All About the New SAT

Hi everyone and Happy Wednesday! I was reading through some materials on the new SAT the other day and I thought I would share all of this new information with you all, plus a little guidance.

Since the dawn of time (or at least my time), there has pretty much been the same format to the SAT - Critical Reading, Writing, and Mathematics, with the Writing portion having an essay. The combined scores for each section were scored based out of 2400 ... not anymore.

Since March of this year, CollegeBoard has been using this "New SAT." Now, this exam only effects the graduating class of 2017 and future classes, but it is important that we all be aware of these changes and how they impact the college search journey! Here are the changes:

• No penalty for wrong answers. Take as many intelligent guesses as you need to!!
• The vocabulary that is being tested will be more familiar and useful to you - you will just need to know the different definitions for the word.
• The questions require more steps and complex thinking to complete.
• There are fewer sections in the new version, but the sections are extended for a longer period of time. 
• The two sections are Mathematics and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing
• The essay is optional

I found this really handy website from the Princeton Review (here) that helps to explain the differences between the old and the new, but also really describes what you can expect the design of the test to be! 

If you see the last bullet point, it says that the essay is optional (requires 50 extra minutes of your time), however don't consider it as optional. This is a place where you can gain some great points in your score and you can showcase your writing style, which most universities want to see anyways! The essay is designed to show your reading comprehension skills and your ability to understand persuasive writing and how it is created - both skills you will need in college. My suggestion, is for you to take it and see how you do, and then if necessary take it again in the fall or a few months after you receive your score. If you think you'd do poorly on it, it may open up the opportunity for you to take a remedial English course over the summer before college starts to help better your skills, which is not a bad thing at all!! 

I hope this provided you all with a little more insight into how the new SAT is formatted and to help you know what to expect going into the test, once you sign up for it (there are no testing dates over the summer, so plan to take it first thing come the Fall!)

Please let me know if you have questions or let me know what your experience with the new SAT was like! I'd love to here!!

enjoy the chase,

skylar

Scheduling your College Entrance Exams

Hi everyone and Happy Tuesday! I hope your weeks have all started out well and you are being hugely productive with school work and projects! Today I wanted to talk with you all about scheduling your college entrance exams. This is something that may be coming up if you are a Junior in high school or if you are thinking about taking one for graduate school, so I'm here to share my advice with you all!

1. You should always check out that exam's scheduling. So, not only should you be looking at when exams are taking place, but also about how long it takes for the score reports to be sent to the universities that you've requested. For example, most exams are offered once every two months, but if it takes two to three months to get a score report out, it may impact when you schedule yours! If there is a specific deadline to apply to a program by, you will want to make sure the university can receive those score reports in time for that deadline!

2. If you are a Junior in high school, then you will want to schedule to take the SAT, ACT, or both this spring. Typically you should take it in May as that's what is recommended, but you can also plan to take it early in the fall. You can check out the SAT dates and deadlines here and the ACT dates and deadlines here.  **The deadline to register for the May 7th SAT is April 8th and the deadline for the June 11th ACT is May 6th.  Taking an exam or both of them in the spring gives you some time to see how you performed and if you decide to take them again, it gives you some down time during the Summer to focus on studying for them.

3. In your Senior year of high school, you may deem it necessary to take the exam again or try different one in hopes of better results. DEFINITELY DO THIS! I kick myself now at the fact that I didn't take my SATs a second time. My suggestion is to take it right away in the fall (September or October) so that those scores can be sent when you send in your college applications!

4. If you are preparing for a graduate entrance exam like the GRE, the GMAT, or the LSAT, I would definitely schedule to take it in the spring or summer before your Senior Year of college. Studying for these exams is no joke, so it is important to dedicate time specifically to your test prep. If you take it in the late summer, it gives you the entire summer to study and take practice exams. This also gives you the opportunity to retake them in the Fall if you did not perform as well as you wanted!

5. Also, make sure you are scheduling these exams so that you have plenty of time to study and prepare for them. Oftentimes there is quite a bit of preparation that needs to take place, so make sure you allow a few months for that! Personally, when I was preparing for my SAT and GRE, I focused a lot on the math sections, but I was sure to give myself at least three months to work on it!

6. DID YOU KNOW: Most universities will super score your performance on your entrance exams. What this means: If you take the SAT twice and the first time you got a 500 on Reading, a 480 on Math, and a 530 on Writing, but the second time your scores changed a little with a 480 on Reading, a 530 on Math, and a 530 on Writing, admissions committees will use the highest score for each section to "super score" your SAT score. So, they would say that you actually got a 500 on Reading, a 530 on Math, and a 530 on Writing -- this helps oftentimes with merit scholarships or program requirements. This also takes place in graduate admissions for some institutions as well! Because of this, it is always good to take your exams twice in hopes for a higher score in one of the sections!

7. Make sure when you are scheduling your entrance exams that you think about the other events going on in your life. For example, if you know that Prom is the same day as the May SAT and you are the Head of Prom Committee, signing up for that exam may not be in your best interests. If you know that you will be completing an international internship the summer before your Senior Year of college, you may want to schedule your GMAT for the Spring before you leave. You will want to consider what events are going to be stressful and cause you to lose focus on your ultimate goal of performing well on your exams!

8. If you have questions or concerns about scheduling your entrance exams, then talk with your school counselor or advisor, but also speak with the Admissions representatives at the universities you are considering to see what they recommend for the timeline. They may have an inside scoop for their specific programs, so don't hesitate to reach out to them!

Have you scheduled your entrance exams yet? Comment below and share how you are prepping for them in the meantime! Have a great rest of the week everyone!!

enjoy the chase,

skylar