Free Advice for East Lyme CT Parents

When East Lyme, CT Students Should Begin Test Prep

If you have received generic advice on this question or on most other questions related to college admission, you are likely not getting an answer that adequately addresses your personal situation.

When asked by a parent about when to begin prep, certain advisors have a pat answer based on whatever philosophy they espouse. To be clear, many of the college counselors and guidance counselors in the East Lyme, CT area are outstanding. But, most are not expert in the area of test prep.

Instead, we ask questions about YOUR CHILD.

The initial question relates to the student's college aspirations.

While precise answers are not necessary, such as the exact colleges the student is examining, usually parents have a general feel as to whether the student will aspire to selective, highly selective, or most selective colleges.

The second question regards the student's current ability.

The PSAT from either sophomore or junior year provides a wonderful diagnostic test.

If not, then other standardized tests and perhaps general performance on big tests are useful in helping to assess the situation.

Follow-up questions relate to the student's mindset and schedule. Its certainly helpful if the student has begun to think about colleges. In addition, the busyness of sports and other activities during certain seasons makes the question of when to prep a logistical as well as pedagogical question.

The issue of when to prep (and how much to prep) revolves around the "gap" between the student's goals and the student's present score, measured largely by PSAT results.

The larger the gap, the earlier to begin.

The Double Jump

We have had great success with East Lyme, CT students who start SAT Prep or ACT prep before junior year or at least in the fall of junior year, rather than the more common start in the winter/spring of junior year.

For those who need substantial improvement, the process evolves as follows:

The student begins prep prior to the junior year PSAT. During that period, the student has their first jump in score as measured by practice testing.

The student takes the PSAT in a more confident state and does better than expected (based on improvement from a sophomore PSAT or similar diagnostic testing).

The student now knows for a fact that improvement is possible. This mindset is a significant positive as we move forward

In contrast, most students who do not like standardized tests do not prep prior to the junior year PSAT.

They take the test cold. The following consequences naturally unfold: they feel confused and frustrated while taking the PSAT; they perform poorly; and they develop a negative mindset going forward.

The impact of that last fact can not be underestimated. When students believe that they are "bad test-takers", they typically work less and create a self-fulfilling prophecy for the real test.

Back to our initial student who began prep early...

Early success breeds confidence and confidence breeds motivational energy.

The student who improved prior to the junior year PSAT is now at least reasonably confident about test-taking.

This confidence helps create the energy to prep for the real test.

While there is usually a bit of plateau in practice scores for a period of time after the PSAT, a second jump usually occurs prior to the first real SAT.

That second jump demonstrates the wisdom of the early start.

Instead of having the helpful single jump that test prep usually provides, the student bumps up twice.

That often is the difference between a mediocre and a good score.

While we have had wonderful results with early starters, not everyone needs to start early.

Occasionally, we will meet students who have a PSAT score that is generally in line with scores required by the highest schools of their interest.

They also might be busy in the summer and the fall.

For them, starting in the winter/spring is totally fine.

The issue revolves around you and YOUR CHILD.

Avoid listening to generic advice.

Ask questions that pertain to your situation.

YOUR CHILD is all that matters.

For example, we recently met with a student from Madison, CT who was seeking test prep help. She had been told to take the test once in May and then once again October.

That advice worked for students about ten years ago.

But, the student wanted to apply to Wake Forest which has a relatively unique early admissions program. Some students can find out as early as September whether they will be admitted. For that reason, students need to have the highest possible scores prior to the fall.

Many students have a relatively weak first test due to the grueling nature of the exam.

In this case, the student did prepare for March but not as much as she would have liked because she was heavily involved with the winter musical.

For that reason, her first test results were not particularly high.

She prepared in earnest thereafter and did amazingly well on the May exam.

She now happily attends Boston College.

We also engaged in SAT test prep recently with a student from East Lyme High School. The student had ambitious goals. He eventually wanted to head to medical school. His PSAT scores were far lower than those required by some of the schools that had excellent pre-med programs.

He created a customized test prep group for him and his buddies in East Lyme immediately after he had obtained his first set of PSAT scores. By January, he had jumped nearly 100 points in the Math SAT and roughly 50 points in Reading SAT based on his diagnostic tests from the College Board's released SAT tests.

He was happy with his score but wanted better results for the March, SAT. After his customized test prep group ended in East Lyme, he continued with individual SAT test prep in our offices in Old Saybrook, CT.

His March scores bumped up a bit from his January testing. Now, he was 100 points higher in the Math SAT and 70 points higher in the Reading SAT. We continued individual SAT prep. His May scores proved the double jump theory: his Math SAT was 130 points higher than his PSAT score and his Reading increased by 80 points.

One Proven Way To Math Success For East Lyme, CT Students

Math is cumulative.

Step by step, our East Lyme, CT students build the fundamentals necessary to succeed in math.

If the fundamentals of math are not fully understood, the student's foundation for learning remains weak forever.

For that reason, students who do poorly in middle-school math usually do worse in high school math at East Lyme High School.

And, unfortunately, those who do not do well in high school math almost always do poorly in SAT or ACT math.

Summer math programs have led to some of our best math success stories.

For example, we tutored a student from Old Lyme, CT who attended Xavier High School in Middletown, CT. He did well in every subject except math.

We'll call him Mike.

Mike had almost all straight As but consistently struggled to reach Bs in math.

He had also begun to build up a resistance to math. "I'm not good at math," became his self-fulfilling prophecy before the start of every math quarter.

Because Mike wanted to apply to competitive colleges, his parents decided that something had to change.

We set up a tutoring summer program in our office in Old Saybrook, CT and quickly discovered that Mike's arithmetic fundamentals were weak in areas such as ratios, percentages, and fractions. His basic geometry and algebra skills were also poor.

We discovered tha he had learned just enough in school to do reasonably well on his math tests. But much of the material was not committed to his long-term memory.

Our program centered on grounding Mike in the fundamentals necessary to do well in math. His inital attitude towards math was undeniably negative, but his perspective gradually improved as his knowledge and mastery of the subject increased.

In addition to reviewing concepts from the past that would be helpful for the future, we gave Mike an advantage by teaching the beginnings of Algebra II, which he would take in the fall.

Many students have real trouble in Algebra II, not only because their grasp of fundamentals is challenged, but also because Algebra II has an enhanced level of difficulty.

When Mike entered Algebra II at Xavier High, he had both additional confidence and additional skills. When he got his grades, Mike and his parents were delighted with the A minus he received and stunned later by his strong scores on the PSAT, which well exceeded their expectations.

We tend to focus on cost-efficiency for our clients. For that reason, we are cautious about suggesting that tutoring is necessary.

Math, however, creates different demands.

In several cases in the last few years in Madison (Daniel Hand High School), Guilford High School, and East Lyme High School, we have successfully saved students from failing either Algebra I or Algebra II.

In the cases cited, students were really struggling with math and receiving grades that were leading to Fs in math.

While we do not want to create stress on parents of high school students, we do need to point out that Fs on permanent records are definitely noticed by admissions officials.

Math also has a way of creating a feeling of stupidity among students. Since math is a logical/analytical subject, many students will label themselves "dumb" if they do poorly in math.

We have made great efforts to recruit top math teaching talent in the Shoreline and Southeastern CT area. We know that our students greatly benefit from regular tutoring and test prep with our outstanding math tutors.

While we did not turn our struggling math students into would-be engineers, every one of them successfully passed their courses.

The New Economy and The Need For Good Grades

To paraphrase Thomas Friedman, author of The World Is Flat who paraphrased Bill Gates:

Twenty years ago, from a purely career-financial perspective, if you had the choice of being a “B” student from Brooklyn or an “A” student from Bombay, you would choose the former because America’s economic domination was so thorough that opportunities were abundant for even our average students. 

Today, however, many would choose to be the “A” student from Bombay.

Why?

The Internet’s power has created an interconnected world that outsources many knowledge based jobs.

In the 80s, many manufacturing economies did not see the challenge of outsourcing until their cities started shutting down. 

Many children of manufacturing workers were “educated” with the expectation that they would be working at the local plant when they reached adulthood.  Consequently, many parents did not put much emphasis on getting a college education.  Their grown-up kids subsequently suffered as there were fewer jobs awaiting unskilled laborers.

There is a similar phenomenon taking place in the lower to mid-range level white collar world.

Those who have jobs that can be done at a fraction of the cost by an English-speaking worker from a different country (India as the most notable) are losing their jobs at a rapid rate.  Perhaps more significantly, those who will be graduating with expectation of abundant entry level white collar jobs awaiting them will be greatly disappointed.

To give but one example, H&R Bloch, the noted tax preparation firm no longer hires thousands of newly graduated Americans with accounting degrees to prepare basic tax returns.  Instead, most of the work is done by Indian accountants who work cheaper (and many would say harder and better) than the average new accountant from an average US college.

There is hope.  Conceptually challenging work will still be required.  And, while there is no doubt that Indians, among others, are quite capable of doing such work, higher end work is far harder to outsource.  For example, corporations and high net worth individuals with complicated tax returns still need in-person discussion and time-sensitive management of issues.  Those who can perform such work will still be in demand.

Metaphorically, those hired for the more conceptually challenging work will be the “A” students, not necessarily the “B” students and definitely not the “C” students.

The metaphorical challenge is not as significant as the literal challenge.

Despite the Great Recession, many parents are still in the 1980s-1990s mentality of US world economic domination where jobs were plenty for any student from any college.

They and many of the high school students we meet in Southeastern, CT do not fully understand that getting better grades will have a direct impact on their college choices which, in turn, will have a direct impact on their job prospects. 

Occasionally, we meet well-meaning but misguided parents who seem to think that it does not matter where a student goes to college. 

From a life experiential level, this may be true.  And, to be clear, for certain career paths that do not require a high level pedigree, this is also true. 

But, for those hopeful to enhance the entry level options that their student-children will have in the future, the level of college does make a difference.  This is not a value statement.  This is "just the way it is".  Its easier to get a job coming from Harvard than from Little Known U. 

A few years ago, pre-Wall St. crash, we worked with a student from Essex, CT. He had a problem turning in his homework on time. 

Yet, he had grand ambitions for his career.  He wanted to make a “ton of money on Wall St.”.

His grades, however, were consistently doomed by his attitude toward homework. 

We met him when he was a senior at a prep school in Southeastern, CT.  It was too late to shift his college admissions opportunities (a 2.5 G.P.A. would not impress many admissions’ officials!).   He was admitted to a non-prestigious college in New England with no history of sending its graduates to Wall St. or other top financial entry ways.

We are still working with him in a virtual tutoring capacity as he hopes to attain top grades to increase his job prospects.  It would have been far better, however, had he understood the connection between grades and potential college choices years ago. 

There are many wonderful opportunities that the new world of work presents.  But, those are not prepared with a strong educational background may suffer the same fate as industrial workers in the late 20th century. 

Our company, The Learning Consultants, www.learningconsultantsgroup.com provides the tools to both help gain top grades and navigate the new world of work

East Lyme, CT Parents: Please Read

If you have not read Malcolm Gladwell’s books, The Tipping Point, or Blink or The Outliers, you probably should.  He’s among the most brilliant societal commentators of our day.

In his recent book, The Outliers, he addresses the issue of education.   I’ll let Gladwell provide the detail.  But, there are two theses that are important for parents in Southeastern, CT.

(1) When reviewing the variety of factors that led to student success, the single factor that most determined student success was how much students worked during the summer

(2) When reviewing students from countries which performed better on international education tests, the length of the student’s school year was the most dominant factor that predicted success.

Under either theory, the amount of work that students did led to greater success.

That should not be a great surprise.

But, as a parent, when you examine the world that your child is currently in and the world that your child faces, there are some clear implications.

You should structure your child’s summer and after-school work environment such that your child does not fall behind either: (1) students in his current school and (2) students in countries that work harder than the US.

Related to the first point:

Gladwell examined a study of children in Baltimore.  The study was designed to figure out why wealthier children performed better than students from less affluent backgrounds.  Prior to the study, some thought genes or the educational background of the parents would be the determining factors.  Neither was most signifcant.

The impoverished children learned at an equal rate as their wealthier counterparts during the school year.  For that reason, each group tested nearly equally during the first couple of years of schooling.  The difference in achievement started showing up thereafter.   That was curious to the researchers.  Differences in genes or parental educational background would presumably have an equal effect on 1st graders as 12th graders.

The students were consistently measured to determine how much they improved during the school year and for the most part the findings stayed the same: the parental income of students had no effect during the school year.  

But, the achievement gap kept increasing each year.  The reason: those from wealthier families learned more in the summer.   

So, for example, Student Rich and Student Poor may have had equal achievement at the end of 1st grade.  But, Student Rich’s family made him read books, attend enrichment camps, get tutored and generally structured his education in the summer.  Student Poor’s family did none of those things.

As the years passed, Student Rich’s summers of enrichment gradually shifted the achievement gap between the two students to significant proportions.

We see something similar in Southeastern, CT. 

Summer should include fun.  Lots of fun!  But, the day is long.  Some work will not put much of a damper on the beautiful summer.   Parents who structure some part of the summer to include academic enrichment are giving their students a huge advantage for next year.

In terms of Gladwell’s other finding, that achievement was far higher in countries where students had longer school years, the implications are clear.  US students spend about 180 days in school.  Several Asian countries have students in school between 220-240 days per year.

When we did not have such a global workforce, this fact would likely not lead to a great future impact.  

As the world has become “flat” (see Thomas Friedman’s excellent work on the interconnected world we now live in), our students are competing against international competition.

Students from other countries are working 20-30% longer each school year.  As the years pass, they are outdistancing the normal American school child. 

Your child will be facing that competition when he graduates.

It would be wise to take control of your child’s educational structure outside of the school environment.  

The Learning Consultants
(860) 510-0410
dcapuano@learningconsultantsgroup.com