Now that spring vacation is over and our kids are back in school it is a great time to think about how to preserve the investment that you and your child made in learning this school year and how to continue learning over the summer.
There is a large body of research evidence that shows that students lose considerable ground academically over the summer break if they don't engage in on going academic activities during that period. Fall achievement test scores are lower than the test scores from the previous spring.(White 1906; Entwistle & Alexander, 1992; Cooper et al., 2004) The typical child loses more than one month of skill or knowledge in math, reading and language arts combined. The biggest losses are in math, 2.6 months and spelling. (Cooper, Chap. 1, Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay and Greathouse, 1996) Skills and knowledge that are learned through repetition such as math, spelling, and foreign languages are at the greatest risk to be lost over periods of inactivity. If an athlete or a musician did not practice their sport or music for prolonged periods they would lose their sharpness. Our children experience the same loss of sharpness over the summer. Teachers spend four to six weeks in the fall bringing students back to the level that they were at when they left for summer vacation.
Students who are engaged in summer programs that focus on academic remediation, acceleration and enrichment showed positive results compared to those who were not engaged in these types of programs. Students in remedial programs that divide students into small groups and give individualized attention had larger positive effects than traditional class sized groups of 20-30 students. Students of all ages who were in math and reading programs experienced positive results. The greatest benefits were experienced by students in the early and secondary grades. (Summer Learning Loss: The Problem and Some Solutions, Eric Digest, www.eric.gov.)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
What You Can Do to Raise Your SAT Score the Last Week Before the Test
With less than one week to go until the SAT there are still things that you can do to increase your score on test day.
If you do nothing else, learn the directions cold. Study the directions for each section of the SAT and be certain that you fully understand them and will not need to waste valuable time on test day referring back to them.
Mentally prepare for the test.
Your performance is affected by your mental state and attitude. Believe in the knowledge and skills that you have spent your whole live acquiring and sharpening. Feel confident in the 12 years of training you've received in school; countless hours of in class learning, the accumulation of huge amounts of knowledge, innumerable "practice" tests. YOU ARE PREPARED. The SAT is your opportunity to show colleges your ability to use your critical thinking and analytical skills.
Harness your energy for test day.
Test day is like a big game, concert or play. Embrace your energy and channel it, don't let it freak you out. Nervousness and anxiety produce adrenaline which is like supercharging your nervous system. Keep a positive attitude and channel your energy to answer the one question in front of you and then move on to the next one. Visualize yourself doing well.
Keep the test in perspective.
The SAT is only one part of the college admissions decision. Your grades, essays and teacher recommendations are more important. You have many chances to take the test again if you choose and most schools are only interested in your best scores.
The Night Before
The night before the test relax, watch a movie, play a game, hang out with friends, chill out. You want to be alert on test day. Get to bed early so you are well rested when the alarm goes off at 6:00 am Saturday morning. Pull together everything that you need for test day the night before and print out directions to the test center.
Test Day
On test day wake up early, eat a good breakfast, give yourself extra time to get to the test site early so you don't feel rushed. Take your admissions ticket, photo ID, multiple soft lead pencils and soft erasers, two approved calculators in case one stops working, a watch (there may not be a clock in the room), snacks, directions to the test center.
When you are waiting for the test to begin remember to breath, remain calm, think positive thoughts, focus on the task at hand.
Keep track of time during the test by writing down the start and stop times.
Pace yourself; know when you have used 1/4, 1/2 of the time and when you have five minutes to go in the section. Don't spend much more than one minute on any one question.Don't rush. Easy questions come first in all sections except the reading passages. Don't rush through the easy questions, they are worth as much as the hard questions.
Keep track of where you are on your answer sheet by checking the number of the question and the number of the answer every few questions.
Look beyond answer A. Don't be lazy, review all the possible answers before selecting one.Eliminate wrong answers by drawing a line through them.
Skip over difficult questions and mark them with a ? so that you can easily return to them.
Circle the answers in your test booklet and then fill in the corresponding bubble.
Use your test booklet as scratch paper to work out problems. Draw pictures to help figure out math problems. Circle and underline key phrases in the reading passages.
Play to your strength by working on the types of questions in a section that you are most comfortable with first.
Answer every question on the test.Try to eliminate at least one wrong answer before you guess randomly. If you guess randomly statistically you will not be hurt.
Stay focused on your test; if you start to day dream check yourself back into the test immediately. Don't worry where other people are on the test, it will only throw you off of your pace.
Congratulations, You did it. Next stop, the college of your choice.
If you do nothing else, learn the directions cold. Study the directions for each section of the SAT and be certain that you fully understand them and will not need to waste valuable time on test day referring back to them.
Mentally prepare for the test.
Your performance is affected by your mental state and attitude. Believe in the knowledge and skills that you have spent your whole live acquiring and sharpening. Feel confident in the 12 years of training you've received in school; countless hours of in class learning, the accumulation of huge amounts of knowledge, innumerable "practice" tests. YOU ARE PREPARED. The SAT is your opportunity to show colleges your ability to use your critical thinking and analytical skills.
Harness your energy for test day.
Test day is like a big game, concert or play. Embrace your energy and channel it, don't let it freak you out. Nervousness and anxiety produce adrenaline which is like supercharging your nervous system. Keep a positive attitude and channel your energy to answer the one question in front of you and then move on to the next one. Visualize yourself doing well.
Keep the test in perspective.
The SAT is only one part of the college admissions decision. Your grades, essays and teacher recommendations are more important. You have many chances to take the test again if you choose and most schools are only interested in your best scores.
The Night Before
The night before the test relax, watch a movie, play a game, hang out with friends, chill out. You want to be alert on test day. Get to bed early so you are well rested when the alarm goes off at 6:00 am Saturday morning. Pull together everything that you need for test day the night before and print out directions to the test center.
Test Day
On test day wake up early, eat a good breakfast, give yourself extra time to get to the test site early so you don't feel rushed. Take your admissions ticket, photo ID, multiple soft lead pencils and soft erasers, two approved calculators in case one stops working, a watch (there may not be a clock in the room), snacks, directions to the test center.
When you are waiting for the test to begin remember to breath, remain calm, think positive thoughts, focus on the task at hand.
Keep track of time during the test by writing down the start and stop times.
Pace yourself; know when you have used 1/4, 1/2 of the time and when you have five minutes to go in the section. Don't spend much more than one minute on any one question.Don't rush. Easy questions come first in all sections except the reading passages. Don't rush through the easy questions, they are worth as much as the hard questions.
Keep track of where you are on your answer sheet by checking the number of the question and the number of the answer every few questions.
Look beyond answer A. Don't be lazy, review all the possible answers before selecting one.Eliminate wrong answers by drawing a line through them.
Skip over difficult questions and mark them with a ? so that you can easily return to them.
Circle the answers in your test booklet and then fill in the corresponding bubble.
Use your test booklet as scratch paper to work out problems. Draw pictures to help figure out math problems. Circle and underline key phrases in the reading passages.
Play to your strength by working on the types of questions in a section that you are most comfortable with first.
Answer every question on the test.Try to eliminate at least one wrong answer before you guess randomly. If you guess randomly statistically you will not be hurt.
Stay focused on your test; if you start to day dream check yourself back into the test immediately. Don't worry where other people are on the test, it will only throw you off of your pace.
Congratulations, You did it. Next stop, the college of your choice.
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