Calendar of Events

All About the AP and Subject Tests
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 the AP and Subject Tests are looming. Keep your cool, use your time wisely, and the spring of your junior year just might be doable!

During this seminar we’ll address such questions as:

• Which subject tests should I take? How many do I really need?
• Do colleges use APs for college admissions?
• Do these tests cover the same content?
• When should I take the subject tests?

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Understanding the PSAT Score Report
You took the PSAT, so why not make the most of it? A PrepMatters professional shows you how to read your detailed score report and spot trends an untrained eye can overlook. Get detailed feedback to guide your SAT preparation efforts.

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SAT vs. ACT and the Road Less Traveled
The PSAT is behind you, but the standardized test season is just getting started. Learn more about the SAT and ACT - how they're alike and how they're different. The earlier you can decide which test plays to your strengths, the more focused your preparation can be. After all, there are better things to do with a Saturday morning than take every standardized test ever devised!

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All About the SSAT, ISEE & HSPT
Join veteran tutors Susan Dykeman and Rod Spies as they navigate the alphabet soup of high school entrance exams. Which test is best for your student? What can you do to make test day a success?

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The PSAT Is Two Weeks Away. Help!
Designed for those who haven't been preparing extensively, Ned Johnson comes to the rescue of late-starters across the country as he delivers the nuts and bolts of what you need to know about the PSAT and the strategies that just may help you reach your goal number.

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College Resumes: Ins and Outs
This presentation will cover the ins and outs of resume creation and resume building. A suggested addition to the Common Application and now a required part of the University of Maryland College Park application, the high school resume is your chance to assemble all your qualifications on a single page. As such, an effectively crafted resume can provide the best lens through which college admissions officials will view you as an applicant by focusing on your strengths. High school students of all grades are welcome: resume building is most pressing for seniors but even more useful for sophomores and juniors as they are still pulling together the building blocks.

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College Interviews: Dos and Don'ts
You've finally put together your college list and want to give yourself the best chance to be accepted. Educational Counselor Eileen Wilkinson draws upon her years of experience to help you answer the hard questions:  Should you interview or not? What kinds of questions should you expect? What should you say and what should you keep to yourself?

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US News & World Report Best Colleges 2010
The US News and World Report’s Best Colleges 2010 list is now online and will hit newsstands soon. The editors of the magazine do an enormous amount of work creating a valuable repository of information on all of the colleges and universities you care about most. Join us as we demystify the methodology behind and describe the factors used to construct the rankings. More importantly, go beyond the numbers to find out the implications they have as you make your decisions about where to apply.

• Which is more important: Faculty to student ratio or average class size?
• How does the peer assessment influence the rankings and who’s doing the assessing?
• How is student selectivity calculated? Grades? Test scores? Which ones?

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Planning Your Testing Calendar
Targeted at rising juniors and their parents, this seminar, led by Ned Johnson, will leave you more prepared to navigate the ACT, PSAT, SAT and the whole alphabet soup of standardized tests. Find out what tests are best for you and when to take them.

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The Common Application: Questions and Answers
This fall, 392 colleges and universities will use the Common Application for admissions; 122 schools will use it exclusively. With numbers like these, you can't afford not to know how to use the Common App and use it well. Join the PrepMatters Educational Counseling Staff for an informational session at either our Bethesda or McLean office as we discuss the online and paper components of the Common Application: what's new about the Common App this year, how to tailor the application for different schools, tips and strategies to help your application shine and common mistakes and pitfalls to avoid. Let us help you make your Common Application anything but common! 

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The College Essay: How you can stop dreading it, put pen to paper, and get it done in style
As you and your family near the finish line of junior year, we at PrepMatters wanted to give you a friendly reminder that college applications are just around the corner. And where applications go, the dreaded essays are soon to follow…This seminar will cover how to get started, what to write about, what not to write about, and some practical guidelines. Let us help you and your soon-to-be-high-school-graduate get informed and motivated to begin the college application process early!

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