Monday, July 30, 2012

Why are standardized tests (SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT) so important? – Part 1


Every college application stands as a balance between concrete and subjective – between hard, impersonal facts, and individualized expression of creativity and intellect. The admissions essays, personal statements, and letters of recommendation comprise the subjective aspects of an application. They can be wildly different for each student. For instance, one student writes about her time volunteering in China; while her classmate talks about why he thinks the Jersey Shore corrupts America’s youth. In both cases the student puts forward an individualized expression of self. A short, hopefully well-crafted essay gives an admissions officer a chance to appreciate a student’s unique personality and gifts. Idiosyncrasies, unique talents and experiences, passions and dislikes, all dance from the page of the essay into the minds of admissions staff.

Unfortunately in college admissions, as in life, time is limited. Most admissions staff can’t give much time to delving deeply into the individual personalities of applicants. There are just too many applicants at most competitive institutions. While Tommy may be the special-est snowflake on the snowman, his individuality and creativity will only be contemplated for a short, pre-allotted time frame. The same time frame each applicant at a specific school is given by the admissions officers. College admissions is a numbers game, and Tommy only gets 5 to 20 minutes, on average, to woo an admissions officer with his artistic brilliance via his essays and personal statement.

The level of special attention Tommy gets is further dictated too by his test scores. If the average ACT score for a college is 27, and Tommy has a 19, his essay will be hardly considered, if at all, despite the possible brilliance of his essays. In this case, his concrete parameters fall too far out of line to make him a viable candidate. He won’t be able to “write himself in” to this particular college. Thus no matter how much his mission trip to Arkansas changed his views of the world and the universe, he probably won’t be able to overcome the hard parameters put in place by the college. Thus an ACT or SAT score that falls in line with the average at a specific institution is vital to be considered at that college. Your artistic brilliance won’t be important if you don’t have a sufficient standardized test scores. Your objective measures need to be up to snuff to let your creativity shine through.

In the next installment I’ll look at the shortcomings of the SAT and ACT, which actually highlight why they’re so important.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Beauty of The Victory Step Curriculum


In the next two weeks I begin teaching two new 6 week Victory Step SAT Classroom program classes. This will be around my 20th time to work through the six-week class with a group of up to ten students, and will mark somewhere around my 75th time of going through the curriculum because of past private tutoring students.

Going through the curriculum this many times, certain things start to stand out. Yes, the built in cheesy jokes are just as cheesy, or cheesier than ever, and I pretty much know how to solve every question in my sleep. I also know which questions students are going to have problems on, and I have developed a really good sense of the correct pace to take in moving through the different sections.

Most strikingly, I have developed a deep appreciation for the logic of the course itself. The course is broken down into five sections of curriculum, each covering in different proportion the three sections of the SAT - Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. The course moves from easier concepts to more difficult ones, and keeps a good balance between Math and English to keep the students from getting bogged down.

Even better, the curriculum truly covers about 98% of EVERYTHING you will need on the SAT. In a simple 6 week course you are reviewing nearly everything that you will ever encounter on the SAT. That's pretty cool to me.

An important thing to note about the SAT is that it is a repetitive exam. That is, there is a finite number of concepts that the exam tests. Thus achieving mastery, and the underlying strategy of the Victory Step curriculum stems from exposing the student to the different problem types and gaining an understanding of them.

At this point in my knowledge of the SAT, I don't approach individual questions as individuals, but rather iterations of a subset of specific problems. I'm like a Law Enforcement officer who’s learned to spot patterns in speech and action that give clues to underlying behavior. I can simplify a specific situation into the question that it is asking or testing me on.

Being an expert on the SAT isn't about becoming a better person, a smarter person, or a super person - It's really only about gaining a deeper understanding of the SAT, its quirks and its traps. The more you practice and immerse yourself in the SAT, the greater your ability to understand the way the test functions. The Victory Step curriculum exposes students to the underlying logic and "traps" of the SAT questions. The student learns of the concepts tested, how they're set up as traps, what concepts to use to understand the traps, and then avoid them.
- Devan E