Make sure to register your child for the KnowledgePoints Study Skills Workshops starting next month.  For high schoolers, the the workshop starts February 22nd at Madison High School.  The middle school workshop starts February 23rd at Ridgedale Middle School in Florham Park.

Over the course of these nine week workshops, students will learn effective strategies to better organize and prepare for classes, homework, tests and special projects.  These newfound strategies translate into new skills --- new skills into new habits, and new habits into a lifetime of effective learning.  Key workshop themes:  Test Preparation Skills, Test Taking Strategies, Managing Study Time and Routines, Effective Note Taking, Remembering Information, Reading and Interpreting Visual Aids, Research Techniques and Avoiding Plagiarism.

We hear from many parents and students who scored relatively low  on the critical reading portion of the SAT.   Not surprisingly, they want to get this fixed...and quickly.  The KnowledgePoints SAT program can help, but if time permits, we often recommend that prior to jumping into SAT prep, their child take some initial steps to improve their reading comprehension skills, .   Taking the long view,  we like to remind parents and students about the reality of college; they are going to have larger reading assignments than they've ever experienced,  deadlines will be more aggressive and the materials will be harder.  So while raising SAT scores is definitely important,  improvements in reading comprehension can help students on both the SAT test and the harder work that begins in college.  The KnowledgePoints High School reading program can help.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and new year.  The break was needed by all, but it's nice to be back for a fresh start and it's great to see the kids here again at KnowledgePointsTutoring.   All of our kics are  working hard on their math, reading and  writing lessons.   And no doubt, the homework is once again piling up.   So, here's to continued success in the new year.    Great report cards are just around the corner.

College-bound students are increasingly considering the ACT as an alternative or supplement for their college applications.  As recently as 10 years ago, the ACT was required and/or accepted by predominantly mid-west colleges.   Since that time, many east and west coast universities are accepting ACT tests in lieu of the SAT.    Much has been written on the merits of each, but fundamentally, the decision on which test to take is multi-faceted and differs frm student to student.  There are,  however,  basic differences between these tests.  Source:  www.collegeview.com

1. ACT includes trigonometry (typically 4 questions); SAT does not.
2. ACT has occasional questions on Matrices, Logarithms, Radians, and unreal numbers; SAT does not.
3. ACT includes “science reasoning”, which is logical reasoning based on data and scientific terms, but not based on classroom science.
4. SAT deducts points for wrong answers.  However with coaching, students can actually use this to their ADVANTAGE.
5. SAT Math demands scrutinizing the English aspect of math questions.  ACT is more straightforward, making it a more comfortable test, but not necessarily easier.
6. SAT directly tests high level vocabulary.  This rewards students who are big readers or are good vocabulary absorbers.
7. SAT Critical Reading relies more on inference; ACT Reading asks questions that rely more on retrieving information from the text.
8. The SAT Essay is more likely to ask about abstract topics; the ACT Essay will ask a practical question usually relating to high school life.
9. The ACT is more fast-paced; there are more questions to be done in a shorter amount of time.
10. One difference that could be considered “major” is colleges’ USE of the SAT vs ACT: Almost all competitive colleges “cherry-pick” SAT sub-scores, meaning they consider the best combination of Math, CR and Writing earned on different dates.  Very few colleges do this with the four ACT sub-scores.  Thus for most competitive colleges, a student who does not ping strong scores on all ACT sections on the same day, is being dragged down by one or more weaker sections, whereas the cherry-picking of the SAT scores means one weak section on one day does not hurt.

Is it me, or did the last two months just fly by?  No matter how many glasses of apple cider I drink (accompanied by yummy cider donuts), I still can't accept that we are deep in to Autumn.  Yes, I know, the trees will be bare in a couple of weeks.  

And so, with the fall celebrations in full swing...we fast approach the end of 1st marking period.  language Arts, math, reading, social studies, science -- whatever the subject, here's to working hard and making this the best school year ever.  And to great report cards to all, but especially the students here at KnowledgePoints who have worked hard these past 2 months.