College readiness
The Hazards of Brainiacs on College Campuses
I’ve often wondered why colleges and universities are so fixated on admitting students with extremely high SAT or ACT scores. Some of these teenagers only excel at taking tests and earning top grades, which can lead to awfully uninspiring young adults. I’ve heard admission folks privately lament that kids with high test scores can be […]
21Nov2010 | Lynn | 1 comment | Continued
Is Your Smart Child Being Left Behind?
How many times have your read news accounts about American students lagging behind countless other countries in academic achievement? In a recent standardized test of math proficiency, we’re way behind Taiwan (No. 1), Hong Kong (No. 2) and Korea (No. 3), but wait. We can’t even compete with the likes of Slovenia and the Slovak […]
16Nov2010 | Lynn | 1 comment | Continued
Grockit: Can Studying for the SAT or ACT Be Fun?
Studying for the SAT or ACT isn’t fun. But Grockit is trying hard to make it entertaining. Grockit, whose motto on its homepage is “Get addicted to studying,” bills itself as a social networking site for learning. With Grockit, teenagers can improve their test skills, in part, by learning from and competing against thousands of […]
5Nov2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | ContinuedThank God My Kids Aren’t Toddlers
There are a couple of reasons why I’m glad that my two children, who are both in college, aren’t toddlers. One reason is obvious. I don’t think I’d have the energy today to chase toddlers around. The second reason occurred to me last week when I reading a story in The New York Times entitled, […]
13Oct2010 | Lynn | 4 comments | Continued
ACT or SAT: Take a Practice Test
Should your child take the SAT or the ACT? I tried to tackle this question with my last post: SAT or ACT: Which Test Should You Take? Here’s another way to determine whether a child will get high ACT test scores or SAT scores: Take a practice SAT and ACT test. A student can take […]
21Sep2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | Continued
An AP Nightmare
Is there a downside to Advanced Placement classes? I’m asking this question because many teenagers and their parents seem to believe that you can’t get into a good college without taking a killer load of AP classes. Taking three or four (or more!) AP classes in a semester can suck all the fun out of […]
19Aug2010 | Lynn | 7 comments | Continued
Starting College With the Jitters
I’m getting up before dawn tomorrow. My son Ben and I are catching a 6:45 a.m. flight to Chicago. Ben will be starting college on Saturday and he’s nervous. But hey, aren’t all college freshmen nervous? Coincidentally, I found a great blog post today, written by two college professors, who shared ways that college freshmen […]
11Aug2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | Continued
Are AP Classes Worth It?
Are AP classes really worthwhile? There is no doubt that advanced placement classes are popular. Last year, nearly 1.7 million students worldwide took more than 2.9 million AP exams. Twenty five percent of high school graduates have taken at least one AP exam. With teenagers returning to the classroom grind soon, I thought this would […]
10Aug2010 | Lynn | 6 comments | ContinuedWho Isn’t Graduating From College?
Should more high school graduates go to college? This question has been getting a lot of attention since President Obama announced that one of his prime education goals would be to get more Americans to attend college. That’s a laudable and ambitious goal. I worry, however, about students, who are unprepared for college. They often […]
17May2010 | Lynn | 2 comments | Continued
How I Paid $0 for My Son’s Summer Program
Are you looking for summer programs for high school students? I was recently hunting for a high school summer program for my son Ben. I paid for an online physics summer school program at Stanford that cost about $500, but I ended up going elsewhere and cut the price down to $0! Before I explain […]
10May2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | Continued
