Beginning as soon as the spring of 2015, the ACT college admissions test will be administered digitally. Digital testing can provide faster results — in minutes versus two to six weeks — for both students and colleges. Since the ACT is designed to test students’ high school learning and reasoning skills, it is already well [...]
Though no release date has been officially announced, the earliest that a revamped SAT would be in the hands of students would be Spring 2015. So the changes could impact today’s freshman class. The classes of 2013, 2014 or 2015 will take the same test that is currently in use.
The SAT was revamped as recently as 2005. Changing it again now is potentially risky, in that it may be “off-putting to the biggest stakeholders involved – the students” who are trying to prepare for it.
David Coleman, the new president of the College Board, the nonprofit that owns the SAT college admissions exam, announced on February 25 in an e-mail to the organization’s members that the test will be redesigned in “an ambitious effort” to more comprehensively address “the core set of knowledge and skills” that are most important to success in college.
As a tutor or teacher you might well be asked: What’s a good SAT score? That depends on a student’s goals and the college(s) she or he wants to go to.
In the US, mandatory standardized testing on the national level has primarily been put forth as a public policy strategy, with the aim of establishing stronger accountability measures for public education. … But what has not been a credible part of the standardized testing debate in the US is the idea of making such a test a high-stakes, make-or-break determinant of students’ professional aptitude, college admissions, etc. … In stark contrast is the situation in China…
As US school districts struggle with shrinking budgets, the option to snip a year or even two from students’ high school education has become increasingly appealing. These programs, modeled on systems that have been successful in Singapore, France, Finland and other high-performing countries, hopes to shift the emphasis from seat time and credits to verifiable subject mastery. What might the impact of these programs be on tutoring?
In horse racing, breeders struggle to match and breed horses with the best possibility of successful offspring. By looking at a mare and stallion’s family history, a breeder can determine the likelihood of that pair creating a “Superhorse” capable of wining major horse races. It’s not easy work predicting the future; breeders often breed several [...]
While there are some tutoring companies who have a very basic formula for bumping up a student’s SAT score, there are some tutoring companies who go above and beyond. In the case of PrepMatters, a tutoring company which specializes in helping students achieve excellence through standardized testing preparation, test preparation starts with the student. Though [...]
Standardized testing is a gauntlet that is the capstone of one learning experience and the gateway to a whole other world of possibilities; it’s no wonder that there is a whole industry devoted to building test scores and grooming students into improved test-takers. This week in 5 Education Articles to End Your Week, we take [...]
