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Give us a call for available times.

This alarming article in the Journal illustrates declining SAT scores.  Don’t fall behind!  The WF Study Center can help you score the best you can with one on one or group classes.  For many years, Kristen has helped students perform at their best for the test.  Get your edge today!

The original article is Here:

SAT scores for the high-school graduating class of 2011 fell in all three subject areas, and the average reading and writing scores were the lowest ever recorded, according to data released on Wednesday.

The results from the college-entrance exam, taken by about 1.6 million students, also revealed that only 43% of students posted a score high enough to indicate they were ready to succeed in college, according to the College Board, the nonprofit that administers the exam. Students had to score a 1550 out of a possible 2400 to meet that benchmark, which would indicate a 65% chance of getting at least a B-minus average in the first year of college, the Board calculated.

The report on the SAT, long known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, comes on the heels of results from the ACT college-entrance exam that suggested only 25% of high-school graduates who took that exam were ready for college. And results from national high-school math and reading exams show only modest progress over the past five years. The data highlight the difficult task faced by the Obama administration in pursuing education policies to help Americans remain globally competitive.

“At the precise time the importance of a college degree is increasing, the ability of the U.S. to compete in a global economy is decreasing,” said Jim Montoya, vice president of the College Board. “We, as a nation, have to do a better job preparing our kids for college.”

For the graduating class of 2011, the average reading score dropped to 497 from 500 points in 2010, on a 200-to-800-point scale. That is the lowest score since 1972, when the College Board began calculating the average scores of individual graduating classes. Reading scores have been steadily declining since 2005.

WSJ’s Joe Barrett discusses the latest report on SAT scores by U.S. students. The results are disappointing. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

The writing score dipped to 489, down from 491 last year. Writing scores have gone down almost every year since the exam was first given in 2006. In math, the 2011 graduating class posted a composite score of 514, down from 515 in 2010. Math scores have bounced up and down a few points annually for a decade.

The SAT scores are closely watched because the exam measures the achievement of students who hope to attend America’s top colleges.

College Board officials noted that the declining scores can be attributed, in part, to a larger and more diverse test-taking population. As more students aim for college and sit for the exam, scores decline.

Ten years ago, 8% of test takers were Latino, compared with 15% in 2011. For black students, the percentage jumped to 13%, compared with 9% in 2001. A growing percentage of students also grew up speaking a language other than English, and more than one-fifth of this year’s test takers were poor enough to receive a waiver to take the exam for free.

Students who took a core curriculum, defined as four years of English and three or more of math, natural science and social science, did much better. Still, only 49% of them posted a score high enough to be considered college-ready, compared with 30% of students who didn’t take a core. College Board officials noted that the reading scores have been declining most dramatically for students who took less than a core curriculum.

Kent Williamson, executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English, said that during the past decade, he has seen a narrowing of how reading is taught. “In many schools, especially those most impoverished, reading programs are not about building cognitive abilities or a love of reading,” he said. “They are built around rote learning of language, and I think we are seeing the results of that.”

I read this interesting Wall Street Journal article on SAT Prep in Early February, 2011.  The things parents in New York have to go through!

Luckily, Whitefish Study Center’s classes for SAT prep and private tutoring are a lot more inviting and affordable!  Contact us to see how we can help you.

The Escalating Arms Race for Top Colleges:

SAT tutor: $125 a session. Campus visits: $4,000. Why it now costs a fortune to do your parental duty…

(Article by JENNIFER MOSES, Wall Street Journal, Source Here

It is no secret that the children of certain families (and we all know who we are) are primed to take a disproportionate share of the places at the best—or at least the most prestigious—colleges. That’s because we’re already sending our kids to the kinds of excellent schools that help prepare them for admission to such colleges.

But just in case our children don’t quite have the stats to make it into, say, Georgetown or UNC on their own steam, you can bet that we, as parents, will do everything in our power to make it happen. We are all caught up in a crazy arms race, where the order of the day (to borrow a useful term from the Cold War) is “escalation dominance.”

Which is why, even though every corpuscle of my being rebelled at the idea, my husband and I shelled out a small fortune over the past year for SAT and ACT tutoring for our 17-year-old twins, a son and a daughter. If we hadn’t, what if, God forbid, some other kid who went ahead and got the tutoring inched his or her SAT score up just enough to bump our own kids out of the running?

So a whole new set of people came into our lives, including a retired teacher who worked with our son every week for a mere $125 a session, requiring him to spend his free time studying lists of vocabulary words that show up nowhere in the world other than on the SAT. (When’s the last time you encountered “abscission,” “fugacious” or “defalcate”?)

But at least this tutor knew what he was doing, unlike the half-dozen tutors I lined up for our daughter at unspeakable cost, before finally alighting on someone who was able to show her the ropes in a meaningful way, also at an unspeakable cost ($693, to be exact). I refer to Josh, who helped our daughter to bump her scores up and did the same for pretty much every other kid in her class at the private school she attends, where the total tuition comes to just under $30,000 a year. Yes, America is still a meritocracy!

TOUGH ODDS

* 6,405 Early action applicants to MIT, fall 2011
* 772 Early action applicants admitted
* 35,473 Freshman applications at U.C. Berkeley, fall 2001
* 52,900 Freshman applications at U.C. Berkeley, fall 2011
* 17.8% Admission rate for applicants to Yale, class of 2001
* 7.5% Admission rate for applicants to Yale, class of 2014

With all this investment, is it any wonder that some pathetically over-programmed kids (like our twins) apply to 10 or more colleges each? Thus the ridiculous cycle wherein every kid whose parents can afford it—plus, no doubt, those who can’t afford it as well—applies to boatloads of schools, ramping up the application numbers and feeding into the application frenzy, which gets more frenzied with each passing year.

Total cost of the twins’ combined standardized testing fees: $522.

Total cost of applications, including sending various permutations of the SAT and ACT reports: $1,132.87.

Not to mention the travel.

With our twins looking at entirely different sets of colleges, my husband and I decided to divide and conquer. For college tours, he took the boy twin, and I took the girl twin. There wasn’t a state in the country that didn’t beckon. We drove and drove. And then, because my daughter wasn’t satisfied, we went on a second tour in late summer, this one involving airplanes and rental cars and still more corporate-style Power Point and video presentations, followed by more perky undergraduates spewing out facts and figures regarding credit hours and dining-plan options.

Guidance counselors warned us that some college admissions offices look askance at those applicants who haven’t bothered to see the campus in person. Because so many of the schools insist that you make a reservation for a college tour and then sign in when you arrive, they’re like Santa: They know who’s been naughty and only looked online and who’s ponied up and schlepped hundreds of miles to eat cafeteria food.

Total cost of travel, including air fare, car fare, gas, hotels, food and incidentals, for both twins accompanied by one parent each: $3,998.23.

And if all of the above isn’t stomach-churning enough, there is for-hire college counseling, which steps in when your kid, like mine, has a major freak-out, convinced that, without specialized help, he will end up having to go, God forbid, to Rutgers (where his father is on the faculty). The private college counselor told our son exactly what he’d heard from his regular guidance counselor and from us. But she also gave him an Office Depot filing system to help keep things organized, tips about how to get a campus interview even for schools that don’t do on-site interviews (ask a professor to meet with you) and why it’s important not to have a cellphone message that says things like, “Hi, butt-face, talk.” But compared to the SAT tutoring, she was a bargain, a mere $701.25 to date.

Is going to a so-called “better” college worth it? Is the system fair? The first question is the subject of seemingly endless study, which almost always concludes: It depends. The second question is easier to answer: Of course it isn’t fair. Despite diversity goals, scholarships, loans, all kinds of waivers of application fees, and various other leg-up programs, the entire application system is so unjust that it makes the House of Lords look like a New England town meeting. This is especially true now, when the tanking economy puts college more and more out of reach for just about everyone other than the financially secure.

If you are among this last category, you will know that as much as the system is tilted in favor of our own precious children, there are people out there with even more access to connections and pull and money. And when little unremarkable Junior Money Bags somehow gets into (insert name of college where his dad, granddad, and great-granddad went, which happens to have a building with the family name on it), well, that’s when we really turn purple with the vast unfairness of it all.

Let the fat envelopes pour in!

You need to prepare for the SAT.  But it is actually a very easy process.  Unlike a midterm or  final exam in school, a lot of studying is not really required for the SAT test itself.  The exception to this is the SAT Subject Tests, which do focus on particular subjects  like science,  mathematics, , history, and language.

Although not a lot of studying is required for the general SAT Test, there are some prep steps you should take.  This is mostly looking over your school notes and taking an SAT Prep class.   So, what sections should you focus on?

As you already know, the SAT is divided into three main sections- reading, writing, and mathematics.  Each section has sub sections inside.  For example, the mathematics section has multiple choice questions and written answers.  The writing section of the test is an essay, and is also a multiple-choice question section  that focuses on identifying sentence errors, sentence improvement, improving paragraphs.

For most students, the mathematics section is the most challenging.  Lets focus on this section first.  To prepare for the math section of the SAT, review your class notes.  You don’t need to memorize common mathematic formulas as many of these formulas will be printed in the SAT test book.  But, you do need to know which formula to use and how to use it.

It addition to reviewing your math notes, do a few practice questions.  Remember to focus on your weaknesses.  What types  of math problems always give you a hard time?  Do a bunch of practice questions to find out.

The writing section of the SAT is the other major area that students struggle with.  If you did reasonably well in school, there isn’t much studying that you can do- the SAT test is really a recap of the stuff you should already know.  Be sure to flip through all English notes on grammar.  By familiarizing yourself with common word errors, like ‘affect vs effect’, comma use,  run-on sentences,  and sentence structure as a whole, you can do well on this section.

The written essay does not account for a large portion of your SAT test score, and many students find it the easiest.  If you are nervous, take a deep breath and just write a standard 5 paragraph essay. By reviewing the writing multiple-choice questions, you have already reviewed grammar and sentence structure.  Now, just focus on the main elements of an essay.  A good essay has a two to three sentence introduction, a similar conclusion paragraph, and three body paragraphs.

For the essay portion of the SAT, you will get a topic to write on and support your views with real-life , observations, readings, experiences and studies.  In the first introduction paragraph, state your stance.  For the three body paragraphs, develop three reasons for your opinion.  Use each paragraph to go detail your opinion. For the conclusion, just restate your stance and a few highlights from your essay.

A good mantra is this: Tell ‘em what you’re going to say, Say It, then Tell ‘em what you Said.

To prepare for the reading section of the SAT, study your vocabulary words and  English vocabulary books to review.  The critical reading section of the SAT gauges your understanding of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Basically, the test is seeking to measure your ability to read and retain information- the essence of learning. Review word choices, grammar, and sentence structure from your English notes to prepare.  In the test, take your time, review each sentence, and you will do fine.

In summary,  the SAT covers the subjects you are learning in school.  The good news is that this is fresh in your mind.  Really, most students do not need weeks or months of studying.  A good SAT Prep class will refresh your memory of your math and English notes and you should do well on the SAT.

SAT Test Preparation:  A Few Questions Answered

When you are getting ready to take the SAT, chances are you will have questions.  I put a list of some of these questions about the SAT Test into this article with the answers you are looking for.  Don’t worry, it’s not that hard and you can do well with a little preparation.

Question:  How should I study?

Answer:  Use a few simple tools, like the SAT study guide, your notes, and your knowledge from High School.  You can hit the test with just a review of your notes and a few practice tests, but you should take additional steps as well.  Use a highlighter to make notes of your weaknesses in your SAT Prep Guide or in your SAT Prep Class, and focus on what you want to improve on.  Also review your school notes.  Some portions of the SAT, like common mathematic equations and vocabulary, should be be studied with flashcards.  There are SAT flashcards available for sale, but you can make your own for less than $1 or $2.

Question:  What should I look for with a practice SAT test?

Answer:  It’s best to look for three things.  These are your strengths, and your weaknesses , and the outline of the test,.  Don’t rush when taking the practice tests.  Sure, the real SAT is a timed test, but for your first practice test, do not time yourself.  Just take it  easy.  You want to carefully read all sections of the test.  Get familiar with these sections and the directions.  This will help on the day of the test.  When grading your practice tests, you can see your strengths and weakness.  Then simply focus on improving your weaknesses.

Question:  Should I take an SAT prep course?

Answer:  SAT Prep courses can be a great investment.  Frankly, for most students the SAT test scor is a big deal in your choice of College and therefore the direction of your next few years.  So if you can find a good course available locally or a decent  online class, then yes, do it.  Online SAT prep courses can be good, but they tend to be very expensive.  A better bet is to get some focused one on one time or a small group class with a good tutor.  SAT prep classes, like the ones offered byt the Whitefish Study Center, are of higher quality and more personal.

Question:  Should I buy an SAT study guide?

Answer:  Any SAP Prep class will likely follow a guide, so a Study Guide is recommended for and student taking the test. Most study guides have multiple practice tests, and a good guide is the Barron’s SAT book.  These tests are a great way to see the layout of the real SAT.  Good prep books not only give the answers, but the logic behind the answers as well.  A good SAT prep course and will follow a a printed study guide but you get the benefit of a teacher with the class.

A great way to practice is to take an SAT Prep Course.  The Whitefish Study Center conducts SAT Prep Classes in Whitefish Montana. An internet search in your area will lead you to a resource in your town.  Whitefish Study center also offers home school curriculum and College Counseling Whitefish Montana.

SAT Prep Courses:  Frequently Asked Questions

When getting ready for the SAT, you will have a lot of questions, but don’t worry, you are not alone.    I’ve put together a list of the most common questions about the SAT Test and SAT Prep Courses with the answers you are looking for.

One of the best ways to get a practice test is to take an SAT Prep Course.  The Whitefish Study Center offers SAT Prep Classes in Whitefish Montana for high school students in Northwest Montana.  Searching in your area for SAT Prep or for tutoring will lead you to a center in your area.  Whitefish Study center also offers College Counseling and Tutoring in Whitefish Montana.

Question:  Do I need to study?

Answer:  Absolutely, you should.  That said, not everyone needs to study for the SAT as you would for a midterm or a high school final exam.  The standard SAT test quizzes your knowledge of the English language and of mathematics.  Most students already know this quite well, if you had good teachers.  If you paid attention in high school math and English classes, a review of your notes and a few practice SAT tests may be all that you need.

Question:  When should I start studying?

Answer:  Your should start studying for the SAT test the moment you register for the SAT test.  Why wait until the last minute to study and prepare for the SAT?  This just results in late night cram sessions the night before.  Be smart, and avoid this at all costs.  You will retain information better by reviewing your notes and taking practice tests at a slow and steady pace.  Simply start earlier.  In addition, you should know that a late night cram session will do more harm than good.  What you need the night before is sleep, not more studying.

Question:  How do I find practice SAT Tests?

Answer:  Practice tests are easy to find online.  The Official SAT website, managed by the College Board, makes one free practice test available.  With this test, simply print the instructions  and enter your answers online, and you will get your score.  Also, by registering through the College Board for the Official SAT Course, you can access additional tests.  An internet search will find more.  Practice SAT tests are also found in many printed study guides.

Private tutoring services are available in most academic areas.  We also offer  assistance in the following:

• basic study skills
• essay editing and writing, for students and businesses
• curriculum development for home schooled kids
• curriculum modification for students dealing with learning disabilities

SAT Tests are the biggest hurdle of a high school student’s career- they can be  frustrating, but unfortunately still essential.

Standardized tests are challenging and often necessary, so,  why not take some time to learn how to take the SAT and ACT?

Learning some tips, study skills, and basic test taking strategies can help raise your scores and put you at ease for test day.

The Study Center helps students with the college application process. We can help you to:

• find the right college / university.
• prepare your application.
• edit your college application essay.
• and, advise you on extra curricular activities and college admission standards.