I just finished updating this website, and I had to update the information on the front page about how many years I’ve been teaching. To my shock, the number I had to type was “15″. Can it really be fifteen years? It seems impossible to believe. But yes, when I started teaching the SAT, the President was Bill Clinton. Unreal.

As my girlfriend pointed out recently, I’m very close to the point where I could theoretically tutor the son or daughter of someone I once taught! That’s a truly mind-blowing concept.

Here’s to another fifteen years!

 

A student once said to me: “You know every word there is! Did you make flash cards for the entire dictionary?”

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She was wrong on both counts. There are plenty of words I don’t know, and the ones I do know I didn’t learn by using flash cards. I learn words by following a simple rule: I look up every word I encounter that I don’t already know. Always. If you follow that rule all the time, you’ll develop an outstanding vocabulary in no time at all. Every word you read in a textbook…or hear on the news…or read in a magazine…or hear in a movie. Look it up! Sure, you can probably figure out roughly what it means by context, but why not just learn the darn word?

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I was just reading an article online at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that said, “The Falcons [are] one of the teams that appeals to a fan base deracinated by definition.” I’d never seen the word deracinated before in my life! A quick trip to dictionary.com, and now I know what it means (pulled up by the roots, eradicated). Now I know — and so do you!

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By the way, I’m amused to note that my blog software is saying that deracinated is misspelled. It isn’t, it’s just the software doesn’t know that word either!

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One of the most important things a student can do to prepare for the SAT or ACT is to become proficient with his or her calculator. So simple, yet so important.

When I first began tutoring back in the 90s, I wondered why powerful Texas Instruments calculators were allowed on the test, when no calculators at all had been allowed back I took the test. After all, TI-83 and TI-84 calculators can solve many questions on the test all by themselves, and they can be programmed to do even more — even to hold any formulas that a student might need to remember. Soon, though, the answer became apparent: most students barely use the more powerful abilities of their graphing calculators. Quite a few students didn’t even know how to do a simple cubic root, much less find and install any programs that would be helpful.

If that sounds like you, you might want to become a little better acquainted with your graphing calculator. Ask your teacher or a savvy friend for tips, or simply Google anything you’re not sure how to do. Did you know that your TI unit can almost instantly determine all the prime factors of any number, or calculate the slope of the line connecting two points? You just need to write or install tiny programs that can help you out. (I have several that I provide for my students, including some I wrote myself).

Make friends with your calculator. Trust me, you do NOT want to be figuring things out on the fly while you’re on the clock on test day!

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I wanted to take a moment to offer some appreciation to a few of my wonderful students who did exceptional things last spring.

Special kudos go out to Ryan and Emma, who both scored 2380 on the SAT — only 20 points off a perfect score! They tied each other for the best score any student of mine has ever gotten. Amazing job, you two! Also a shout out to Tasha, who broke 700 in everything, including an awesome 780 on math.

Congrats to all my great kids. Thanks for making me look good!

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The biggest test of the year is tomorrow! Here are some helpful tips to get you through the day.

* Eat a breakfast that will stick. Including breaks, the SAT takes about four hours, so you need to be in it for the long haul. A breakfast of pancakes and fruit juice isn’t a good choice; that much sugar will make you jittery at the beginning of the test and sluggish at the end. Instead, try a meal of complex carbohydrates and protein.

* Bring a snack. You will have two short breaks, so have an energy bar or banana in your pocket to scarf down when the time comes. Even if you’re not hungry at the start of the test, you’ll probably be hungry by the end (Did I mention that this awful test is four hours long?). You might also consider bringing a bottle of water.

* Have lots of #2 pencils. Remember that mechanical pencils are not allowed. If you’re used to using mechanical pencils, or pens, you might have forgotten that old-school pencils sometimes break and invariably get dull. It’s insane to show up for the test with only two pencils. Bring several, all sharpened. It’s better to have too many than too few.

* Buy a pack of 4 AAA batteries and tuck them in your pocket, just in case your calculator runs out of juice. Batteries only cost three or four bucks so there’s no excuse not having some. You might even go ahead and replace your old batteries, but be aware there’s a risk that changing your batteries could delete your calculator’s memory, which will erase any programs you had stored. I give my students some terrific programs to help them on the math section, so I advise them not to change batteries unless they actually think their calculator is dying.

* Finally, wear a watch. Although most test proctors will helpfully tell you when the time for section is almost up, they are not required to do so, and may simply forget. Do not count on your proctor to keep you apprised on how much time is left on a section — that’s your job. If your watch has a chronograph function and you’re familiar with using it, great! Otherwise, just write down the starting time when you begin each section, so you can quickly estimate how much time remains whenever you feel the need.

Good luck!

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     With the biggest SAT of the year just five days away, this is a good time to remind everyone of the importance of signing up for College Board’s question-and-answer service for the May SAT. Many students don’t even know about this service, but it’s critical.

     For a small fee of $18, College Board will send you a copy of the SAT test you took and your answers for it, so you (and your tutor) can review every single question you missed and see why you missed it. As a test coach, it’s the best diagnostic tool I have. This service is only offered on the January, May, and October tests, so if you’re taking the SAT on one of those administrations, you should absolutely pay a few dollars to get your booklet back. It’s very much worth it. For observant Jewish students, and students taking the test outside of the United States or Canada, this Sunday’s test is the only one all year with the service available. Make sure you take advantage of the offer while it’s available! If you end up taking the test again, it will be a massive help in improving your score.

     You can retroactively order the service up to five months after your test date. However, the sooner you order the better, since College Board can be very, very slow sending the booklets out. A student of mine this spring ordered the January Q-and-A but did not get it in time for the March test he was also taking. (It arrived two days after, which just figures!) Even worse, a student I taught last year kept procrastinating about ordering his Q-and-A for the May test, then didn’t get it back in time for his re-test in the fall, which was totally avoidable. Order early, and assume it will take 8 weeks at least to arrive.

     More information is available on College Board’s website: http://sat.collegeboard.com/scores/verify-sat-scores

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Welcome to the NEW www.mastertheSAT.com! Web designer Nick Gaswirth did amazing work in spiffing up the old site. I think everything looks pretty snazzy.

This blog is brand new and therefore a little austere at the moment. (Notice how much better austere sounds than empty? It’s good to know a little vocabulary, and not just for the SAT!) Nick was kind enough to take my old page of SAT-vs-ACT tips and transpose it here as my first “blog post”, so we’re off to a good start. I’ll be using this space to post test-taking tips and some thoughts on the culture of standardized testing that grows more inescapable every year.