Helping your child to be more resilient under stress

 Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you

I coach students for the ACT and SAT.  One of the things I have done with each student is talk about how to manage their stress.  It's a lesson on what to do if things are going badly and you begin to panic.  We practice breathing exercises and relaxation techniques.  One student reported back, "It really works! I tried it at the DMV, and I passed!"  From now on, I will expand this lesson to include some recently reported research.

You may have heard of this article in the New York Times. Researchers in Taiwan have identified a gene that affects how we handle stressful situations.  Children with one form of the gene perform less well under pressure, while children with a different form of the gene actually perform better.  The article discusses how this works, and I won't repeat it all here. I'll let you read it for yourself - just click on the link above.

When you read the article, I do want you to notice two points:  First is that children with both forms of the genes can perform well in stressful situations - including standardized tests - for which they have practiced.  I know we often feel like practicing for a high-stakes test is wasted instructional time, but it can help students to manage their anxiety.

A more interesting point, however, is this:  children and adults who re-label their anxiety can perform better under stress.  A little bit of stress is beneficial to performance. It keeps us sharp and focused.  If you remind yourself of this when you begin to feel the physical symptoms of anxiety, you can experience your stress differently and improve your performance.  Even young children can be taught this technique.

Read the article. If you have kids, try to figure out which gene variant they have.  No matter which type it is, teach them to recognize when they are beginning to feel anxious and help them re-define that stress.

Fair Test should use more honest reporting practices

In 2009, our local newspaper printed an article reporting that Wake Forest University had decided to join the ranks of “test optional” schools.  The university no longer requires applicants to submit an ACT or SAT score, although students may submit scores if they wish.  This, and subsequent articles, both in print and online have tried to give the impression that Wake Forest is part of a growing trend.  In fact, someone following this topic may begin to wonder if the days of college admissions testing are numbered. 

When you read the articles, the name of one organization keeps cropping up.  Fair Test is a non-profit group that campaigns against standardized testing.  A visit to the web site, www.fairtest.org, reveals that they are against all forms of standardized testing for a variety of reasons, some of which are valid. Calling for the end of college entrance exams is only a piece of their mission.  It is, however, an important piece, and one section of their website is devoted to their campaign against using test scores as a part of college admissions decisions.

As part of this argument, their website includes a page of 800+ test-optional schools.  The message is two-fold:  first, if these schools can make admissions decisions without test scores then everyone can, and second, there are so many schools out there that don’t require test scores that a student can avoid the college entrance exams by choosing a school from this list. Eight hundred is a lot of schools.  In fact, if you consider that there are between 2000 and 2500 four-year institutions in the United States, more than 800 would represent a significant percentage of the overall number of schools.  However, a quick glance at the first page showed quite a long list of…art schools?  Did fine art institutes ever consider a student’s test scores? Wouldn’t they be more interested in a portfolio or an audition?  Also right there on the first page was at least one theological seminary (some theological seminaries don’t grant undergraduate degrees and those that do grant a very limited number), and – this is the one that made my jaw drop – a for-profit university. There were also a number of colleges that I had never heard of.

At this point I began slogging through the list in an effort to determine which schools were included.  School after school turned out to be, upon closer examination, a school of the arts, a theological seminary or a for-profit institution. There were also a good number of tiny liberal arts colleges, a few of which have apparently closed their doors since the list was compiled.  I did, however, run into a handful of prominent universities that are test-optional.  After several hours of this activity I wondered if there was a faster method of determining exactly how many colleges and universities could be legitimately considered “test optional.”  That’s when I found page xxxv of Fisk Guide to Colleges 2013.

According to the Fisk Guide, of all of the colleges and universities in the country, there are about 175 that could be considered “selective.”  Fisk includes all of these in their guide along with another 100+ schools that they consider “interesting.”  They do not include fine arts schools, theological seminaries, or for-profit universities. That part of the weeding process had already been done. This year, they included a page listing the schools described in the guide that are test optional or “test flexible.” The actual list is preceded by five explanatory paragraphs a few of which sounded like they could have been lifted from a Fair Test press release, including a sentence that said the number of test-optional schools had reached “a critical mass,” followed by “For the first time, students who wish to avoid getting involved in the admissions test rat-race can do so while still enjoying a range of colleges and universities from which to choose.”

We’ll talk about the rat-race in a minute, but first, a word about “test flexible.”  It seems that some schools are willing to let you opt out of submitting SAT or ACT scores if you submit your SAT II, AP or IB test scores instead. Oddly, these schools are included in the list.  I don’t get that. What issues does the SAT test have that the AP test doesn’t? They are written and administered by the same company.  Little Johnny flunked his ACT because “he doesn’t test well,” but he aced his IB exams? How did that happen? I can assure you that at my house there was way more anxiety over the AP exams than over the SAT. With the SAT you at least have a chance to take it again. Make a separate list of “test flexible” schools if you want, but we need to remove those schools from the “test optional” list.  When we do, we are down to 60 schools. 

Now a word about the “rat-race” of admissions testing.  Here’s the thing:  If only 175 of the schools in the country are “selective” that means the vast majority of the schools are NOT selective.  For every school that admits fewer than half of its applicants, there are at least a dozen that will take just about anyone with a pulse.  Many of them are fine schools.  Let’s take the University of Mississippi for example.  Ole Miss is a venerable institution and you can get an excellent education there.  Many students dream of one day attending Ole Miss and you can see why they would. That said, the school admits over three quarters of its applicants.  It’s not much of a stretch for them to say, “You know what, honey, you don’t have to send your test scores if you don’t want to.”  Even before they decided to be “test optional” I imagine many of their applicants weren’t sweating over the SAT’s because they figured they could get a good enough score anyway.  I know that there is a highly visible group of students who are scratching and clawing for every point on the test because they want to apply to a top-tier school, but I don’t think that’s the norm. I think that for an awful lot of students their dream school is within easy reach.

So. Let’s remove from the list those schools that are not “selective” on the grounds that for a non-selective school removing the test requirement doesn’t make much difference in the admissions process. This leaves us with 20 or so schools.  Seventeen are small liberal arts colleges.  Many of these are highly selective, but as they are small and they have few applicants (relatively speaking,) they can use a much more personalized admissions process.  If a small, liberal arts college is what you are looking for, then having these test optional choices may be exactly what you need. 

The remaining three schools are:  University of Texas at Austin, Wake Forest University and Worchester Polytechnic Institute.  Worchester Polytech is small and quite unique.  I don’t think other engineering schools are going to drop a test requirement just because that seems to be working out for Worchester, but if your scores are terrible and you want to be an engineer, this might be the school for you.

The University of Texas at Austin is interesting.  Like twelve other schools on the list, they have a footnote which says that students are required to submit their test scores “if minimum GPA and/or class rank is not met.”  The other schools came off the list when we eliminated the non-selective schools.  So what is the GPA/class rank requirement at UT-Austin?  Apparently, by state law, all public universities must automatically accept any high school graduate that is a) a resident of Texas and b) graduated in the top 10% of his or her class. You don’t meet both of those requirements? Then you better take a test.

So it seems that if you want to attend a small, liberal arts college, you do have a range of test optional choices.  If you want to attend a major research university that is not particularly selective you may have a range of test optional choices depending on where you live. If you want to attend a selective, major research university, you have Wake Forest.  This can hardly be considered a “critical mass.” While other colleges may eventually drop their testing requirements, I think college entrance exams will be a component for most students for at least the next decade.

I think it is dishonest to suggest that the number of test optional schools is so large that students need not take a college admissions exam. By blatantly padding their list with names of schools that should not be included, or that should be included in separate lists, Fair Test invites questions about their integrity and detracts from their overall message.

Study Material Review: SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps

"A Perfect-Score Student Reveals How to Ace the Test" is emblazoned across the cover of this book by Shaan Patel.  Apparently the author achieved a perfect SAT score and is now sharing his secrets. I haven't finished the book (454 pages) so I don't have much to say about the test-taking tips. I'll have to revisit this book in a future post to comment on those.  This post is about a remark Mr. Patel makes in the first few pages. He is commenting on the fact that improving your SAT score involves a lot of work. There is no silver bullet. Even with help from a book, a course, or a tutor it will require some time and effort on the part of the student.  But, he says, it is all worth it. "When I secluded myself in a library study room four days a week during a hot summer, did I ever think my effort would lead me to a 2400; admission to schools like Brown, Johns Hopkins and UC-Berkeley; more than $230,000 in college scholarships; and the opportunity to write a book about all of it one day?"

Wait.....what??  Four days a week all summer spent studying for the SAT? Seriously?  I make money coaching kids for the SAT. When my students spend more time studying that can mean more money for me.  And, yet, I'm still going to tell you not to do it. Think about what could be done with that kind of time.  All of the volunteer work, the learning opportunities, the jobs, the creative endeavors one could undertake with a summer's worth of effort.  If I were a college admissions officer, I would rather see a student spend a summer on any of those things than spend it studying for the SAT.

If you need to raise your score in order to be able to attend college AT ALL, then four days a week during the summer would be worth it.  Especially since, at that level, any work you do will help you be successful in college after you get there. But if it's just a matter of getting into a particular school, I think you would be better off just spending a few hours a week on the SAT. Devote the rest of your time to something more constructive.

Is there a good math website for a 3-year-old?

 Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you. I originally wrote it in response to a question on Quora. I decided to be lazy and let it do double duty. :)

A parent recently asked, “What is the best online math site for an advanced 3-year-old?”

This is my response:

Please don't put your 3-year-old in front of a computer to learn math. Even the best websites are heavily computation oriented and an advanced student will pick that up naturally without a website.

Ideally you would be able to find a math circle that includes young children, but if not, play games! Work puzzles!  If you don't have time to do this with your child, hire an advanced high school or college student to come over a couple of times per week.

Some great games and puzzles:

Chess

Towers of Hanoi

Set

Tangrams

Parcheesi

Mastermind

Rummikub

Labyrinth

Yahtzee

the chips game (which you can read about here)

When you are playing together, think out loud during your turns. Model the problem solving you want her to learn. Handicap yourself so that the games are about even and praise effort, progress and creative thinking.

While an online math site may teach your child to add and subtract earlier than her peers, this will not give her an advantage in the long run.  Furthermore, expecting a website to fill in for hands-on experience could lead to a Sandbox Deficit. Experiencing the world and interacting with intelligent, articulate adults will have a far more lasting impact in the long run. 

Study Material Review: Gruber's SAT Word Master

This book could be useful for anyone who wants to build his or her vocabulary.  The book includes the obligatory vocabulary list (2300 words) but this can safely be ignored. The real value is found in the first half of the book.  There is an extensive section on prefixes, suffixes and roots, followed by lists of "the most frequent SAT words."  These are lists of SAT words that all have roughly the same meaning followed by another list of words that all have roughly the opposite meaning.  For example: The first pair of lists are words that mean "to praise" and words that mean "to belittle."  Rather than learn these approximately 280 words in alphabetical order, you can learn words together that all have a similar meaning.

This is not a book you can pick up the day before the exam for an immediate difference.  You will need to work on learning these words and roots for a month or more, so make sure you get started well before test time.

Book review: Math From 3 to 7

I am thoroughly enjoying Math From 3 to 7 by Alexander Zvonkin.  From the back cover:

"This book is a captivating account of a professional mathematician's experiences conducting a math circle for preschoolers in his apartment in Moscow in the 1980's."

The author kept a journal in which he described the activities he did with the children and the results - both success and failures. At the request of friends and colleagues, he edited the journal for publication. This volume is the English translation of the edited work.

I find this book fascinating on a number of levels.  First, the Forward to the American Edition describes ways in which Eastern Europeans approach math education and describes the concept of a "math circle." Apparently there are a few math circles here in the US, particularly in university towns, but it is definitely phenomenon that needs to spread.

Next, I enjoy reading about the puzzles and activities he does with the children.  The activities look like a lot of fun, and I would like to try them out. Since I no longer have young children of my own, I am considering kidnapping other people's children so I can do these activities with them.  (I would only kidnap them temporarily.  Their parents can have them back when they get tired and fussy.  :)) Many of the activities could even be extended to be appropriate for older children - even teenagers.  I would recommend this book to elementary and middle school math club advisors.

Last, I am very interested to see which concepts the students grasped and which they struggled with. In several instances you can see Piaget stages illustrated. In editing his journal, the author added some thoughts on cognitive psychology which I have enjoyed.

I wish I had read this book before I had kids.  I recommend it for anyone who lives or works with children under the age of 12.

Timing is everything!

For most people, the biggest barrier to a higher ACT score is the time constraint. Many of my students can answer most of the questions, but they only get about half-way through the practice test before time runs out. For the next practice test, they rush and miss a lot of questions. This is especially true for the Reading and Science sections. This problem calls for a two-pronged attack.

The first task, obviously, is to practice your pacing.  Practice reading faster. Skim diagrams. Stop agonizing over each problem; do your best as quickly as possible and move on.

Sometimes, however, you need to concede that you are not going to finish. The best thing to do is to have a strategy for which questions you will answer and which you will skip. Some students are surprised to learn that they can skip their least favorite science passage, take a little extra time with the remaining questions, and be quite happy with their scores.  Skipping an entire Reading passage is more costly since there are only four, but for some students that is still the right choice.

Of course, deciding on your personal strategy is very time-consuming. You have to work through several practice tests to try out different timings. Which passage should you skip? If you have time at the end, should you try to make headway in your skipped passage, or should you double-check your answers in the passages you completed?  All of these are individual choices.  You will need to begin working at least a month before the test.  If the test is only a week or two away, you may need to speed up the process by finding a professional tutor.