by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 16, 2016 | Blog, College Admissions, Parents
A few years ago, I was contacted by the mother of a former student who wanted me to tutor her younger son, a rising junior, for the ACT. I’d been pulled in to work with his older brother very late, after he’d already taken the test a ridiculous number of times (five, if I recall correctly), and by the time I got to him, he was convinced that he would fail yet again and never wanted to look at another ACT in his life.
This time, his mother was determined to avoid that kind of last-minute craziness. Her younger son, a rising junior, was a very hard worker and a straight-A student, but she knew had hadn’t learned any grammar in school and would need to be taught from the ground up. She was going to give him a loooong runway. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog, Tutoring
As I’ve written about before, a number of students I worked with came to me after finding themselves unable to make sufficient progress with other tutors.
When I first met with one of these “second-round” students, the conversation usually went something like this:
Me: Ok, so tell me about what you did with your other tutor. I just want to get an idea where we should start.
Student: Ummm…. (S)he, like, gave me tests to do, and then we went over them.
Me: Did you go over all the questions, or just the ones you got wrong? (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 8, 2016 | ACT English/SAT Writing, Blog
Just to be clear, this is a post about strategy — if you don’t know the actual grammar, or you have difficulty understanding when to use different types of transitions, it won’t save you. And if you fall into that category and are looking to do some last minute cramming, you should probably start with my complete SAT and ACT grammar rules.
But assuming you have a reasonable grasp of the actual content and do not regularly run out of time, this is the most important piece of advice I can offer you. It might not sound like much, but it can have very significant consequences; I’ve seen it affect students’ English scores by as many as three points. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 7, 2016 | Blog, Tutoring
It’s back to school time… which is right about when high school juniors and their parents often start to think about prep options for the SAT or ACT. In recognition of that fact, I’m planning to devote the next few posts to issues involving tutoring and classes: what to know, what to ask, and how to decide which option is right for you.
While there are many factors to consider when choosing a tutor, there are a handful of warning signs that should cause you to run in the opposite direction. As a “second-round” tutor whose students often worked with one or more tutors before me, I had ample opportunity to learn about all manners of ineffective teaching.
I’d like to cover one of the biggest red flags here. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, College Admissions
According to the Boston Globe, the number of selective colleges requiring applicants to submit SAT IIs is in decline:
In the past year, Amherst College, Dartmouth College, and Williams College all have dropped the subject test requirement, taking a lead from Columbia University, which announced the new policy this spring. Duke University and Vassar College also no longer require the tests, often called SAT II.
The shift occurs amid a larger discussion in higher education about the value of standardized testing in admissions. Some colleges, especially less-selective private schools but also such public colleges as UMass Lowell and Salem State, have made the main SAT and ACT tests optional.
“We want to make the application process as fair to all students as possible,” said Mary Dettloff, a spokeswoman for Williams College. “We felt like we weren’t getting any valuable data from the SAT II scores to help us.”
So if you’re planning to apply to schools where SAT IIs are optional, does this mean you should happily remove them from your testing checklist?
Maybe not so fast. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Aug 28, 2016 | Blog, The New SAT
This past June, Manuel Alfaro, a former Executive Director of Test Design and Development at the College Board, wrote a stunning series of tell-all posts on LinkedIn in which he detailed the numerous problems plaguing the redesigned SAT as well as the College Board’s attempts to alternately ignore and cover up those problems.
For several weeks, Alfaro posted nearly every day, each time revealing more disturbing details about the College Board’s bumbling ineptitude and equally clumsy attempts to hide it.
Then, after 16 posts, he disappeared. (more…)
