have students write their own answers to the questions first, before considering the answer choices. In an article from this week's Washington Post, Shankar Vedantam recounts an analogous process among voters. Candidate Sarah Palin's Vice Presindential debate received criticism not because she dodged answers more than Senator Biden but because it was more apparent she ...continue reading

So, we're a few weeks into school. You are settling into classes, sports and extracurriculars. Homework is substantial and quizzes and tests are cluttering up your calendar. Welcome to junior year! This week, I've heard a nearly steady chorus of "I've never had so much work in my life," "Man, what a week!" and "I am completely fried." With the Autumnal Equinox (Fall) arriving Monday, it's important for us all to acknowledge that summer is, in fact, over. I know that's sad. The truth often is. However, there will be all sorts of fun things this fall (beyond homework) from Homecoming to Halloween and everything in between. But, summer is over and, along with it, summer schedules. If you are still trying to stay up late and play like you did over the summer (when you could sleep the day away), you may be in for some trouble. If you plan well, you can work hard to get all your work done and still have time to play. But, if you are cutting your sleep short day after day, watch out! You ...continue reading

A new report in the journal Nature shows why some people are just better at math than others. Some people do seemingly "just get it." As reported in this week's Washington Post , adult humans, infants, and non-human animals all share an ability to approximate numbers. In the study, participants were asked to say whether a quick computer screen-shot of blue and yellow dots had a higher percentage of blue or yellow. When the disparity between the numbers was high, nearly everyone did well. But, as the differences became smaller, some students clearly had much stronger powers of discrimination. This is a skill we use, for example, to quickly size up in which line to stand at a checkout, which group is larger or whether a stack of plates is adequate for our guests at a barbecue. Animals use it to assess foraging and nesting sites and evaluate threats, among other things. What's interesting to us and relevant to you is the fact that the ability to estimate is highly correlated in humans ...continue reading

So the Olympics are over. Some competitors surprised the world, and perhaps themselves, with their outstanding achievements. Some came short a fraction of a second, inch or point, while others missed the bar completely. To invoke the late Jim McKay, "some felt the thrill of victory, others the agony of defeat." Some came away thrilled by their experiences, even if not by their final standings. Win or lose, they can always know they were Olympic athletes. For those left unsatisfied, their greatest wish may be that they could simply run the race or play the game again. Most interestingly, some of those we think of as winners simply aren't. Greater satisfaction doesn't always seem to correlate with greater performance. Bronze can be more satisfying than silver. In a Washington Post piece , writer Shankar Vedantam recounts the story of an Olympic runner who nearly a century ago came up short, despite being favored to win, and who took home the silver. What for many of us would seem ...continue reading

So, it's the Olympics season. Watching the best athletes form countries all over the world, it's easy to get swept up in the passion, competition, and drama, wondering "I wonder whether I could..." Apart from our couch-bound musings, few of us will ever compete at a national level, much less at an Olympic one. Hundredths or thousandths of seconds won't matter in our daily lives. A recent study about sprinters revealed that, for those for whom those fractions of seconds do matter, starting on the right foot literally makes a difference. At the core of the finding is that, there are two parts at play: reaction time and how fast a task (here running) is completed. Runners who start with the left foot back reacted faster to the starting gun. But, and here is the kicker, those starting with their right foot back were faster in taking their first step. The difference has to do with the functions performed by parts of the brain residing in the left and right hemispheres. So, while those ...continue reading

In a move sure to cheer students, rile foes, and vex admissions officials, the College Board announced over the weekend that beginning with the Class of 2010, students may choose what scores (both SAT and SAT Subject Tests) to submit to colleges, creating �score choice� for the SAT and reinstating it for the Subject Tests after a six year hiatus. What critics deride as a calculated measure by College Board to stanch the inroads made by rival ACT and to bolster both the number of SAT test-takers and revenue will surely be met with delight by students anxious about the SAT and about low scores that they fear being stuck with. Many argue that the change in score-reporting will also herald a rush of more and younger test-takers, make test-taking more a four-year varsity sport than a junior year rite and ultimately lead to a fundamental shift in the way colleges use tests like the SAT and ACT (as colleges seek to parse the meaning beyond test scores that they have limited access to and ...continue reading

�Do no harm� is a loose translation of the beginning of the Hippocratic Oath, the oath sworn by physicians for the ethical practice of medicine. It�s an idea that popped into my head this week as I received queries from a handful of parents whose freshmen and sophomore children were contemplating taking SAT Subject Tests (SAT IIs) next week. Many colleges require two or more Subject Tests for admissions, and students are wise to consider what tests they are likely to do well on. Moreover, they should look to take those tests at the end of the related class. Taking the US History SAT Subject Test is arguably best done in May or June at the end of a US History course. Waiting until the following October�s test date increases the risk of forgetting what the Compromise of 1850 compromised or why Andrew Jackson was so hopping mad about banks. Many students take chemistry or biology before junior year and may not take AP Chem or Bio until senior year, if at all. So, this �early� time may ...continue reading

One of the primary components of my work here is to be a perpetual nag. I�m a mom, so while I don�t always relish the role, I am quite adept in �encouraging� people to do things they would rather put off until another day. I also know that for juniors in high school May is a busy month. Exams are looming, papers and project due dates are fast approaching, and the unrelenting demands of one�s social life make for a pretty full existence. Despite my astute observation, there is one more thing I�d like to add to your list: Carefully consider whom you will ask to write your letters of recommendation for college applications and make your request - NOW. In the fall of the next academic year teachers will be buried with requests from anxious students, and some would prefer the option of writing a carefully considered letter of reference in the summer months rather than one of many in September or October, Many of the most �popular� teachers, known for ...continue reading

So raise your hand if you or someone you know is near the point of melting down about AP exams this week and next. At the risk of invoking the ire of every AP teacher from here to California, I offer this advice: don't sweat them for they really don't matter. At least, they don't matter as much as other things or as much as you think. APs are not an admissions criterion for college. As you look at your schedule of what needs to be done this week and next, and whenever you find yourself overwhelmed by the impossibility of everything you need to do, repeat this mantra "Grades first. Grades first." Grades are what matter most to the colleges you hope to attend. That you take AP courses matter; it shows that you are taking rigorous courses. That you do well in those courses matters; again, grades come first. The scores that you get on your APs really don't matter. When colleges sit down to look at your application, they are looking at gpa, rigor of course selection and, in ...continue reading

I got a call from a grad student the other day looking to retake the LSAT. He had done prep before and scored a 148. The LSAT is scored on a 120-180 scale, so a 148 is somewhat akin to a 480 on the SAT Reading or Math, not a score likely to gain you admission to strong programs. So, the score would have to come up to improve his choices and chances. The complicating factor is that he had already applied to and been rejected from top-tier programs, consternating his girlfriend who had been admitted to the programs he hadn�t and (oh yeah) whom he had told he had gotten a 168. Oops. He and I talked through what preparation he had done before, what had gone well and what hadn�t, and what a plan going forward might be. I introduced him to the concept of working memory, its role in standardized tests and how anxiety can whack working memory. Then, putting on my best therapist�s hat, I suggested that he really ought to tell his girlfriend the truth, that he hadn�t scored nearly as well as ...continue reading

I am not a huge fan of winter unless it snows, so this year I am especially pleased to see April arrive. Spring Break is already a distant memory, but the light and warmth puts one in the mood for a road trip or two, right? What better time could there be for packing up the car, your parents, (a sullen sibling or two, if you�ve got �em) and driving, say, to Ohio? Sure, Ohio possibly doesn�t make everyone�s Top 10 of Exotic Destinations, but what it lacks in tourist sites, it more than makes up for in college campuses. Perhaps Ohio isn�t in your future, despite the subtle appeal of Toledo and such. Maybe you have some colleges in Pennsylvania, Vermont or North Carolina on your list. This could be the ideal time of year to explore some of the colleges you�ve considered. Classes are in session, so there are actual live College Students milling about, and you can take this opportunity to see how the other half lives - those that have already run the ...continue reading

Sitting in the hallway of a local school waiting for a student of mine to arrive, I overheard a girl saying she has never been so scared in her life. Her SAT is tomorrow she is telling her friend. She is recounting all the reasons why she is unprepared, how she doesn't have enough time, and that she's sure to crash. Her friend asks her about her preparation and what work she has done. Yeah, well, she acknowledges, still it's going to be a train wreck. I was struck by an overwhelming urge to voice my confidence in her prospects and to wish her well, but decided to bite my tongue. Many students will tell you that they have such conversations, with themselves if not with others. Frequently. What strikes me about them is that these students are not just anticipating failure but rehearsing it. They envision all the ways that things can and will go wrong. They may have hours of preparation and multiple successful practice tests under there belts, but still they are sure they are going to ...continue reading

I was meeting with a student last week who is sharp and eager but bedeviled by dyslexia. She had gotten a full grade lower than she should have. She had been nicked by the cumulative effects of small errors, forgetting to distribute the negatives in multiplying polynomials, dropping exponents, and the like. She knew what she was doing but made "silly mistakes" when her attention seemed to be on harder facets of the questions. As she is much more an auditory and kinesthetic learner, I asked her whether she "talks to herself" in doing her work and taking exams. "Well," she replied "if things are going badly I'm like 'Sh**! Sh**! Sh**!'" Not exactly what I had in mind. We discussed the possibility of her "narrating" her work: "Let's see two x squared times four x. Two times four is 8 and x squared times x is x cubed. Two x squared times negative four. Two times four is eight but the negative makes it negative eight and so negative 8 x squared." "Imagine you're announcing a game. ...continue reading

Another resolution for the New Year may be to get yourself, your house, or possibly your spouse organized. Additionally, with mid-year exams either fast approaching or safely behind, the opportunity to get your son or daughter on a new heading may be at hand. Many studies suggest that the need is greater for your son. As it turns out, many of the skills needed to be academically successful revolve not just around intelligence and content-knowledge but around organizational skills, ones that boys seem, on average, more apt to lack. See this New York Times piece on the matter. Skills and habits that seem self-evident to many girls and certainly to many parents are actually missing from the tool sets of boys. Many of these skills fall under the heading of executive functioning skills. Research suggests that students often grow out of their executive function deficiencies over time. However, to prevent underperformance until that time, intervention or instruction can be of great ...continue reading

It’s the turn of a new year and the typical time for resolutions for the new year. As I recover from holiday fun and the late nights that such fun entails, I am mindful of the difficulty of getting back to my usual sleep schedule after staying up hours past my usual bedtime. How, I wonder, did I manage late-night shenanigans as a youth and still function the next day? A recent study suggests I hadn’t. “’You can't do your best work when you're sleep-deprived,’ Thacher says of her findings, which were that two-thirds of the students reported that they had pulled at least one all-nighter during a semester and that those who did it regularly had lower GPAs.” Among other findings, Thacher noted that sleep-deprived students were more apt to make mistakes and to have delayed reactions, both contributors to lower performance, especially on tests taken the following day. Surprisingly, there was no clear correlation between procrastination and frequency of all-nighters, although ...continue reading

They say that no one is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds. - Winston Churchill Perfectionism. A badge of honor for some students. A nightmare for all tutors. High standards? Love ‘em! Compelling goals? Can't get enough of them. Perfection? Look out. My friend Joe warns me not to let perfect be the enemy of great. Kids afraid to strike our may never step up to the plate at all. Or, they will create so many issues, excuses and concerns that the opposing pitcher (read: test, game, performance, life?) is the least of their worries. Like my friends who show up to play golf with excuses in hand, they aren’t preparing to succeed but planning to defend themselves for falling short of unreasonable expectations – whether their own or those of others. We chatted this one up three weeks ago in our blog , but readdress the topic in light of a study on perfectionism reported in this week’s Times by Brendan Carey that further ...continue reading

You are trying to balance shopping, holiday travel, shopping and no fewer than two dozen social engagements on three packed weekends(and that's just your kids) and now this: like a small bomb, the PSAT results just landed amid the precariously balanced act that is your household. Boom! These are your scores?! My word, what are we going to do?! Your child is distraught that he or she didn't do as well as his peers, who you just know are vying for the spots at your child's dream school. Plus, there are tears, the end of the marking period is coming up and this is no time for something like this. Moreover, after all the money we spent on a class or tutor, this is all we got? Or, maybe we should have spent all that money to take a class like everyone else did. Breathe. It's the PSAT. Preliminary SAT. It's practice. There is no failure - only feedback. And, your son or daughter's friends may not be entirely truthful. It is not likely that "everyone did better." So, let's put the ...continue reading

What’s more fun for students than taking tests? Why, talking about them with their parents, advisors, friends and random strangers! “Hey Sally. You just took the SAT, right? So, how did that go?” As Michelle Slatalla relates in her recent “Guidance Counselor” piece on the “ACT vs. SAT,” she felt only slightly more uncomfortable discussing the relative merits of the ACT and SAT with her teen daughter than she would have the relative merits of underage drinking. At least in the latter, the ramifications of decisions are arguably more clearly defined with actual data to support parents in suggesting that drinking as a relaxation method in the throes of exams is NOT supported by clinical research. Regrettably, no such data exists for whether the ACT or SAT is better for one student than another. Happily, Ms. Slatalla’s piece does affirm for parents and teens that both tests carry equal currency with colleges and universities. Says Marlyn McGrath-Lewis, director of ...continue reading

Goals are great. High standards for oneself are to be lauded. Perfectionism, however, is not the badge of honor people think it is. Allow me to start with a few illustrations of what I perceive perfectionism to be. I recall a conversation with my mother-in-law where she was evincing her frustration with some shortcoming of a consumer electronic. Why, she wondered, can't it be made to be more durable and reliable? Her complaint was well-taken. My father-in-law responded that it certainly could be, but the cost would likely be three times as great. They were both right! Perfection in our products would be lovely, but at what cost? Likely, I'd pay top dollar, say, for eye surgery, which I simply wouldn't pay for the best stereo. I just don't care enough. But, somebody probably does. He or she will pay the price. Consider this example. A student spends three hours to get a paper or project 97% right. The last 3%? Another 3 hours. Is there a problem here? Well, there is certainly ...continue reading

The winds of change are blowing again and they seem to be Santa Ana winds. Much like the flames that did so much destruction, rumors of a policy change by the University of California may again set on fire the hair of College Board officials, as well as of admissions officials across the country. A recent blurb by the Chronicle of Education (link) relates that officials of the UC system are contemplating dropping its requirement for SAT Subject Tests (formerly know as SAT IIs). It is with no small sense of irony that UC officials must be contemplating this change for it was in 2002 that their predecessors weighed dropping the SAT altogether in favor of SAT Subject tests, deeming them to be better predictors of collegiate success than the SAT itself. Perhaps UC officials find the new SAT to be such an improvement that it is now not only better than SAT Subject Tests but, in fact, so much better as to render the Subject Tests superfluous. In UC’s defense, it holds that the use of ...continue reading

So my colleague just got scores back from a student. His math scored ticked up a few notches higher than the already strong score he had last year. Not a math student, a 700 seems to have been just outside of his reach. Despite the higher score on math, the news was mixed as his perfect 800 on reading slipped to 740. When his mother asked my colleague over the summer about whether he should retake the test, he suggested “No, not really.” The student had worked really hard last year, had reached the goals they had set and didn’t seem to have underperformed in any measurable way. Yet, the bar was raised by his school: “Why doesn’t he just take it once more? What can it hurt?” Why not indeed. Apart from the not inconsiderable cost of time and money, I blanch when I think of the message that was sent to this student. He had worked hard. He had done well. He had conscientiously worked at the goal before him. When he did well, he should have been taken out for ice cream. A ...continue reading

So, we all know that cheating is wrong. Do you know why it hurts you? (Beyond pushing you down the road to perdition, that is.) Well, people know when they are doing something wrong. The fight or flight mechanism that engages when we are physical peril also kicks in when we cheat or steal or do something else wrong. Trained experts can often tell when someone is lying by watching people’s physiological changes when they respond to questions. That’s what lie detectors are all about, after all. While you may not be hooked up to electronic doodads with the proctor monitoring your vital statistics during the SAT, the same changes that would alert an expert to your malfeasance still occur. Your respiration increases, your pulse surges, you palms likely become clammy. All the elements of anxiety or panic can manifest themselves. This state is not the ideal one for taking a reasoning test. Your brain is no longer in its optimal state. So, while you might unfairly give yourself an ...continue reading

Expect the Best, but... Your proctor blows the time. Your calculator malfunctions. You fall ill during the test. The marching band warms up outside your classroom. These and other mishaps can and have happened. Be prepared. Remember that if one section goes poorly, it may be the experimental section. Even if it’s not, the other sections may go correspondingly better that you still meet your goal. Keep you head in the game and wait until all sections are done before contemplating throwing in the towel. If the wheels really do fall off the wagon, you can cancel your scores. You have until the Wednesday after the test to cancel your scores. Notify College Board in writing by fax or overnight letter. And, if the problem was true malfeasance by the proctor, call College Board immediately to protest. Before you do, write down everything in excruciating detail so you can be prepared to demand recourse, including the possibility of having a make up test proctored to you the ...continue reading

So, it's the week before the test. You've worked hard. You've studied vocab, done the homework and sacrificed your weekends taking practice tests. What's the most helpful thing you can now do? To learn new things, change your processes, get a new or another tutor/coach? Um, no. This is the time to review what you've done, taking confidence from the considerable work you've put in and knowing that the real test should be similar to what you've done for practice. The tests are standardized after all! Practice like you'll play and you'll play like you practice, the coaches tell us. Sleep a little more to be sharp, spend some time reviewing vocab and practice tests, and work to visualize the test going as well or better than any practice tests you've done. So, where does this leave parents? Generally, the best thing parents can do is to be quietly supportive. "I'm proud of how hard you've worked and I think you'll do great." Period. Leave it there. As you may have noticed, the ...continue reading

There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Ascribed to Benjamin Disraeli by Mark Twain a hundred years ago, this lovely epithet rings as true today as it did then. The phrase has been bouncing around my head since I read the New York Times piece “What SAT Scores Say About Your Hedge Fund” from Sunday’s paper. ( link ) I’ll start by saying that I don’t invest in a hedge fund and so arguably know little about and am strongly less motivated to look for the secrets of funds’ success than others might be. However, as one who has spent a career looking at the SAT, I feel compelled to opine on some troubling inferences I fear may too readily have been made. First, is anyone surprised? Folks from the most selective - and arguably most academic - schools in the country perform better, ON AVERAGE, in their respective jobs? Who’d of thunk it?! But there’s a world of difference between accepting this fact as true and the interpreting it as some may wish to. To begin with, to ...continue reading

High school grades are (still) the best measure of success in college. Who’d of thunk it? Grades predict grades! It seems that Aristotle was right when he said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” A recent study by Saul Geiser and Maria Veronica Santelices of the University of California at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education ( link ) has found that not only do high school grades do a better job of predicting first year college grades than does the SAT, or anything else for that matter, but that high school grades are also a good predictor of grades throughout all four years of college. Two messages seem obvious from this study. The first is that admissions folks need to be darned careful about the ways in which they use and the importance they ascribe to the SAT. The nationwide average SAT score this year was recently published and there will inevitably be exultation or the wringing of hands when the average SAT ...continue reading

I've lost track of how many times I've taken the SAT. And always the students taking it with me are nervous and apprehensive. They know their futures ride on how they do on this single, grueling, marathon exam. They probably haven't gotten a good night's sleep. They probably didn't eat much breakfast. They arrived at the test center before 7:45 AM for an ordeal that will last until after lunch – except that they don't get to eat lunch. It's too much, and much too long. As one student put it, "They try to make you stupid after four hours of test taking." As I said, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve taken the SAT. It has to be thirty or forty times. I do it because it’s part of my profession. I’ve spent more than 25,000 hours in the last 13 years prepping students to take standardized tests. I know how tests work, and more importantly, I know how students work. Since the adoption of the new SAT, average scores have declined, leaving admissions officers and test makers ...continue reading

Man, am I tired,” a succession of students has lamented to me all week. “Really, how come?” “Our coach just ran us and ran us.” Every year, I watch bemusedly as students returning to school and preseason sports limp into my office, bedraggled from workouts for soccer, field hockey and the like for which they seem physically and mentally unprepared. Inquiries into their summer training regimen elicit blank stares. They seem incredulous that their coaches would AGAIN emphasize running and conditioning, as though this year he or she might say “Hey, let’s kick the ball a little and then sit down and talk about soccer,” rather than subjecting them to wind sprints and timed miles. Consider the story of the two hunters running from a bear. The one asks the other “Are you nuts, we cannot outrun a bear!” The other replies, “You’re right. I’m not. I’m just trying to outrun you.” A few days of running the week before practice could have avoided all of this ...continue reading

Recent research suggests that the use of gestures in teaching has appreciable benefits in learning. As reported in the Washington Post, ( link ), teachers who used gestures while instructing students in algebra, and had students mimic those gestures, found when students were tested weeks later they were three times more likely to answer the math problems correctly. (The full study results are reported in the July 25 issue of Cognition.) Researchers were intrigued to find that gestures were not only effective when they were used symbolically in acting out a task or narrative but also when gestures accompanied unrelated ineffable concepts. There are three principal modalities for learning: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. While we are capable of learning through a mix of the three, most people have a dominant method. The study was groundbreaking in that it showed not just that people who use gestures often have improved learning (implying a correlation but not necessarily a cause) ...continue reading

Although analogies were removed from the SAT in 2005, vocabulary continues to figure prominently both on the exam and in the minds of the students who take it. Words that once populated analogies have in many cases snuck across the page to constitute answer choices for reading comprehension questions. So, thinking underscore and undermine are synonomous may leave you bereft! Even more problematically, the PSAT and SAT routinely feature a series of questions that all focus on a particular paragraph or sentence, often a nasty one. Not knowing “mollify” and therefore the sentence that hinges on it may wipe twenty or thirty points from your score. More broadly, comprehending reading is darn tough if you don’t understand individual sentences and understanding individual sentences hinges on knowing the words that comprise those sentences. Granted, we all have the ability to discern the meaning of an unknown but familiar word from context but that has its limits. Don’t know one ...continue reading

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” I suspect I will never pen anything as pithy or wise as this Aristotelian aphorism, but I do hope I have the good sense to learn from it. A recent article in the New York Times relates a plan to pay students for taking standardized tests. The theory promulgated by economist Roland G. Fryer is that financial incentives can lead students to develop habits conducive to long-term success. Read about it: here. One does wonder whether the taking of tests is the behavior we most want to encourage. Wouldn’t attendance, doing homework or some other longer-term pattern of behavior be better habits to target? Tests are, of course, one of the goals we set before ourselves and our children, but the habits are found in the preparation. One challenge is that some things, like standardized test scores, are easy to measure and inputs such as effort, homework and practice are harder to capture. But, in the same way ...continue reading

So it’s finally summer vacation! Woohoo! But, why is it we find summer so wonderful? Why do we pine for it so? One thought that has occurred to me as I contemplate my upcoming vacation is: sleep. I get more of it. I get better sleep. I can “play” and sleep. It’s not an either/or, a zero-sum game between doing the things I want to do (staying up late with friends or watching the fourth quarter of a West-coast basketball game) and having the mental acuity that my work purportedly requires. Dr. James Maas, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on sleep and sleep deprivation, observes that the two cognitive functions principally impaired by sleep deprivation are emotional control and verbal recall. Why is mom on my case about everything? Why won’t the kids LISTEN to what I ask/tell them to do?! Feeling short with folks? It’s likely you more than them. It’s darned hard to keep your cool under adversity when you are fried. Ever wonder why sleep deprivation is an ...continue reading

Coming Soon! Our president and founder, Ned Johnson, will share tips for test day , insights into test-taking psychology and his views on the educational issues that matter most to high school students and their parents.