The Common Core NYC | Everything NYC Families Need to Know About The Common Core (Part Two)

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The implementation of Common Core State Standards has begun. Now what? Our two-part series on the Common Core answers some key questions about the standards, including what they mean for standardized tests in NYC schools.

The first article in the series provides general information to support NYC families in understanding the Common Core. The second part looks at how the Common Core affects NYC students, and specifically addresses what NYC families can expect in terms of standardized testing and the Common Core.

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The Common Core in NYC | Everything NYC Families Need to Know About The Common Core (Part One)

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The implementation of Common Core State Standards has begun. Now what? Our 2-part series on the Common Core answers some key questions about the standards, including what they mean for NYC families.

The first article in the series provides general information to support NYC families in understanding the Common Core. The second part looks at how the Common Core affects NYC students, and specifically looks at what NYC families can expect in terms of standardized testing and the Common Core

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SSAT | Should You Retake the SSAT?

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If your child wants to attend an independent or private school, he or she may have to take the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) in order to be accepted. Since independent and private schools will accept students from many different grade levels, the SSAT has three levels (elementary, middle, and upper) that correspond to students in elementary, middle, and high school. If your child plans to apply to or transfer to a top school, he or she will need to get a good score. If you’re not sure about your child’s performance, you may want to talk to him or her about retaking the test, just to make sure that any application an independent or private school sees will be competitive.

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Advanced Placement (AP) Classes: Which Should You Choose?

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The first year when your teen can choose electives is an exciting time. After years of following a rigid schedule, the freedom to choose classes can be a welcome relief. With that said, some teens may have a difficult time narrowing down all their options: some high schools will only offer a handful of electives and Advanced Placement (AP) classes, while other schools may have the resources to provide dozens of choices.

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ACT Test Prep | Winter ACT

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Does your teen wants to take the ACT this winter as part of a successful college application? If so, it'll be tough to balance schoolwork, sports, activities, and practice ACT questions, so think about creating a test review schedule. The key to acing the ACT is to get familiar with the questions, hone grammar skills, and review important math concepts: strong critical reading skills and quantitative reasoning skills are important for the entire ACT. After brushing up on all that, someone planning to take the ACT should practice whenever possible! The more practice tests and questions he or she completes, the easier the ACT will be on test day.

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Using Winter Break Wisely

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It can be tempting for high school students to spend all of winter break relaxing and avoiding school work. However, that’ll make the second half of the school year pretty tough. Winter break can be an excellent time to catch up on college applications or to do some remedial work before classes start up again. If your teen plans out an hour or two of work each day, he or she can accomplish a lot before heading back to school in January.

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ACT Essay: Will You Try It or Skip It?

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If a student decides to take the ACT in the process of applying to colleges, he or she will also get to choose whether or not to take the writing component of the ACT. This is an optional thirty minute section of the ACT that requires students to respond to a prompt with a written essay, which is quite similar to the structure of the essay section of the SAT. Students who opt to take the ACT with the writing section will get five scores in their test results, showing the score for this optional section, as well as scores for English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science, which make up the core of the ACT.

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Homeschooling Test Prep: What are Your Options?

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If you are homeschooling your child or thinking about the benefits of homeschooling in New York City, one of your biggest questions may be about test prep and getting your child ready for middle school and high school entrance exams (SHSAT, ISEE, SSAT) or required tests for college applications (ACT and SAT). You may also wonder about your test prep options for the state tests that your child may be required to take to fulfill New York State’s homeschooling requirements, or how to teach your child test prep skills in a homeschooling environment.

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What is the SSAT?: All You Need to Know About the SSAT

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If your child plans to attend a private school, he or she may have to take the SSAT (Secondary School Admissions Test). Students in fifth through seventh grade will take the lower SSAT, and students in eighth through eleventh grade will take the upper SSAT. There are many different versions of the SSAT given in both the lower and upper sections, which ensures that every student will be assessed fairly for that student’s level. Since the SSAT is sometimes the only test that private schools consider, it makes sense for your child to stand out from his or her peers by achieving a high score.

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ISEE Test Prep | Do I Need to Hire a Private Tutor?

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Have you asked yourself whether your child would benefit from a private ISEE tutor? Are you wondering how much time to commit to the test prep process and how your child will fit tutoring into an already packed schedule? Do you want your child to compete to the best of her ability in the private school admissions process but worry that too much test prep could create anxiety and backfire on test day?

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What’s the Point of the PSAT?

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Students who are sophomores or juniors in high school have probably heard of the PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test). Many students preparing to apply to college take the SAT in their junior or senior year, and the PSAT gives students a chance to practice skills needed for the SAT. However, the PSAT does not count for grades in school and colleges do not see PSAT scores, so some students may wonder why they need to take the PSAT at all.

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College Application Prep: Tips for NYC Students Applying to Top-tier Colleges

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The SAT and ACT, and the test prep associated with both, are integral parts of your college application process. These college admittance exams serve as an objective way for institutions of higher learning to assess students--with so many variables among different schools, regions of the country, and even countries, many colleges simply want a “by-the-numbers” yardstick to compare the applicant pool. And at most colleges and universities, admissions are set up so that students from the same area, state, or region are assessed in the same applicant pool, with the same application readers. This means that, at most (but not all) top-tier universities, New York City (NYC) students will be competing against other NYC students for admittance into that institution. 

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College Application Prep NYC: An Application Checklist

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For high school juniors and seniors, sending out college applications is the last hurdle before graduation. In order for this important process to go smoothly, students need to make sure that they complete each piece of their college applications in a timely manner: no one wants to sit at home alone during winter break, frantically filling out forms! For students who know that they have difficulty meeting deadlines, it may be worthwhile to consider some kind of application support. Working closely with another person will help keep students on track, especially once college essay deadlines start approaching.

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Test Prep NYC: Testing Tips

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Every student in New York City needs to get used to taking standardized tests: from the ISEE, SSAT, and SHSAT for high school admissions to the SAT and ACT for college admissions, there’s a test for nearly every new stage of school. In addition to these standardized tests, students will inevitably have tests to take for certain subjects in school. Since there’s no way to avoid taking all these tests, the earlier NYC students develop good test prep habits, the better off they will be in the long run. Even though the tests that students take will cover many different subjects, there are still some important ways in which students can prepare, no matter what kind of test they’re about to take.

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PSAT Overview | Why hire a PSAT Tutor?

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Many high school sophomores and juniors will take the PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test) in order to begin preparing to take the SAT . The PSAT is the first step in the process of studying for the SAT because the PSAT is just a scaled-down version of the SAT. The PSAT covers the same topics and uses the same format as the SAT, but the PSAT is about an hour shorter. Even though students know that it makes sense to start preparing for standardized tests as early as possible, it can be hard to know where to start, especially for a test like the PSAT, which covers several completely different topics.

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Private Tutor NYC | Identifying the Right Private Tutor for Your Child

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So, your son is no longer eight years old and learning how to multiply 5 × 2 or how to classify animals into mammals and amphibians. When he sits down at the kitchen table to do his homework at night, you see sine waves and notes on thermodynamic laws. And if he doesn’t understand some information he learned in school that day, he googles the answer or calls his friends because he knows there is no way that you can help him anymore. But being the great parent you are, you want to make sure he gets the help he needs, so you have decided to enlist the assistance of a private NYC tutor. Finding the right private tutor in NYC is no easy task, so here are some criteria that you should assess when interviewing candidates.

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GRE Test Prep | Questions and Answers on the GRE

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If you are thinking of moving on to graduate school or business school after college, then test prep for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) will help you prepare to take the GRE as well as one or more of the GRE Subject Tests (Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology; Biology; Chemistry; Literature in English; Mathematics; Physics; or Psychology) if any of these areas relate to your major. Similar to the SAT and SAT II Subject Tests, the GRE and GRE Subject Tests help quantify your knowledge of specific subjects so that potential graduate and business schools can select the right candidates.

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