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

Victory Step's Instructors are the Best!

There are three main qualities that Victory Step values in an instructor.

1) Investment in Students’ Success: By the end of our first tutoring or classroom session, Victory Step instructors know their students’ names, their personalities, their strengths, and their weaknesses. Our students are able to achieve because Victory Step's instructors are able to show their students that they believe in their success.

2) Energy and Charisma: Regardless of how intelligent our instructors are, how high we can score on the SAT, or how well we understand the material, we are able to convey the knowledge to students of all skill levels in an exciting, interesting, and effective way that captivates a class of high school students during any of our sessions.

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