CATES Blog

SAT success

Alan Schwarz’s recent article in the New York Times, “Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill,” highlights the pressures to succeed on SAT and standardized tests, pressures that lead some students to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in an effort to boost their scores and enhance their positions in the university admissions process. As the CEO and founder of CATES Tutoring in New York City with offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester, and abroad in cities such as London, I personally have worked with hundreds of students – and CATES as a company with thousands – from elite private schools in the New York area and all over the world. Our clients run the gamut: regular time, extended time, double time, 2400 caliber on the SAT test, and students hoping to simply break 21 on the ACT test. Some of our students, particularly those enrolled in Envision Test Prep, our specialized division for students with learning differences, receive prescriptions for Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, et al and use them to great benefit in their work. However, we have been asked about the use of PEDs for students who do not clinically require them. These questions actually highlight a core issue in the testing process: The need to develop coping techniques that allow students to perform at peak levels despite the stress of the exams.

Coping techniques for the stress of exams

The three basic elements of a successful coping strategy for taking standardized tests are nutrition, exercise, and something we all take for granted: breathing. In our SAT coaching binder we address this last element directly: “Many students forget to breathe during the exam, and as a result, do not think as clearly. Take three deep breaths at the beginning and end of each section to focus and center yourself. Take another breath at the middle of each section to re-focus for the second half of it. If you need to “reboot” your brain, take a breath, or do some yoga or jumping jacks during the test to refresh your mind, either during a section (if you’re taking the test in a room alone) or during the break (outside the room). Go for it.”

Nutrition

Nutrition is also important. No one thinks clearly on an empty stomach. Eat a full breakfast and eat a snack at the first break. A snack allows you to maintain focus throughout the last hours of the SAT, as your breakfast energy usually peters out half-way through the exam.

A technique we recommend for students with learning differences or ADHD can help almost anyone improve their test performance: Circle 3 things in the question. We find this to be the single most useful strategy on any and every (paper-based) standardized test. For students with focus issues, regardless of whether or not they have learning differences, if they circle no less than 3 details in each question – the key facts, facts that imply other facts, what the question is asking, etc. – scores rise. Circling – and NOT underlining, which doesn’t highlight the info as well – helps you pull out the key info and cut out the distracting, non-essential wording around the key facts. Circling helped one of our students, John, stay focused through the SAT and brought him 30 points in the Reading and 60 points in the Math overnight. The difference in his scores helped him gain entrance to Georgetown. Circling helped our student Victoria gain 110 points in Reading, 90 points in Math, and 90 points in Writing. The difference in her scores helped her earn admission to a number of Ivy League universities.

Students who have been prescribed PEDs to cope with learning challenges need to understand how to best – and when to – take the medication within the course of the exam to maximize their focus and test scores. For slow release medications like Adderall and Concerta, take them before the exam and at the second break of the exam. Quick release medications like Ritalin should be taken right before the exam starts and at each break.

For tips on exercise that can help students perform their best, we have a blog on nutrition and exercise (http://www.catestutoring.com/blog/healthy-study-tips/) with great information. We invite you to speak to one of our learning specialists at Envision – whether you have a learning difference or not – to learn more about the techniques our tutors use to help their students focus better during the exam.

Read more

Should I take the SAT again? When do I know if I am done?

Taking the SAT

The SAT exam is a long and arduous process and one which most people feel can’t end soon enough.  After long hours of study, countless mock tests, and the stress of the unknown, retaking the SAT can seem like the absolute last thing you want to do.  Once you’ve received your SAT scores you have a choice to make. Am I satisfied with how it went or do I want another crack at the test?

The answer to this question is different for everyone and depends on how you performed and the kind of school you want to attend.  The SAT score you need is the one that will get you in the running for the school that you want to attend.  If you’ve reached that mark, then go ahead and call it a day. If not, you may want to reconsider retaking the SAT. Especially if you feel that you didn’t reach your goal due to careless errors.

Most students take the SAT multiple times, and it is in no way a mark of shame or failure to take the test more than once. It’s part of the SAT process.  Another wonderful thing that taking the SAT test multiple times allows you to do is to take advantage of Super Scoring.

Super Scoring is a process that many admissions officers take where they compile your best sectional scores from different SAT exams into one Super Score. If your best Math score occurred the first time you took the SAT test when you got a 650, but your best Reading and Writing scores occurred when you took the SAT test again and got a 700, and 590 respectively, an admissions officer will award you a Super Score of 1940.  In this way, taking the test again is a great asset in the admissions process.

Read more

When should I guess on the SAT Test?  Should I always take a shot at an answer even if I’m not sure?

SAT Questions

The SAT Test is a long, multi-faceted, and at times, draining exam.  There will undoubtedly be times when you are taking the SAT exam that you are unsure how to solve a question or unclear which choice you should select.  It is vital to your success on the SAT test that you into the exam with a clear gameplan for these moments – a guessing strategy.

The SAT exam is scored in the following manner: For each correct answer you select, you are awarded one point.  For each incorrect answer you select, you are deducted a quarter of a point. Finally, if you leave a question blank, your score is unaffected.  What this translates to when you are actually taking the SAT is that it matters if and when you answer questions.  Blindly guessing when you don’t know the answer to a question is a sure fire way to sabotage yourself on the SAT Exam.

Just look at the odds.  The multiple choice questions on the SAT feature five possible answer choices. That means you have a twenty percent chance of success when you blindly guess on an SAT Question.  When you place that next to the possibility of a quarter point deduction, it’s not a favorable situation in betting terms alone.  The same holds true if you can eliminate one or even two answer choices on the SAT.  Twenty-five or thirty percent odds simply don’t stack up against the risk of a quarter point deduction. In the end, only if you are choosing between two possible answer choices should you guess on an SAT test question.  Fifty-fifty odds are the only ones to take.

What this means is that as you take the SAT test, and encounter those inevitable situations where you don’t know the answers right away, look to eliminate wrong answer choices. That way you can honestly assess how much of a chance you have of getting the SAT question correct, and thereby understand if you should guess on the question or not.

Addendum: The only place on the SAT test where this is not sure, is when you are answering the student produced, “fill-in” questions on the Math Section of the SAT.  On these questions, and these questions alone, you are not penalized for a wrong answer, so it’s always worth a guess.

Read more