The SAT announces another big change

On January 25, 2022, the College Board announced a significant change to the SAT. The test will be administered digitally beginning in March of 2024. The PSAT/NMSQT will be administered digitally beginning in the fall of 2023. You can read the official College Board announcement here: https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/digital-sat-brings-student-friendly-changes-test-experience 

On January 28, 2022, TPAPT, a national consortium of tutors and college admissions professionals organized an informal meeting to discuss the change. 

 Here is some of the information shared at the meeting: 

The digital version of the test will not simply be the current test delivered digitally. It will be a computer adaptive test (or CAT). Each student will see a unique set of questions. Which questions a student sees later in the test will be determined by how well the student did early in the test. There are multiple ways to approach computer adaptive testing, and we have been told that the revised SAT will use the method that is currently being used for the GRE - the test many students need to apply to graduate school. In this method, the test material is delivered in "chunks", or groups of questions. Student performance in the first chunk will determined whether the second chunk will be easy, medium, or difficult. Whereas the scaled score on the current SAT counts all questions as being equal in value, the scaled score on the new version will be affected by the difficulty of the questions in the second chunk. 

A calculator of some kind will be allowed on all math questions. (The current version has a calculator-inactive section.) The rumor that was shared is that students would have access to DESMOS - an online graphing calculator app - during the test. If true, this would represent an improvement for most students since DESMOS has become the primary graphing calculator used in schools, supplanting the TI-84. 

The reading section will be combined with the writing and language section. It is unclear what this will look like. 

Some questions were raised to which we do not yet have answers: 

Will the scores on the revised test have a normal curve similar to that of the current test? More specifically, would a particular individual score on the new test be roughly equivalent to the same score on the current test? Is that even a goal that they will consider as they design and write the new test items and as they set the scaling algorithms? 

Will the scaling algorithm be transparent?  In the past, the College Board has released tests along with the scaling table for that test.  The scaling algorithm was clearly spelled out:  so many correct answers = this particular scaled score.  If every individual student has a unique set of test questions, we likely won't have any released tests.  They've promised "practice material" on Khan Academy, which will likely include full simulations of practice tests along with a scaled score at the end, but will they share the scaling algorithm?  

Will the students be issued scratch paper? 

Pilot testing went well - both students and proctors were pleased. However, what will happen as they scale up and have to contend with the inevitable technology snafus? 

Will the two chunks of verbal questions be given back to back, or will there be a chunk of math in between? 

How will this affect the advanced math student who hasn't seen the material in the first math chunk since middle school? Will that prevent them from being presented the difficult math questions that reflect their current course work? 

I'm sure we'll be getting more information over the coming months, and those of us who are gearing up to prepare students for this new challenge will be watching for the promised prep material!

What effect will the quarantine have on the college admissions process for the class of 2021?

A student recently emailed me to ask, "Do you think colleges will consider SAT and ACT scores differently as a result of the quarantine?"

Below you will find my response.  Note that the student lives in North Carolina, USA.  Schools included in the University of North Carolina (UNC) system include North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Yes, but it’s not clear exactly how much differently.  I think they would all be prepared to disregard scores if the public schools had not managed to get their ACT’s in before the schools closed.  Since they did, here is the latest from the UNC Board of Governors:

Schools in the UNC system are permitted to consider students with weighted GPA’s of 2.5 or better and with SAT scores of 1010 or better or ACT scores of 19 or better.  Schools are permitted to disregard the score minimums, but a score must still be submitted in order for the application to be complete.

How will this play out?  My prediction is that schools who have more viable applicants than spaces (most of the ones in the UNC system) will continue to consider test scores.  Keep in mind that without spring sports, after school jobs, clubs, awards, and other extracurriculars to look at, schools might be using test scores to differentiate among students.  Schools that tend to have a hard time filling their freshmen classes will take the opportunity to disregard scores.  Schools that struggle to admit students in under-represented minorities may disregard scores for those groups.  However, if your demographic is well represented at the average college, I think you will still need decent test scores to be admitted.  

What represents a “decent” test score during a time when students have limited opportunities to retest is anyone’s guess.  You need to compare well to others in your demographic, but I’m not sure what test averages will look like come September.

Now, having said all of that, a number of private schools and some public schools in other states have said that they will not ask for test scores this year.  I don’t think we’ll know the full list of schools until they all update their admissions sites this summer heading into the fall application season.  It’s also possible that the UNC Board of Governors will come out with a new ruling, but keep in mind that this most recent ruling with more relaxed requirements did not pass unanimously.

So the upshot of all this is that we just don’t know.  This is going to be an interesting year to apply to colleges.  There are some interesting factors in play, including whether or not schools will continue to get as many international applicants.  I wish I could tell you more.

This is what your student-athlete needs to do junior year!

Click on this link from the Learning Illumination Center, a nonprofit dedicated "to educate and elevate student-athletes to become future leaders by offering learning opportunities for them and the adults in their lives."

High School Juniors:  It's Time to Prepare!

(It's the third article down.)

Which calculator should you use on your SAT or ACT?

Until 1994 you couldn’t use a calculator on the SAT.  The test was designed to be taken without a calculator and top students have made it a point to take the test without one.  That will change in March of 2016.  With the addition of precalculus problems, a scientific calculator will become necessary so that the test-taker can find the Arctangent of 3.2 or the natural log of 17.  This has been true for the ACT for years.

Which calculator will serve you best on your college entrance exam?  If you are a top math student, you probably already own a scientific calculator.  As long as your calculator will find sines,  cosines and their inverses, as well as logarthms and natural logarithms, you should be fine.  Don’t try out a new brand of calculator on the test.  Use the one you are familiar with.

Using a familiar calculator is even more important if you are not a top math student.  However, if you have plenty of time before your test, it might be worth your while to get familiar with a better calculator.  It might even be to your advantage to take more than one.

Texas Instruments has had a near monopoly on the school calculator market with their TI-83, TI-84, and TI-NSpire calculators.  (Note that the TI-NSpire CAS model is not approved for the test.) Most schools have classroom sets of one of these models and some require all students in certain math classes to rent or purchase one of these calculators.  While these are versatile little machines, they aren’t as efficient for certain functions.  If you struggle to finish in time, you might want to supplement with a different model.

A student recently introduced me to the CASIO fx-991ES.  I was impressed by how intuitive it was to use.  It takes fewer key-strokes to use certain key functions, and there are fewer instances in which you have to remember which menu to use.  Its only drawback is that it is not a graphing calculator.  However, at under $20, it is an affordable addition to your test-taking arsenal.

What SAT/ACT prep books are still on my shelf? (SAT edition)

With the transition to the “new” SAT and the somewhat less comprehensive changes to the ACT, my prep resources have undergone a change.  Some books have been culled out or replaced with updated editions, and several new titles have been added.  This is the SAT edition.  Click here for the ACT edition.

Here are the winners:

For the overall test:

The Official SAT Study Guide, 2018 edition

The only parts I ever use are the practice tests.  These are available for free online, but you would need to print them out.  Depending on your printer, it might be cheaper to buy the book.  This was not true of last year’s book, which only contained 4 tests.

For SAT reading comprehension:

The Complete Guide to SAT Reading, Third Edition by Erica Meltzer

This book, which anchored my SAT shelf in the “olden days”, has been completely overhauled for the revised SAT.  It’s really all you need.

For SAT writing and language:

The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar, Fourth Edition by Erica Meltzer

Again, this guide was a staple prior to the SAT overhaul.  Ms. Meltzer was proactive in getting an overhauled guide to the test-prep community as quickly as possible.  That haste meant that there were a number of errors.  With this edition, those problems have been dealt with.  I do supplement with the ACT version (see below) for some students.

For SAT Math:

I really haven’t settled on just one.  Which book I recommend varies from student to student, and, while I generally have students acquire just one, a given students will end up using most of these while working with me, even if it’s just one set of exercises.

Kaplan’s Math Workbook for the New SAT

This is the one I use with students who are currently scoring less than 600 on an SAT or PSAT.  I like the way it starts off with linear equations and systems, and I like the way it divides the problems into easy, medium and hard so that we can work on the problems that will appear at the beginning of the test and avoid frustrating the student with those end-of-test problems that he or she will likely guess on anyway.

The College Panda SAT Math: Advanced Guide and Workbook by Nielson Phu

This book is first off the shelf for students who are already scoring 600+ and would like to score 700+.  It has a TON of problems in it, and I really like the treatment of probability and statistics which is one of the main areas those students need to concentrate on.

PWN the SAT Math Guide, Fourth Edition by Mike McClenathan

A previous edition anchored my SAT math section prior to the SAT revision.  Mr. McClenathan  helpfully published this quickly, but subsequent released tests have added some insight that indicates this book is a little off-the-mark.  I’m hoping for an update soon.  It is designed for students who have always done really well in math class, and are then surprised and disappointed by a less-than-stellar math SAT score.  As I tell my students, the problems go from zero to sixty in under 6 seconds.  There’s not a lot of easy or medium practice in there.

A Guide to the Math SAT by Richard Corn

There are some excellent problems in here, but I don’t pull it out quite as often because the book is weakest in the areas in which my students need the most help.   That wouldn’t necessarily be true for everyone, though – my students tend to be clustered at a handful of schools, so they share a lot of characteristics.

The losers:

Top 50 Skills for a Top Score by Brian Leaf

I used this one for certain students back in the day, but the updated version for the new SAT just doesn’t cut it.

Dr. John Chung’s New SAT Math, 2016

The bulk of this book is 10 complete practice tests.  Back when this book came out, we only had 4 official practice tests and extras were appreciated even if they weren’t quite as good as the official tests.  Now that we have more official tests, I don’t use this anymore.

Study Materials Review: A Guide to the Math SAT

Richard Corn has updated his SAT math guide to reflect the revised test.  (Full disclosure - he sent me a copy to review.) This guide has a number of things I like.  First, I like the organization.  The topics are grouped in a logical manner.  Second, I really like the variety and range of difficulty level of the problems.  There is some really good practice in here.  Third, this guide includes tips on getting the best use out of your calculator which most guides leave out.  There are one or two topics I would have like to see covered more fully, but Mr. Corn has promised to add updates as released tests warrant.

When I reviewed Mr. Corn's guide for the "old" SAT, I mentioned that the formatting and explanations weren't particularly "friendly" and that the book might not be the best choice for a student working on his or her own.  I am happy to report that the explanations are much improved in this book.  There are some nice examples, some solid advice, and plenty of targeted practice.  I have uncovered a few typographical errors, but only one might affect your ability to understand or work the problems, and the author has promised to post a list of errata on his website.

This guide is an excellent resource for students who are working with or without a tutor.  I plan to purchase another copy or two for my resource shelf.  

Study Materials Review: College Panda SAT Math

I am often introduced to a new resource by my students.  That's how I became aware of The College Panda SAT Math Advanced Guide and Workbook.  The students was one for whom I would usually recommend PWN the SAT Math Guide: an advanced math student who has covered most of the material but who needs practice with looking at problems from different angles.  He had already been through PWN the SAT and was looking for more problems.  Somehow he stumbled across College Panda.

The tag line on the back of the book reads, "If it's not in this book, it's not on the test," and that's pretty nearly true.  This is a comprehensive book with a LOT of problems.  The problems represent a wide range of styles and difficulties and are nicely divided into categories so you can target your problem areas.  The problems also "feel" right.  The most difficult problems in each sections tend to be a tad more difficult than the most difficult problems on the SAT.  That's a good thing.  (Actually, in a few spots the problems resembled those on the SAT Math II subject test.)

The book does not include any practice tests to work on strategy or timing, so you will need access to some practice tests for that purpose.  (The same company has helpfully provided a book of practice tests in case the 7 - as of this writing - provided by the College Board aren't enough.  I haven't taken a good look at it, yet, so you can expect a review of that eventually.)

If this book has one weakness, it is that it is light on strategy.  It consists of examples, practice problems, and annotated answers.  There is little in the way of advice about timing, approaching multiple choice questions, or anything else that might fall under the category of "testing tip."  The author, Nielson Phu, seems to feel that the road to a perfect math score shouldn't involve any sign-posts for students who can't answers questions through sheer math prowess.  While I agree with that in principle, even the best math students needs a toolbox of techniques to pull out for when she or he doesn't immediately see how to approach a problem.  Students in the 600's to low 700's might get the most out of this book when used in conjunction with a tutor.

Study materials review: Top 50 Skills for a Top Score SAT Math 2nd edition

I reviewed the 1st edition of this book in 2014.  It was a staple on my shelf for several years, but I put it away when the the SAT was revised.  I forgot about it until a student showed up one day with the 2nd edition.

Brian Leaf has a series of four college entrance exam study guides - two for the SAT and two for the ACT.  One of the SAT guides focuses on math and the other on critical reading and writing.  Unlike many study guides which can be thick and difficult to navigate, these guides are very user-friendly.  Each guide begins with a pre-test.  Each question in the pre-test corresponds to one of 50 "skills."  If you miss a question, there is a page of explanation and a page of targeted practice for that skill.

The guides, which run about 180 pages also include flashcards and an online component.  These study guides are ideal for the student who is currently scoring in the 500's, but wants to score in the 600's and who wants to study on his or her own.

Top 50 Skills for a Top Score SAT Math:

Topics have been updated for the new test, and include proportions, systems of linear equations, averages, geometry, functions, sequences, counting, probability, some math vocabulary and cautions against common algebra errors.  There is a good mix of test-taking advice and content review.  There are 50 flash cards - one for each of the 50 skills.  A few involve specialized vocabulary, but most of them are simply aids in remembering the author's advice.  I used to think that flashcards for test-taking advice were silly, but after watching my advice go in one ear and out the other for scores of students, I am beginning to come around.

Much of this book is taken straight from the old book, although the questions have been updated to reflect the fact that the new test has only four answer choices per question.  A few questions have been added, and several sections are new.  I need to start pulling this book out more often. 

Study materials review: PWN the SAT Math Guide, 4th edition

It has taken me far too long to review the latest update of PWN the SAT Math Guide.  Author Mike McClenathan went to a great deal of trouble to update the guide for the new SAT.  My hesitation was, in part, due to the low number of clients taking the new SAT last spring.  I just didn't have as much call to use SAT materials in general, so I didn't get to see how the book worked out with actual students.  That is gradually beginning to change, and I'm beginning to get a feel for how much I'll be using this book and with whom.

Like earlier editions, the book is designed to be used in conjunction with the practice tests that were released by the College Board.  (These were once compiled in a book that we in the test prep field referred to as The Blue Book.  The book is now teal, but the tests can also be accessed online here.)

I reviewed the 2nd edition - for the old SAT - in April 2013. At the time I said, "PWN the SAT is well-organized, comprehensive and entertaining.  It introduces a concept or technique, provides some practice problems, and then supplies a list of relevant problems in the Blue Book. You are encouraged to use the Blue Book tests for testing practice, but if nothing else the length of the list will tell you how likely you are to run into that type of problem on the SAT.  At the end of the book is a breakdown of all of the problems in the Blue Book tests with difficulty level and techniques or concepts needed along with PWN page numbers for those techniques."

These things are still true.  There are, however, a couple of things that will keep my copy of this book from becoming as well-worn as it's predecessors.  First, the problems in the former additions "felt like" SAT problems.  Many of the problems in the 4th edition don't feel like new SAT problems.  They are excellent exercises that will build skills, but their application to the test is less direct.

Second, the previous book worked well for students who had been scoring above 550, but wanted to be scoring above 600.  Many of the problems in this book are too difficult for a large portion of my students.  I would recommend it for students who

• are strong math students who are underperforming on the SAT AND
• are currently scoring at least 650 on the math section.

The price makes this book a good value and there are additional resources available online for people who purchased a copy.

Study Materials Review: Dr. John Chung's New SAT Math 2016

The content of this prep book is divided between 54 "Perfect Tips" and 10 practice tests.  The bulk of the book (over 300 pages) is the practice tests. I am unimpressed by the tips.  He included a few I would have left out and failed to include a few I would have added.  There is targeted practice for each tip, which I appreciate, but the explanations are minimal.  I am, however, somewhat impressed by the practice tests. I've only done the first two so far, but the problems are interesting and they "feel right."  I will caution the reader that in most non-College Board SAT books the tests tend to deteriorate as you go through the book.  That could be true for this one as well;  I don't know, yet.

As tests, they might not give you an indication of how you would do on an actual SAT:  I feel like the mix of problems skews towards the more difficult ones.  For students trying for a top score, that could be a good thing, but a more average student might get discouraged.  I do plan to add this book to my arsenal of test prep materials, but I won't use it with everyone.  I can, however, recommend it for the confident math student.

Is it "unfair" to get a test-prep tutor or enroll in an expensive course?

I once had a parent call to explore the idea of getting an SAT coach for his daughter.  He told me about her, but then he said he was worried about whether or not getting her a coach represented an unfair advantage.  I pointed out that since she was at an expensive private school, her application would be read as if she had a coach whether she did or not.  (I did not point out how funny it was that he was worried about unequal access to test coaching, but not about unequal access to the private school she was in.  They also lived in one of the neighborhoods filled with mcmansions.) I guess my argument did not carry the day, because I didn't end up working with his daughter.

So is there an inequity involved in spending money to get your child ready for a college entrance exam?  And if there is, how much should you worry about that?  Would the world be a better place if everyone boycotted the tutors, the Princeton Review, the books, and online courses?  This came up on Quora, and this was my reply:

Here is something to keep in mind about "SAT coaching": It is a really big umbrella. When we read or hear about it in the media it sounds like the rich kids are buying special secrets that you only get to have if you have enough money. I assure you that I have never given anyone a test-taking tip that isn't available "out there" for everyone. As one fellow tutor always says, "There is no special sauce." Hiring an SAT coach might be like hiring a personal trainer. Most people could do it on their own, but hiring someone streamlines the process. People with more money than time tend to do this for all aspects of their lives including SAT preparation.

When parents call me to coach their kids for a college entrance exam they always say, "He/she is a very good student, but he/she doesn't test well." They will allow that the student might need just a little review, but they will anxiously inquire as to whether I teach the testing tips. And I say, "Umm...sure." And I do. For five minutes. And then we spend the rest of the ten hours on the algebra he never learned, or the grammar she completely missed because they moved at just the wrong time. You see, there is a lot of cachet in going to an SAT tutor every week. There is no cachet at all in going to an I-never-learned-grammar tutor every week.

Is it fair that the rich kid who never learned grammar gets a tutor to fill in that hole before he has to take his college entrance exam, while the poor kid who never learned grammar doesn't? Of course not. However, it would be silly to say that no one gets to learn grammar until everyone can. Or that no one can know algebra well until everyone does. Surely the more educated people we have the better off we are.

So, in answer to your question: If you need a coach, and you can afford one, get a coach. Be a more educated person. If you are worried about the inequities of this world - and really, if you were to rank all of the inequities in the world, unequal access to SAT tutors wouldn't make the top ten - then use your increased knowledge to do good.

Vocabulary work for the reluctant reader

I've posted before on the fact that many of our students have small vocabularies and that this hampers their reading comprehension.  (You can read that post here.)  By far the best way to increase your vocabulary is to read a wide variety of materials - particularly books or articles at a challenging reading level.  I have also posted on the fact that it is difficult to get students to actually do this.

Vocabulary building needs to begin - well, from birth really.  However, college bound students should consciously work on their vocabularies beginning no later than middle school.  How can you get a reluctant reader to work on his or her vocabulary without reducing it to rote memorization?  Comic books can be a great method.  Calvin and Hobbes is a great comic series with some terrific vocabulary words in it.  It appeals to everyone age 10 and up.  The artist, Bill Watterson, has retired, but compilations of the strips are still in print.  You can also find them online.

I recently discovered another great vocabulary-building book series.  Stephan Pastis, who draws the nationally syndicated comic strip "Pearls Before Swine", has also written a series of books about an elementary school character, Timmy Failure.  The series is aimed at students in late elementary school, but I have enjoyed them, and I'm 53.  These chapter books are in the style made popular by the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. "Pearls" doesn't tend to be filled with SAT-level words, so imagine my surprise and delight when I encountered the following in the first Timmy Failure book, Mistakes Were Made:  rigorously, depiction, alleviated, stipulations, assent, prudent.  And that was just the first 50 pages!  Each book in the series is entertaining - a quick, easy read.  Unlike Calvin and Hobbes, which some children would need to read with a dictionary, many of the words in the Timmy Failure books are defined by the characters as you go, although in both series you could get the basic gist of many words from their context.

These books make great holiday gifts!  

Study Materials Review: Kaplan New SAT Premier 2016

As soon as the College Board announced changes to the SAT, people began publishing study materials for it.  The more responsible ones waited until after the practice tests had been published.  These materials are now finding their way to book store shelves.  I recently examined Kaplan's offering.

As a general rule, I like Kaplan's stuff better than Barron's or Princeton Review so I was hopeful that this would be a viable option.  Like most of the stuff out there, it's better for some things than for others.  Here are some impressions:

First of all, this thing is HUGE.  1337 pages, PLUS a DVD, PLUS access to online materials.  The sticker price is also relatively large at $36.  (It's a lot less on Amazon.)  I haven't read the whole thing, and I haven't examined the DVD or the online materials, so keep that in mind.

About 1/3 of the book is math review.  They assume nothing about the student's preparation: they begin with PEDMAS.  In my opinion this is a waste of space.  A student who needs help with PEDMAS needs help from a human, but whatever.  I did appreciate that there are a wide variety of targeted exercises for each section.  This book is quite useful for the student who has seen the material in class, but may not have been exposed to all of the different ways he or she could be asked about the material.  For each section there is also an estimate of how likely the topic is to appear on the test. The sections on statistics are quite nice for the strong math student who just never covered those topics, and I like the fact that they included instructions on how to use the statistical features on the TI-84 graphing calculator.  That will be useful for a lot of students.

The second third of the book is reading and grammar.  I thought the passages were well-chosen, and they advised the student to mark up the passage and take notes in the margins.  However, they didn't go into enough detail about what the student should be marking.  Then they actively discouraged re-reading the text while answering the questions on the grounds that there wouldn't be enough time.  I really have done much to work with students on this test, but my impression is that only the slowest students should be pressed for time.  Maybe I'll change my mind this spring.  The practice questions didn't feel like SAT questions.  So far we only have four practice tests to go on, but still....  They were just "off."

The last third of the book consists of 2 practice tests and then answers and explanations for the tests and all of the practice questions.  I got disgusted and quit midway through the reading test.  The questions were just strange. I really haven't examined the grammar, yet.  I though the math questions were the right style, but I haven't decided if their mixture of questions and topics makes for a good practice test.  I thought the tests released by the college board were uneven, so it will take a few administrations of the real thing to really know.

Anyone wishing to start studying for the reading or grammar sections should order Erica Meltzer's books.   Kaplan's New SAT Premier 2016 might work well for the math while we are waiting for Mike McClanathan's new edition to be published.  Hopefully, the math portion of this tome will be published separately - and at a cheaper price.

Hello, Founding Documents!

When revisions to the SAT were first announced, there were several changes proposed for the reading section.  One of the changes was the elimination of the fill-in-the-blank vocabulary section that started off each reading section.  I thought that was an interesting choice at the time because, as unpopular as the vocab questions were, testing vocabulary is an easy way to assess reading comprehension.  Vocabulary knowledge is a reliable predictor of reading comprehension and vocab questions are a lot easier to write.  In addition, testing vocabulary, as opposed to passage-based testing, allows more questions to be asked in the time allotted, which should allow for finer differentiation among test-takers.

The reasoning offered at the time was that being familiar with "obscure" vocabulary did not predict success in college.  In the very same announcement, Daniel Coleman said that the reading passages would include "the founding documents."  At this point, the test-prep tutoring community responded, "Ummm.....have you actually READ the founding documents??"  Talk about obscure vocabulary.  I sat down and compiled a list of obscure or antiquated words from the Constitution ALONE that numbered in the hundreds.  Then the practice PSAT was posted without any founding documents in it, and I figured the College Board members had come to their senses.

Shortly after that, ETS posted four practice SAT tests.  I took the first one, and then I got busy.  REALLY busy.  It's been a crazy summer in test-prep land.  All the tutors I know have been swamped.

The first practice SAT had a pretty easy reading section.  Lovely.  There was plenty of time, and the most difficult section had a passage that had clearly been written for grownups but wasn't ridiculously challenging.  I didn't take tests 3 and 4 until this week, and HOLY CRAP!!  Hello, founding documents!

So there is a lot we could say here about the wisdom of including founding documents in some tests, but not others, including that fact that this would be a perfectly valid reason for avoiding the revised SAT.  However, if you are going to take it, you need to show up prepared to interpret writing that is 300 years old, obscure vocabulary and all.

Use the summer for reading!

I tell my students that it is most time-consuming to raise their scores on the reading sections of the college entrance examinations because they need to read.  A LOT.  Then I tell them that summer is the perfect time to work on this.

This is my annual post to encourage reading.  I was inspired to get off my duff and write this year's edition by this article.

The article looks at what students are reading.  There is good news and bad news.  The good news:  reading is not dead.  Quite a few kids are reading and some of them read quite a bit.  The bad news:  too many kids read hardly anything, and when they do read, they choose books that are written at an easy reading level.

The article includes a plea for students to read the classics and includes an argument for a students reading list to include both fiction and non-fiction.  It points out that raising your reading level requires work - which is probably why kids are avoiding it - but that when students make the effort they enjoy the more difficult books.

Here's the thing.  Students who read regularly and who can comprehend material at a 11th grade level or higher will have a tremendous advantage on their college entrance exams, in college and later in life.  For a quick-and-dirty estimate of the reading level of a piece of writing, see this previous post.

Impressions on the new practice PSAT

A few days ago the College Board posted a new PSAT practice test.  This is the practice test for the redesigned PSAT to be given in October 2015.  It is also a glimpse of what the redesigned SAT might look like. 

There has been a great deal of speculation about the redesigned test.   A number of people have opined that the new test would be an “ACT clone.”  I, myself, have speculated that the new test would be designed as more of a high school exit exam than a college entrance exam.  Quite a few pundits have pointed out that the SAT was losing market share to the ACT and thought that the redesign might be an effort to gain that share back.

Upon looking over the test, I am now prepared to make the following statements:

The writing section IS barely distinguishable from the writing portion of the ACT.  Otherwise, this test is in no way an ACT clone.  On the other hand, I do feel that this test represents a fundamental shift in purpose.

There are a number of possible purposes for giving a standardized exam.  (This would be as opposed to a teacher-made assessment.)  Here are a few:

• To document student learning (or lack thereof) of particular skills and concepts
• To distinguish among (or rank) students
• To drive the curriculum*

Prior to 2015, the PSAT’s fundamental purpose has been a balance of the first two items.  As the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test it has been used to distinguish top students from the pack, and it has documented whether or not students have a grasp of particular skills and concepts.  It has NOT been used to drive the curriculum...until now.  In my opinion, several of the changes were specifically designed to have an impact on the nature and content of classroom instruction.

One of the elements of Common Core language arts is a focus on having students read critically.  In an effort to have the students respond to what the author actually said – as opposed to how they feel about what they think the author said – students are being asked to point to pieces of the text as “evidence.”  In the PSAT critical reading portion, students are asked to choose the best evidence for almost every question.  Now I’m not a language arts teacher, and I don’t have any special critical reading or psychometric expertise.  However, it seems to me that this is about the same as asking the same question twice.  In other words, if you correctly answer the original question, then the answer to the “evidence” follow up is trivial.  If you missed the original question it would be impossible.  Will there be some kind of scoring mechanism that uses this question-pairing to determine when the correct answer was obtained by guessing?  Maybe.  It is more likely an attempt to make sure teachers require their students to give evidence in class.

Here is another example from the math section.  Months ago, when the sample questions were released, I noticed that some of the questions were much longer and more involved.  This represents a distinct shift.  Up until now I have told my top students, “If you are more than 3 steps into an algebra process, you probably missed something.”  One of my main criticisms of some of the test prep books out there has been that too many of the math questions can ONLY be solved with the application of tedious algebraic steps and are thus not representative of the real thing.  However, this has changed with the PSAT practice test.  It’s interesting.  If I’m a professor of mathematics or engineering I’m interested in multiple different aspects of their math skills.  I want them to have a solid grasp of the concepts, good number sense, AND I want them to be able to keep track of what they are doing through a long problem that requires many steps and sub-steps to solve.

Up until now, the major college entrance exams did a decent job of testing the first two. (The SAT was better than the ACT in my opinion.) They really haven’t attempted to do the third.  This is largely because a multiple choice or single final answer exam format is a TERRIBLE way to assess that third skill.  If the student’s answer is incorrect, you don’t know if he really can’t negotiate the process or if he just made a silly error in the middle.  Graded homework and teacher-made assessments where partial credit is given are much better means of determining whether or not the student can handle a long problem.  Both of those would be reflected in the students’ grades.  By trying to test it in this format, you add no new information.  The only reason I can come up with to include problems like this is to encourage math teachers to have students practice longer, more complex problems.

When the College Board first announced that the SAT would be re-designed, an admissions officer at a small, selective school wondered in an online forum, “Will the rSAT do a better job of distinguishing among students at the top end of the spectrum?”  This was what she was hoping for.  Other users of the forum predicted that it would not.  To do so would require a test with a wider standard deviation, and a large contingent of the (math-challenged) public believes that a wide standard deviation is inherently “unfair.”  In fact, the speculation was that the new test would do a worse job of highlighting differences among students.  Given that the redesigned test appears to have abandoned that goal altogether in favor of driving the curriculum, I’d say that admissions officers at selective schools will be plumb out of luck.

The practice PSAT is posted here: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-suite-assessments/practice/practice-tests

* You may be wondering what it means to have a test “drive the curriculum.”  Let’s look at an extreme example.  Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s North Carolina had a state writing assessment.  In fourth, eighth and tenth grades students had to write a timed essay and send it off to be scored by specially trained “experts.”  After several years of dismal results, some statisticians called “foul.”  They pointed out that the scoring methods were severely flawed, and thus that the scores were ultimately meaningless.  (By the way, the scoring methods used to score the ACT and SAT essays have some of the same issues.)  The state’s surprising response?  “Yes, we know.”  Students (and by extension their teachers and parents) suffered through this test for YEARS.  Why?  Because if there’s a writing test – even a flawed one - teachers will spend time teaching writing.  The average amount of classroom time spent on writing instruction quadrupled.  Prior to the test, some teachers had spent ZERO time teaching writing.

To pre-order the practice book for the redesigned SAT:

"Recruiting to reject"

I was reading a blog post earlier today when I came across a new phrase:  "recruiting to reject."  It refers to a practice whereby students who have a snowball's chance in the proverbial hot spot's chance of getting into a college are encouraged to apply anyway.  The college then (predictably for those of us "in the know") rejects the student.  By rejecting these students, the schools admit rate goes down and they look more competitive than they would otherwise.  This, in turn, raises the school's ranking in various lists.  I've seen this going on a various local schools, but I never had a nice phrase to refer to it by until now.

Colleges use various methods of encouraging potential rejects to apply, and I was witness to some of them on a recent visit to a local high school.  I was there to talk to the career counselor.  She wasn't in, but I happened into a room in which an admissions officer from a local public university - I won't say which one because they are both equally guilty, but if you'll note my location you'll see which two I've narrowed it down to - was meeting with a group of prospective applicants.  Among the statements she made:

"We look at your whole application."
"We really look for people who have made A's and B's, but we admit people with bad grades every year.  It really depends on your story."  (Followed, of course, by an anecdote of a kid who failed six courses, but got admitted anyway.)
"Yes, we consider your test scores, but you are more than just your score."

I had to bite my tongue.  What I really wanted to do was jump in and say, "Yes, they will admit you with substandard grades or test scores.  IF you are 6 and half feet tall and have a terrific 3-point shot. Or IF you are a Hispanic Buddhist who will be the first in her family to go to college. Or IF your family has donated money to the school in excess of seven figures."

If you want to see if you are likely to get into a school, go to a website like Cappex. It's free, but you have to sign up.  They have admission trend scattergrams that plot on a grid all of the students signed up with them who applied to a particular school according to their GPA's and test scores.

Here is a sample:

See where the blue and green dots are?  Notice those stray blue and green dots that represent students with low test scores and/or low GPA's?  Those are the basketball-players, the kids of big donors, etc.  They are NOT the applicants who are generally described as "a good kid."  As in, "You know, he's just a good kid."  If nothing about you is VERY unusual (in a good way) then you are not destined to be one of the stray dots.  Consider whether to apply accordingly.

READ, dangit!

There exist SAT and ACT tutors who fill out a form after the test outlining for parents why the student didn't get the score they wanted.  I think it's a CYA thing, and I can see the motivation, but it seems a bit mean.  However, if I DID fill out such a form, "Doesn't read enough" would be one of the check-boxes.  "Didn't do what I told him to" would be another, and for many students this would amount to the same thing.

Students (and their parents) are told the importance of reading over and over again.  We all know we should be reading, but many people -- teenagers in particular -- don't.  Even if a student is a big reader, sometimes they don't read a wide enough variety of texts.  How many times have you heard, "They can read ANYTHING! It doesn't matter!  Find something they enjoy!"  This is only true up to a point.  When it comes to college readiness, the ability to read non-fiction at a college level is crucial.  However, you can't count on colleges to teach the student how to do this.  They expect their students to arrive already reading at a college level.  In fact, college entrance exams are specifically intended to measure the ability to do this.  High schools haven't traditionally done such a great job either.  They tend to focus on the types of fictional reading the practice of which will come in handy if you major in English Lit.  The Common Core Standards are supposed to address this issue.  We'll see.

When I get a student who needs work in the reading section, I usually assign reading homework.  I send home articles that were written "for grownups."  The students get to choose what to take home, although I encourage them to choose articles on topics they know little about rather than articles they think they would enjoy.  This is the homework that is least likely to get done.  I'm not sure why.  Is it because they can't bring themselves to read "boring" stuff?  Is it because they don't see the immediate connection between the assignment and improving their test scores?  Is it because the improvement is not as immediate or obvious?

An aside--  If you are reading this, and you are one of my current students:  I can tell when you didn't really read the article.  I may have chosen not to embarrass you, but I know.

Usually when a child's reading score is low, it's because he really doesn't read all that well.  You can't fix that without reading.  So, READ, dangit!

Check back tomorrow for some specific reading suggestions.

Cheating on the college entrance exams

My kid went off to a prestigious college. He came home for Christmas break convinced that he was one of the few people on the planet who didn’t cheat on his college entrance exams. Apparently, everyone there had a story about his cousin’s boyfriend’s sister who cheated on the exam by doing fill-in-the-cheating-method-here. Some of the stories sounded rather unlikely to me, but the news at the time was all about that kid in ….New York was it? …who made a gazillion dollars impersonating other students and taking their exams for them.

In May of 2013 I took the SAT II Math Level 2 exam and I assure you, none of the cheating techniques would have worked. That’s not to say they never work, but the cheating techniques I hear about all depend upon having a dishonest or incompetent proctor. How prevalent is that? I don’t know. I do know that if your testing strategy depends entirely on having a bad proctor, you are likely to run into trouble.

I was recently asked to review a book entitled SAT SNEAK ATTACK: How Computer Geniuses Hack, Beat and Cheat America's Most Feared Exam by Peter Wayner. At 33 pages, it would make a better magazine or newspaper article than it does a book. The gist of it is this: 1. Poor pay causes the proctors to do a bad job. (There are no statistics on the percent of proctors doing a bad job, but since they are all paid poorly I suppose we are supposed to assume that they all are therefore doing a bad job.) 2. Because the proctors are not paying attention you can hide helpful information in your calculator, such as a dictionary. (Having your calculator out at all during the verbal sections is forbidden, so this requires a very inattentive proctor.) 3. You can also hide a program that helps solve math problems, although, based on the description, it sounded to me like this particular help would only be useful for students who would otherwise score very low in the math section. 4. Large numbers of students are cheating using this method. (Again, no actual statistics. This is based on anecdotes from college students.) 5. The author personally alerted the ETS to this egregious problem and they metaphorically rolled their eyes. 6. This means that the math help program is apparently “legal” and any test-taker would be stupid not to avail himself of this advantage.

The SAT was designed in such a way that you do not need a calculator AT ALL. You are allowed to use a calculator because too many high school students think they can’t do math without one, and because they aren’t really testing you on arithmetic anyway. The top test-takers know that using your calculator as little as possible will actually help you go faster in the math section. Spending time and money downloading some program that will solve triangles for you is pretty silly. The triangles on the SAT can nearly always be solved in your head. In the time it would take to practice using the program, you could just practice the math in the first place. But I guess then you wouldn’t have a fun anecdote about how you cheated the SAT.

You want the 700, but you don't have number sense: try this!

This post is a follow up to yesterday's post which describes the difference between a student who scores in the 700's on the math section of the SAT and a student who scores in the 500's.

So I've told my 500's student that getting a 700 on the SAT will be "a lot of work."  But what should that work consist of?  I have some activities we could do and some problems we could work, but we need to do the activities and work the problems over a long period of time so that she can actually internalize the lessons.  Unfortunately, working one-on-one with me for that period of time would be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people.  Is there a cheaper alternative?  Can someone do it on her own?

I have been using materials from Art of Problem Solving with a handful of elementary school students, and I am struck with the fact that they place more emphasis on the number sense than they do the algorithms.  They walk students through steps toward comprehension that focus on the meaning and assume that the algorithm will come on its own.  That process works best for the advanced kids, but that is their target market.  Still, I thought they might have something useful for the high school student who has learned the algorithms, but would like to retro-actively work on the number sense.

Introducing Alcumus.  Alcumus is a free online problem bank.  Once you register, it will give you a math problem.  Get that right, and you will get a more difficult problem. Complete enough problems in a row, and you will move on to the next topic. It is somewhat similar to the practice modules on Khan academy with a couple of notable differences:  First, you will be given an explained solution even if your answer was correct!  In fact, to get anything out of this exercise, you need to carefully read every explanation to see if there was a different, more intuitive (as opposed to algorithmic) method of solving the problem.  There are a few videos to watch for more instruction, but Art of Problem Solving believes in a problem-first approach.  There are also references to chapters in Art of Problem Solving math text books. (The books can be a bit pricey.  If you have the means, buy a couple of copies and donate one to your school library.)

Try to see if these methods lead to being able to solve complicated-looking problems in your head.  (It goes without saying that you should NOT be using a calculator.)  You will be led through addition, subtraction, the distributive property - simple stuff, but there are lessons here for how to think about these problems differently.  How to use your head instead of that hand-held machine you have been using as a crutch.

Try it!  I'd love to hear how it works out!