The end of February marks the time to start thinking about those AP exams, and other major exams like the SATs in general. In this month’s blog post, let’s check out strategies to effectively calendar and create a study schedule that works for you! Here are 4 considerations. Don’t just study It’s important to create a schedule that accounts for your humanity. Make sure to include times you’ve designated for fun and for rest. Block these times regularly in your calendar. Study challenging concepts at the right time You don’t have to get up at 6AM in the morning every morning to do well on your exams. While you’re organizing your study schedule, make sure you are accounting for YOUR best work hours. If you’re an early bird, or a night owl, be sure to acknowledge your unique best hours. Not all study time needs to be long Got a 30 minute ride to hang out with friends? Waiting for dinner to cook? Use these spare moments to review your flashcards and give your brain a quick rehash of concepts that are easy to forget. Take a practice exam Whether it be for a final, an AP exam, the SATs, GRE, or other standardized test, make sure to go through a practice test at least ONCE to get all the first time exam jitters out. You may not be able to replicate the entire experience, but you WILL be able to have a better understanding of and familiarity with the exam’s logistics and format. Now that these broad considerations are in, it’s time to organize your calendar. There are 3 important steps. Calendar your exam date Add in a treat for the day after, and some last minute flashcards for the day before. The week of, make sure you’re getting a combination of rest and review. Plan out your monthly goals After taking a diagnostic test, add in monthly goals to get a sense of how far you are from your goal score. Take at least one diagnostic test during each month so you can measure your progress. Figure out the hours per week you want to study. Once you have a sense of how many hours you can put in, you can see how much time you will need per day and when you can study more complex material you’re struggling with, given timeslots that are longer. As you can read, there is a lot of strategy and planning that comes with organizing your study schedule. The biggest advice? Make sure you can stick to it!
There’s a lot going on in the world of education right now, and we are learning not only new content, but new ways to show our learning. So, February marks the time to prepare for these new formats of exams. Some of these exams are formatted in a way such that they are hybrid or online. How are this year’s exams different? Let’s start with AP exams. For some popular college credit receiving exams like AP Biology or AP Calculus, it appears the exam will retain much of its pre-Covid structure. Most AP exams will still be in person with paper and pencil, in May. The exam will be administered for many students at the same time, at their specific schools of attendance. Testing centers which host many students taking exams are also prevalent. For a comprehensive look at the policies and guidelines of these standard format exams — which remain standard from many years past, click here. Still however, the pandemic is a factor in exam administration. For AP exams like AP English literature and AP World History, there will be a selection of exams hosted still in school, but online in a digital format. The key takeaways to understand for how these exams will operate differently are: The school must have applied in fall of 2021 to administer the exam online The exam will still be taken at the school in a proctored setting Students will be able to go back and forth online with questions Schools may be able to provide Windows, Mac, Chromebooks or even Ipads for the exam Digital and paper exams will be taken in different locations within the school For graduate degrees, the online format is also variable. The GRE is a good example to understand. A grueling 3 hours and 45 minutes, this exam is known to be tough even prior to the pandemic. With the shifts in learning, the GRE averages 1.5 million test takers with a mean score of around 150 out of 170 for the quantitative and verbal reasoning sections. The exam is entirely administered online. Here are some of the considerations for GRE for adult learners of this time: You can edit your answers and preview sections There is a built-in calculator function You can mark/ review answers on the digital format You can take the exam at home or at a testing facility At home testing is available 24/7 and proctored by an online human proctor. To read more about these exams, click here. With all of these exam changes, it will be interesting to see how students this year fair with online test scores! Seems like a good time to goal-set, and get help tutoring if you need it!
As the next semester begins, we see a current spike in COVID-19 cases. Masks are increasingly necessary and a part of our day-to-day living. So, just like making a strategy for attaining goals, industrious students and teachers familiarize themselves with the CDC guidelines on masking up. However, these guidelines change regularly. Masking as a Part of Culture The changes are so frequent that in true internet-of-things, Generation Z style, memes on the CDC proliferate— joking about all the possibilities of what “the CDC says.” But jokes aside, scientists are creating their content related to masking. For example, novel research looks at how wearing a mask might be related to different levels of emotional awareness. What Science Suggests Scientists who focus on visually impaired individuals studied a sample of 119 individuals. The study focused on the tone of voice, body language, and other emotional indicators. According to this study, the younger the tested individual, the higher the rate of inaccuracy between reading emotions. Children 3-5 years old had the most severe disadvantage in discerning emotions with mask wearers. Such inability led to facial misinterpretation and resulted in some behavior that could be considered inappropriately aggressive. However, for those who were older and grew up with a sense of emotional awareness more acute based on years of practice without a mask, this inability to read emotions correctly was not as dramatic. Younger children “faced,” if you will, all the consequences. It Would Be Best To Mask Up Anyways… While this study may not entirely prove that wearing a mask makes you meaner, it suggests causation between mask-wearing and emotional intelligence. But, perhaps the question is moot. It seems mask-wearing will be a way in congested settings like schools for the foreseeable future. Regardless of how a mask affects emotional development, we are sure that it positively impacts our health. That certainty means you should probably mask up anyways.
How Your Crazy Covid Dreams Might be Helping You Learn As winter approaches, the days are shorter and nights longer. Besides spending time in self-reflection, now’s the time for plenty of naps and sleeping. As a result, you might find yourself having stranger dreams than usual. Some studies now suggest that such dreams may result in memory consolidation. They can also result in an ability to understand complicated experiences digested during the day. Lots of strange dreams during Covid Are you having lots of strange dreams during the Covid pandemic? When looking at a sample of 1091 Italian participants and asking for their self-reported experiences in slumber, one study found that “dream frequency, emotional load, vividness, bizarreness and length” were all rated higher during the pandemic when compared to a pre-lockdown period. You are not alone. Additionally, individuals noted a higher increase in “negative emotions” when assessing their dreams. Finally, predisposition to some factors, such as sensitivity to depression, were predictive of such “strange” dreams. Dreaming to learn Tufts University neuroscientist Erik Hoel suggests that these dreams may be a process our brains go through to learn. His reasoning? Well, we know that dreams are amalgamations of experiences that we have throughout our days. Dr. Hoel believes that due to the monotonous nature of our lockdown experiences, our brains may be trying to create novelty in our subconscious minds to help us glean insights from what would otherwise be routine experiences. Therefore, these strange dreams may serve as intelligence in our working memory to teach us from new experiences, whether real or imagined at night. Practice makes perfect While these researchers try to make sense of the bizarre and unanticipated externalities of a global pandemic, many different hypotheses are coming into play when analyzing dreams. Another assumption is that dreams are ways our brains allow us to practice responding to real-life situations that have not yet occurred. Thus, the more you can “practice” in your dream, the more you can be prepared to perform in real life. What’s weird? Despite there not being one consensus when it comes to why we are experiencing dreams that are “strange” during Covid, there is a lot of interest in the field of understanding such experiences. As a result, the concept of “overfitting” is an idea that has permeated circles of scientists asking why we dream the way we do. This concept argues that dreams are weird because if they weren’t, we’d never be able to get new insights into our daily lives. Dreaming strange dreams might be normal, just as much as learning, whether you expect it or not, can be. Either way, your crazy Covid dreams might be helping you learn!
Start early. Start well in advance to avoid cramming. This way, you are prepared the night before an exam. Your score will be much better as a result. Build a master to-do list and a schedule for the remaining days in the semester. Break cumulative exams into smaller study units. Studying increments prevents you from feeling overwhelmed. It can also aid in monitoring your progress. Study for the style of exam. Ask about the test format, then study accordingly. Multiple choice exams mean you should know definitions and concepts. Written exams focus on your synthesis of the concepts, so study with examples in mind. Build a custom study guide. Some teachers provide study guides. But creating your own study guide can help you process the material more efficiently. Outline the important information you need to learn and to refer to it frequently while you study. Explain concepts aloud. Pretend to teach the material to someone. Use your own words to assess your comprehension. This will aid your memory and help identify growth areas. Use your friends and family as guinea pigs to teach. Use focus tools. For example, music can help you focus. Listen to music you already know all the words to, but don’t feel compelled to sing along. If it becomes a distraction, try a different focus tool. Find a study buddy. You and your friends should make a study guide for the final exam separately. Then review the topics together. But do not split the work. You do not want to miss something. Quiz yourself. Think about and create mock exam questions. You will become more familiar with what you need to study. Also, making questions helps familiarize yourself with the type of language used on the exam. You will be able to set expectations of what you need to focus on by doing so. Promote relaxation. One example is listening to calming music. You can also stretch, breathe deeply, or meditate. De-stressing can release negative thoughts and boost your confidence. Go to bed early the night before. Sleep is crucial. “All-nighters,” aka staying up throughout the night to study, are harmful. Studies indicate that late night studying without sleep will actually hurt your performance. So get a good night’s sleep before your test.
Regardless of whether your child attends elementary school or university, studying remains an essential part of academic life. Often, the month of October ushers in a period of midterm assessments. Students might juggle oral exams, written tests and essays. Take advantage of a few study tips we have compiled to make midterms go more smoothly. Restrict Notes to One Page per Chapter – This prevents students from compiling pages upon pages of notes that they will never have the time to review. By restricting the available space, students distill notes to only the most pertinent information. Color Code Common Themes – Particularly for history and literature courses, identifying recurring themes is crucial. Assign colors to majors ideas the teacher explores in class, and continue this colorful annotation in the reading and notes. When it comes time to study, similar themes will be grouped in advance, making for associative learning. Don’t Go Crazy with Highlighters – Many students go overboard with highlighting. Efficient studying focuses only on the key information, and uses notes to help with details. If your student has a tendency to highlight everywhere, suggest that highlighter only be used for a specific type of detail, i.e. historic dates or vocabulary words. Mark Deadlines – Write down upcoming deadlines for every major assignment. Then, plot out which will require the most time to complete. Next, identify what assignments prove most challenging. Prioritize based on deadlines and difficulty and write out a plan of execution. Tiny, Daily Chunks of Study Time – Cramming can be effective for passing a test, but it is not good for retention. This means that when final exams roll around, knowledge may be forgotten. Instead, commit 20 minutes of study time to each subject, everyday. So, if your child has 6 classes, their total study time would be 2 hours. Break up these 2 hours into study chunks. Perhaps try an hour directly after school and an hour before bed. You decide what is more manageable. Talk It Out – True mastery means being able to teach the material. Have your student teach you the concepts that they are learning. And remember to set a time limit. Ideally, they feel confident enough about their material to recite the lessons at a conversational pace. Take note of concepts on which they flounder, those need more study time. Studying is a very personal activity, and no single solution suits everyone equally. If you find that one of these tips works better than another, embrace that! With the multitude of learning styles, variety equals healthy study habits. As long as your child can master their information in an efficient amount of time, midterms season should be a cinch.
The end of the school year is near! Both parents and students know what this means–final exams are on the horizon. Regardless of your child’s grade level, teachers often assign a cumulative exam, project or essay that requires your young one to apply all of the knowledge they have learned throughout the semester at once. These assignments can be stressful and often seem like an obstacle standing between your child and a relaxing winter holiday. But finals do not have to be major stressors. Here are three tried-and-true tips for taking the stress out of exam period. MAKE A LIST OF TEST DATES AND DUE DATES The first step to mastering finals is knowing what tests and assignments are included. Reach out to your child’s teachers and request a list of the remaining assignments and assessments. Nowadays, many schools post this information online and include directions and grading rubrics. Students can also review the course syllabi they received at the semester’s start in order to identify the due dates and exam dates. Build a calendar with your child to countdown the deadlines. PRIORITIZE EACH TASK Now that your calendar is complete, it is time to figure out a plan of execution. Chat with your child about his or her academic strengths and weaknesses. Does he or she love writing, but struggle with math? Be sure to allot more time for the subjects that are more challenging for your child personally. Divide the assignments or review material into smaller, manageable pieces. Ideally, your child never spends longer than thirty minutes to an hour on the same subject in any given study session. TAKE BREAKS It is an unfortunate conflation to equate studying for long periods with studying effectively. Discourage your student from pouring endlessly over textbooks and notes for weeks before finals. It can be stress-inducing and unreasonably exhausting both mentally and physically. While cram sessions and procrastination are at times unavoidable, taking small, intermittent breaks can do wonders for morale and mental health. Make sure to follow these three foolproof steps in order to guarantee that our child makes it to winter vacation stress-free. After all, finals should be an opportunity for your child to showcase their knowledge, not to feel bombarded with anxiety. Once finals are over, be sure to gather to family together and soak up a well-earned holiday. Good luck!
Standardized tests are a cornerstone of the college application process. Parents devote ample time and energy to preparing the prospective college freshmen in their homes for success with Kaplan courses and Princeton Review guidebooks. But in the last two years, both the American College Test (ACT) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have been redesigned. So how do they compare to their older versions? Also, which test best suits your child’s needs and abilities? Let’s first break down how the test have evolved in recent years. In September of 2015, the ACT was redesigned to incorporate new sub-scoring categories for each of the four core sections: English, Math, Reading and Science. The rationale behind the change meant to provide greater insight into a student’s personal strengths and weaknesses. Thus in addition to the composite score graded on a 1-36 scale, students also receive scores in four new subcategories: S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), English Language, Career Readiness and Text Complexity. Each of these areas theoretically contribute to a more detailed snapshot of the student’s aptitudes. Along with new scoring mechanisms, the ACT made alterations to the optional writing section by extending the time from thirty minutes to forty minutes. The essay requires analysis of multiple perspectives as opposed to general prompt response of older formats. While these changes do not impact the difficulty of the questions themselves, being aware of how best to prepare could be the difference between earning a 28 and a 30 on the exam. Collegeboard first administered the new SAT in March 2016, which decreased total exam time from three hours and forty-five minutes to just three hours (excluding an optional fifty minute essay section). The old Critical Reading and Writing sections, once famous for their vocabulary sections, have been combined into a single Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section that poses questions related to textual excerpts. The new format also eliminated the point penalty for incorrect responses, and extended the time allotted for writing from twenty-five minutes to fifty. Most importantly, perhaps, the score range shifted from 600-2400 to a scale of 400-1600. So a 1600 back in 2012 meant a very mediocre score, whereas now a 1600 denotes perfection. But how to choose between the two exams? First and foremost, not all colleges accept scores from both exams, Not to worry though, because most do. If you want to verify, search through the comprehensive Collegeboard.org database of application requirements. If you can choose either or both, then let the content inform your decision. Note that the main content difference between the ACT and SAT centers around the ACT having a Science section, while the SAT does not. In terms of test formatting, the SAT requires a No-Calculator Math section, while the ACT permits calculators for the entire Math section. With respect to aids, the SAT provides common algebra and geometry formulas, while the ACT does not. Our suggestion? Review these content and formatting differences with your child in order to gauge their preferences. Still stuck? Have them complete sample SAT and ACT questions and then compare the scores. At the end of the day, rest assured that many colleges permit students to submit the highest scores per section for either test, without reviewing all scores from each exam attempt. When choosing between the ACT and SAT, be sure to prioritize your child’s preferences along with the application requirements of the colleges they hope to attend. In any case, happy testing and good luck!
Exams can be stressful and studying for them can be just as tough. Knowing how to properly prepare for them can be very helpful. Here are the top 5 tips to help you study for any exam. Be sure to understand your study topics in your own words. It does not matter how many times you have been told something from a teacher or textbook. If you can’t explain what it means in your own words, you will not be happy with your grade. You can not just memorize what you are learning and check it off the list. Get in the habit of explaining it in your own words what you are learning so that you will remember it better and are able to understand your study notes. Don’t be afraid to ask study questions.William Arthur Ward, who is one of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims, said “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” Don’t be afraid to ask a question that you think is stupid. Embrace your curiosity, after all the only stupid questions are the ones not asked. Depending on what you are studying, it can be difficult to understand what you are trying to learn. Your teacher, lecturer, or other educator is there to help you learn and they are willing to answer your questions. Quiz yourself. After you think you understand a concept, the next step is to quiz yourself on it. Write out an exam and then try to duplicate the conditions. Make sure you turn off your phone, don’t talk, and time yourself. This will help you get more comfortable with the exam process and you can find out how well you really know what you are trying to learn. Flash Cards are handy for trying to quiz yourself. They are also great for boosting your memory and help you recall theory, definitions and key dates. You can also use them as a quick study session right before an exam. Get Creative with online study tools.There are many different ways to study so pick one that works best for you. There are many study tools and techniques available to help you study. Be sure to try many different ones to find the right one for you. Some good examples are online flashcards, mind maps, mnemonics, online study planners, as well as video and audio resources. Also bring study notes with you wherever you go. This way when you have extra time you have a quick study session. Set your study goals and create a flexible study plan. An important part of success is knowing what you want to achieve. Set your goals and make a flexible study plan. If you set your study plan too strict, then you will have problems when things come up. As you get closer to exam time, the more concrete your plan should be. Using these 5 tips will help you achieve success with your exams. Remember the earlier you start preparing for your exams, the more you will remember and understand.
Having a child with ADHD can be hard as a parent, especially when it comes to school. Learn 5 simple strategies to help your ADHD child achieve success in school: The first step to helping your child achieve success is through making sure their teacher is aware of their ADHD. This information does not always get passed along the chain of teachers. Through informing their teacher, you can work together with them to be on the same page and work on the same goals. Inform their teacher of any medication the child may be on as well as they can watch and let you know how well the medication is doing for your child in during school hours. If there comes a point of the medication not working as well, the teacher can let you know of possible medication changes that may need to happen. Find ways to help your child learn to their fullest. Your child may need a few different goals than others, or more goals that are smaller. Making their goals smaller may make it easier for your child to reach their goals. Always make sure as goals are hit, you point them out and celebrate them. Even just a fun sticker or pencil to say GREAT JOB goes a long way. They need that praise. This way they feel like they are accomplishing something! This leads to them strive to reach more goals as children need to feel self-worth! When working during class time or at home, ensure to give them time. If something is too hard or they become frustrated, have them move on to the next question or problem. You can always come back to the hard ones later! During test time, if they are having problems concentrating, have them take a short walk to the drinking fountain. This short walk will help them clear their mind and walk off a little energy! This is a great plan to bring up to the teacher. Maybe during conference’s, or call or email. Not all teachers have dealt with the same degree and amount of ADHD children, so do not assume the teacher knows what is best for your child. Never do any work for your child. This may be frustrating for both of you, but there will be no success from you doing their work. If you are having a hard time, try stepping back and thinking of clues to help them find the answer. Make the clue’s easy to begin and as you move on give clues that are a little harder and require more thinking. This is a great way to help them catch on and learn how to find the answer on their own! Help your child stay organized. Children with ADHD are prone to being messy. Have your child put their work in different colored folders. If there is a project due, begin the work together. Work together to put all your child’s notes together and organized. Have your child work a little every day on their project. Talk everyday about how many days are left before their project is due to limits stress. The main thing to always remember with ADHD children is to always be patient! Their brains work different than ours and they need to take small breaks to stay focused. Every year, you will learn more and more about what works best for your child. Just always keep teachers and other adults in their life up-to-date with this information so your child can learn to their fullest.
