PSAT Prep for FREE

The PSAT is approaching quickly. In fact, there is likely less than a month to prepare for the PSAT since schools that administer the test will do so on October 14 or 28.  

That the test is on the horizon should not create any stress for test takers. As my students and readers of this blog can attest, stress should not be part of any test preparation. 

First and foremost, the PSAT is an opportunity to understand how a student performs on standardized tests. Scores can be used to qualify students for scholarships or national recognition, but are generally used as just a pulse check for the SAT. 

With this in mind, students should approach test day free of worry, concern or stress. 

Should a student want to get a sense of what is on the test, the College Board provides a couple of free resources. And since the PSAT has a new format, it may behoove students to take a gander at either of the following links before test day: 

• Practice Test: click here for full-length practice test. Download the test and get a feel for the directions, timing, question types, format, etc. 
• Practice Sets: click here for some practice sets and practice quizzes. You will have to sign in via Google or Khan Academy but that should stop you since the practice sets are very helpful. 

Above all, be sure to get plenty of rest leading up to the test. Cramming a bunch of test prep the night before, or even the weekend before, will actually hurt your score. 

Best of luck, PSAT test-takers. Should you need some support, don't be afraid to contact CROSSWALK, Monterey Peninsula's local resource for test prep and private tutoring. 

Another ACT Success Story!

Success stories never get old so let's tell another one from CROSSWALK. The following was emailed to me:

"We were very pleased with Dan's tutoring. He worked very well with Nicole and Nicole has improved in her practice tests consistently over the weeks. Her overall score has improved by six points and we are very impressed. Overall he was a wonderful tutor."

Go Dan! Go Nicole! A six-point increase on the ACT is exceptional. 

While there is no doubt that Dan helped create this success story, the biggest impact on score improvement comes from Nicole's willingness to put in the practice time and improve. 

Time on task is crucial to improving a score. The more dedicated and diligent practice time you commit to the SAT or ACT, the higher your score will go. Couple this with the guidance of one of our outstanding tutors--like Dan--and you have a guaranteed recipe for score improvement. 

To learn how to boost your ACT, SAT or GPA, contact CROSSWALK today. 

The Most Important Math Subscore

The newly redesigned SAT rolls out in March 2016. With it comes a whole new scoring system and various levels of scoring. 

For example, instead of just one math score, a student will also get several math subscores that indicate how the student performed in certain content areas like algebra or data analysis.

While these subscores could prove very valuable, there is a simpler math subscore that is more important: total content errors vs total careless errors. 

You see, when I work with a student in math, we complete a math section and then analyze it. In our analysis, we categorize incorrect answers into two groups: content errors or careless errors.

Content errors are those errors a student would make because he or she has not seen the content yet. A trigonometry problem on the ACT, for example, might be a difficult problem for someone not yet exposed to trigonometry. Charting out content errors shows the student what content they need to learn to tackle this type of question in the future.

Careless errors represent those errors made when a student misreads the question, miscalculates something, fills in a bubble incorrectly or otherwise commits some error that was totally controllable if not for carelessness.

Careless errors are the best kind of errors because these can easily be fixed! 

In my experiences, careless errors make up about 80% of all errors while content errors are only 20% of total errors. These figures are based on my anecdotal experiences but the 80/20 grouping seems to hold true of most of my students.

The solution? Ignore the various levels of subscores you might receive on a future test and instead drill down into the most important subscore: how many of your incorrect errors are due to carelessness and how many are due to unfamiliar content? 

Content errors just take a bit of learning. Careless errors are easily fixed. 

Avoid careless errors by recognizing them. Learn from your mistakes so you don't misread questions, fall into avoidable traps or miscalculate something. 

Learn more study tips for ACT, SAT and all academic subjects by contacting CROSSWALK today. 

Alphabet Soup of Testing and Academics with a Side of Humor

As July turns to August, the number of calls I receive from parents increases. With school starting back up, seniors realize that they may only have one more chance to get a good test score. 

At this time of year, anxiety for parents and students alike ramps up dramatically. Summer doldrums become fall stress cases faster than the leaves change color. 

For those facing this stressful time of year, it may help to step back and let a little humor into your lives. While it is important to do what it takes to increase a score or improve one's chance to get into one's college of choice, let's not forget that a student is more than a test score. 

To help ease the stress of the upcoming school year and testing calendar, please have a gander at the following article posted by author Darcy McMurtery for the San Francisco-based publishing company McSweeny's. 

I hope this article brings you a smile during these anxious times. 

Contact CROSSWALK to learn more about our private tutoring and SAT/ACT Boot Camps. Happy studying! 

What NOT to Tell Your ACT or SAT Tutor

At CROSSWALK, we pride ourselves in our ability to work with just about any student. For this reason, we remain flexible in our approach: we can tailor a test prep plan for just about any situation.

However, there are a number of situations that create challenges for us. While there is no doubt that all of our tutors can handle almost any challenge, there are some situations we hope to avoid.

As you prepare for the PSAT, ACT, SAT and/or the SSAT, try and ensure that you don't approach your tutor by saying any of the following:

1) "I'm too stressed to do this." My students and followers of this blog know that I consider stress as the number one enemy of successful test performance. A little positive stress to keep a student motivated and on task is good. However, the moment negative stress enters into test prep is the moment scores drop. Approaching test prep in a stressed manner will only hurt your score. I recently chatted with a parent whose daughter performed poorly on the June SAT test. When I probed for more details, it turned out that her daughter spent the last two weeks of May studying for APs and final exams while balancing a loaded social schedule. Her daughter was overwhelmed with stress by the time June rolled around and her scores showed the same.

2) "I am taking the test next week." It still baffles me that new clients will call with a week before the test to schedule tutoring. There is very little we can do in a week. We can get started on a couple of things, but test preparation takes time. The more time we have, the more we can improve. Cramming test prep into the last week before the test only creates stress. And stress--as detailed above--is the number one enemy of successful test performance.

3) "My parents made me do this." When a student blames a parent for signing him or her up for test preparation, it shows me that the student is not engaged and involved in the process. Even if your parents force you to do test prep, consider the opportunity to learn a new skill. Instead of assigning blame of the drudgery of extra academic work, take ownership of your chance to improve yourself. The more ownership a student takes in his or her preparation, the greater the potential for a score increase.

When considering test prep options, be sure to reduce stress, give yourself time and view the chance to learn a new skill in a positive light. Staying motivated, dedicated and engaged will make a major difference in the final score. 

Avoid approaching your tutor with too much stress, too little time and not enough ownership of your opportunity. 

To learn more about how CROSSWALK prepares its students for the SSAT, PSAT, ACT, SAT, academic subjects and lifelong learning, contact CROSSWALK today. CROSSWALK is the Monterey Peninsula's local resource for test prep and academic tutoring. 

Contact CROSSWALK today and schedule your private tutor at the location you choose or via Skype.

New SAT = Same Ol' ACT?

The rubber is starting to meet the road for the newly designed PSAT and SAT, i.e. the "SAT Suite of Assessments." The new PSAT will be launched in the fall and the new SAT rolls out in March 2016.

The College Board does a wonderful job of communicating the changes to the tests in its Counselor Resource Guide to the Redesigned Assessments. This guide is available for free here.

As I review the changes to the new SAT Suite of Assessments, I can't help but think that the new tests are not that different from the ACT. Consider the following:

• Gone is the 0.25 point deduction for wrong answers. In its place is the same raw score calculation used for the ACT: one point for a correct answer, no points for a wrong or omitted answer.
• No more Sentence Completion questions, which were vocabulary-based questions not found on the ACT. 
• Reading passages including scientific articles, graphs and charts like those found on the ACT. 
• The new SAT essay score will not factor into the overall score, like the ACT. 
• The SAT is providing free study resources which the ACT has done all along. 

These are just a few of the changes, but based on these, doesn't it seem that the SAT is trying to be more like the ACT? 

Additionally, the College Board states that the "ACT test measures skills across a large domain while the redesigned SAT will measure fewer things much more deeply." 

More specifically, the ACT provides one score based on the composite of four scores (Reading, English, Math, Science) while the new SAT will give one score based on the total of two scores (Reading/Writing and Math). The difference with the new SAT lies in the additional scores the new SAT will provide called cross-test scores, test scores and subscores. For example, a student will receive an overall score and, additionally, a subscore in specific areas, like Problem Solving and Data Analysis.  

As an educator, I see great value in this additional level of data from the new SAT. However, I am skeptical that colleges and universities will look beyond the overall score. If schools focus only on the total score, scoring the new test offers little difference from scoring the old test much less the ACT. 

I applaud the College Board's effort in making their tests more applicable and productive. Time will tell if the new SAT does a better job at predicting college performance than the old SAT. 

If you need help navigating the waters of the ACT, PSAT and SAT, contact CROSSWALK today. CROSSWALK continues to prepare students for success in academics, standardized test prep and life. Visit www.crosswalkeducation.com to learn more. 

The Art of Test Prep War: Strategy

I am certainly no expert in ancient Chinese literature and much less an expert on military strategy. 

Nevertheless, I was fortunate to meet John Hunter last year. Upon meeting him, I learned about his World Peace Game and his corresponding book World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements. 

Mr. Hunter  uses excerpts of the ancient Chinese military strategy book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, to teach his students about competition, conflict and world peace. 

Inspired, I decided to read The Art of War. 

Reading the book through my lens as a test prep tutor, I found a number of military strategies suggested by Sun Tzu that could very well apply to SAT and ACT preparation. 

Okay, I admit that equating test prep with military operations is a bit of a stretch. 

Even so, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that much of what Sun Tzu offers in terms of military preparation can be analogous to test preparation. 

Take his famous line about strategy as an example:

"The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others."

If we liken "opponents" to "tests" then Sun Tzu was not only a master military strategist, he may also inadvertently be the first test prep tutor to underscore the importance of strategy. 

My students all understand the importance of a game plan and a strategy for each question type. Past blog posts, like this one, suggest that a game plan is key to test success. 

Sun Tzu may have originally intended to prepare Chinese warriors in the art of war. However, he reminds us that any preparation requires a plan and that we should not underestimate the task at hand. 

If you don't want to be held captive by the SAT or ACT, prepare your strategy today. Contact CROSSWALK as we can help you through the preparation process, strategy and all.   

CROSSWALK is the Monterey Peninsula's local resource for SAT and ACT prep as well as tutoring for all academic subjects. Visit www.crosswalkeducation.com to learn more.