ACT's Validity Questioned

With the June results of the ACT coming out any moment (the site says they should be online June 27), the educational media is due for an article about whether or not the test serves a purpose. Parents and students often wonder why these tests exist. While it certainly is true the test is a a helpful way to compare students who attend different schools, colleges claims they use the test to predict how students will fare in a college environment.

According to a new study, The National Bureau of Economic Research has found that the Science and Reading sections on the ACT do not predict how well a student will do in college. The English and Math sections are better predictors, but colleges generally just look at the composite score, giving no more weight  to one section than another.

Of course, the ACT begs to differ, and one can be sure another study will be published soon to counter this one. Whether it's fair or not, in the end it is so entrenched in the admissions process, that it is highly doubtful it will be dismissed in the near future.

College Marketing Builds Expectations

Previously, this blog discussed how the acceptance rates at the top-tier schools have dwindled in recent years, making these schools seem more selective than ever. These low acceptance percentages enhance the stature of the top schools in every way possible, so it is in their best interest to have as many people apply as possible.

With this in mind, a recent article points out how the SAT and ACT are working hand in hand with these colleges to boost up the number of applicants. Colleges pay these testing companies for good leads, students who would be interested in attending these top-tier schools. By doing so, these colleges cast their nets a little wider and catch more fish with brochures as bait.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, and students should apply if they are truly interested in these schools. However, do not take a brochure in the mail to mean that a school has actively sought you out. You simply fall into a category of people whom the college feels would be likely to apply. In their minds, the more applicants, the better.

Sooner Than Later

College is always thought of as a four-year experience, but a quick glance at today's graduating class shows otherwise.

This doesn't necessarily come across when one goes on a college tour, but it is definitely something that prospective students need to think about before deciding what college to go to. After all, the cost of college continues to dramatically rise, making an extra year no small expense.

The U.S. News & World Report came out with a list of schools that have high success rates when it comes to getting people in and out of their classrooms in a four-year span of time.

Super Score that Test

Many colleges and universities allow students to cherry pick the best scores from each of the sections on the ACT and SAT to arrive at a Super Score.

How does this work. Let's say you have two composite scores, a 28 and a 31. On one the first of those tests you received a 31 in English. On the second, you got a 24. You'll use the 31 when putting together your Super Score, which will boost your composite by two points, making it a 33.

Yes, that is awesome. The following is a partial list of schools that allow you to create a Super Score.

Albion College
American University
Amherst College
Babson College
Beloit College
Birmingham Southern College
Boston College
Brandeis University
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
Butler University
California Institute of Technology
California State University System
Carnegie Mellon University
Colby College
College of the Holy Cross
Connecticut College
DePauw University
Eckerd College
Elon University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida State University
Fordham University
Georgia Tech
Hamilton College
Hampden-Sydney College
Haverford College
Hawaii Pacific University
Hendrix College
Hollins University
Kalamazoo College
Kenyon College
Lawrence University
Loyola University in Maryland
Middlebury College
Millsaps College
NCAA Clearinghouse
New York University
Northeastern University
North Carolina State University
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
Pepperdine University
Pitzer College
Pomona College
Regis University
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Spring Hill College
Stanford University
Towson University
Trinity College
Tufts University
United States Naval Academy
University of Arkansas – Fayetteville
University of Colorado – Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Dayton
University of Delaware
University of Denver
University of Illinois
University of Louisiana – Lafayette
University of Miami
University of North Texas
University of Puget Sound
University of San Diego
University of South Florida
University of Tampa
University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Washington and Lee University
Washington State University
Washington University – St. Louis
Wesleyan University
Wheaton College
Xavier University

Managing Your Time

Time management is one of those all-encompassing life skills that people tend to embrace at an early age or never embrace at all. As sophomores find themselves rounding out the school year, they should take a good look at themselves and determine how much control they have over their schedules. Junior year is the toughest by far, so sophomores have a quick breath of fresh air before getting tossed into an academic avalanche.

In terms of college readiness and, consequently, life readiness, learning to schedule your life and stick to that schedule ensures success in every endeavor.

There are hundreds of online tips and tools for keeping yourself organized. Start sooner than later, and your life will be all the better for it.

Northwestern Number One For Some

As a Northwestern alum, I am always curious to know how NU ranks each year. For the most part it has hovered right outside the top 10 for over a decade. While that might seem like stagnation, recent admissions statistics prove that it has certainly become more competitive.

This year, Northwestern admitted only 18 percent of its 31,000 applicants, five percentage points lower than the previous year.

Northwestern is just another example of a top-tier school that has become more choosy as the applicant pool has increased each year. This natural evolution, which has been discussed here previously, makes me wonder if the previous graduating classes would have been accepted in today's world. Morton Schapiro, the current president of Northwestern says yes. In his mind, the people who got into these top-tier schools in the past were competitive on the level that was necessary back then. He assumes that those people would have risen to the occasion had the circumstances been more like they are today.

I like that answer.

Chicago Schools Get More School

Education reform is at the top of every newly elected official's agenda.

So it comes an no surprise that Chicago's Rahm Emanuel, who replaced the 20-year-plus tenure of Richard Daley, has stepped into his new role with a mission to fix Chicago's public schools.

Interestingly, he has chosen to do what educators have debated about for years: extending the length of the school day and year. As the argument goes, in more competitive countries, school is a year-round endeavor. So why not here?

Emanuel's latest legislative maneuver attempts to test this plan out with small steps, something that might influence how other metropolitan school systems handle their calendars down the road.

Of course, in an era where most education news involves the phrase "cost cutting," one wonders how this plan will play out amongst the unions and fiscal conservatives.

For the present, however, Chicago students could take comfort in knowing that more school is coming their way!

Great Questions, Thoughtful Answers

Once again, the New York Times has taken the lead in providing valuable college admissions information. It amazes me that anyone would protest the idea of paying for access to this publication, believing that such a resource should be able to survive in the marketplace without capital from those who consume it. But that's another story.

The reason I'm extolling it today is due to a Q&A column written by one-time admissions officer Bruce Poch that has been featured everyday this week.

In this limited series, Poch takes questions about what to do when it comes down to picking the right school after getting accepted to several of the ones you were interested in. I especially enjoyed Poch's response to the first question, which involved what to do and expect from the waiting list.

Five New Words (or More)

You asked for it, you got it. Okay, no one really asked for it, but here it is anyway.

The latest edition of Five New Words comes from an opinion piece by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. I especially enjoy how she employed the use of the word "trellis." As always, look up these words. They are colorful, powerful, and ripe for the picking.

From "Hunting Birds of Paradise" by Maureen Dowd

“You!” he yelled, pointing at me in a sartorial “J’accuse” moment, “are wearing the wrong stockings with that dress!”


I wave at him when I see him around Manhattan, a slight, gray-haired man in a tweed cap turned backward, standing sentry outside Barney’s, pedaling on his red Schwinn through Times Square or darting around taking pictures at the opera.


As on that first night, he always looks happy and busy and kind, a Boston Irish priest of street fashion, an aesthetic meritocrat who moves through New York’s seductive trellis of money, power and status and stays pure somehow.


He admires anybody who looks good, the obscure as well as the famous, the old stylish gals as well as the young, women elegantly draping garbage bags against the storm as well as women in couture.


A new documentary about Cunningham offers a tonic of simplicity and a paean to women after Sheen’s excesses and contempt for women.

Register for those Subject Tests

You can never be reminded too much to register for subject tests, especially if you still haven't done so.

The registration deadline for the May 7 subject test exam is April 8. 

Why should you take this test? Hopefully by now you have cultivated a list of schools that you intend to apply to. In doing so, you should check to see if these schools require or "strongly recommend" subject tests. Many of the top-tier schools would like to see two of these subject tests. Some, such as Georgetown, want to see three. 

These tests, which are graded on an 800 scale, allow schools to see how students perform on a comprehensive test in a specific field. Most of the subject tests offered line up with an advanced placement curriculum. Ideally, students will score above the 700 range on these tests, which means preparing for them is essential. 

It's also important to note that you can take up to three of them in one day, but we suggest that you take only take two in one sitting. 

It Ain't Over

Getting rejected from your first choice is not the end of the world. That will occur when either the sun goes supernova or Rebecca Black gets a Grammy.

So if you have a case of the rejection blues, know that there's a smart way to deal with it. 

What Happened?

In an era when actually speaking to someone on the phone seems quaint, it is interesting to note that the timeless holiday-like tableau of high school seniors opening real life mailboxes with tangible envelopes from colleges around the country has retained its cultural cachet.

Yes, those letters have arrived, and, along with them, alarming statistics. It appears that the selective schools have gotten more selective as acceptance rates have dipped again for most of the prestigious universities. 

This is when parents have to try to reason how their children got rejected after having a flawless performance in every class since kindergarten. The test scores were high. The extracurriculars interesting. So what happened? 

There are a few factors at play here. For one thing, population growth. If there are more people applying to colleges, there are naturally more highly intelligent people. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean the spaces at these colleges have grown. So, in short, something's got to give. 

Another point is that it has gotten so easy to apply to a dozen universities as a result of online tools and common applications that people are applying to more places now than ever before. Increased applications coupled with a static number of acceptances equals a lower acceptance percentile. 

Finally, universities have become as selective as the students who want to attend them. Having a lower acceptance rate actually helps a university's overall ranking, so it's in its best interest to cause temporary pain and suffering. 

But all is not lost. Again, the skills gained in college are more important than the institution's name on the top of the diploma. 

Essay Writing in a Nutshell

Without fail, each time I walked into my magazine writing class in college the black board featured the phrase "Read and Imitate" in giant letters. Robert McClory loved this phrase, often soliciting students to come up with a jingle that would immortalize it. 

An accomplished author, McClory discovered that the best way to improve one's writing is to dissect how others do it and try to mimic the style. In doing so, a writer truly master the tools of the trade. 

A writing lesson in the The New York Times has a similar approach that is definitely worth perusing. 

In the academia of academics, a debate has long lingered as to what the significance is of standardized testing and how well it measures what a student has learned.

A blog posted in Education Week engages this discussion with some intriguing insight, concluding that what is tested counts, but much of what counts cannot be tested.

Register for Subject Tests

Now is the time to really start thinking about subject tests. Hopefully, you have already thought about what tests you will be taking. If you are in an AP class and there is a respective subject test for that discipline, we suggest that you take a diagnostic to see how you do. Chances are the AP class sufficiently prepared you for the subject test, too.

AP tests are often administered in May, so it makes sense to take the subject test then as well. May 7 is the next official college board test date. The registration deadline is April 8, so it's time to sign up now.

You don't really have to commit to any one subject test when you sign up. As long as you're on the roster, you can decide what you want to take when you show up that day. You can take up to three subject tests in one sitting, but we recommend that you only take two at a time.

These are one hour tests, and you can prepare for them. So sign up now and let us guide you to the finish line.

Behind The Scenes of College Admissions

Unfortunately, this clip was not able to be embedded, but I would encourage parents and students to click on the link to take a look at the types of discussions that occur behind closed doors at colleges across the country. In this particular segment, Grinnell College, a small, elite liberal arts school in Iowa, showcases its admissions officers in action.

While it is evident that there is a process in place, it becomes especially clear throughout the piece that a cross-section of unique parameters comes into play that make gaming the system impossible. At the same time, it is particularly reassuring to see how important those personal essays become during the process.

SAT Essay Prompt Causes Controversy

For people who took the SAT on March 13, the essay question might have seemed a bit out of the ordinary. In what is usually an open-ended question that allows students to discuss literature, history, or current events, the prompt featured a more narrowly focused question concerning reality television. 

While the College Board has stood by this decision, others are scratching their heads. For a test that hopes to reveal a student's scholarship, why ask students about the lowest common denominator in popular culture. 

At the same time, we all know that we have to play the hand that was dealt to us. Students should follow the same structural groundwork for the essay regardless of how puerile the question might seem. Include an introductory paragraph, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Be sure to have a definitive argument and use specific examples to support that argument in the body paragraphs. The conclusion should not reiterate what you previously stated, but manage to take a bird's eye view of the topic and connect your dots to a larger picture. 

Dollars Without Sense

The rising cost of tuition provides a great reason to seek out what one gets out of a private institution over a public one.

In an ongoing series, The Huffington Post publishes stories of the indebted -- college graduates who discuss what they borrowed and what it means once they have to start paying it back.

Not that there is anything wrong with paying $200,000 for a four-year college education. But it's good to know what the options are before blindly signing your name.

Five (or More) New Words

Reading about international politics, economics, and science certainly helps build a respectable vocabulary. However, there is plenty of good writing in any field, so there is no reason why you need to go to far from your avocation to learn some new words.

To be sure, look at all of the great words used in a recent New York Times piece about the return of The Strokes to the music scene.

Julian Casablancas, the singer and insistent frontman for the group that a decade ago revived louche New York City rock ’n’ roll, was in a dressing room, listening for the first time to the final mix of the Strokes’ fourth album, “Angles,” due on March 22 from RCA.

But over the years, as age, fame, addiction, solo projects and creative foment interceded, their vision striated.

The result is an album with 10 highly worked-over songs that are identifiably the Strokes — those counterpoint guitar riffs, Mr. Casablancas’s dyspeptic vocals, with their late-night energy and lyrical self-doubt, a few synths and downbeats for modern measure — but with a distinction.

And it was recorded not in a studio in New York City but in a bucolic setting upstate.

Trendy Trends on the College Scene

Population growth, technology enhancements, and the Great Recession have caused some tectonic shifts in the university landscape recently. Carleton College's alumni magazine just published some of these noticeable and intriguing trends, including incoming tech-savvy undergrads seeking courses that employ technology, the increasing ratio of women to men throughout higher education, the rising cost of tuition, and the decreasing amount of foundation grants. 

On a more alarming front, new data suggests that more college students have turned higher education into an easy-paced pleasure ride toward a degree. The unfortunate result of this undergraduate behavior seems to be a more compliant faculty. Perhaps this is what led Cornell to recently ban homework during breaks. 

A Dad Speaks Up

Without a doubt, the college admissions process has become a nail-biting, costly, formidable amalgam of confusion, anxiety, and paranoia over the last decade. The competition is fierce and nothing can be guaranteed. At the end of the day, though, it is probably healthy to take a bird's eye view of this journey with a wide grin accompanying a shaking head. Seriously, it will all work out.

With this in mind, we are pleased to see that one father managed to find the humor in the entire undertaking of getting his son into the "right" school. Andrew Ferguson brings his wit, charm, and newfound knowledge about getting into college in the 21st century to his new book entitled Crazy U.

Unfortunately, the tide has failed to ebb, and the educational shoreline is eroding. Perhaps we should soon expect  to see a humorous account of what it takes to get your kid into the "right" high school.

Long Live The Teacher!

As state houses continue to engage the teachers' unions in a no-holds-barred battle of the budgets, plenty of vehement discord has surfaced in the national rhetoric. It is certainly true that sky-high deficits have triggered the draconian measures pursued from New Jersey to Wisconsin. But somehow in that fiscal powwow, teachers have not only become a financial liability, but the source of all our present troubles.

I beg to differ. So does Jon Stewart of The Daily Show. Enjoy.

The Daily Show - Diane Ravitch
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on

It's The Climb

As much as preparing for college is about getting into the college of your choice, think about what an education really offers and how to take advantage of it.

We are culture obsessed with brand names. True, those brands have done a great job making a name for themselves, but we fail to recognize that we have an obligation to define ourselves as a brand, too.

There is a value in learning how to do something, and then how to do it better. But if the goal is simply acceptance, what next?

It's Now Never Too Early

Harvard and Princeton have decided  to call it quits on their strike against early admissions practices.  Losing potential ideal candidates turned out to be the key factor in the decision by both schools to reinstate their early admissions option. It turns out that most of the top-tier students wanted to get into the top-tier schools as soon as possible by committing to places like UPenn and Dartmouth.

Does it pay to apply early? Survey says, "Yes."

Five (or more) New Words

While studying vocabulary lists is certainly a helpful, productive step toward increasing your lexicon, the best approach is to underline words you do not know when reading.

Pick up any worthwhile journal of current events (New York Times, Economist, Wall Street Journal), and you will discover as many words as you need to know. Journalists have a knack for picking the right word for the right occasion, so this is a great way to not only learn a new word but also understand how to use it correctly.

In this new addition to the Academic Approach blog, words will appear in context with a link to the original piece. Do you know what these words mean? Can you guess from the context in which they are used. Test yourself and then look them up to see if you're right. This is an exercise that you should do on a daily basis for the rest of your life.

Great Words from Frank Rich's Column

If the next step in this declension is less face time for Palin on Fox News, then we’ll have proof that pigs can fly.

What they said — and didn’t say — from the CPAC podium not only shows a political opposition running on empty but also dramatizes the remarkable leadership opportunity their fecklessness has handed to the incumbent president in post-shellacking Washington.

There was one serious speech at CPAC — an economic colloquy delivered that night by Mitch Daniels, the Indiana governor much beloved by what remains of mainstream conservative punditry.

The party leadership is no less cowed by that majority today than it was pre-Tucson.

As we’ve learned from his track record both in the 2008 campaign and in the White House, he sometimes coasts at these junctures or lapses into a pro forma bipartisanship that amounts, for all practical purposes, to inertia.

Beyond The Test

DePaul just became the biggest private university to make the SAT and ACT optional for undergraduate applicants. According to admissions officers at DePaul, the university sought ways to invite a bigger pool of applicants into the fold. For some time, DePaul has been watching its undergraduates closely to see what metrics translate into academic and professional success. In these studies, it became apparent that standardized test scores are not the best predictors as to how a student will perform in college and in the marketplace. As a result, admissions officers tend to look for "noncognitive" traits in the school's applicants, such as leadership, commitment to service, and ability to meet long-term goals.

This move places DePaul in the company of other schools, such as Wake Forest University, that have joined the SAT Optional Movement.

Milk That College Visit

With many high schools approaching Spring Break, it's a good time to start cultivating a list of colleges you're interested in applying to next year.

College visits are important for many reasons. It gives students a chance to experience the environment they might choose to live in for four years. Students can also get a sense of the resources the college has to offer. Not that students need to have a definitive idea of what they'd like to pursue in college by their junior year, but it would certainly be helpful if they leaned on any one of their interests as they wandered around these campuses. If you're interested in studying film, be sure to visit the film department and inquire about the opportunities available to undergraduates. If you want to study mechanical engineering, take a good look at the professors in the department and find out if they do any research on campus. What are the facilities like?

Take advantage of the college tours, and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions.

It would also be in your best interest to take notes about your experiences on these campuses. Many schools ask students to write a few hundred words on why they are interested in "this particular school." These essays are always easier to write when you have some personal anecdotes to allude to, separating your answer from the run-of-the-mill responses most students provide.

College Apps... the iKind

It won't be too long before you could just get a Ph.D. by using an app on your phone. For the time being, there are several apps to guide you along your journey to college.

America's most perused college guide just underwent a digital makeover for the iPad, making the Fiske Guide available in a new incarnation: Fisk Interactive College Guide. This new app allows eager high school students and parents to organize those top picks in a compact, user-friendly manner.

This is one of several apps that are geared toward college admissions that are featured in the New York Times.

What college apps would you like to see?

May the Force Be With You

Tomorrow is the big day: OFFICIAL ACT. 

You've certainly put in the time, so there's no need to get nervous. Get a good night's sleep. No need to go out. No need to cram. Wake up early enough so that you can enjoy breakfast. Bring your admissions ticket, pencil, student I.D., watch and calculator. Finally, try to get to the testing center 30 minutes prior, allowing yourself time to settle into the environs.

Aside from the rules and strategies, embrace process. The pencil is a tool, and you should use it for process of elimination, underlining key terms and phrases, and writing down formulas.

Don't do math in your head. Write down equations and use your calculator to compute.

Finally, don't get stuck on something. If you don't feel like you have a grasp of what is going on in a question, move on. There are always easier questions to find, and it would be a shame if you ran out of time because you spent too much of it scratching your head.

We are all looking forward to hearing about those results. They should be available online within two weeks.

Calling All Parents...And Students

It's easy to see your children do well in school and think that everything is covered. They must be good readers, right? They get straight A's, even in their American Literature class.

Year in and year out, Academic Approach works hard to improve reading comprehension scores, including those of Grade-A students. What we find is that once students acquire a certain level of literacy, they plateau, when, in fact, reading is a rigorous exercise in mental stamina that requires much more than simply understanding words on the page (or screen, for that matter).

With this in mind, we recommend both students and parents take a long look at some good reading habits that will serve as an effective prescription for college preparedness and more.

Show Up for the ACT Prepared

Now that you have gone over everything from misplaced modifiers to finding the amplitude in a sine curve,  it's time to review what you need to bring to the test this weekend to ensure that you will be admitted into the testing center.

Watch? Check. Calculator? Check. Admissions ticket? Check. Don't speculate. Check out the entire list of things you need this Saturday.

Good luck!

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow...Or the Day After!

Calling all Juniors! Yes, you're signed up for an ACT or an SAT (or both!). It's right around the corner, and you've been studying, taking practice tests, and you can't wait to show the world that you're ready to dominate it. This is good news, but there are more things to think about.

Lee Bierer at the Charlotte Observer put together a nice little check list of things to consider over the next few months in addition to this all-important test. Some highlights include signing up for subject tests (May or June are good dates), planning out some college visits, and thinking about a resume-building activity to do this summer.

Yes, You Should Take a Test

One of the big mantras around Academic Approach is "Take a practice test." We really believe that these tests are as important as the teaching we provide. Taking a test is the best way to prepare yourself for...well, the test.

Now there is scientific data to back it up. A new article in the Journal Science, as reported in the New York Times, claims that people who take a test about what they have just read retain up to 50 percent more of that information a week later than people who just study notes. 

So instead of just trying to memorize what you have written down, maybe it would be better to create a test for yourself. If there are questions at the end of a chapter in your textbook, you would be better off answering those questions than making flash cards for an hour so you could passively stare at them. 

Get Rid of that Text Anxiety

Finally. A University of Chicago study focused on ways students can relieve themselves of test anxiety, a top score-killer for hard working students who did their work.

In short, students who took 10 minutes before the test to write about what aspects of taking the test worry them most (failing, how it affects other things, forgetting key concepts) wound up performing better on the test than those students with text anxiety who didn't journal such thoughts prior to taking the test.