Archive for March, 2009

How to Prepare for the SAT, Part II: When to prepare for the SAT.

James, our student from the story in the first post in this series, came to us in October of his senior year, hoping to do some preparation for the November or December SAT. While Fall of senior year is a popular time to prepare for the SATs, it’s the wrong time. James had his college applications due, his rigorous senior year workload, and a pretty bad case of early-onset “senioritis.” If everything had gone his way, James may have squeaked through with his preparation to get the scores he needed. Rarely, though, does it work out so well.

So when is the best time to prepare? When should James have begun? I, along with many other professionals in the field, believe that all students should start thinking about SATs no earlier than the summer after their sophomore year and no later than October of their Junior year. Notice I said thinking about, not preparing.

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By Jay | Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

How to Prepare for the SAT. What you won’t learn anywhere else.

As a founder and manager of Veritas Tutors, I have seen over the last four years countless students and parents come in to our office confused about the SAT. Some want to prep too early, others come in way too late and expect miracles. Some don’t take the test seriously enough, and others foolishly make it their entire life for their junior and senior years. Some have tried countless other test-prep companies (thousands of $$$) and come to us to pick up the pieces, and others plan poorly and mis-time the many tests that they have to take junior and senior year.

While I don’t claim to know ALL of the answers in the test-prep game, I do know most of them and am happy to share them with you in this multi-part blog post. Here I will cover all aspects of the SAT, from planning when to take it to deciding which scores to report, and everything in between (including an unbelievably effective method of preparing yourself and which materials to use).

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By Jay | Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

Admissions – The Wait List

In my ninth-grade honors English class, we received an assignment to prepare and deliver a persuasive argument. For awkward adolescents, myself certainly included, this was a pretty big deal. Presentations were set to take place over a three week period with Ms. Gorman adjudicating from the last row of our classroom curcible. I remember a restless evening – as I repeated my lines sotto voce – the night prior to the first day of presentations. As the deadline neared, my stomach became increasingly tied in knots. I knew my speech, but the stress of anticipation caused delusions of oversight, escape, a stay-of-execution.

When third preiod English class finally arrived, our teacher stood in front of the class and asked, “So, who wants to go first?”

It was a pretty ludicrous question. No one wanted to go first. Silence lingered for an interminable 20 seconds before the unthinkable occurred: I popped out of my chair to volunteer. I don’t know what compelled me act, but before I could comprehend the consequences, I was up at the podium reciting my opening remarks.

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By Andrew | Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | No Comments »
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