5 Reasons Not to be Discouraged by a Low SAT Score

Every time SAT scores are sent out, I hear from many of you. Many of you will do great (congrats in advance!), but others might not do so great (congrats on having a few more months of SAT fun!).

Enough doom and gloom, right? You want to hear the good news. Here are 5 reasons that a low SAT score on can actually be a good thing.

Reason #1: You have at least a few months to study for an SAT retake.
The SAT's given several times each year: October, November, December, January, March, May and June. You'll have plenty of time to prepare, especially since you're already familiar with the exam.

Reason #2: You can still be the early bird when you submit your college application.
You can study hard and take the SAT in June or in the fall. You'll still be able to submit your application on the day colleges begin accepting them. Applying early to college gives you a better shot because more seats are available.

Reason #3: You have more time to plan your applications and future.
Being forced to retake the SAT in June or in the fall means that you'll have at least another few months to master the exam. You can still work on your personal statement, get recommendation letters, and cultivate relationships with alumni who can help you.

Reason #4: An addendum might help.
If your PSAT score (or high school entrance exam score) wasn't an accurate indicator of your high school GPA, you can submit an addendum explaining that the SAT may not accurately reflect your potential in college either.

Reason #5: I'll be there with you every step of the way.
As you study for your retake, you'll have several months of Get Into College Blog posts to read, memorize, and share with your friends. All 100% free!

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5 Steps to Starting Your College Essay

"Where do I start?!" is probably the most common question students have about the college essay. It's not like anything you've written before. It's not a MySpace blog post, and it's not an essay about "Great Expectations" or "Romeo and Juliet." It's something in-between: personal AND professional. How do you toe the line? I'll cover that combination in future blog posts. For now, here are 5 tips to help you start writing the dreaded college essay.

1. Don't start at the beginning.
Write any random potential anecdotes, details, or ideas as they come to you. You can work on connecting them later. It's possible (and highly likely) you will write the most effective sentences of your essay only after a great detail of free-writing. Feel free to use any format that works for you in the brainstorming stage - it can be bullet points, an outline, or just a word or two. Your goal is just to get as much down on paper as possible.

2. Ask a friend to interview you.
Find someone you know and trust to ask you several questions about your passions, experiences, hobbies, authors, TV shows, etc. This is much more effective than the broad (and scary!) question: "What do you want to do with your life?" After having this focused interview, your "interviewer" will be able to give you extended feedback on your interests, strengths, and weaknesses. This will be helpful in figuring out your essay topic.

3. Use writing prompts.
Filling in the blanks can help you overcome writer's block. Ex. "I like ____ because it makes me feel ____." "A global issue that excites me is _____ because ______." "I enjoy learning about ____ because ______."

4. Browse your first-choice college's website.
Since you're probably passionate about your first-choice school, looking over its website may help you figure out themes to discuss in your essay.

5. Make a list of your passions.
You'll notice the idea of passion comes up a few times here. That's because passion is necessary for engaging writing. If you don't enjoy what you're writing, the admissions officers probably won't either. On the other hand, if you're clearly excited about whatever it is you have to discuss, it's more likely the admissions officers will be, too.

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5 Ways to Win the Hearts of College Admissions Deans

Sometimes it can feel like the college admissions deans are the popular kids everyone wants to date. Here are 5 strategies to help you win the affections of your favorite admissions dean.

1. Get a well-regarded alumnus to send a letter on your behalf.
It's like having their closest friends vouch for you.

2. Apply on the day the college begins taking applications.
Be the first one to ask them to the prom and beat the competition.

3. Win the hearts of teachers and employers to get killer rec letters.
It'll make them jealous and wonder what their college is missing.

4. If they "play hard to get" and waitlist you, be persistent (but don't overdo it).
Otherwise, you're just being creepy.

5. Donate several million dollars to the college.
When all else fails, showering them with money can do the trick.

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Why the SAT is Like Monopoly

Think board games and the SAT have nothing in common? At first glance, sure. However, some of the strategies that can help you win in Monopoly can also help you beat the SAT. Good luck to everyone taking it tomorrow!

1. Mediterranean and Baltic almost aren't even worth buying.

It takes money to make money. It's great to study for the SAT, but only studying a few minutes each day is barely even worth your time. The SAT's an all-or-nothing deal. Go for the most expensive properties possible (spend as much time studying as possible) in order to reap the biggest reward (a high SAT score).

Similarly, it's great to buy SAT materials (properties), but if you don't study intensively (build houses or hotels on your properties), their value will always be limited. The best SAT prep books increase in value to you when you "upgrade" them by learning what they contain.


2. The more railroads you buy, the better a return you collect from each one.

Studying for the Reading Section will help you with the Writing Section, and vice-versa. The more studying you do, the more it increases the benefit of your previous studying. Things start to click.


3. Everyone begins Monopoly with the same $1500. It's how you use that money that makes all the difference.

Sure, there are a few rolls of the dice on the SAT too - you might get sick or have a noisy test center. However, everyone has the same amount of time on the SAT. It's how you use your time that makes all the difference, and you need a refined strategy in order to succeed. The time you devote to studying, the strategies you use, and your familiarity with the SAT determine how you'll do on test day.

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How NOT to Write a College Essay

Here are some of the most common mistakes students make, and why you should avoid them:

Repeat info covered in another part of the application.
Students often repeat themselves in the college essay "just to be safe." However, admissions officers have already read, or will read, the rest of your application. Reading the same thing twice is boring. Trust them to do their job and read the application as thoroughly as necessary. Give them some insight into your motivations and how they indicate your abilities. If you mentioned something briefly on the application, you can go into it in more detail in the essay.

Don't do this:

"In freshman year I was in Key Club. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about helping others. I also joined the lacrosse team, which took up a lot of time. However, I still found time to volunteer at a soup kitchen every weekend. All of this demonstrates that I am responsible and capable."

Whining about circumstances instead of explaining why/how you overcame them.
Nobody likes a sob story, no matter how true or heartbreaking it is. Don't look for pity. Instead, show admissions committees how you surpassed difficulties to achieve a high GPA, leadership position, or some other accomplishment. Impress them with your determination.

Don't do this:

"Because my parents had to get rid of the babysitter after we had money issues, I had to quit the soccer team to watch my little sister. It was a real shame to have to leave my teammates and give up the chance of being state champions, but family comes first, so I didn't mind making the sacrifice."

Talk about how you want to go to a particular college because it has a great reputation or you want to make money.
Many students want to go to a top school and make money. Why does this make you special and different? Self-promotion is a given. Instead, distinguish yourself through your desire to intensively study the subjects that interest you or to expose yourself to a wide range of ideas.

Don't this this:

"University X is well-renowned, and many famous people like _____, ____, and ____ graduated from there. With a degree from University X, I'll be sure to be a success in life and make my friends and family proud."

Misrepresent your achievements and goals in the essay.
If you graduated in the middle of your class and have no extracurriculars/recommendations to back up the following...

Don't do this:

"I was one of the top students in my school and hope to reduce world hunger or find a cure for cancer."

The following need no example:

Use "cute" techniques to stand out.
Covering your essay in glitter and perfume, enclosing a link to a YouTube video of yourself performing goofy antics, or writing the entire essay in Pig Latin.

Say you want to go to College X in College Y's application.
It'd be a shame to mix up the two essays and get into neither one as a result. Double check.

Include careless grammatical errors, overly wordy phrases, and clichés.
You already know the stakes are high when it comes to college admissions. Show admissions officers that you care enough about the process to write an amazing college essay.

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SAT Writing Section and College Admissions

The SAT’s writing section is divided into two parts. One is a short essay and another is a multiple choice section like the others. For the short essay, you will be asked to defend a point of view. Here are some things to keep in mind when preparing for this section.

1. Unlike the other sections, there is little rote preparation you can do for this one.

Your topic will be given to you on the spot so you cannot prepare for it. However, you should think of this as an advantage. Everyone is under the same conditions as you are, write an essay in 25 minutes about a subject you could not predict. Your essay will be about 3 paragraphs and will be extremely rough. There is no need to worry about spelling - just spell to the best of your ability and move on.


2. Grammar is, however, very important.

The one bit of rote preparation you can do for this section is to learn your grammar rules. Some specific things to focus on are tense agreement and subject verb agreement. Tense agreement means keeping a consistent tense throughout a sentence. You should not begin a sentence in the present tense and then switch to past. Subject verb agreement means that the subject and the verb of your sentence must abide to the same number. If the subject is plural then ensure that the verb tense you use is the plural form.


3. Do not get excessively creative.

This is not the forum to begin pontificating or getting philosophical. Your objective isn’t to make a convert of the person reviewing your essay but to write something coherent and purposeful. For this reason you should spend too much time picking a side of an argument, or changing your mind after you have started. It is not worth the time. Write something formulaic and professional and the scorer will know exactly where you fit in on their rubric. The more convoluted your writing, the more convoluted the scoring will be and you may end up getting a bad score for decent piece.


4. The best way to get better at writing is to write.

Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. The best way to become a better writer is to write. Specifically, find sample prompts online and then write an essay as if it were test time. Don’t trust your writing ability and decide not to study for this! You may be a superb writer of term papers but then realize on test day that you are not good at truncating your thoughts into a small format with the SAT’s guidelines. You MUST practice!

The second portion is the multiple choice section. Here the rules are simpler.

1. The primary thing tested on it is grammar. So again, know your grammar rules. Your primary responsibility here is to fix grammatical errors. You will be ill-equipped if you haven’t memorized your rules.

2. First try to find the error without looking at the choices. This way you will not fall into the traps they have set for you. You will not second guess yourself quite as much.

3. Use your choices. If you are unable to find the error without looking at the choices, then use your choices. The choices will point you in the right direction as to where to look. The idea for this strategy is to first check your ingrained intuitions. The ones that make something look awkward in a somewhat uncertain way. If this fails then you can consult your memory bank of grammar rules after you have been pointed in the correct direction by the answer choices.

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SAT Math Section and College Admissions

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!

This week, it's time to focus on the SAT’s math section. There are many factors that make the math section of the SAT easier to game than the verbal. Keep in mind though that SAT scores are normalized on a bell curve so your competition isn’t the test as much as it is fellow test takers. Here are some important tips:

1. The math section does not require having taken high level math classes in high school.

This is probably the single most important point about the section that people should know. Many people who believe they lack mathematical aptitude immediately decide that since they are not going to perform well on this section. Nothing could be further from the truth. The SAT’s creators are simply not allowed to create questions that even a minority of test takers have never encountered, so trust me, you have the knowledge to do very well. However, the test must sort through students who are good and bad at math somehow right? So what do they actually test?


2. Most of the SAT math section involves “trick” questions.

Remember, the SAT’s questions get harder as each section progresses. The first batch of questions will require little to no outside the box thinking. As the questions get harder, there are usually increasing number of stumbling blocks. Usually an individual question will require one or two key insights that will allow you to solve the problem. If you have solved a problem near the end of a section with great ease, it is likely that you have made a mistake. This is especially confirmed when you get an answer that is amongst the answer choices. It is likely that you have fallen for a trick and the answer was a trap answer. The SAT math section is full of trap answers. If you are doing a hard question and can’t seem to find the part where they try to fool you, it may be advantageous to just skip the question.


3. Check your work.

Let’s face it, we all make silly mistakes. It is of incredible importance that you briefly check any simple math that you do. There is no bigger crime than knowing how to tackle a problem and not getting the points you deserve because you mistakenly added instead of subtracted. Review any basic math that you do. Make sure you have brought a calculator with you as you are more likely to make a mistake trying to do it mentally or on paper than a calculator is.


4. There will be no need for calculators.

This does not mean you shouldn't bring one, though. What I mean by this is that since the SAT’s website says you don’t have to bring a calculator. This means that in the process of solving a problem you will not get any numbers that are extremely difficult to work with without a calculator. If in the process of solving a problem, you begin to get ridiculous numbers, you have likely made a mistake.


5. On word problems, check your answer by using common sense.

The questions on the SAT are very designed and checked again and again. Not only will you not get ridiculous numbers to work with, all of your answers will “make sense.” For example, on a geometry problem Janie will not build a fence with a perimeter of one million feet or one-tenth of a foot. This will also help you on geometry problems. For example, your perimeter or radius will not be a negative number. If you see any answers like this, you can immediately cross them off. Everything on the SAT will make sense in this sense of the term.

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