Time Of Change For College Application Testing

It's a time of change for college application testing. Students taking the ACT in Fall 2015 will need to prepare for a more complex essay and some alterations to the Reading and Mathematics tests. These changes will be minor compared to the College Board's plans for an extensive redesign of the SAT in 2016. 

Here are the basics regarding the Fall 2015 ACT: 

Students taking the optional essay will encounter a more complex writing prompt that requires them to evaluate multiple perspectives on a complex issue and generate their own analysis based on reasoning, knowledge, and experience.
Writing test scoring will be updated to include subscores in four areas: ideas and analysis, development and support, organization, and language use.
The Reading test will introduce a new question type, asking students to compare information from paired passages, similar to the SAT.
The Mathematics section will see a slight increase in statistics and probability.
New supplemental scores in STEM (short for science, technology, engineering and math), Language Arts, Career Readiness and Text Complexity align to the Common Core standards. The ACT's traditional 1-36 composite score will not change; these new scores will be provided in addition to the current provided scores.

ACT Changes Scoring And Essay To Provide More Insight

     Starting in 2015, students who take the ACT will face a more complex essay question and will receive new scores for English language arts and the combined fields of science and mathematics.
      The ACT exam will retain its total scoring scale of 1 to 36 and its format of assessing achievement in English, math, reading and science, with an optional essay.
     The new indicators will provide more insight by assessing student performance and predicted readiness levels in STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), career readiness, English language arts and text complexity.
     The current ACT essay prompt states an issue -- for example, community curfews for high school students -- gives two points of view and asks students to take a position and support it with specifics. The new version will ask students to evaluate multiple perspectives on a complex issue and generate their own analysis based on reasoning, knowledge and experience, the organization announced in June.
       The ACT is evolving as its rival the SAT college admissions test also undergoes a major redesign that will debut in 2016. Among the SAT changes announced earlier this year are a sharper focus on critical-thinking, an emphasis on real-world problems, a new scoring system, and an overhaul of its essay section.
     All in all, the SAT will remain a test of aptitude, whereas the ACT is more a test of achievement. Neither is more difficult or legitimate, but some students may be better-suited for one or the other.
     For information about in-home tutoring for the SAT/ACT, SAT Subject Tests, AP Tests, and academic subjects, please call Key Academics at 610-940-1625 or visit www.keyacademics.com.

ACT To Report New Scores In 2015

     Starting in 2015, students who take the ACT will face a more complex essay question and will receive new scores for English language arts and the combined fields of science and mathematics.
     The ACT will retain its total scoring scale of 1 to 36 and its format of assessing achievement in English, math, reading and science, with an optional essay.
The new indicators will describe student performance and predicted readiness levels in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), career readiness, English language arts and text complexity.
     The current ACT essay prompt states an issue — for example, high school dress codes — gives two points of view and asks students to take a position and support it with specifics. The new version will ask students to “evaluate multiple perspectives on a complex issue and generate their own analysis based on reasoning, knowledge and experience,” the organization announced in June.
     The ACT is evolving as the rival SAT admissions test undergoes a major redesign that will debut in 2016. Key Academics’ ACT and SAT materials are constantly revised and  improved to keep up with the latest changes to the SAT and ACT exams.

Good Grades Result When You Know How To Study

Homework time is a lot more fun for students who know the best techniques for learning. Here are 10 tips for getting good grades.

1. Know why and what you are studying, with defined goals.
2. Approach study feeling confident.
3. Work for understanding, not just to get by or for grades.
4. Memorize using mnemonic devices and as many senses as possible.
5. Employ the best physical conditions for effective study, like desk, chair and lighting.
6. Do a skim first to get an overview and make study more efficient.
7. Study in detail notes taken during class, highlighting with different colors to prioritize information.
8. Do the most difficult subjects first when you are fresh. Save the easy ones for dessert.
9. Review and recheck as a finishing touch.
10. Take regular breaks (45 min study + 5 min break for social media, healthy snack.)

Summer Tips For College Search And Admissions

Summer is a great time to get a jump on the college search and applications process. Here's a helpful checklist to get students started.

Rising Seniors

• Start writing your college essay. Don't leave it for the last minute. Brainstorm ideas about your experiences and accomplishments, and make an outline. If you are struggling with the essay, try a different prompt. The essay should reveal your strengths and talents, along with your writing ability.
• Evaluate your testing plan. Do any of the colleges you are considering require subject tests? Summer is also a great opportunity to prepare to retake the SAT or ACT before submitting your applications in the fall, even if you are considering early admission (check with your target colleges). 
• Visit colleges and universities. Take campus tours and attend college information sessions. Make sure to fill out the visit cards of each campus -- your visit demonstrates interest in the school, a positive sign to admission officers.       
• Check your senior schedule. Colleges look for students who take rigorous courses in their senior year. A challenging academic schedule goes a long way in the admissions process.

Rising Juniors

• Choose application-friendly activities. Whether your plans include a summer job, an internship, camp, travel, classes or community service, colleges want to know how you spend your summers.Visit idealist.org and volunteermatch.org to find volunteer opportunities.
• Take a practice SAT or ACT to determine your test prep strategy. You can take an actual test in home and receive a detailed, computerized score report that identifies strengths and weaknesses by contacting Key Academics. Summer is also a great time to receive tutoring for the test, since there are fewer distractions than during the school year.
• Read. Boost your grades and test scores by building vocabulary and improving reading comprehension. Augment your school summer reading assignments with articles and editorials from newspapers, books and magazines, which can even sometimes resemble passages on the SAT and ACT.

     Summer is a great opportunity to move forward with the college admission process, but it is also important to take time to recharge and enjoy the company of family and friends.

New SAT Format And Details

The College Board recently unveiled its plans for the upcoming SAT makeover. Among the biggest changes are a sharper focus on critical-thinking, an emphasis on real-world problems, a new scoring system, and an overhaul of the essay section.

We at Key Academics are glad the features of the SAT redesign are very well aligned with the ways we already educate our students. The College Board's increased focus on reasoning and foundational skills matches our own educational philosophy and pedagogy.

To help keep track of these changes and how they compare with the ACT and the current SAT, we have put together a comparison chart between these three tests.  To view and download the chart, please visit our partners at Summit Educational Group: http://www.mytutor.com/sites/default/files/imce/SATACTChart.pdf.

 

Below is an overview of major changes to and considerations for the redesigned SAT:   

Aptitude over Achievement

Following the College Board's information release, many critics have expressed assumptions that the test will be made less challenging than its current form. However, all evidence suggests that the redesigned SAT will be at least equal in difficulty. The redesigned SAT shows a greater emphasis on problem-solving and critical thinking.

 

Blurring the Lines between SAT and ACT?

Like the ACT, the new SAT will not penalize students for incorrect answers. The new SAT Writing & Language section will require students to review the grammar, punctuation, and structure of short passages (much like the ACT English section). The new Reading section will include science passages, accompanied by charts and graphs (much like the ACT Science section).

However, the SAT will remain a test of aptitude, whereas the ACT is more a test of achievement. Neither is more difficult or legitimate, but some students may be better-suited for one or the other.

The College Board will provide concordance information for comparing scores on the redesigned SAT to scores on the current SAT and ACT. However, this information will not be made available until the first administration of the redesigned SAT, in spring of 2016.

 

Less Vocabulary, More Reasoning

The new Reading section will remove the contentious vocabulary-based questions, replacing them with a new question type that requires students to cite evidence to justify previous answers.

 

The (Optional?) Essay

The essay will not be required, and it will be scored separately from the rest of the test. However, the essay on the ACT is also "optional," though most schools require applicants to complete it, regardless. We expect that the same will be true of the optional essay on the new SAT.

This new essay will be much more challenging, requiring students to read a passage and thoroughly analyze its argumentative rhetoric. Fortunately, students will now have twice as much time (50 minutes) to accomplish this task.

 

Narrower, Deeper Focus

The new Math section will focus on a narrower range of concepts, with particular emphasis on algebra skills. However, some of the sample problems provided by the College Board display an increase in the difficulty of questions and concepts. The former is best represented by a new question type: the "extended thinking" question. This is a complicated, multi-step problem that will appear once per test and is the only question worth 4 raw points. The increased difficulty of concepts is best represented by the new inclusion of trigonometry questions.

There will be more problems that provide real-world contexts, particularly in the fields of social studies and science. Below is an example that illustrates the difference between the type of questions seen in the new sample problems and a typical question seen on the current SAT:

Redesigned SAT

 

  

 

The figure above shows a metal hex nut with two regular hexagonal faces and a thickness of 1cm. The length of each side of a hexagonal face is 2cm. A hole with a diameter of 2cm is drilled through the nut. The density of the metal is 7.9 grams per cubic cm. What is the mass of this nut, to the nearest gram? (Density is mass divided by volume.)  

 

Current SAT

  

In the figure above, ABCDEF is a regular hexagon, and its center is point O. What is the value of x?

(A)   80

(B)   60

(C)   40

(D)   30

(E)    20

 

More to Come

The College Board's 200-page document on the SAT redesign, available athttps://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/redesign, explains many additional changes and considerations for the new test. As always, stay tuned for more updates from Key Academics, as we will be analyzing all of the new information to determine what is most relevant and important.

Preparing Teachers For The Common Core

The Common Core standards, which have been adopted by all but a handful of states, are new goals for what children should learn from one grade to the next. They are intended to move schools away from passive learning and fill-in-the-bubble tests and toward a writing-intensive curriculum that cultivates reasoning skills earlier than is now common. In practice, this means teaching fifth graders to write essays in which they introduce, support and defend arguments, using specific facts and details.

The problem is that many teachers have not been given the time or help they need to develop an understanding of the Common Core idea or to master the skills needed to teach it. The goal should be to end old-fashioned training sessions where teachers attend conferences at which they listen to lectures for a few days a year and move toward continuous instruction by master educators who observe teachers at work, providing help and feedback.