At most colleges, the SAT (or ACT) is an important part of the application. A lot rides on the
exam, so it’s easy to start stressing during the test if you don’t think it’s going well. With SAT
Score Choice, at least you have the comfort of knowing that you can take the exam again and
not report a set a bad scores. However, many selective colleges and universities aren’t favorable
towards SAT Score Choice. They don’t want to see a scenario in which students who can afford
to do so take the SAT a dozen times. Thus, many top colleges and universities are requiring
students to report scores from all test sittings even with the new SAT Score Choice option.
As Ms. Skipp reports below, “Score Choice is intended to lessen students’ anxiety by giving
them more control over their college applications. But while it may have begun with the best of
intentions, the new system has proved controversial.”

Something Else to Worry About

By Catharine Skipp

Newsweek

A new SAT option is supposed to reduce stress. Fat chance.

Oliver Beavers is planning to take the SATs again, and he’s a little nervous. “Everyone has good
test days and bad test days,” he says. So it makes sense that he’s a big fan of a new twist on the
decades-old SAT, an innovation called Score Choice. Introduced by the College Board in late
2008, Score Choice allows test takers to send only their best SAT scores to the colleges to which
they’re applying. Under the prior system, colleges were given a warts-and-all look at the scores
of every exam a student took. Beavers believes the old system hurt students whose performance
varied on different test dates, and that the new scheme makes it easier for students to take the
exam repeatedly to try to boost their score. “I think the best way to get better SATs is to just
keep taking them and see where you go wrong,” says the rising senior, who is hoping to attend
his hometown University of Virginia to study economics. By utilizing Score Choice, he’s less
nervous about whiffing on the big test, and more relaxed knowing colleges won’t know how
many times he retests.

That kind of stress reduction, the College Board says, is exactly what motivated it to implement
the new score-reporting system. According to Alana Klein, a spokesperson for College Board,
Score Choice is intended to lessen students’ anxiety by giving them more control over their
college applications. But while it may have begun with the best of intentions, the new system has
proved controversial.

Some observers believe its real purpose is to boost the College Board’s revenue by encouraging
students to take the SATs more frequently and to improve its competitive position against the
rival ACT exam; ACT already had a choice system in place and has been steadily stealing
market share from the SAT in recent years. In December 2008, NEWSWEEK reported on
an internal College Board e-mail in which general manager Laurence Bunin wrote that Score
Choice was motivated by “less kids taking the SAT” and thereby “threatening the viability of the
program itself.” [Klein did not respond to requests for comment about the e-mail or questions
about the financial motivations behind Score Choice.]

That reinforced the notion that the shift is driven by bottom-line considerations, not what’s best
for students. “Everybody is going to tell you it’s really a moneymaker for the College Board,”
says Jean Jordan, dean of admissions at Emory University, who shares that view. Another issue:
some colleges are rejecting the Score Choice system and insisting that applicants send in every
SAT score. There’s also worry that by rewarding students who take the SAT many times, Score
Choice unfairly penalizes lower-income students, whose lack of resources limits the number of
times they can take the $45 exam. “There is no question that students from less—sophisticated
backgrounds are at a disadvantage,” says Edward Gillis, executive director of admissions at the
University of Miami.

The basic idea behind Score Choice isn’t new. Throughout the 50-year history of the ACT exam,
students have been allowed to take the test repeatedly but report only their best score to colleges.
From 1993 to 2001, the College Board used a similar system for its SAT II subject-specific tests.
And some colleges insist the debate over Score Choice is overblown, because most schools have
focused only on a student’s best SAT scores all along. Typical is the University of California,
which has a longstanding policy of using a student’s highest score when making admittance
decisions, says Susan Wilbur, director of undergrad admissions. “We don’t encourage students to
take it numerous times,” she says. “Take it once, do your best, and move on.”

But some observers feel Score Choice will inevitably create a disadvantage for those who can’t
afford multiple tests. Willard Dix runs College Access Counseling, which provides admissions
training to public-school counselors and community groups serving low-income and minority
students in the Chicago area. “Score Choice is pointless” for many of his clients, he says,
since these students can’t afford multiple tests or the pricey prep courses designed to bump up
performance over time. “The less privileged are not worrying about stuff like that … They’re
worrying about applying to college and struggling to do the test just once,” Dix says. “It is a
silly, ridiculous thing for the College Board to do.”

At Bronx Preparatory Charter School in New York’s South Bronx, junior Darien Henry, 16,
thinks Score Choice is unfair. At his school, most students take the SAT using fee waivers
offered to low-income families, but the College Board limits waiver students to taking the test
just twice. “Someone wealthier [will be] able to take the test multiple times and only send the
best score,” says Henry, who hopes to attend Syracuse University. Other students say they
find the system just plain confusing, with some colleges accepting Score Choice and some
insisting that students send all their scores (though it’s not clear how a school will know if the
student complies). “I don’t think it helps our kids, and we are not recommending it,” says Bronx
Preparatory counselor Jessica London.

Even at upscale schools, parents and students are confused by the evolving set of rules. “Score
Choice has been so frustrating for us,” says Marcia Hunt, director of college counseling at Pine
Crest School, an independent day school in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. She describes being in a meeting
where college-admissions deans—the consumers of the test data—weren’t sure how they should
look at the new send-only-your-best-score system. “How is this simplifying or making [students]
less anxious?” Hunt says.

Even if the implementation of Score Choice has been imperfect, admissions professionals
agree it’s time to do something to try to de-emphasize the SAT. “I’ve been a college counselor
for 25 years, and students are becoming more hyperfocused on tests,” says David Altshuler, a
professional Miami-based independent college counselor who advises students and families. For
students who simply don’t do well on the test, there are hundreds of schools, including selective
colleges like Bowdoin and Smith, that allow students to apply without sending any test scores.
Still, in the echo chamber of competitive high schools, where college-search talk is incessant,
the test takes on an inevitable high-stakes aura. Stephanie DiBernardo, a junior at St. Brendan
High School in Miami, didn’t do well the first time she took the SAT in early 2008, which only
increases her anxiety. “I just feel like [my score] is more important than everything else I’ve done
in the last three years,” DiBernardo says. “I’ve got a 3.9, I am captain of the swim team, was on
the track team, I take honors courses, and I feel like it all comes down to SATs.”

In general, the scores tend to matter more at larger state schools, where the large number of
applicants forces admissions official to rely more on formulas in which quantitative factors like
SATs can weigh more heavily. But at smaller schools, or at colleges that devote more resources
to admissions, the staff tends to look at applicants more holistically, and uses the SATs more as a
benchmark for comparing high-achieving students from different high schools.

From a student’s standpoint, the best strategy is to do as well as you possibly can on the test, but
to keep your score in perspective. “There are brilliant and successful people who didn’t do well
on the SATs,” says Timothy Sandoval, director of college counseling for the Bright Prospect
Scholar Support Program, a Pomona, Calif., nonprofit that collaborates with high schools in low-
income urban areas. Sandoval suggests students take the SATs no more than twice, “and use the
rest of your Saturdays to read a good book or help someone in your community.” That’s sound
advice no matter where you plan to apply.

Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2009/08/11/something-else-to-worry-about.html

This white paper from our colleagues at admissionsconsultants.com says it all. We’re constantly asked which test the biz school applicant should take, and we’ve maintained that GMAT is the way to go – - even though arguably, the GMAT is a harder test . Read below what the ‘sources’ are saying…and let us know your thoughts. Thanks, Admissionsconsultants.com – this will clear up some of the controversy for MBA hopefuls!This white paper from our colleagues at admissionsconsultants.com says it all. We’re constantly asked which test the biz school applicant should take, and we’ve maintained that GMAT is the way to go – - even though arguably, the GMAT is a harder test . Read below what the ‘sources’ are saying…and let us know your thoughts. Thanks, Admissionsconsultants.com – this will clear up some of the controversy for MBA hopefuls!

GMAT versus GRE Smackdown? Clearing Up the GRE’s Role in Business School Admissions

Business schools that accept the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT from MBA applicants are growing in number, and the business press is sparing no hyperbole in reporting the trend. “There’s a feud brewing in the graduate-school testing world” (Lagorio 2008). “One of the hot battles in standardized testing these days is over the M.B.A. market” (Inside Higher Ed 2009). “The battle between two of the largest graduate school testing giants,” the GMAT and the GRE, “is heating up” (Damast 2009), and “this business school version of the Coke-or-Pepsi debate is raging everywhere” (Di Meglio 2009). “Now that so many schools are giving the applicants an option between the tests, it’s important for business school candidates to know which exam is right for them” (Burnsed 2010).

However, those articles present conflicting points of view by admissions directors, admissions counselors, and administrators of the two tests, leaving MBA applicants more confused than ever about which exam is right for them. Business school forums are filled with questions from applicants such as, “Will admissions committees truly take my GRE results seriously, or will I be penalized for submitting them instead of the GMAT? Should I take the GRE since the math section is less rigorous, or will doing that actually count against me? Should I take both tests, or just one–and if just one, which one? What are the admissions committees really saying by accepting the GRE, and what should I do about it? How big a deal is this, anyway?”

Much of this confusion can be cleared up by addressing assertions made in those articles about the GRE’s entry into the business school admissions process. That is the purpose of this report: to address the validity of those assertions and to correct them when necessary. What you read here may surprise you.

Assertion: Business schools will not take GRE scores as seriously as GMAT scores.

This assertion has been made by a number of admissions counselors in the press, and it is simply not true. Business schools have taken the GRE seriously for years now–in their Ph.D. programs. Like most business schools, “Sloan has long accepted the GRE for our Ph.D. program,” says Rod Garcia, Admissions Director of MIT Sloan (Garcia 2010). As a result, “accepting the GRE for MBA applicants, starting in 2006, required no real adjustment.” Since 1988, Sloan has also accepted the GRE from candidates of its Leaders for Manufacturing program (now the Leaders for Global Operations program), a joint MBA program; other business schools have done the same for their own joint degree programs. In sum, the GRE is already accepted in the business school world. No school is going to waste its time accepting and considering a test score it doesn’t take seriously.

Assertion: The GRE is not rigorous enough to assess an applicant’s quantitative ability for business school.

This concern is raised not only by admissions consulting firms but also by business schools holding back on accepting GRE scores–for example, Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, which does not currently accept the GRE. “Our biggest concern is the validity of the GRE’s quantitative section relative to performance in the first year of MBA studies,” says Libby Livingston, Senior Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Goizueta (Livingston 2010). “We have data showing a correlation between the GMAT quantitative section and MBA student grades, data which does not exist for the GRE quantitative section. We feel that the GMAT is a better indicator of quantitative ability.” Rod Garcia of MIT Sloan, a business school with a reputation for quantitative rigor, has a different view: “Really, one does not need such high-level quantitative skills for business school; we don’t buy the argument that the GRE isn’t quantitative enough. We are absolutely comfortable with the quantitative ability measured by the GRE.” As pointed out earlier, if the GRE is good enough to assess academic ability for a business school’s Ph.D. program, then it is more than enough to assess academic ability for the school’s MBA program–and were the GRE truly not rigorous enough, top business schools like MIT Sloan, Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, and Columbia would not be accepting it. If a school accepts the GRE, it considers the test rigorous enough.

Assertion: GRE test takers may not be as motivated about attending business school as GMAT takers.

Not surprisingly, this comes from the CEO of GMAC (Burnsed 2010), owner of the GMAT–the implication once again being that business schools will not take GRE scores as seriously as GMAT scores, debunked above. This assertion too makes little sense. The GRE and the GMAT are measures of academic ability, not of motivation. Admissions committees have many ways of determining an applicant’s motivation for applying to business school without having to look at which standardized test they took. “People who apply having taken both tests were pretty clearly headed down another path before considering business school,” says Rod Garcia. “We just wanted to remove an impediment for those who had already taken the GRE and didn’t want to have to take yet another test.”

Assertion: Allowing the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT allows applicants to game the system by taking both tests and submitting the better of their two scores to business schools.

Applicants weak in math should take the GRE and those weak in English should take the GMAT. This kind of strategizing appears often on business school forums and admissions counseling web sites. The possibility of gaming the system might explain Columbia’s unique rule of accepting the GRE only if the applicant has not taken the GMAT within the past five years. In any case, “we haven’t seen this at Sloan,” says Rod Garcia. “Those who submit their GRE results to us tend to have taken the test years ago.” To those thinking about gaming the system? “If you feel more comfortable with one test or the other, then do it–but look, these are standardized tests; their results are consistent. Performance in one is a good indicator of performance in the other. We have not seen anyone do poorly on one and great on the other.”

Assertion: Accepting the GRE allows business schools to diversify their applicant pools.

Schools that have decided to accept the GRE often cite this as a reason for doing so–and it is true, to an extent. “Accepting the GRE was right for MIT Sloan, which attracts a lot of engineers,” says Rod Garcia. “We wanted to bring in non-traditional candidates–English majors, history majors, and more–and this was a good move that successfully allowed us to look outside our usual applicant pool.” However, he says “probably less than five percent of candidates apply with the GRE.” Derrick Bolton, Director of MBA Admissions at Stanford, says that when his school started accepting the GRE, only a small number–about three percent–did so (Jaschik 2008). Pat Harrison, Associate Director of Admissions for the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, concurs: “The number of applicants who have submitted GRE scores to us is very small” (Harrison 2010). At each of these schools, the number of GRE applicants translates to a dozen or perhaps two dozen enrolled students per class year–a sprinkling of diversity.

That brings us to our last assertion: The move by business schools to accept the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT is a Big Deal.

While perhaps true for ETS (administrators of the GRE), GMAC, business education journalists, and admissions consultants, it is far less so for most business schools and their applicants. For them, there is no GMAT-versus-GRE smackdown. At business schools, the number of GRE submissions is small, the adjustment they need to make to accept those GRE submissions is small, and the importance of GMAT-versus-GRE is small. “We are not trying to replace the GMAT,” says Rod Garcia of MIT Sloan; “we are just providing a convenient alternative to it.” “Really, this is not a big issue for us,” says Libby Livingston of Goizueta. “If we decide to use the GRE, it would probably just be with our joint MBA degree programs, like the School of Public Health, where the GRE is already required.” In summary, for current MBA applicants, choosing which standardized test to take is rather simple. Those who already took the GRE, performed well on it, and are applying only to business schools that accept it should just submit their GRE results; otherwise, they should take the GMAT.

THE ORIGINAL CAN BE FOUND: http://www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/gmat-or-gre.asp

Burnsed, Brian. “GRE is Fast Becoming a GMAT Alternative for B-Shool Applicants.” U.S. News & World Report, May 14, 2010.

Damast, Alison. “GRE v. GMAT: Battle of the B-School Gatekeepers.” Businessweek, July 23, 2009.

Di Meglio, Francesca. “GRE or GMAT: Test-Takers’ Dilemma.” Businessweek, December 28, 2009.

Garcia, Rod, interview by R. Todd King. The GRE at MIT Sloan (May 15, 2010).

Harrison, Pat, interview by R. Todd King. The GRE at Dartmouth Tuck (email exchange) (May 19, 2010).
Inside Higher Ed. “Debating the Numbers on GRE as B-School Option.” Inside Higher Ed, September 1, 2009.

test

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Tests don’t only measure what you know or how well you know it; tests also measure how well you take them.

For a majority of test takers, the mere thought of an upcoming exam can elicit anything from minor irritation or a feeling of fogginess on details to a spasmodic explosion of dread and complete immobilization; picture a deer in headlights.

If you have experienced any of these reactions, chances are you suffer from test anxiety. Anxiety stems from a variety of causes, but most commonly from a belief that we cannot fulfill our expectations. An estimated 30-35% of college students are handicapped by test anxiety. According to research published in the journals, Review of Educational Research, Contemporary Educational Psychology and Educational Psychology, test anxiety can impede test performance by as much as 12 percentile points.

For the GMAT, best results come from a comprehensive and aggressive study program integrated with holistic techniques to prepare you mentally, emotionally and physically for the test. Performing at your optimum means knowing the material and feeling confident, calm, focused, and alert.

Follow the three key tips below to draw on your mental, psychological, and intuitive strengths. By using these techniques, you will develop the retention and recall, concentration and focus, confidence and relaxation necessary for peak performance on test day.

1. Create a schedule for the duration of your study. Include designated time for study, exercise, social interaction and downtime. Schedule at least 6 hours of sleep. We also encourage at least 10 minutes a day for meditation, prayer, or quiet time. Your brain works best when it has time to process information. It needs time when you’re not studying or thinking about GMAT material. You also avoid burnout with a balanced schedule.

2. Fire your inner critic. Eliminate self-judgment, especially if it leans towards self-flagellation. If you continue to feel shame and dejection because a third grade math teacher said you’d never be good at math, maybe you can think of the ways, now, as an adult, you ARE good at math. Remember: the GMAT tests what you learned in seventh through ninth grade, not rocket science.

3. Â Visualize success.Imagine: It’s test day and you feel comfortable, prepared, and relaxed. This visualization exercise prepares your brain to feel that way on the REAL test day. Spend at least five minutes at a time imagining different details about taking the test. Notice you answer each question with clarity and preciseness. Your visualization scene doesn’t need to be the same each time, but you need to tap into a sense of accomplishment, calm, and confidence. Do this every morning and before bedtime.

Researchers at Stanford and University of Chicago evaluated the efficacy of visualization. They compared two sets of basketball players. The first group practiced playing whereas the second group only imagined practicing. The players who didn’t physically practice, but visualized peak performance, improved 23 -30 percent in their actual basket-shooting ability, whereas the students who physically practiced saw little improvement. GMAT test-takers who prepare themselves beyond the intellectual practice by feeling positive and preparing themselves wholly, perform best on the test.

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) re-announced its plan to revamp the GRE by Autumn 2011, with the largest revisions in the test’s history.

The changes will be in content and format including adjustment of the scoring scale, changes in the verbal and math content, more flexible navigation abilities while taking the test and addition of the use of tools – specifically, a calculator. While it’s important to be aware of the changes, our take on this is that there’s a lot more hype here than substance.

The few changes that do make a difference can be beneficial if you’re aware of them, prepare judiciously and in a focused manner, and learn how to take advantage of them. Below we’ve explained what you can expect and what this all really means to test takers.

Content and Format Changes

The exam will still include verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing sections, and each is being revised. The new verbal section will eliminate antonyms and analogies questions and add more reading comprehension questions. On the quantitative section, the number of geometry questions will be reduced, and more data analysis added; most notably, there will be the addition of an online calculator. The writing section continues to have two parts, one asking for a logical analysis and the other seeking an argument of an issue, expressing a student’s own views.

The GRE’s Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) format, which provides harder questions for students who have gotten previous questions right (and simpler questions for those who have gotten questions wrong), will no longer operate question by question, but section by section. That is, students who have done well on the first half of the test will get a harder second half. The new test will be three and a half hours — forty-five minutes longer than the current test. New content will be introduced and the sequence of questions scrambled every two hours.In addition to adapting the question dispersion, students will now have the flexibility to move about each section’s test questions. Students will be allowed to revise, skip questions and return to questions before finishing a section.

This feature will make the experience more similar to taking a paper test, and may also mean that students have to remember to address the remaining blanks before they finish a section. (Note: The pencil-and-paper version of the test continues to be offered in countries without adequate facilities for computer testing but ETS continues to move away from this older mode of testing.)

The added mobility will likely be perceived as a beneficial change for test takers, as it will aid those who need extra time to process questions. On the other hand, for those who historically have issues with ‘second guessing’ themselves and not committing to answer choices, they now may need to practice plowing through the test without jumping around too much.

New Tool

For many, the addition of an online calculator will bring much relief, especially if the math itself doesn’t change much. ETS says adding this computation device will indicate the test taker’s comprehension of concepts rather than measure speed of basic calculations. If the math continues to be 7th through 9th grade level, many competent in math will continue to not require the tool; for many, it will in fact be a better strategy to avoid using the calculator, as it may make answering the questions a more clumsy and time consuming process.What will the change cost me?As of now, there is no fee increase to cover the cost of the revisions; however, ETS is planning a review of the pricing next year and may decide to raise prices before the new version is offered.

Why the change? Why now?There are several reasons that ETS would make these changes now. In 2006, ETS lost its bid to Pearson to administer the GMAT; this has contributed to increased competition in the testing industry. ETS has vied for the GRE’s acceptance in the business school market, competing directly with The Graduate Management Admission Council’s test, the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test.) The GRE is increasingly being accepted by scores of business schools, including Harvard University, MIT and Stanford University, in lieu of the GMAT. ETS hopes it will gain even more leverage and prominence in this market, and it can be argued that ETS changed the test to directly meet the demands of this particular market.If ETS picks up even a small percentage of the thousands of business schools applicants, it will have developed a major new client base, at a time when its own test taking numbers have begun to diminish. ETS benefits from gaining access to a new test-taking pool and increased acceptance from business schools.The GMAT versus the GREThe GMAT is still the dominant test for business school hopefuls, but with the GRE’s less threatening content and what seems to be an easier format (and addition of a calculator), it is clearly a more attractive test to prospective business school students, especially those for whom English is not a native language.

Even with the proposed changes, the verbal section of the GRE is more vocabulary driven, whereas the GMAT requires greater mastery of the nuances of English grammar, and presents a more difficult hurdle for non-native English speakers. Specifically, GMAT test takers are expected to know the difference between formal written English versus spoken.Further, up until now, the math on the GRE has been objectively easier: it lacks the data-sufficiency section which perplexes many, and its overall ‘mode’ doesn’t prompt as much thinking “out-of-the-box,” necessary for the business school student and professional. The combination, permutations, statistics and probability questions are objectively easier on the GRE, and on the whole, the GRE is more straightforward: it’s likened to the SAT on steroids. That’s it. Even with the ballyhooed changes, this isn’t going to change.The bottom line is, the changes on the test lend themselves to a great marketing campaign and are nothing to worry about, but to celebrate. They just made your success easier!

We were waiting for it to happen.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124278685697537839.html

The Wall Street Journal wrote an article slamming our colleagues in the test prep world for manipulating students scores and perceptions. And they should. While intellectual property is a beneficial for any company, the bottom line is 3rd party tests used as sole diagnostic measures are simply not accurate, or kosher, for determining where a student really stands.

Whether it inflates or deflates an initial score, the bottom line is that it spells trouble.One company we know of uses tests initially that are easier to soothe students into feeling more confident about the test they were about to take. Then the 2nd and 3rd test out of the 4 given in the course are harder. This was to make student feel challenged. Then the 4th test was the easiest out of all of them.

Pretty deceptive, huh?

Transparency is super important when dealing with the reality of test taking. Standardized tests already have their mental mind warp on…so to those of you eyeing this: while they’re still available, be sure to use real retired tests and questions whenever you can.

Accept no substitute (except for practice.)

We maintain that while the tests determine how well someone takes a test, they are coachable, and can be vehicles to better understand content and for some tests, the field one is to embark on (MCAT, GMAT, LSAT, etc.). It’s no simpler than that. Clear.

Just today, the test prep world and parents are abuzz. “What? another test?”

One of my colleagues in the test prep tutoring world said to me, “dang, more tests suck!”

We agree.

The LA Times reported one of our colleagues at Princeton Review saying that “the eighth grade is too late to begin pulling together a college prep portfolio….[this is] not the key year for college assessment. That’s sixth grade.”

Yikes!

I started my test prep career with Princeton Review. To read them say that it is 6th grade (that determines one’s merits being college bound) is just a little startling.

While there might be some merit in educational developmental theory that students at this age can indicate, or predict, some academic success, some of the time, this is not the only determination of intelligence or school performance. There are simply too many other issues at hand.

No one debates the increased importance of the SAT and ACT, in the sheer numbers of students applying to schools, and the emphasis that schools are placing on them. Still for the College Board to put out another test? We agree with PR on this one:this does seem like a great marketing plan to place importance of the College Board over the ACT folks. (We wonder if Paris Hilton’s PR firm is the same as the College Boards…but we digress…)

But it doesn’t make sense to those of us who really understand the human mind.

The human brain is plastic, easily changed and molded. A student uninterested in school and testing might not put forth the effort that another student, less smart might in performance.

A student not interested in the test, or completely pressured about taking it, will, as the freaked-out older GMAT and Medical Boards student, be point-penalized because of their anxiety.

As always, these tests will be, predictably, highly coachable. When you get the right training, you’ll get a great score.

All the recent brain research points to the brain having plasticity at every stage. There is no, “use it or lose it”, rather a “use it, or train to use it better next time.” Then you will succeed.

Neurolinguistic Programming certainly indicates rapid shifts in behavior modification, as does hypnosis and other therapies. The neurological, such as that discussed in the book, The Brain that Changes Itself, and many others, points to our abilities shifting when we have the intention to become better physically as well as intellectually. We all know someone, or have seen someone on TV or in a magazine, who made a major shift: They have lost a lot of weight and then we see them training to compete in triathalons. Likewise, the brain can become conditioned to enhance the ‘natural’ or ‘nurtured’ smartness, and to be, simply, smarter. “We’ve had student start off with 400s on the GMATs to get in the 700s, or SAT students starting off in the 1500s, getting close to 2000. Did they get ‘smarter?” No. They just got great coaching.

The article states that the College Board said the exam would be voluntary starting in 2010, and that it was promted by the growing number of younger students listing for the PSAT.

While the PSAT is optional, and voluntary, last year, 3.4 million students took it. By creating another test, and sandwhich-ing the PSAT between the SAT and this new test, we wonder if it will heat up the pressure for people to take the PSAT, and perhaps ceasing it’s voluntary status.

While some argue that we need tests in order to help students plan on taking “gatekeeper classes” needed for college and to help schools identify talented students likely succeed in honors or AP courses, previously unrecognized.

But with added pressure at a younger age, these tests may do more harm than good.

Another reason we’re glad to be available to coach students, if it really comes down to this… and if we teach our life skills earlier, to remain calm in the face of such (ridiculous) testing…well, then we’ll give our students skills earlier.

For fun, we thought we’d invite our readers to come up with some more “pre” pre things that might put this in better light.

A pre-tricycle: would that be 4 wheeled vehicle?

A pre-med education: would that mean only science classes in high school?

Pre-pre-school: an infant training academy?

We might as well have a little fun with this one…

original LA Times article: http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-test8-2008aug08,0,7851692.story

Yesterday’s New York TImes wrote about the ‘high cost’ of the college admissions process. It appeared not in the Education or regular section, but the ‘Health’ section. Turns out, the ‘high cost’ is the toll stress has on the applicants. WE know all about that! Consider these facts:

The New York Times, among other sources, reports that the high school class of 2009 will be 3.2 million: the largest group of students in U.S history ever vying for placement in the top schools.
Lower down on the tier-chain, mid-level schools will be accepting more of the fall out students rejected from top tier schools. So even if a student isn’t planning on competing to get into one of the top twenty schools in the country, the reality is that the student may still find himself or herself competing with students who applied for admission to those top schools and were rejected. This ‘chain’ continues to trickle down throughout the entire university system.

Colleges High Cost, Before You Even Apply

TAKEN FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 29, 2008

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: April 29, 2008

As the frenzied admissions season winds to a close, many students finally know where they will be attending college in the fall.

Stuart Bradford

But there remains a troubling question: how much damage was done along the way?

This year’s crop of applicants faced an unusually grueling admissions process. A demographic bubble has produced the largest group of graduating seniors in history, and they now are facing rejection by colleges at record rates more than 90 percent at Harvard and Yale, for example.

There will be more disappointment this week as the May 1 admissions deadline passes and thousands who were on waiting lists learn that there are no spots left for them. And today’s high school sophomores and juniors may face worse odds. After a 15-year climb, the number of high school graduates still hasn’t peaked – that is expected to happen within the next two years.

The college admissions process is an initiation rite into adulthood, says Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, adolescent medicine specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and author of books on teenage stress and resiliency for the American Academy of Pediatrics. But if success is defined very narrowly, such as a fat envelope from a specific college, then many kids end up going through it and feeling like a failure.

Students complain about lack of sleep, stomach pain and headaches, but doctors and educators also worry that stress tied to academic achievement can lead to depression, eating disorders, and other mental health problems.

There are some kids who can handle it, says Denise Pope, a Stanford University education lecturer and author of Doing School, a book about stress and academics. But some of these kids have had college on the brain since sixth or seventh grade or even earlier. When you have that kind of stress over that kind of time, that’s where it starts to worry us.

At the start of the admissions season, Austin Grogin, 18, from Bellaire High School near Houston, applied to 12 colleges, writing different essays for each school. He had strong test scores and a journalism internship at The Houston Chronicle, he had organized a major breast cancer fund-raiser at his school, and he hoped to attend Emory University in Atlanta. “I had countless stomachaches and headaches,” says Mr. Grogin.

By April, he was checking online at least twice a day, and was stunned when Emory didn’t accept him.

At first I refreshed the page to make sure it wasn’t a mistake, he said. When the official rejection letter arrived in the mail, he invited his friends over and burned it. I felt burned by the school, he says, adding that he is looking forward to attending his second choice, the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Some high schools are trying to improve the process by easing up on the workload of seniors who are filling out college applications. At Princeton High School in New Jersey, Patti Lieberman, a guidance counselor, says she emphasizes stories of real students who won better opportunities like research grants and White House internships after going to slightly less competitive schools. “We try to teach them, Bloom where you are planted,” she says.

Stanford University’s School of Education this week is kicking off Challenge Success, expanding the mission of its previous program, Stressed Out Students. Challenge Success will work with high schools, teenagers and parents to help them redefine success in college admission and academic achievement in general.

“College admission is how a lot of people are defining success these days,” says Dr. Pope, founder of the group. “We want to challenge people to achieve the healthier form of success, which is about character, well-being, physical and mental health and true engagement with learning.”

Dr. Ginsburg says parents can help children develop resiliency for coping with life’s ups and downs. The key, he says, is to teach them that their parents’ high expectations of them aren’t tied to grades or accomplishments. It means teaching them, “I know who you are deep inside, and I always expect to see that compassion and generosity in you,” says Dr. Ginsburg.

After achieving perfect scores on his SATs, Sam Werner of Norwalk, Conn., was devastated by rejections from Stanford and Princeton. Mr. Werner was also on the crew and golf teams, performed in his high school musical and ranked third in his class.

“I kept wondering what more I could have done,” he says. “I realize I didn’t found a company or discover a new insect. I feel like it’s coming to a point where you have to do something like that to get into schools like Princeton or Stanford.”

Today, Mr. Werner, a pre-med student at Notre Dame, says he has new perspective on being rejected by his top college picks. “At the time, it felt like it was the biggest deal in the world that I didn’t get into those schools,” he says. “But I love it here. Looking back on it now, this is definitely the right place for me.”

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