When I began this blog, I thought I should begin with junior year in high school. However, there is so much preliminary work that should be done before that. On the www.college.gov site, mentioned in an earlier post, they use three main sub-headings the first of which is "Why Go?". If you have been following the blog, you have, hopefully, done the suggested career exploration and have an idea in mind as to the kind of career(s) you would like to have and the type of post-secondary training/education it requires. If not, review some of the previous posts and go from there. From this point we're going to discuss how to find the place that moves you forward toward your career goal.
By this time juniors should have received the results of the PSAT/NMSQT they took in October. Many sophomores may have taken the test as well, although they are not yet eligible for the National Merit Scholarships for which juniors may qualify. If you took the test and have not received your results, be sure to see your guidance counselor.
If used properly, these results are invaluable to help you prepare for the Scholastic Aptitude Test required by most college admissions offices. The ACT (American College Test) is another test which many schools use as part of their application process and will be discussed in a future post. The PSAT provides you with your scores (ranging from 20-80) on each of three subtests: critical reading; mathematics and writing skills. More importantly, they give you a percentile by which you can see how your scores stack up against other students in your grade level who took the test. A score of 48 in critical reading, roughly what would be a 480 on the SAT, doesn't seem so great. However, when you see that that score was better than 69% of the other students in that grade level who took the test, it's much more competitive. These other students are those who will compete against you for college admissions. As a visual, in a room of 100 students in your grade throughout the country who took the test, you did better than 69 of them. Looks a lot better, doesn't it?
If you don't want to bank on the rest of your group sleeping through segments of the SAT, use your PSAT scores to prepare. Your test booklet should have been returned to you so now you can actually review the specific questions you got right or wrong. The results also give you the level of difficulty of each question and the specific skill it was meant to assess. They also provide an analysis of which skill areas you can improve and provide suggestions as to how to do so.
On the second page of your results you are given a code with which you can fully access the College Board website and use its services for free. The MyRoad program offers the ORA Personality Profile, mentioned earlier. If you don't have a career goal in mind, this will help you. Even if you have a life long dream of a specific job, take the profile to see if it produces results compatible with your plans. It may even broaden the scope of possibilities.
Collegeboard.com provides information on the SAT, which they also administer, and suggestions as to how to prepare. There's a lot of money in SAT preparation. Many students hire private tutors who "tutor to the test", giving them tips and exercises to hone their test skills in general and SAT taking specifically. The Princeton and Kaplan Review(s) along with Huntington and Sylvan Learning Center(s) are just a few among many companies that charge handsomely for these services. Books are available for those who are self-starters and can discipline themselves to prepare at a much lower cost. Among over 1500 titles amazon.com lists when you search "SAT prep" are: The Official SAT Guide by the College Board
; Kaplan SAT 2011; Barron's SAT and McGraw Hill's 12 SAT Practice Tests
There is an interesting online test prep program at www.grockit.com.
No matter what plan(s) you follow, don't just wing it. DO SOMETHING! At the very least, READ - not just subjects you enjoy but pick up something technical if you're a poet and poetic if you're a scientist. You can be both. Decipher it - read with a dictionary - understand it - seek the guidance of a parent or teacher. In May or June many juniors with take the SAT for the first time. (I recommend the May date, as it provides a question/answer service which can be further used to prep for the test if you decide to take it again.) Colleges use a composite of the highest scores for each section of the SAT(s) a student takes.
It may not seem so now, especially for those of us in colder climates, but Spring is just a blink away!
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