Victory Step's Newest Test Prep Center in Fort Worth!

In keeping with our company’s goal of helping every student reach their full academic potential, we here at Victory Step are opening our new office in Fort Worth on January 2, 2012! We hope this new location will help us reach out to college-bound students in Fort Worth and surrounding areas.

These are some of the high schools our new location will be catering to:
- Eastern Hills High School
- Dunbar High School
- North West Christian Academy
- Nolan Catholic High School
- Arlington High School
- Kennedale High School
- Temple Christian Schools
- Arlington Martin High School
...and many more!


The new location will offer the same excellent services as our Dallas and Irving offices, with private instruction and group classes available from our highly qualified, caring instructors, at the same affordable prices. Click here to look at our upcoming class schedule at our Fort Worth Center - http://www.victorysteponline.com/SAT_Schedule.html.


As always, we encourage our clients to share their experiences and success stories with friends and family, and to take advantage of our Refer ‘n’ Win program. With the opening of our new location, more students than ever before will be able to improve their standardized test scores!

Take a step toward your bright future today!

Victory Step In Fort Worth
5601, Bridge St, Suite 300,
Fort Worth, 76112

Managing Anxiety is Important for Success!

As students, tests always seem to be waiting for us on the horizon. Never does much time pass between tests for various classes; as soon as one is finished the studying for one, three, or five more has started. They are unavoidable in any class and help students and teachers assess both the understanding of materials for the class and a variety of skills relevant to higher education and the real world work environment. These skills include the abilities to prepare a schedule for studying, to balance studying for different classes, to manage time effectively during a test by assessing knowledge learned and questions best left skipped, and to control the anxiety that comes with important events and deadlines. With a test as important as the SAT, all of these skills are challenged even more as many students find themselves studying without the familiar classroom resources and as the importance of getting a great score increases test anxiety.

This anxiety over the SAT was the subject of a recent CNN Schools of Thought blog debating the merits and challenges of getting extended time to take the SAT. The option is certainly a necessity for some students, it is a valuable tool for students with documented physical and mental disabilities, but a small percentage of students suffering from test anxiety have also qualified for a 50% or 100% increase in time for the SAT. While test anxiety is a real problem for many students, additional time may not be the answer for students seeking to perform well in college.

Managing anxiety is as important for success in college as it is in high school and on the SAT. For many college courses, tests become even more central to grades as the importance of homework grades declines. Being able to perform well on these tests means learning and practicing how to deal with the anxiety that comes from high-pressure situations. Thankfully, that learning process is started early in any student’s education; by the time the SAT rolls around during junior or senior year, students have had ample opportunities to practice taking tests in their classes.

It is important to realize that these tests are not there only to cause unnecessary stress for students or to provide an endpoint for the material of a course, but exist as an integral part of the learning process. Tests do not exist purely to assess how well a student has mastered information, but to reinforce that information and the skills that accompany these stressful situations. Tests help students learn; they create organizational patterns of information and provide an opportunity to strengthen the neural pathways used in recalling information. Properly preparing for a test reinforces good study habits in addition to the material covered on the test, and trying to harness test anxiety into productive testing energy is a skill which every test provides a new opportunity to hone.

The best method for reducing or controlling test anxiety is not to rely on extended time, but to practice managing that anxiety while taking tests. This practice can occur throughout high school during tests or in a prep class for the SAT. Practicing specifically for the SAT (or any other standardized test) helps create reasonable expectations for performance on the test by providing opportunities to take the full test under ideal conditions, the results of which can be compared and used to predict the score on the actual test. In addition, they provide a chance to get used to the time constraints of the test. Being able to accurately predict performance and manage time on the SAT are the best ways of reducing the anxiety that comes with a test of this importance. The best way to reduce test anxiety is to bring to every test in high school the preparation, focus, and intensity which you would use on the real SAT.

I don’t go to college, I go to NYU!

Danielle is a blogger and instructor for Victory Step. Danielle's contact's information - daniellecocanougher@gmail.com


New York University has its own type of notoriety. Although the school is known for its academic achievements, the university is more often singled out for it’s unbeatable location, celebrity attendees and unusual day-to-day realities. All of these factors make being a student at NYU unlike almost every other college experience, but the university still always ranks as one of students’ top “dream” schools in the Princeton Review’s annual College Hopes and Worries Survey (this year it ranked number three).
So with that in mind, I wanted to break down what it’s really like attending one of the most popular and most interesting universities in the nation. Then you can decide for yourself if NYU is your type of dream.

1. The people are amazing, and it’s a double-edged sword.

In general, every student, professor and staff member at NYU has an incredible story to tell. The professors are almost always big names in the industry or field that they teach and their personal accomplishments are beyond impressive.
As for the average NYU student, he or she is the type of student who did well in high school and took the time to study for the SAT – the middle score for students ranges from low-600’s to mid-700’s in each section. But most of the students also have a tendency to be unreasonably successful and interesting for their age. For example, one student was born in India but grew up in Japan and speaks five languages. The next published her first novel at the age of 16 and is now working on a degree in Biochemical Engineering, while balancing two part-time internships. And no, I’m not exaggerating.
In fact, I always liked to joke that at NYU, no matter how cool you think you are, the person sitting next to you is probably cooler – especially since there’s a pretty good chance you’re sitting next to Dakota Fanning. But like I said above, it’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, being constantly surrounded by a high-level of success and ambition can be intimidating and overwhelming. At the same time, it always drove me to work harder and improve my own credentials, which is something I know will serve me well in the professional world.

2. The city is your campus.

Technically, the main campus is located near Washington Square Park, where the largest cluster of NYU-owned buildings gives its students a relative degree of isolation. I say relative, because no matter how many purple flags you see flying over the buildings’ entrances, the truth is that Manhattan dominates. At other schools, students walk out of their classrooms and find more students, more classrooms. At NYU, as soon as you step outside the building you are not a student; you are a New Yorker.
And although there are certainly downsides to this sort of vulnerability – “I think that hobo just spit on me,” or “Mom, hold on I can’t hear you, there are five fire trucks driving by right now” – it does give you a special sort of spunk.

3. NYU is the school for students who wouldn’t quite fit in anywhere else.

NYU students are hard to categorize. They come from a variety of backgrounds and have a huge range of interests. Because of their many differences, it seems unlikely that the student body would ever willingly gel together to create the same sort of community one would see at a school like the University of Texas. This is partially due to a lack of huge, campus-wide events such as football games (NYU does not have a football team), and partially because the students are naturally independent.
But there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in the university on a smaller scale. NYU has a massive student body (over 19,000 students are currently enrolled in the undergraduate program alone), and it is made up of tons of tight-knit communities. Student life has a little something for everyone and 99% of the time there will be a club that fits you. If for some reason you can’t find a club celebrating your interests, NYU strongly encourages you to start one.
And no matter what, simply being a NYU student connects you to each and every one of your peers. There is a lot of common ground, from complaining about the subway traffic to bragging about which celebrity you saw on the way to class that day. At the very least, you can always chat about the crazy old man who directs student traffic and keeps everyone on schedule outside of Washington Square Park. Go visit the campus, and you’ll know exactly whom I’m talking about.

Should Students be Paid to Score Well on the SAT?

In 1996, a group called Advanced Placement Strategies had a radical idea: why not just pay students to do better on tests?

Thus the Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP) was born. APIP offers money to students and teachers for improving scores on AP tests. Under this program, students who score a 3 or above can receive between $100 and $500, and teachers can receive up to a $15,000 bonus if their students are successful.

Not surprisingly, some people are offended by the idea of paying students to get an education. In fact, when a Harvard economist named Roland Fryer tried to perform some of his own experiments, he received death threats. And even though more and more school districts are giving APIP, or something like it, a shot, many schools have rejected the idea outright.

It isn’t that this kind of solution isn’t effective; in fact, APIP seems to be very successful. It began in 10 schools in Dallas, and now exists in over 60 around the country. According to the APS website, school districts participating in this program have seen a 1089% increase in qualifying AP scores since the program began.
According to a research done at Cornell University, districts which have joined the APIP have seen improvements in other academic areas as well. Kirabo Jackson of Cornell writes that some of these schools have seen “a 30 percent increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT, and an 8 percent increase in the number of students who matriculate in college.”

Some people may object that they don’t want their tax money to contribute to this kind of thing, but most of the program’s funding doesn’t come from taxes: about 75% comes from private donors. Other people may argue that $500 is just too high a bonus for high school students, but the number is not entirely arbitrary. Part of its justification is that the money students receive helps to offset the cost of taking AP exams, which can run almost as high as $100 per test.
Some details of the APIP approach still need to be worked out. For instance, is it better to pay students for output (getting good grades), or for input (putting in the work to get good grades)? APIP uses the first approach, but Fryer’s research shows that the second approach may be better.

So let’s say it works: there are still questions to answer. Even if APIP improves test scores, is it a good idea? What about the lessons that it teaches students? Does paying students to learn keep them from appreciating the value of knowledge for its own sake? Does it make kids spoiled or shallow? Is Time magazine correct in calling it a “bribe?” These types of questions are difficult to answer.

One thing that I think everyone can agree on is that even though improving test scores is important, it can’t be schools’ only focus. Standardized test scores don’t necessarily say anything about how much a student has learned. Paying students to score well on AP tests can only address a very small part of a very big problem.


Advanced Placement Strategies < http://www.apstrategies.org/>

Fryer Jr., Roland G. “Financial Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from Randomized Trials.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. (May 2011). < http://www.edlabs.harvard.edu/pdf/studentincentives.pdf>

Jackson, C. Kirabo. “Cash for Test Scores: The Impact of the Texas Advanced Placement Incentive Program.” Education Next. Vol. 8, No. 4 (Fall 2008).
http://educationnext.org/cash-for-test-scores/

Jackson, C. Kirabo. “A Little Now for a Lot Later: A Look at a Texas Advanced Placement Incentive Program.” Working Papers. 2007.

Ripley, Amanda. “Should Kids Be Bribed To Do Well in School?” Time. (April 8, 2010). < http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1978758,00.html>

To Tutor or Not to Tutor, That is a Good Question!

Parents who want to help their students do well on their standardized exams face a tough decision when they seek help for their students. Should they seek the help of a private tutor, or would the student do better in a classroom setting? There is no hard and fast answer to this question. Each student is different, and their educational needs are different, not to mention troubles with scheduling classes around clubs and sports. However, for the parent who’s on the fence about the issue, here are some general guidelines to aid you in the decision.

Private tutoring might be the best option for highly motivated students who already have above average SAT or ACT scores and simply seek to improve them enough to be more competitive in admissions to certain universities. These students benefit from the flexibility of private tutoring, which allows them to work with their tutor at their own pace, breezing through material they already understand while slowing down for their weak points on the test. Further, students who fall into this category have already gained mastery of the basic concepts in each section and use their private tutoring sessions to focus on the advanced concepts. Private tutoring best suits these students by building upon the foundations already laid by their previous education and by tailoring lessons to what the individual student needs to learn specifically.

On the other end of the spectrum, motivated students who have done poorly in the past on standardized tests could benefit greatly from private tutoring. These students need the focused help and attention of a private tutor in order to uncover systemic errors in their critical thinking process. A private tutor can work through each problem with the student step-by-step in order to correct the logic the student uses in finding the answer. Private tutoring also allows for a slower pace in covering the material, so that all the student’s questions can be answered thoroughly, and information can be covered repeatedly as needed.

Finally, private tutoring is a good alternative for students whose busy schedules would prevent them from attending a regular class. After all, signing up for an SAT prep course does not automatically give a boost to your score. Therefore, if a student cannot commit to a regular weekly schedule of classes in addition to school, sports, clubs and the like, private tutoring can be a flexible option to work with the schedule the student already has.

All of this is not to say that other students cannot benefit from private tutoring. Any student can, so long as he or she has the motivation to focus during the time with his or her tutor. Conversely, this is also not to say that these types of students would not benefit from a classroom program. These sorts of programs allow students to learn from each other as well as the instructor by allowing them to see a number of approaches to a problem or different questions raised from different perspectives. It also helps students to focus in a way, as the attentiveness of one student often encourages it in others. Finally, it creates good-natured rivalries between classmates that encourages them to try to outdo the other, motivating them by using another’s success as the bar to surpass.

As an instructor, I find that students benefit most from a combination of both classroom instruction and private tutoring. It allows the students to learn the strategies in class and put them into practice on their practice exams while giving them time to cover problems they personally face in each of the sections.
Whether you decide on private tutoring, a class, or both, the important thing is to find help for your student in whatever way will best aid him or her in preparing for this exam.


Toni Whalen is an instructor with Victory Step.

Victory Step in Fort Worth, TX - Coming Soon!

In keeping with our company’s goal of helping every student reach their full academic potential, we here at Victory Step are opening our new office in Fort Worth very soon! We hope this new location will help us reach out to college-bound students in Ft Worth and surrounding areas.

The new location will offer the same excellent services as our Dallas and Irving offices, with private instruction and group classes available from our highly qualified, caring instructors, at the same affordable prices. We plan to open our doors by first week of January!


As always, we encourage our clients to share their experiences and success stories with friends and family, and to take advantage of our Refer ‘n’ Win program. With the opening of our new location, more students than ever before will be able to improve their standardized test scores!

Take a step toward your bright future today!

Study Skills and The Wall Street Journal

Toni Whalen is an instructor with Victory Step.


A recent Wall Street Journal article addressed a pressing question that most students have, especially with their SAT’s and ACT’s coming up. The article, “Toughest Exam Question: What is the best way to study?” does not specifically outline how you should prepare for each and every test. It does, however, give some good, general advice to young scholars that can help them to retain information.

The article touches, directly and indirectly, on two main parts of Victory Step’s test preparation strategy. First, the article covers how repetitive studying helps students best retain information. Of course, studying for the SAT is not quite like studying for a history exam. You cannot simply memorize names, dates and facts in order to pass this sort of exam. What you can do, though, is practice the same sorts of skills over and over in order to build them up so that you will be ready for any question they throw your way. It’s a bit like building up your muscles by weight-lifting, except instead of working on your skeletal muscles, you work on a different kind of muscle: your brain.

Certainly this information is not new; yet many students still skim through a test prep book once and expect that will help their scores. Thankfully, Victory Step’s founder, Varun Tewari, recognized the importance of repetition in test preparation and based our classroom program off of this idea. Students do not simply memorize formulas for a few hours and then take their exam. They learn the skills in class at least once, practice the skills on their homework and on their four practice exams, and cover the skills one more time with the instructor in a review class. This way, each student has the chance to cover each type of question a number of times before facing down the real test.

Second, the article implicitly addresses how preparation for tests must be long-term. This means in the weeks before a major exam, students should study diligently piece by piece so that they are prepared the day of the exam. Students should also prepare by developing good eating and sleeping habits, especially in the days before a big test, in order to get their minds working in top form.
Of course, some students still think cramming can help them do better on a test. Victory Step holds a different opinion on that. Students in our classroom program spend six weeks learning our strategies and implementing them on practice exams before they ever have to face the real thing. This gives students the chance to absorb, process, and comprehend the information rather than trying to squeeze it in all at once. After all, it takes time to build up a muscle; you can’t just do it all at once.

While both of these strategies should be common sense to students, many students still ignore these strategies backed by wisdom and science. This is where Victory Step comes into play, giving students a structured classroom environment in which to prepare for their exams, where students cannot simply say, “I don’t feel like studying today.” That is why Victory Step has helped so many students achieve their goals on standardized testing.

VS: Now Offering Private Tutoring in all Dallas and Ft. Worth Locations!

96% of Victory Step's first time callers become our customers. Here is why:

1. It's Flexible

You tell us what schedule works for you, and we will make it work. Victory Step's programs are entirely tailored to fit your needs. Whether you want to learn once a week or twice a week, whether you prefer short sessions or long, Victory Step will make it work for you!

2. It's Customizable

Victory Step understands that each student is different. Our experienced instructors will sit with you for a free consultation, and gauge your needs. Once we understand your strengths and weaknesses, we will design a program that addresses areas that you can target, to increase your scores dramatically!

3. It's Effective

Victory Step's instructors work with the students to maximize learning by stimulating them with fun-filled sessions. The programs are interesting, the concepts are unique, and the techniques used are eye-opening. It is no surprise that we have an excellent track record in score-improvement among our students.

4. It's Economical

Our rates are the lowest in the market, and we can guarantee that! All of our classes are taught by the best instructors, and we don't charge for "premium" instructors, unlike competition.

Call us today at 214 417 9406 or visit us online at http://www.victorysteponline.com to understand more about our private tutoring programs.

Message from the Founder!

Dear Students,


Your last SAT or ACT prep book may have been thicker than a regular phone book. That SAT/ACT prep class at your school is possibly being taught by someone who is completely boring and out of touch. Your friend's overpriced SAT/ACT tutor probably assigns him/her 300 practice problems each week.

Would you like to add hundreds of points to your SAT score in a few weeks, without doing thousands of practice problems? Would you like to make sure you get the SAT score you deserve, without risking thousands of dollars on a mundane SAT prep course? If you can add, subtract, multiply, or divide, if you have basic and general vocabulary, if you could use your "grammar ear" to answer basic grammar questions, then you already have the potential to quickly and easily boost your SAT score to levels you never dreamed possible.

I can confidently assure you that this whole process is much easier than you think. If you are anxious and nervous about getting a great SAT/ACT score, but are not willing to spend thousands of dollars or countless hours over mind numbingly boring questions, I have great news for you!

Victory Step was founded on the idea that there needs to be different, but better ways of doing things. There has to be a middle ground between expensive, boring test prep companies and self-study. Victory Step's methods, strategy and program pricing are re-defining the test preparation industry in and around Dallas, TX. After spending years working with students in one-on-one and classroom settings, we've learned what works and what does not. If you are aware of the right SAT/ACT tricks and strategies, your score can skyrocket quickly and easily. We have also learned that each student is different, with unique personalities, needs, and strengths. Victory Step's instructors and tutors have been thoroughly trained to instill confidence and motivation into each one of you. We build upon your unique strengths and help you deal with weaker areas. Most importantly, we help you identify yourself. We want to take you through the path to high scores while you actually enjoy the journey. Our classes are fun-filed, lively and highly interactive, and we stimulate you into tackling standardized test problems with ease. We have innovative study material, advanced methods and informative progress tracking. We back our services with score guarantees and satisfaction promise. No wonder Victory Step is one of the fastest growing and best-rated test prep companies in town.

Victory Step is also on a social mission to assist each student in need, regardless of his or her financial background. I believe that you deserve the opportunity to go to college, and also the necessary tools to get there. Victory Step offers merit-based and need-based scholarships for all of our programs to anyone that meet our requirements. Victory Step also offers flexible payment plans to further assist you.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our website (www.victorysteponline.com). I invite you to explore what we have to offer and see if it fits your needs. I am confident that we can meet and even exceed your expectations, if given the chance. Call us with any questions you have, or if you need any clarification. Avail our special holiday rates on private tutoring and classroom training. Compare us with other offerings available in the area and read our reviews on Yahoo, Google and more, to learn about what I call the Victory Step Advantage. You can even schedule a free, no obligation consultation with one of our talented instructors. At Victory Step, we are committed to going above and beyond for one purpose- to get you into the college of your dreams.

Sincerely,


CEO & President
Victory Step LLC

Ph: 1 855 773 7744
Web: http://www.victorysteponline.com

Language on the SAT

All of my students invariably get my spiel on the number of languages I have studied and know with some proficiency: two forms of ancient Greek, Old English, Middle English, smatterings of Italian, German and more Latin than is good for me. Often students wonder why anyone would bother to learn so many languages, especially languages no one speaks anymore. I would argue, though, that studying different languages is one of the best things you can do to improve your cognitive ability and even your SAT score.

The study of foreign languages has some obvious perks in our interconnected world. First, in the job market, it makes you more competitive if you know how to speak another language. For example, the business world currently prizes those who speak Cantonese and Mandarin, while languages like Arabic are in high demand in the foreign relations field, and anyone entering academia should look at languages that relate to their area of interest. There’s nothing quite so fun for a philosophy major as reading Heidegger in the original German, after all.
Of course, the study of a language doesn’t have to be all about business. You can study a language just for pleasure. If you’re looking to take a trip to a foreign country, you should learn at least some basics of the local language. It’s certainly no fun to miss your 8:45 train because you did not understand viertel vor neun. However, intensive study of a language could even lead you to those travel opportunities through study abroad programs, international universities and the like. Immersing yourself in the language and culture is probably the best way to truly understand a language, and it’s definitely the most fun!

Then there are academic benefits. Numerous studies have shown that learning a second language develops different pathways in the mind, allowing it to process words and even logic problems in new ways. Understanding a second language makes it easier to pick up a third or even fourth, as demonstrated by students in Europe who routinely learn three or four languages before they leave school.

Finally, knowing other languages can help you on the SAT. By learning the grammar of a different language, you force your mind to develop a deeper understanding of your own grammar. This is invaluable on the writing section, where the hardest questions often require a feel for the fine nuances of word order and clause subordination. It also helps on the critical reading passages by improving your overall reading comprehension. Last but certainly not least, nothing will help you build up your vocabulary for the critical reading section quite like knowing your Latin cognates.
Hopefully by this time, you have started on your philological journey. If not, don’t despair. Even an elementary understanding of a second language can give you some impressive benefits in school and even in life!

Victory Step on the News!

Stuart Fraser is a blogger and instructor for Victory Step. Stuart contact's information - swfraser@gmail.com

Article Link - http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/education/091411-average-sat-scores-fall-in-texas

On September 14th, Fox 4 News ran a story about an alarming trend in Texas testing. Across the state, the average SAT scores have dropped 3 points in Math, 5 points in Reading, and 8 points in Critical Reading, bringing them to a combined score of 1446 (out of 2400).

While this problem has many causes, including the reduced resources in public schools and the growing number of students taking the test, Victory Step is taking measures to ensure that everyone is able to get the training they need in order to tackle this daunting test including SAT classes and private tutoring. The Fox 4 News story entered the class of one Victory Step instructor, Devon Earle, to discuss how an SAT test prep course helps students gain an even footing with students who perhaps have more resources in their schools to help with college prep and college-level AP courses.

With the growing number of students in Texas schools, more of them are not getting the individualized attention that is necessary to remain competitive on a standardized test such as the SAT. At Victory Step, each student gets training in the specific sections of the test which they need the most improvement, and results are measured across 4 full-length practice tests taken under simulated test conditions. This helps the students reinforce the subjects they already know while allowing them to bring up their scores on the sections they feel most challenged in, even as the relative strength of the student in each section changes over the duration of the course. Practice tests and instructor feedback help provide reassessment of each student’s strengths and weaknesses on the test.

With the Victory Step promise, any student who takes the time to practice and learn from our instructors is guaranteed a 200 point increase between their first test and their final test. This guarantee helps students take the real SAT with the confidence that they know how they will be able to perform on test day. By using the techniques mentioned above, Victory Step is working hard to fight against this alarming drop in average SAT scores.

Defeating Cognitive Bias

Eric Rosenbaum is a blogger and instructor for Victory Step. Eric contact's information - rosenbaume88@gmail.com


Imagine that you are in a room with nothing but a wax candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a book of matches. How can you attach the candle to the wall and light it so that the wax doesn’t drip onto the floor?

When psychologist Karl Duncker asked subjects this question in the 1940s, only about 20% of them got it right. It’s not that the problem is hard; once you know the answer it seems obvious (the correct answer is at the bottom of this post). The problem seems hard because it exploits flaws in human reasoning known as cognitive biases.
SAT problems can sometimes be as tricky as the candle problem. You may think that you are immune to the SAT’s tricks (a bias known to psychologists as bias blind spot), but chances are, you are not: some tricky phrasing can have you wasting time on a wild goose chase, or getting the question wrong altogether.

Confirmation Bias, or, “A Looks like the Right Answer; It Must Be A”

Have you ever tried to remember a song title, certain that begins with the letter L, only to remember days later that it begins with B instead? Once you start thinking in terms of L, it’s very difficult to switch tracks to think about B. In other words, instead of really looking for the title of the song, you begin looking for confirmation that your first method was correct. This phenomenon is known as confirmation bias.
One great way to avoid confirmation bias on the SAT and ACT is to avoid looking at the answers beforehand. If you subconsciously pick A before you’ve completely worked through the problem, it will not be hard to justify your solution later, right or wrong.

Overconfidence Effect, or, “This Is Easy!”

A study done by psychologist Ulrich Hoffrage came up with some interesting, upsetting results: of the people who claimed to be 99% certain about their answer to a problem, 20% turned out to be incorrect. Most of these people weren’t too far away from the right answer, and they were justified in making the choices they did. The problem is that people tend to overestimate how certain their certainty is.
Sometimes the most dangerous questions are those that look easy. They probably are easy, but maybe not as easy as you think they are. It’s important to check your work on the easy problems as much as on the harder ones.

Incubation, or, I Can’t Move to the Next One Until I Solve This One


Incubation isn’t a bias. It’s a way to protect against biases. Think back to the song title example. When your brain was in L mode, what was it that finally made you see B? Putting the problem aside. When you come back to the problem after thinking of other things, it’s easier to cut through dangerous preconceptions.
Oftentimes when I am working on a difficult problem, the solution feels so close that I want to keep working until I find it. I don’t want to forget the progress I’ve made, even when the progress is in the wrong direction. If you get stuck on a tricky SAT problem, even if you think you almost have it, try taking a break: it may be much easier when you come back. Even if you think you have an answer correct, it is a good idea to check your work and look at your solutions with fresh eyes.

Cognitive biases are a fact of life, but their effect can be limited. It just takes practice and a little bit of self-awareness. The difference in your score could be astounding.




Solution to the Candle Problem

The key is in realizing that the “box of thumbtacks” is really two things: a box, and thumbtacks. First, thumbtack the box to the wall. Then, place the candle inside the box. The wax will drip on the cardboard, not the floor.

SAT/ACT Guided Wilderness Tour

Welcome to the guided SAT wilderness tour. Please keep your eyes, ears, and brains inside the test zone at all times.

The SAT wilderness is a dangerous, disturbing place. All kinds of creatures are out there, trying to steal your attention and kill your score.
Hear that buzzing noise? That’s the sound of the mow-squito (lembus herba), an animal rarely seen, but nonetheless dangerous. You can recognize it by its faint, unending droning sound, usually outside of windows in quiet rooms. The mow-squito, though small, has the ability to really get under your skin.

If you listen very carefully, you can also make out a softer sound. This is the AC bee (frigidus locus), a close relative to the mow-squito which lives inside cold, echoing rooms. The AC bee is less obtrusive than its outdoor cousin, but for that reason it can be even more dangerous. As is the case with all the animals on our tour, the AC bee is more afraid of you than you are of it. If you stop listening, it will leave you alone.

On your left, you will see Sickness Stream. The stream is populated with all sorts of dangerous, distracting wildlife. See that ripple there? That’s the sign of the predatory sniffler fish (pisces naso). Sniffler fish are nearly harmless alone, but they always attack in schools. I remember once when I was almost attacked by sniffle fish. I was sitting in the test zone, minding my own business, when I heard a sniff from desk in front of me. Then, after a few seconds, there was another sniff to my right. Then one to my left. I was surrounded! Fortunately, I was able to ignore them before it was too late.

However, the most dangerous thing about sniffler fish is that they attract the deadly cough-odile (gutter lacerta). Where there is a school of sniffler fish, there are bound to be at least one or two of these attention-killing coughing machines. If you do hear the sudden bark of a cough-odile, you may find yourself momentarily distracted. However, you will be fine if you take a few breaths and return to the test.

On this tour, you may see one or two cell-ephants (tinnulus monstro). These big guys are banned from the SAT wilderness, but every now and then you’ll hear one charging through the underbrush, or at least feel the vibration of its giant feet.

What’s that you say? You think we’re being followed? Of course we are. The time-ger has been stalking us since we left camp. But don’t worry; as long as we pace ourselves and don’t try to run away, he won’t bother us. The time-ger can be your best friend in the SAT wilderness, keeping you on the path and away from distractions. He can also be your worst enemy if he tricks you into making dumb mistakes.

That brings us to the end of our tour. I hope you learned a lot about the wildlife of the SAT. The SAT wilderness can be a loud distracting place, and it’s easy to get lost there. But if you keep your head down, and stay out of reach of the time-ger, you’ll be just fine.

Sleepless night is more than just a MISTAKE!

Sleep and education never seem to get along. Kindergarten disrupts our nap schedule (one we all wish would return later in life). Middle School and High School students struggle with the ever-present “nod-and-jerk” routine of trying to stay awake in class: they start by looking forward, doing their best to pay attention (or at least look like it), and then slowly their head begins to sag and their eyes close before a jolt of awareness makes them quickly move their head back into place. In a hot Texas classroom on the day after a paper due date or a test, this cycle of can continue for the entirety of a class. For college students, the conflict is apparent by the students sitting in the classroom dressed in their pajamas with a large cup (or multiple cups) of coffee and a glazed look on their faces. At any age, it is difficult to balance a healthy, good night’s sleep with the demands of getting a good education.

In theory, the solution is easy: always try to get as close to 8 hours of sleep as you can. In practice though—with the ever-increasing demands placed on students of every level to excel in classes, to stretch themselves with extra-curricular activities, and to maintain a healthy social life—students are more likely to feel forced to sacrifice sleep for the sake of their education. This temptation must be avoided at all cost. So when it seems that there is a long night of work ahead of you, whether in the form of readings, busy work, papers, or a big, looming test the next day, here is something to remember which will hopefully help you make that decision: all-nighters, while promising in theory, significantly drain your energy and focus for the next day.

We’ve all had the idea that perhaps simply giving up sleep for a night will allow us 8 full hours to write or study. On paper it seems like a good opportunity to double the amount of time you have available to work, but the reality of every all-nighter I’ve ever taken (and I took more than enough in college) is completely different. Most start out promising, with a large mug of coffee or tea and a good study soundtrack, but around 2 or 3am, that motivation starts to disappear and gets replaced by the desire to give up. Sometimes that takes the form of hoping to wake up early and finish (a strategy which has worked well for many of my friends, but I personally find I always end up oversleeping). Most of the time, this desire to give up is quickly followed by the realization that it would be impossible to do so. Without having gotten enough studying or writing done earlier in the day, there is simply too much work which has to be done.

Nine times out of ten, all-nighters end earlier than expected. Everyone reaches a point where they’ve consumed twice as many mugs of coffee as the number of hours they know they’ll sleep that night and still can’t manage to keep themselves focused, motivated, or even awake. The next day, more often than not, is a struggle to restore your body and mind to the level of focus you felt at the beginning of working that first night. Not sleeping one night will lead to decreased productivity the next day. Fighting off a nap all day is not the struggle you want to be facing if you’ve just spent all night studying for an important test or if you have classes to focus on after turning in your paper.

While not every all-nighter can be avoided due to the immense workloads placed on today’s students, the best defense to feeling fatigued is to plan ahead to do as much work during reasonable work hours as you can. Know your limit, the time in the morning where you’re likely to start getting distracted, and plan out a schedule for studying that does not rely heavily on working after that time. As long as pushing yourself to work after that time does not become a regular occurrence (or does not happen the night before a major test or busy day), your body will thank you for not sacrificing sleep for a few more hours of less-productive work time. Remember that the idea of a sleepless night full of motivation and productivity is more than just a mistake, it is a recipe for an exhausting following day that will throw your work and sleep schedule completely off. When possible, getting close to a full night’s sleep will help you maintain both a healthier state of mind and help your productivity in the future.

Avoiding Clichés in Your Personal Essay

At some point, you just have to accept that there will be clichés in your writing. That’s the bad news. If you wanted to snip every cliché out of your college essay, you would be left with just a handful of articles and pronouns.
But then, clichés aren’t all bad. They lend a certain playfulness to your writing; they reveal familiarity with literature and culture; and they condense complicated ideas into short, easily understandable packages.
As with almost everything, there is a balance. The real trick to effective writing is not in eliminating clichés altogether, but in using them wisely. Here are five tips to help you use clichés in a smarter, more potent way.

1. Truth is stranger than fiction. No one person’s life is exactly like any other, so the more honest you are with your reader and yourself, the less likely you are to repeat someone else’s story.
For instance, how will you answer the inevitable question, Why do you want to attend this school? If you begin by imagining what the college wants you to say, you are doing the same as every other applicant. But if you honestly consider all of the complexities implicated in the question, you may even surprise yourself with your answer.

2. Imagine different audiences. Again, take the question, Why do you want to attend this school? How would you answer if you were speaking to your parents? Your best friend? A psychiatrist? The president? What if your essay were really an op-ed for the newspaper? A proposition for a new advertising campaign? The first page of your novel? A political treatise nailed to the door of a church?
Of course, you don’t have to literally address any of these people. The point is not to adopt a strange format which will raise eyebrows. You are a different person depending on whom you speak to; the point is to find which version of you is best equipped to write this essay.

3. Don’t write down your first idea. Your brain, like everyone’s brain, is swimming with recent memories. The jingle you heard on the radio this morning, the line you read in a book last night—those are all on top. Your most creative, original ideas— those are waiting underneath.
Try writing three or four versions of your opening paragraph. Then, for every paragraph you complete, return to the ones that came before it to see how the trajectory of your essay has changed. The most original ideas and phrases will spring up at you only after you have exhausted the easy ones.

4. Show, Don’t Tell. You’ve probably heard this phrase before (in fact, it’s a cliché), but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Many clichés can be dissolved in details. The more (honest) details you provide, the more original your story will be.
For instance, take the phrase commonly found in college essays, “this will make my dream a reality.” How much more engaging would this passage be if the author wrote instead, “I will be able to walk up to my grandfather and read the pride on his face,” or “I will finally be able to take off this string which has been on my finger for four years,” or “someone will have to slap me before I believe I’m awake.”

5. Read other people’s college essays. This tip may be the most important of all. The only way to know what works and what doesn’t work in a college essay is to read essays which work and don’t work. There are a lot of books and websites which offer sample essays. You may also want to read non-college essays as well. For instance, as far as essays go, it is hard to top Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It is powerful and emotional and brilliantly written, but also puts together a very convincing argument in response to a set of questions.


Creativity is not something that can be acquired in five simple tips. Sometimes being creative means breaking all the rules. I will end with my favorite college essay story. A friend of a friend of mine received a college essay prompt which requested simply, Ask yourself a question and answer it.
His essay: “Do you play the tuba? No.”
He was accepted.

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What to Look for When Picking a College

There is a lot to think about when looking for the perfect college. This is the place where you will be spending four formative years of your life. Where is it located? How are the academics? Does the school offer much financial aid? How big is it? Are the alumni successful? These are just some of the questions that your college advisor or college guides will prompt you to ask.

However, there are some aspects of college life which you may not think to investigate, but which can greatly affect your experience. Here are just a few of them:

· Professor credentials. I majored in philosophy. When I was looking for schools, I assumed that every philosophy program was the same; Plato is Plato no matter where you study him, right? In fact, most professors have very narrow specialties. It turned out that very few professors at my college studied the people I really wanted to study.

In order to avoid my mistake, find the names of the professors in your desired departments. Look for what is called their curriculum vitae (or CV); this is the list of their major publications and accomplishments. Make sure someone there is interested in the same things you are interested in.

If you do not know what you want to study, make sure the school employs people with a variety of specialties, so you are not forced into a concentration for lack of options.

Even more important than what a professor studies is whether the professor is good at teaching. You won’t learn anything from a brilliant writer who can’t express herself. The website www.ratemyprofessor.com is an excellent resource for learning about a professor’s skills in front of the chalkboard.

· Visiting Speakers. In four years of college, I probably learned as much from visiting lecturers and performers as I did from classes. I heard from poets, reporters, architects, musicians, humanitarians, politicians, and one international chess champion. You can usually find the names of some of next year’s speakers on the school’s website, or the website of a particular department. Looking at last year’s speakers can give you good idea of the caliber and variety of people the school attracts.

In addition, student groups often bring in speakers or performers related to their cause. If you find a student group whose mission intrigues you, do a little research to see whether they have sponsored lectures or performances in the past, and whether they are planning to do so in the future.

· Student Government. Student groups are another indispensible part of the college experience. I was a member of a performance poetry group, and some of my most fulfilling and educational moments in college took place in the service of that group. We were fortunate in that the school’s Student Union was supportive and helpful. Without the help of student government, student groups get very little done.

If you have any interest in creating or participating in a student group, check the website of your student government. How much money does it have set aside for student groups? What kind of paperwork do you have to fill out? What kinds of activities do they usually fund, and what do they usually not fund? Learning about your student government can also tell you something about the social atmosphere on campus.

· Food. There are more important things in college than food. At the same time, how you eat greatly affects how you feel and how you learn. How many places are there to eat on campus, and how diverse are their options? How close are they to the dorms? Are they open late? Are they healthy? How much do they cost? What are the off-campus dining options?

Some college manuals grade a campus’s food. Remember, variety is more important than quality (although ideally you want both). I don’t care how much you like pizza, you will get tired of it if you eat nothing else for four years.

· Major Conflicts. College students and authority figures don’t always mix. There is bound to be some sort of conflict between the students and the administration, or the college and the surrounding city. If you google your college and the word “news,” what stories come up? What were the headlines of the last few student newspapers? If you plan on joining a fraternity, how do the fraternities relate to the school’s administration? What degree of racial, religious, and socio-economic understanding is there? At some schools everybody gets along, but at some schools they do not. It is worthwhile to know which kind of environment you are entering.

· Ask around. Every school has its own quirks. You will learn more about a school by asking current students than you will from the internet. While you are talking to a current student, ask them what questions they wish they had asked before they entered school. Even if their school doesn’t interest you, they may have some insight into college in general which you won’t hear anywhere else.

--Eric Rosenbaum

SAT/ACT Instructor

Email - solutions@victorysteponline.com

Test Day Worst-Case Scenarios

There’s nothing wrong with being a little nervous on test day. The SAT can be scary. The key is to stay calm and have a plan for everything. Here are a few simple solutions for some test-day challenges you may or may not expect.

Problem: You forget your pencil.

Solution: The most important thing to remember is not to panic. Ask the proctor nicely if he or she has any extra writing implements. If not, ask your neighbor. If your neighbor says no, try creating your own pencil. While no one is looking, duck under your desk and discreetly saw off one of the legs. Don’t forget to carve “#2” into the side; otherwise, College Board won’t accept it.

Problem: When you arrive at the test center, you realize you aren’t wearing any clothes.

Solution: The most important thing to remember is not to panic. You are probably dreaming. Try flipping the lights on and off a few times. If the lights stay on no matter what, you know you are asleep (I learned that from a movie). If the lights do turn off, and now everyone is mad at you for being naked and playing with the lights, politely ask the proctor if he or she will turn up the heat in the exam room. You don’t want to catch a cold.

Problem: You develop amnesia in the middle of the test and forget everything you have studied, along with your name and address.

Solution: The most important thing to remember is not to panic.

Problem: Your test is written in French, which you do not speak.

Solution: This problem is rare; it is more common for the test to be in German. However, if you do receive a test in French, remember these few words:

· hello—bonjour

· have a nice day— bonne journee

· reading—la lecture

· math—mathematiques

· pencil—crayon

And so on. I’m sure you can figure out the rest from there.

Problem: Zombies enter the exam room and start eating people.

Solution: The zombies are probably lost. Keeping an eye on the time, find the zombie who looks like the leader (probably the biggest, most aggressive one). Direct him or her towards the nearest graveyard or shopping mall. If you do not know the area very well, point the lead zombie in the direction of the building’s receptionist desk. Your proctor, provided he or she remains uneaten, may be willing to grant you a few extra minutes because of the distraction.

Problem: Your test paper grows teeth and devours your pencil.

Solution: See solution to problem 1.

Problem: Somebody in the exam room keeps flipping the lights on and off.

Solution: Test-takers will sometimes act strangely because of something they read in a stupid “what-if” style list. Try to ignore them. If you can’t ignore them, try to reassure them. The most important thing you can remind them of is that they shouldn’t panic.

The real purpose of this post is just this: a lot of things can happen to you on test day, but it’s never the end of the world. You are smart. You are capable. You have studied. You are going to be fine. The most important thing to remember is not to panic.

My SAT Story

No matter how much you prepare for test day, you can’t plan for everything. Take my SAT experience, for example.

First of all, I received an email from the Overlords of the SAT just a few days beforehand, informing me that the location of the test had been changed. I printed out the new ticket and set it on my desk—right next to the original.

On the day of the test, I woke up early to meet my ride, quickly grabbing the ticket from my desk. My friend Zach had suggested that a few of us should carpool together, partially to save gas, partially so we could talk about the test on the way home. Zach got lost on the way to my house and showed up 15 minutes late. After getting lost on the way to the next house as well, we arrived at the high school, barely in time for the test.

Fortunately for us, enough people had been confused by the change in location that the proctor decided to start late. While I waited in line to hand the proctor my ticket, I seethed against every object and person in the room. Everyone was stressed. Everyone was anxious. It was too early for this. Finally, I arrived at the front of the line—and, no surprise, it turns out I had the wrong ticket.

After a few tense moments of speculation, the proctor allowed me to take a seat. Even after everyone sat down, it took an extra 15 minutes for the exam to begin because the proctor couldn’t figure out how to fix the clock on the wall.

My point is this: even though nothing went according to plan, even though I was tired and frustrated and was ready to give up, I knew that I needed to shut off all the negative voices in my head and lock into the Test Zone. In the end, I did really well on the SAT, and I felt even better about my score knowing how hard it was.

There will always be bumps in the road to testing success. Always. There will always be a song stuck in your head, or a person coughing, or broken clock. If you prepare for the worst and refuse to be distracted, you will succeed no matter what.

--

Eric Rosenbaum

SAT/ACT Instructor

Victory Step

The Dangers Of Multitasking

Conan O’Brian used to be the only person who could motivate me to work late at night. That is, television shows like his. I would switch the TV on right after cross country practice, and it would stay on until I finished my work and went to bed. As I grew older, I decided that late night television was too distracting, and instead motivated myself by listening to music, chatting with friends, or periodically stopping to surf the internet.

Like a lot of people my age, I thought that distractions focused me, or at least did no harm. They kept me from getting bored, kept me awake, and allowed me to accomplish twice as much in the same amount of time.

It turns out that multitasking is not as harmless as I once thought. Psychologists have long understood that multitasking limits your ability to concentrate. Multitasking takes a bite out of your complex reasoning skills, as well as your long-term and short-term memory. It causes you to spend a large chunk of your study time switching your attention from one place to another. Plus, it uses up the time you would otherwise spend on actual relaxation, which your brain desperately needs.

How often have you looked up from your work to realize that you have no idea who that patient is on Gray’s Anatomy, or that the album you were listening to started over a few minutes ago? If you can’t think about television while you work, you definitely can’t think about work while you watch television. And how much raw time would you say you spend in limbo, in the act of switching your attention from one place to another? It’s a good estimate to say that your brain takes five to ten seconds to completely switch back into homework mode from relaxation mode. If you switch back and forth a few times every minute, those seconds add up.

Not that you can’t use distractions to your advantage sometimes. Here are a few tips, from my own experience:

· Work with friends. You and your friends can distract each other via text message, but it’s a lot harder to help each other that way. When you are physically in a room with people, it is easier to tell when someone is “in the zone” and when they are in the mood to talk. Plus, asking questions is a way of getting something done while taking a break.

· Take a real break. If you feel like you have to stop or else you’ll scream, then just stop. Get a snack. Watch a full TV show, from the couch. Then, when you’re relaxed, pick up where you left off.

· Stagger your work. Work may be less onerous if you switch from one task to another every once in a while. Instead of reading your 100 page reading assignment and then starting your 20 physics problems, alternate 20 pages and four problems. Make sure to finish with the assignment you find the easiest or most enjoyable.

· Choose your music carefully. If you have to listen to music, make it something you have heard a million times before. It is also better to pick music without words.

· It’s OK to do just one thing. One of the reasons I like to multitask is that I feel guilty doing one thing at a time. Why just read a book, if I can read and watch a lecture, or read and talk to friends at the same time? Just remember: not being able to multitask efficiently doesn’t make you a bad person. It just makes you a person.

--Eric Rosenbaum

SAT/ACT Instructor

Victory Step

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Beating the Clock

Anyone who has taken the SAT knows that it tests your college readiness and critical thinking abilities through math, reading and writing. However, what you may not realize is that, even though it never shows up as a quantified score on the test, the SAT also tests your abilities to prioritize and manage your time. This part of the test, reflected to a degree in your overall score, is just as important as knowing the material for the test.

Should I start off the math section by answering the hard questions at the end, or the easy ones at beginning? Is it more important to put down an answer for all the questions, or should I work more on being right? Do I really only have 1 minute and 15 seconds for each math question? You may ask yourself these questions going into the exam, and even while you are in there, but the important thing to remember is that accuracy will always pay off on this test more than speed.

If you answer every question, but you answer half of them wrong, you only end up hurting yourself on this test. If you waste too much time on the four hard questions in the section and never get to the easy ones, then the questions you have answered have cost more than they have helped. While they may seem insignificant at the time, your overall score will come to reflect these split-second decisions just as much as your knowledge and skills.

Working against the clock in this way offers colleges a snapshot of your ability to prioritize between answering more questions and answering more right. It assesses your capacity to realize you’ve invested too much time on a question and must write it off as a sunk cost. While being able to prioritize on the test may not offer the most accurate picture of your ability to manage your time over a whole semester, these sorts of micro-decisions that you face nonetheless play a big part in your overall success as a student.

To conclude, you must always keep it in your mind that the SAT is as much about managing the short amount of time that you have to ensure the best chance of correctly answering as many questions as possible. It sounds impossible, but it’s all a matter of pacing yourself and realizing when you have spent too much time on a single question for it to help your score any further. While this part of the exam never shows up as a quantified score, it nonetheless plays a major part in the overall score you receive on any given test, so you must tackle it head-on like any other section of the test.

And remember to always do the math on the test, not on the clock.

--

Toni Whalen

SAT/ACT Instructor

www.victorysteponline.com

Introducing Yourself through Your Application Essay

When you meet someone and hold a conversation with him or her for the first time, what do you pay attention to? Do you focus only on statistical information, like age, height and other calculable data? Or do you focus on what he or she tells you personally about themselves, such as interests? To some extent, we all do both in any sort of introduction, whether we are conscious of it or not, and that even goes for colleges.

No matter how much data you give them, from your transcripts to your standardized test scores, colleges want to know more about you as a person, not just as a collection of numbers. Since college admissions boards can’t meet and interview every single one of their applicants, they instead use your application essay as your personal introduction to them. Because of this, you should look at your essay as a conversation with a person you hope to get to know better, the colleges you hope to attend.

The prompts colleges give for their application essays generally come in three flavors: broad, extremely broad, and frustratingly detailed. They can be as open-ended as asking about your goals in life and how you plan to achieve them, or sometimes they will ask you to draw upon a specific sort of personal experience, like a funny incident, and explain how it affected you. Other times, colleges are absurdly specific, giving you a quote from Aristotle and asking what it means and how you will apply it to your life and your studies. Since the topics you can discuss in an essay range so widely, it’s difficult to give specific advice on how to write such an essay. However, there are some general guidelines that hold true for every application essay you will ever write.

First, since this is your personal introduction to the school, you want to “dress” to impress. If you were going to a face-to-face interview for a job, you would try to look clean, crisp and professional, and you want to do the same for your essay. That means you want to put your best writing forward for this essay, offering your best arguments and your strongest prose. Once you’re done writing, you must also take the time to revise it yourself and have another person look it over, just to ensure no pesky misplaced commas snuck into it.

Next, you always want to be honest in an essay. Although this does not mean confessing to every fault and flaw you have, you should always remember that outright lies have a tendency of catching up to you. So if you need to write an essay on a great hardship in your life, you don’t want to talk about how the death of your grandmother affected you so deeply if she’s still alive and playing golf three times a week. Remember that making up stories about genuine experiences will never have the same ring of truth, and you can always write more strongly and passionately about real personal experiences anyway.

Finally, as always, be yourself. If you’re the tomboy on the fencing team who builds sets for school plays, don’t try to make yourself out to be the cheerleading prom queen if that’s not you. The essay is the only part of your application where you get to showcase who you really are, so don’t try to make it up. That’s not what colleges want.

Remembering these simple guidelines can help you not only with the applications for undergraduate programs, but the myriad other essays you’ll have to write in the coming years for scholarships, grants, internships, and graduate and professional schools. This is a skill you’ll be using for the rest of your life!

--

Victory Step

Why do we take this mind-numbingly boring exam (SAT) anyway??

When colleges and universities must make admissions decisions, the people making those decisions look primarily at a student’s GPA to determine whether the student would be a good fit academically for the school. But how can they know that two students from different schools with the same GPA actually perform equally well? Or that a student with a lower GPA perhaps would have done better if she had articipated in fewer extracurricular activities?

This is where an applicant’s supplementary materials, his essays, recommendations and standardized test scores, can speak for his ability. Because of this, colleges and universities often require the SAT or other standardized tests as an unbiased measure of a student’s academic ability and probable success in college.

First, the SAT offers a level playing field for applicants from different schools. As all students no doubt realize, comparing grades from two different classes can be like comparing apples and oranges. The subject, the class time, the teacher and course designation (such as an AP or honors class) can affect the difficulty of any class. Because of this, it’s not always accurate to compare students taking the same course at the same school but in different classes, and the inaccuracy only increase as students are compared from different schools, states and even countries. Therefore, the SAT and other standardized tests provide a means for schools to accurately compare students by controlling for these differences. While it’s not a perfect system, since good students often struggle with the SAT, it does give colleges a different measure by which to compare two students with the same GPA.

Second, the SAT gives a snapshot of a student’s college readiness in three major skill sets – math, reading and writing. While students will not necessarily focus on these in their studies, they each play a critical role in college and in life. Therefore, it behooves colleges to ensure that the math savant can write a good essay, and the budding historian can pass his required algebra course. Though SAT prep programs like Victory Step can aid a student in honing these skills for the test, a student’s entire academic career lays the foundations for each of these skills. While math, reading and writing are by no means the only skills necessary for success in college, they are strong indicators of whether a student can succeed in a university, given the rigorousness of its programs.

Finally, the SAT tests the critical thinking abilities necessary for all areas of study in college, from the liberal arts to astrophysics. Once accepted by Mensa and other high IQ societies as a qualifying exam, the SAT does indeed test a student’s ability to think through certain types of problems critically rather than simply regurgitating information. As any Victory Step graduate knows, the test keeps students on their feet by asking simple questions in a convoluted manner. They must think through every question to ensure that they are answering the correct question, not just the one their years of school have trained them to answer. Because of this, SAT results can portend success in any educational field, not just those directly tested.

Given this, it seems easy to see why colleges and universities turn to the SAT in making tough admissions decisions. It gives the admissions board another way of assessing students from widely varying backgrounds, and it demonstrates to some extent a student’s probability of success in college. While it is never the be-all and end-all factor in a college application, a good SAT score can bolster a student’s chances of acceptance into almost any university.