Often my students are so thrilled when they solve a math problem, they jump right to the answer choices to see if they can find the answer. Sometimes it’s not even a “mistake” – the question asks for x+1, my students solve for x, circle x in the answer choices and are dumbfounded when they get it wrong.

Slow down, Speed Racer!

The SAT is tricky. The wrong answers aren’t just random numbers; they are answers you would get if you made a common mistake in solving the problem.

So, AFTER you solve the problem, but BEFORE you look at the answers, go back and RE-READ the problem. What did they want you to find? Once you have verified that you have in fact, found the answer they were looking for, then – and only then – look at the answer choices.

My students will often draw in their own speed bump – an arrow drawn to the right of the answer choices pointing back up to the question – to remind them to slow down and double check the question.

The post SAT Math Strategy: Use Speed Bumps to Slow Down appeared first on .

There are a plethora of free SAT tests written by the College Board available on the Internet – not that you would know that by looking at their website. They only offer links to the 2012-2013 Official SAT Practice test.

But buried on their site are the Official SAT Practice tests from 2011-2012,  2007-2008, and 2004-2005 as well.

The Wayback Machine

If you are looking for even more, you can find older tests which are in the pre-2005 format (they still have reading analogies, math qualitative comparisons, and no writing section.) But they are still a useful source of Critical Reading questions and Math questions.

Here are the older tests:  2004-2005, 2003-2004, May 2002, Oct 2001, and another one.

I’ve got them all listed (with links to the answer sheets) on my Resources page.

The post 9 Free Official SAT Tests appeared first on .

Is writing your college essay getting you down?  Are you exhausted from trying to sort out all the grammar and punctuation rules?

This is one of my favorite books on punctuation rules: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss. It’s lighthearted, memorable, and an easy read.

Lynn gets the title of her book from the old panda joke:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

“Why?” asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“Well, I’m a panda,” he says. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

Make sure you have someone else read your essay to check for any grammatical errors that you might have overlooked!

The post Pandas for better grammar! appeared first on .

Here’s a great article on what not to do: 5 Horrible Essay Topics for Your College Application written by Elizabeth Heaton at USA Today.

What topics should you avoid?

• The big game
• The List
• The soup kitchen experience
• Comparing yourself to a fizzy drink
• Being meta

Instead, Heaton recommends that you “showcase your wit and intellect by writing about an absorbing academic or thought provoking experience. Instead of seeming pretentious, you will come across as an engaged learner who will likely make the most of the college experience.”

The post Writing your college essay appeared first on .

The New York Times just published their June college checklists for juniors and seniors.

They focus on what to do this month to prepare for college next fall or for your senior year.

Here’s the checklist for juniors and seniors.

The post College checklists for juniors and seniors appeared first on .

My daughter loves pink. L-O-V-E-S it. A while ago, I was out running errands and I brought her home a cute pink pony stuffed animal. Needless to say, it was a huge hit.

A couple of weeks later, I found a cute little pink octopus that I brought home for her.

No dice. It was pink, but it wasn’t a pony.

So then I found a little blue pony. Nope. That didn’t work either. It wasn’t pink.

Aha – I finally got it.

It has to be PINK and it has to be a PONY!

Here’s how this applies to critical reading.

Wrong answers usually aren’t totally crazy-wrong; they’re usually half-right. Most of my students think that half-right-is-practically-right and quickly choose something that is half-right as the right answer.

Except half-right isn’t all-the-way-right. It’s pink but not a pony. This is not hand grenades or horseshoes. Half-right is still totally incorrect.

Right answers have to be all-the-way-right.

So be on the lookout for those sneaky blue horses and pink octopi. Hold out for the pink ponies!

The post This pink pony can save your SAT critical reading score appeared first on .

Vocabulary is often a weak spot for many of my students. There’s no quick and easy fix – vocabularies take time and practice to develop. And, in my opinion, becoming a rabid reader is the best way to do so. Read, read, read!

But, in the short term, how can you increase your vocabulary? Membean is a great online program that provides a variety of multimodal practice.

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

One of my favorites is the root tree – so you can quickly see how one root creates a variety of words.

So by knowing that “dict” means say, you can probably figure out these words:

• predict – “pre” means before – to declare or tell in advance
• benediction – “bene” means good – utterance of good wishes; a blessing
• contradict – “con” means against –  to speak against
• malediction – “mal” means bad – to speak badly of; a curse
• dictum – an authoritative pronouncement; judicial assertion
• indict – to charge a person with a crime, especially formally in writing; accuse

More resources

The Direct Hits books also focus on root words.

I’ve created root sheets for my students as well. Here are chron and circum.

The post Learn vocabulary roots with Membean appeared first on .

We don’t pay attention to boring things. I know this isn’t earth shattering information.

However, I’ve got a twist on it that you can use to increase your critical reading score.

John Medina, author of the brilliant book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, lists 12 key ideas for learning by working with how your brain (and body) naturally learn.

One of his findings is that we don’t pay attention to boring things. But the corollary is that we do pay attention to exciting things.

 ”Emotional arousal helps the brain learn.”

John Medina

Aha! You can turn this to your advantage while working on the critical reading passages on the SAT.

If you read the passages as if they are fascinating and you are so excited to be reading them, your brain will wake up and pay attention and it will be easier to absorb the information.

My students usually roll their eyes when I tell them about this strategy. But once they use it, they are amazed at how much easier the critical reading sections are.

The post A secret strategy to increase your SAT Critical Reading score appeared first on .

I volunteer in the inner city helping students prepare for the SAT. And, for the most part, it is way too late to start thinking about college in your junior or senior year. You need a solid academic foundation from grade school and middle school. As soon as you start high school, you should be focused on college and what you need to do every year to prepare for it. Those four years will fly by quickly.

The post Misconceptions about college appeared first on .

1. Automate things to keep up the resivoir of willpower
2. Get sleep
3. Make a checklist so you don’t forget steps
4. Fight procrastination
5. Elevate your mood

Read the whole post here.

The post 5 Ways to Increase Your Productivity appeared first on .