Test Prep for the SAT, PSAT, ACT, GRE, SSAT and More | Appelrouth Tutoring Services

In June I had the privilege of participating in the summer conference of the Association for College Counselors of Independent Schools (ACCIS). College counselors from the top schools in the country including Harvard-Westlake, Middlesex, Deerfield, Sidwell Friends, Hotchkiss, Trinity, and many others were in attendance. The theme of the conference was testing, and I was invited to participate in a 3-member panel focusing on the ins and outs of the college assessments and test prep. What do the top college counselors in the country want to know about testing? I took some time and wrote up my responses.

(read more…)

The 70 plus college counselors assembled at the most heated breakout session of the ACCIS (Association for College Counselors of Independent Schools) conference didn’t know the answer to this question. Among peers they felt safe enough to plainly voice their frustrations with a system that is clearly under strain. I was the fly on the wall, the only outsider in the room. I listened intently as dozens of counselors from the top private schools in the country painted a picture of a system that seems to be buckling under the weight of an ever-rising tide of applications.

(read more…)

As the theme of the Association for College Counselors of Independent Schools (ACCIS) conference was testing, two of the presenters were there to question the emphasis on testing and argue for alternative admission policies. One session was led by Joseph Soares, researcher and Associate Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University. Soares, author of The Power of Privilege, was a vocal proponent of Wake Forest’s decision to go test optional in 2009. The other session was led by Bob Schaeffer, the driving force behind FairTest. Schaeffer has been working for decades to help American colleges and universities wean themselves off their “addiction” to high stakes admissions tests. Though Bob Schaeffer told me they had not coordinated their efforts, Soares and Schaeffer delivered a well orchestrated critique of testing and its role in the admissions process.

(read more…)

Running the numbers, we’ve discovered–unsurprisingly–that our premium tutors consistently help students achieve score increases well over our earlier guaranteed increase of 150 points on the SAT. For this reason, we are upping our Premium Score Increase Guarantee to 200 points on the SAT for new students who get premium private tutoring for at least 16 hours. To qualify for the guarantee, students must:

(read more…)

I loved my college education so much that I’m still paying for it! Seriously, though, I went to Oglethorpe University, a very good, very expensive, 4-year private university in Atlanta. When I attended, tuition was about $12,000 a SEMESTER, not including room and board. The smart cookie that I am, I paid for most of my education with various scholarships, federal loans, federal grants, and work study. Additionally, for three years room and board was covered by my job as a resident assistant. I’m sure you all saw that I tried to slip federal loans in that list, hoping you wouldn’t notice. It’s true, I left school with debt just like two-thirds of my fellow graduates, according to finaid.org, an online resource for students and parents.

(read more…)