Articles Written By: Robert Kohen

Strategies To Help You Conquer ACT Science

Date: March 31, 2015 Author: Robert Kohen

Many students dread the science portion of the ACT. With its overabundance of data and scientific jargon, the test can be an intimidating one. Behind its daunting façade, however, ACT science is actually relatively straightforward.

To begin with, the ACT does not primarily test the science you learned in school. Questions for which you may need to remember some basic science are rare, occurring only about five percent of the time. Most questions simply ask for basic data points or general patterns that are readily apparent from the charts and graphs provided. All the information you need to solve almost every problem will be there right in front of you.

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The key to doing well on the test is to maintain your focus and cool – don’t be intimidated by the test maker’s technical language or seemingly complicated experiments. Here are five key strategies to help you perform well:

  1. Group questions by study, experiment or opinion. The science section is made up of seven “passages” or question sets, each of which contains its own subset of data, studies, experiments or opinions. When you’re working on a passage, begin by answering the questions that address the first study, experiment or piece of data. As soon as you’ve finished this question set, immediately look for questions that address the second study, experiment or piece of data. Repeat the process, doing so until you’ve finished all the questions. By closely pairing the questions to their respective portions of the passage in this way, you’ll be able to more quickly remember and identify the solutions. If you read the questions in the random order they’re presented, on the other hand, you’ll likely already have forgotten the relevant information for certain questions and will need to burn valuable time re-analyzing individual visuals or sections.
  1. Identify and label categories and trends. One of the trickiest aspects of ACT science is the sheer volume of information the test contains. Identifying the data you’re given upfront and labeling it accordingly will help you to make sense of this information in a timely manner. Because you have only a short time to process so much information, this step is critical for not only comprehension but also speed. Anytime you see a graph, circle the x– and y- axis. Note what each is measuring, as well as any clear relationship between the given x and y values. If you see a chart or graph, similarly take note of row or column headings. You can note what is being measured in the margin, along with any apparent trends or relationships in the data. To record trends or relationships quickly, use easily recognizable characters such as equal signs or arrows. These labels and markings will help you find information quickly and keep things straight when you tackle the question set.
  1. Don’t get bogged down in the technical language. Make a note of important scientific terms and definitions when you first read the passage. Don’t, however, become too caught up in deeply understanding and memorizing the precise meaning of every term. Much of this information will be irrelevant to the questions. This is especially true for information provided in parenthesis. If the information does show up on a question, you can go back to the relevant portion of the passage at that time.
  1. Improve speed with timed practice. You only have about five minutes per passage, so it’s critical that you learn to work quickly. While the strategies above will help improve your speed, it’s also essential that you complete a number of timed practice sections. The more timed practice you do, the more quickly you’ll process passages and recognize correct answer choices. Just make sure that you’re also learning from your mistakes. As with nearly everything in life, practice is key.
  1. Avoid lengthy calculations. If you find yourself in the middle of a lengthy, complicated computation, you’ve probably done something wrong. ACT science questions are meant to be answered quickly. Anytime you’re stuck with a complex calculation, look instead to quickly extrapolate an approximate value from the data in front of you.

ACT science doesn’t have to be daunting. With these strategies and some practice, you’ll be on your way to a great science score.

 

Managing Test-Day Anxiety

Date: September 17, 2014 Author: Robert Kohen

While it’s normal to feel some anxiety on test day, it’s important not to let it become so overwhelming that it takes control of your performance. Fortunately, there are a number of effective strategies for managing test-day anxiety.

Before the Test

If you know you worry a lot when taking important tests, consider writing out your worries on a piece of paper for ten minutes the day before the test. Although it might seem counterintuitive, a number of studies have shown that this exercise reduces performance anxiety and improves cognitive performance in high-pressured settings.

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Another helpful writing exercise to complete the day before the test involves writing for ten minutes about your self-worth and diverse attributes. Explore all your activities, strengths, and positive attributes. This helps reinforce the reality that your identity can’t be boiled down to something as narrow as a test score, which in turn takes pressure off your performance on the test.

One of the best ways to handle test-day pressure is by simulating that pressure as often and as realistically as possible. Take full-length practice tests as they are officially administered – timed, whole, and with the officially allotted amount of breaks. Practice taking the test at the same time you’ll actually be taking it on test day. For paper tests, use an official bubble sheet to fill in your answers and the same type of pencil you’ll be using on the test. For computer tests, practice using the official computer platform. Try taking some of the practice tests in unfamiliar locations. The more you’ve simulated the pressures of test day, the better prepared you’ll be to handle them.

Test Day

If you’re feeling very anxious on test day, you can turn this energy around to your advantage. Tell yourself that you’re merely feeling excited about how well you’re going to do on your upcoming performance. By reinterpreting your bodily reactions you can downplay anxiety and sharpen both your confidence and performance.

If you find yourself thinking a lot of worried or negative thoughts, acknowledge the thoughts and then let them go. In other words, play the objective outside observer to your thoughts rather than the subjective participant. Sometimes visualizing a red light can help prevent further anxious thoughts from intruding.

Finally, don’t put too much importance into the test. You’ve prepared well and you will do your best – that is all that matters. The less important you imagine the test to be, the less anxiety you’ll face.

 

Mastering SAT Vocabulary

Date: September 3, 2014 Author: Robert Kohen

Building a strong vocabulary is crucial for success on the SAT. The verbal section is filled with difficult words that appear not only on vocabulary questions, but also in passages and even answer choices. You’ll also want to use advanced vocabulary in your essay. How can you make sure you’re prepared?

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First, it’s critical to get hold of an excellent vocabulary list. Avoid lists that just offer advanced vocabulary for high school students – make sure you get a vocabulary list specifically tailored to the SAT. The list should be drawn from words that have frequently appeared on former tests. This should be explicitly noted. One good example of a list of this kind is Barron’s, which contains as many as 3,500 words.

So what do you do now that you’ve gotten hold of all these words? Decide how many words you’re going to learn before you take the test (the more the better) and then figure out how many you need to learn each day to reach your goal. The key is to space your learning out over a long period of time – neuroscience research has shown that you remember and understand better when you do a little learning each day over a period of days than when you cram all your learning into one day.

Make flashcards so that you can test yourself on the words. Not only do we learn best by being actively tested, but it’s too easy to fool ourselves into thinking we know the words otherwise. Consider using Anki, a powerful free flashcard tool that spaces flashcards in a way designed to help you best retain them.

As you study, try to think of unique ways to remember each word. For ignominy, which means shame, you might think of a group of shameful gnomes who have been tearing up people’s yards. The more striking and sensory the image, the more likely you are to remember the word.

Studies have also shown that the more you recall and use the new words you’re learning, the more likely you’ll be to remember them. When you’re in the shower or going to school, try to recall the words you’ve recently learned. Then put them to use in sentences. Use them in conversation, in your papers at school, and in your practice essays for the SAT. Make these words truly your own!

If you follow these steps, you’ll be on your way to building the type of vocabulary you need for success on the test. In addition, you’ll be building core foundations for future academic and professional success.

What happens if you don’t know a word on test day? Here’s what to do.

 

The Myth Of The Best Month To Take The SAT

Date: July 31, 2014 Author: Robert Kohen

You may have heard it before: take the SAT in December because the curve is easier. Students are taking it for the first time and will be less prepared. Avoid the October test, because rising seniors will be taking it and therefore the curve will be very difficult. While these claims hold the promise of an easy way to improve your score, the truth is that they’re simply not true.

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The scoring table for each SAT does vary somewhat. 52 raw points in math might translate to a 720 on one test and a 700 on another, for example. This variability, however, is due to question difficulty rather than student performance. Question difficulty is determined independently of student performance. How is this done? First, before the test is even administered, the College Board creates a preliminary scoring table based on what they believe to be the difficulty of the test. Then, after the test is administered, they adjust the difficulty scale slightly based on student performance coupled with a complicated mathematical process called “equating.” In equating, the test makers test the students taking the exam on some of the same exact material they have tested past students on. They do this in the experimental section, which does not count toward the official test score. This to determine if the current group of test takers is performing better, worse, or at the same level as the average historical test taker. Why do they do this? To make sure that they’re not basing the scoring table on variations in student ability. So if students miss more questions than usual, but they discover via equating that the students are weaker than average performers, the test makers will not make the curve significantly easier. This is because they can tell that students are missing questions because of student ability rather than question difficulty. You can read the College Board’s lengthy technical description of this process here:

http://research.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/publications/2012/7/researchnote-2001-14-ensuring-comparable-scores-sat.pdf.

Historical SAT data bears this truth out. Erik the Red, a New Jersey based tutor, has compiled historical scoring tables for all tests administered in recent years. If certain test dates had more favorable curves than others, we would expect to see this borne out with some regularity. Instead, however, the distribution of scoring tables is highly random and not tied to any particular test dates. You can see Erik’s compilation here:

http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/SAT-Released-Test-Curves.pdf

Why doesn’t the College Board grade the test on a conventional curve that adapts to student ability? Because if they did, test results would be inconsistent and thus less reliable to colleges. If an October 650 was equivalent to a June 700, colleges would have much less use for the SAT. They depend on it to assess student ability in a consistent and objective manner.

So when should you take the SAT? Whenever you’re thoroughly prepared to do well. Pick an administration that will allow you ample time to prepare, whatever the test date.

Want a Free Practice Test?

For a free practice SAT and ACT, and/or for answers to any other questions, you can reach me at robertkohen@koheneducationalservices.dream.press or 212-658-0834.

 

How To Ace The SAT Essay

Date: July 29, 2014 Author: Robert Kohen

The SAT essay is unique exercise. It requires you to develop a coherent and well-written argument on a random topic within just 25 minutes. In order to do well on the essay, it’s important that you not only write well but that you know what the test makers are looking for. Thanks to the numerous graded essays the College Board has released, it’s possible to learn exactly that. I’ve put together some of the most important guidelines to help you write a winning essay. With these tips and a little practice, you’ll be on your way to a stellar score.

1) The ideal structure to use is an introductory paragraph that clearly and succinctly states your central argument and how your examples will support it, followed by two paragraphs, each devoted to one example that supports the argument, followed by a concluding paragraph that restates your thesis and how your examples successfully supported it. While high scoring essays have been written using all sorts of different structures, the highest scoring essays most consistently use only two examples to prove their point. When I reviewed a random sample of 13 released SATs, I found that the highest scoring essays used this model 70% of the time. Two examples are enough to support a nuanced argument, but not so much that you’re unable to treat each example in enough detail. The SAT loves for you to incorporate as much detail as possible into your examples, and three examples rarely leaves enough room for this level of detail. To this end, also keep your introductory and closing paragraphs short. Your focus should be on supporting your argument through well-chosen and detailed examples.

2) Make your examples very detailed by including dates and proper names, but always make sure the examples are used to support your argument. It’s OK to fudge some of the details – the test makers are not allowed to grade you on the truth of your claims. It’s probably not a good idea, however, to declare that Pearl Harbor occurred in the 1700s.

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3) Make sure each example reflects a slightly different reason for which you have chosen your argument – don’t simply repeat the exact same point twice through two separate examples.

4) Try to fill as much of the two pages as possible. An MIT faculty member has shown that there is an unusually strong correlation between essay length and score.

5) Leave 3-5 minutes at the beginning to plan your essay and at the end to review it.

6) Use SAT level vocabulary. This shouldn’t be difficult because you should be learning vocabulary for the Critical Reading section. When you regularly include this vocabulary in your practice essays, it will also help cement these words in your memory. Make sure you are using the words correctly, however!

7) Use a varied sentence structure. Don’t start every sentence with the same word, and make sure to vary grammatical structures between sentences. One trick to help is to throw in an occasional rhetorical question. “How would the early Monicaros have felt if they too lacked freedom?”

8) Make sure each new paragraph begins with a strong and clear transition.

9) Use active sentences rather than passive sentences. “I ate the cereal” is better than “the cereal was eaten.”

10) Avoid using “I.” While you’re technically allowed to use “I”, school teachers who repeatedly teach their students to avoid “I” in academic writing will be grading your essay, so it’s best to avoid it.

11) Similarly, avoid overtly political or religious arguments. Although these technically shouldn’t influence your reader’s evaluation, remember that your reader is a human with religious and political views.

12) The safest examples to use are academic ones — those drawn from history, literature, art, etc., rather than personal anecdotes. The test makers say that personal examples are every bit as good as academic ones, but remember that you’re still trying to impress someone who teaches a subject like history or literature for a living. The majority of high scoring essays use academic examples.

13) Consider refuting a possible counterargument if the opportunity presents itself. This helps strengthen your argument and is a sophisticated technique.

14) Consider using a hypothetical for your final sentence: IF the position you take was done (everything would be great) or if it was not done (everything would be disastrous).

15) If possible, consider including the provided quote in your final paragraph. This is a good way to recap your argument without sounding too repetitive. (“Benjamin Franklin’s belief that ‘life must be lived with abandon’ is a timeless truth.”)