University of California Ends Standardized Testing Requirement

If you hate taking standardized tests, then the latest news out of the University of California should be music to your ears. Last week, the UC system decided to end testing for admission across all undergraduate campuses.

One of the big reasons why the UCs are scrapping the standardized test requirements has to do with providing a fair opportunity to everyone applying. High school grades have proven to be a better way to assess students and do not require spending thousands of dollars on test preparation and fees. 

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Students first started having difficulty taking the SAT and ACT tests during COVID-19 lockdowns, driving many universities to search for alternatives. UC had already waved the standardized test requirements for this current year, so this change makes the policy permanent. 

This means that UC colleges will rely on remaining application materials including personal statements, academic history aka grades and classes, extra curricular activities, awards, and anything else you might submit in the application. The schools will still accept test results, but will not consider them for admissions. 

It is unclear if other universities will follow the lead of the University of California. Standardized testing has received greater scrutiny in the past few years as schools have placed a greater focus on inequality and discrimination. 

Overall, this seems like a great change as it will remove another stress that high school students face and focus attention on everything that an applicant can bring to a college. The full story can be found here.

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Avoiding Exam Stress

Teenagers with ages between 14 and 16 are overly stressed before important exams, and GSCEs are no exception. Parents and teachers put a lot of pressure on their shoulders mostly because these exams are their ticket to pursuing A-level exams and thus get into a good college when they’re 18. How is it possible to overcome that stress? Can you score a high grade without cramming your study sessions and resorting o exhausting all-nighters? Sure you can; all you have to organize your study sessions and make the most of your revision notes.

Do you have a plan?

The key to succeed in your GSCEs is to make a revision plan. This can be hard for teenagers to understand, since they keep themselves busy with other things, but planning in advance can work like magic - especially when you’re dealing with a huge volume of information. Knowing what they have to learn will help students relax and focus on the content rather than stress themselves and that exams are excruciating and that they can’t be successfully overcome.

What should a smart revision plan contain?

To be effective, a study plan should first and foremost be an individual study plan, based on knowledge, actual competencies, and learning style of a sole student. A general study plan does not work for everybody, since students have their own personal way of studying for exams. Here’s a set of tips and tricks to help you efficiently revise what you’ve learned:

·      Always take notes (use a pen and a pieces a paper and an actual notebook, not a tablet, computer, etc.) – it’s really important that you write

·      Keep it structural (summarize the information using bullet points, keywords, mind-maps, flashcards)

·      Use diagrams and charts to help you visualize the information

·      Don’t color your study material, keep it simple and clean – coloring is actually the least effective method of studying for exams

·      Ask somebody to question you on different exam related subjects (don’t go to a friend and ask for the help of your parents instead because they will be a lot more determined to help you study)

Avoiding Exam Stress: Flickr - CollegeDegrees360

Memory tricks can work miracles

Many students have problems recalling information, which is normal, especially when studying for GSCEs. Luckily, there are a lot of tricks you can use to make the whole study session stress-free:

·      Remember ideas, not words

·      Imagine what you’re reading

·      Make diagrams or symbols to represent notions

·      Choose a single key word to represent a phrase

·      Read before you go to sleep and first thing in the morning

Strategies you can use to remember the information

Students should make sense of the information they’re reading for GCSE exams. You can’t expect to score a high grade through mechanical learning. It will never work. Rather than forcing yourself to remember dates, numbers, and names, it’s a lot smarter start slow in order to make the most of your exam revision session.

·      Make use of your own words when you take notes so as to connect with ideas and better understand them

·      Think about what you’re reading and don’t get distracted – search for differences and similarities between the information you already know and the things that still need your attention

·      Organize your study material – break down your study material into sections, make spidergrams to summarize ideas and don’t forget to write by hand

·      Memorize everything you’ve read and studied – the best way to remember what you’ve read is to picture images in your mind. Think about that diagram you just made, associate words with colors or names, and think logical.

There’s no point in getting stressed over GCSE exams. Yes, they might seem nerve-wracking and time consuming, but there’s no other way of pursuing A-levels unless you pass all your GCSE exams. Students are not that fond of studying when they’re in high-school. Still, acknowledging that your future depends on these tests is of the utmost importance. Begin an exam revision ahead of time, gather study guides, notes, and as much study material as possible. Allocate two hours a day for a study session, don’t be afraid to ask for help from your parents, and you’ll manage to pass exams with flying colors. 

The secret to passing GCSE exams is all about balancing your time with your study session.

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Top 10 Tips to Avoid Exam Stress

Dealing with exams calls for some serious revision sessions. Yet, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should stress yourself over some tests. Such academic qualification is not impossible to get, and as long as you’re committed to studying regularly, you’ll pass with flying colors. 

1) Organize Your Lectures

Identify all difficulties caused by a lecture course the moment you read it for the first time. The easiest path to success requires reading lecture notes and resolving the problem immediately. Don’t postpone anything because a revision process should deal with what you already know. It’s critical to be organized because proper planning will help you cope better with the stress. If your study guides, courses, and notes are all over the place, you won’t be able to make the most of your revision session.

2) Smart Revisions

We all have our own way of planning a revision, yet only some of us know that the making of a revision plan is critical. Start in advance and create a realistic timetable. Don’t cram your study session, and take regular breaks to relax the brain. 

3) Revise With Your Friends

Revising with friends is an excellent way of studying without feeling that you’re studying. You’ll feel a lot more relaxed, you can have fun while reading notes and you can even test each other. Make sure that you focus on the learning and don’t get distracted. 

4) Quality Over Quantity 

Exams are crucial and for that matter quality studying is of the utmost importance. You can’t cram all your sessions in 2 days, and you are certainly not advised to lock yourself in your room and read for 6 whole hours. Instead, you could devote 2 hours a day for your exam revision. Providing that you abide by a 3 week schedule, the end result will bring excellent grades. 

5) Don't Read, It's Useless

Believe it or not, just reading is useless during an exam revision session. Don’t forget that you already have the information, so you’ve got to find a way to do something with it. You’ll never get the information in your head if you don’t practice. Underline stuff; take notes, color code, or makes tables if you want to remember what you read. 

Avoiding Exam Stress: Stockvault

6) Revise What You Hate First

There has to be a course you absolutely hate, so you can’t risk failing it. It’s best to start a revision with what you don’t like first. Assuming that math pushes your buttons, allocate 2 hours in the morning for that particular subject. You’ll feel so much better afterwards. Just imagine that your exams are 1 week away. Do you want to relax and revise Geography or English, or do you want to stress yourself with Math and think you’ll never pass?

7) Stay Positive

The best way to deal with pre-exam stress is to stay positive. You can do it and nothing can stop you from acing those exams. Relax and always remember that you studied. The information is there, in your head; you just have to take a deep breath to remember it. 

8) Think About Your End Goal

Good exam scores are your ticket to college, so you might want to remember that. Be confident and don’t lose hope. If you studied, you have nothing to worry about. Most students get so nervous in the exam room that they freak out. Answer yourself the following question: do I have a reason to freak out if I studied? No, you don’t. So get your things together and you’ll make it. 

9) Ignore Your Colleagues

Stay away from your colleagues before entering the examination room. You don’t want to charge yourself with bad energy. They’re stressed because they didn’t study, so why should you feel what they’re feeling? Rather than listen to them blab about how difficult it will be, it’s best to stay home and sleep for 20 more minutes. 

10) Never Compare Exam Answers

That’s one of the biggest mistake a student can make. We all do it! As soon as an exam is over, we run to our classmates to compare results. Checking answers is a great way of stressing yourself. Just because your solutions were different it doesn’t mean they were wrong. So instead of blaming yourself for something you don’t know it’s incorrect, you should be happy one exam is over. Go home and rest for your next one, and don’t let others ruin your day.

Exams are stressful, nerve-racking, and sometimes puzzling. Yet, they’re not impossible to pass if you choose to stay positive. Stress can have a devastating effect on your body, so it’s best to just relax. Start your exam revision with at least 1 month in advance, establish your best learning methods, and dedicate yourself to your exams. Two hours a day in the morning won’t kill you, and in the end you’ll reap great benefit from your learning sessions.

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Everything You Should Know About the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)

A GRE test is better known as a Graduate Record Exam. The exam is an admission requirement for graduate schools in the US, and in additional English-speaking countries. Just like an ACT or SAT, this exam is an extensive evaluation of your analytical writing, quantitative reasoning abilities, critical thinking, and verbal reasoning - in the other words, all the skills and abilities developed during the years you spent studying.

GRE Test Overview

A GRE test comprises three key sections: the Analytical Writing section, the Verbal section, and the Quantitative section. Students can take the exam on a computer or on paper. The testing time depends on the version of the exam that you choose, but note that you’ll probably need about three hours to complete all tasks.  

  The Analytical Writing Section

The first portion of the Analytical writing part compels you to read a paragraph on the subject of a general topic and then talk about that issue for 45 minutes. Your capacity to justify your opinions with relevant examples and sound reasoning will influence the way you handle this section. If you take the test on a computer, this part is done through simple word processing software. In places where computer-based testing is unavailable, the candidate will have to write the answer by hand.

Unlike other sections of the GRE exam, the writing part won’t be computer-adaptive. You can utilize a computer to write your answers, but it won’t evaluate or score them. The scores that you obtain for this section are established by real individuals.

  The Verbal Reasoning Section

The verbal reasoning part of the exam entails analogies, reading comprehension questions, sentence completions, as well as antonyms. This portion of the GRE test is meant to evaluate your capacity to shape conclusions from written paragraphs, establish relationships among different sections of sentences, and spot associations between words and concepts.

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 The Math (Quantitative) Section

This part of the GRE test assesses high-school-level math. If you’re out of practice, you should start revising your skills in algebra, data analysis, arithmetic and geometry. This section of the test will evaluate your ability to solve various math problems and examine your capacity to make use of quantitative reasoning. As far as the computer version is concerned, you’ll have to respond to 28 questions in 45 minutes. The paper version includes two 30-minute parts, each with 30 questions.

Preparation – how to take revision notes for your GREs

Just like any other exams, GREs demand preparation. According to paper writing experts at SolidEssay.com, students must not panic as the exams are really not that challenging. If you feel that some subjects are out of your league, make sure to prepare in advance. Revision notes, intense practice, and determination will help you pass GRE exams with flying colors. The following tips on how to revise note for your GRE exams might also be of great assistance:

 Boost vocabulary – you can improve your vocabulary skills by making use of both direct and indirect methods. For the verbal reasoning section, a good vocabulary is extremely important. Prior to trying to pass your GRE exam make use of study guides. Some guides include lists with up to 3,500 words you might have to skim through. It might seem demanding, but it’s an excellent way of boosting your vocabulary.  

 Prioritize revision notes – Finding a suitable strategy to revise for your GRE exam is certainly not that simple; yet, it’s not something impossible to do. For the math (quantitative) section, you can develop an effective system based on graphs and charts. On the other hand, the writing part of the exam can be revised doing practice essays. Practicing is all about mimicking the exact conditions of the GRE exam.   

Active reading – you can always practice your reading skills by turning to active revisions. For example, you can skim through GRE-level materials like the Wall Street Journal or The Economist. 

Students who want to pass their GRE exams should build a plan of action for their study session. The good news is that there are numerous test prep resources, GRE classes, private tutoring, study groups, test prep books, and online tutorials that can help them out. It’s important to settle on study methods that can match your abilities. Maximize results by opting for an appropriate learning style and don’t postpone your revision sessions because you won’t have time to study enough.

Author Bio: Jeff is an expert writer and blogger. He loves to write about education and related topics. He is also writing for a site http://www.solidessay.com which provides academic writing help for high school and college students.

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Latest Overhaul of A-Level Exams in the UK

According to a report published in January 23, the most recent overhaul of A-level exams seems to be the return to a former system implemented that consisted of the Higher School Certificate and the School Certificate. A levels are a qualification which are used to gain entrance to a university. 18 year olds in the UK who wish to carry on to university usually take three, four or five different subjects at A-levels (each consisting of two or three exams and possibly coursework in addition). Universities admit students based on their A-level grades, making offers during the previous school year. The past system of education required students to take 5 different exams in different subjects such as English, math, foreign language, and other subject of their choice. After having received the School Certificate, they could take another exam in three different subjects so that they could enroll to a university. This system was very effective, and many people are constantly wondering why the government felt the need to intervene and revise it.

Numbers and Statistics

The Department for Education’s final list of academic A-level students who managed to score AAB cannot be trusted, since it doesn’t show the exact percentage of students who are ready for the Russell Group. For example, the score obtained by St Alban was 38%, even though 83% of their students chose to enroll to one of the universities belonging to Russell Group, while another 11% opted for 1994 Group universities.

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This discrepancy is caused by the Department’s insistence to include three academic A scores, which wasn’t very inspired, since there aren’t too many universities that require three A-levels from an applicant. Besides, the list also excludes government and politics, religious studies, ancient history, and economics. What is even more surprising is the fact that ancient history has become one of the GCSE EBacc subjects as a consequence of too much ministerial enthusiasm. 

Several teachers disagree with the changes made to A-levels, while others claim that they should have been made a long time ago. The opposition would slowly disappear if the Admission Service system for Colleges and Universities was reformed in order to allow students to apply only after they receive their A-level results. This change would make the whole process go quicker, and students would get the chance to apply for the university or course that suits them best. In conclusion, the current system is often described as being stressful for most students, as well as highly inefficient.

Future prospects

However, Education Secretary Michael Gove has recently stated that major changes are going to be made to A-levels in England, the only problem being the fact that these plans haven’t been too well received by university leaders and head teachers. Starting from 2015, pupils will have to sit exams at the end of every two-year course that they attend. AS-levels will not disappear, but they will be seen as separate exams, while several leading universities will make sure that standards are maintained.

These proposals have been highly criticized, several teachers calling them incoherent, rushed, and even an unusual way of fixing something that works perfectly well. The University of Cambridge has repeatedly disapproved with the changes brought to AS-levels, mentioning that they put at risk more than a decade of progress towards reasonable access to the university.

University Role

According to Mr. Gove, current A-levels don’t help students understand their subjects better. As previously mentioned, exams will have to be taken after two years of following a course, and universities will get more involved. Besides, the AS-level will turn into a separate exam which can be taken after one or two years. Even though many of these details have been made public from last year, the government has been more specific about the date when these changes will be introduced: autumn 2015.

In other words, there will be no other public exams taken in the lower sixth year apart from AS-levels. While most universities are looking to involve themselves in the policy of these new exams, no reaction has been seen until now. One of the main problems will appear in case Northern Ireland and Wales refuse to follow this policy; their refusal will only lead to a major rupture in Great Britain’s exam system. 

There are plenty of universities who accept students based on the results of their AS-levels, but the new changes will imply putting more emphasis on school references, which will bring great disadvantages to some pupils. Taking into account the fact that famous universities such as Cambridge and Oxford have criticized some of the changes involved, chances are the English population will split into two categories: those who support these changes and those who don’t.

Author Bio: The article is being authored by a regular freelance writer Jason Phillips. He is a workaholic person and enjoys writing on different subjects. Also he writes for the site http://www.yorknotes.com/revision-notes/alevel. You can get here A-level revision notes and study guides on English Literature.

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Tips and Strageties for Those Preparing for the GRE

The GRE stands for Graduate Record Examination and is the exam by which most universities in the United States judge a candidate's qualification into a graduate program. The GRE tests vocabulary, reading comprehension, text completion, mathematical abilities (ranging from geometry to algebra to numeric problem solving) and writing. There are very few graduate programs in the United States which one can enter into without having taken the GRE (with the exception of business schools, which tend to prefer the GMAT). Therefore, adequate preparation for the exam is essential. Read on for the best GRE preparation tips.

Familiarize Yourself

Before taking a practice test, simply look through each section of the GRE and get a feel for what the content is going to be and how the test is going to work. There are three sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning and Analytical Writing. You can familiarize yourself with the questions online, through a website like ETS, or by purchasing or borrowing a GRE test preparation book from your local bookstore or library.

Additionally, familiarize yourself with the scoring process. Realize that it's not a simple +1/-1 system for correct/incorrect answers. Rather, your score is assessed by the difficulty of questions answered, and the questions will either get easier or harder depending on how you're doing as you move through the test. More correct answers on more difficult questions will yield a higher score.

Take a Practice Test...

…a real one, where you have a timer and move through the material exactly how you would on test day. Kaplan and the Princeton Review both offer practice tests in their study books and online. Most universities also have GRE courses you can sign up for just to take a practice exam through the university's testing center. As you take the test, pace yourself. Take your time with the questions, and don't worry about answers that you don't know. If you can't make a good guess, skip it, and move on. After you take the test, review the questions that you missed and the ones you excelled at, familiarizing yourself with your strengths and weaknesses.

Study

Now that you've taken a practice test and familiarized yourself with the content on the test, you should have a pretty good idea of what you need to review. Make flashcards; use online resources; have a friend quiz you on vocabulary; or get a tutor. Again, Kaplan and the Princeton Review both offer GRE preparatory courses and tutors if you need them. If your quantitative score is low, ask a friend or family member for study help, or use your university's tutoring center.

For vocabulary practice, one of the best things you can do is read. Read your local newspaper or books of literary merit. If you come to a word you don't know, look it up. Find essay prompts from previous years, and write practice essays. Then compare your response to answers that have been published. Ask a friend or professor to read over your essay, assessing it for grammatical, spelling or sentence structure errors. Become confident in your ability to master the content.

On test day, eat a good breakfast; get a good night's sleep, and go into the testing center prepared and ready to excel!

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Franklin Tomlinson is a freelance writer based in Tacoma, Washington who frequently contributes articles on education, graduate school, SAT test prep, student loans, university rankings and other important topics.

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Do You Know Everything About The SAT, ACT, & Subject Tests?

Is a 1700 good for the SAT? Is a 2050 good? What about an 1870? A 2300 on the SAT has to be good right? Is an ACT score of 23 good? Is a 27 good for the ACT? What about scores for the SAT II? Is a 650 good? -Well the answer to all of these questions is yes and no. (Either way, it is useful to know some 2013 test score averages which can be found below.)

If you didn’t know, how important standardized tests are for college applications, now you do. Test scores separate the boys and girls from men and women. 

SAT, ACT, AP, IB, and SAT II scores are all objective measures that colleges and universities can use to evaluate applicants and make initial decisions of who meets basic standards. These scores are then combined with other factors like GPA on a 4.0 scale, difficulty of classes, class rank, and national awards in order find the best applicants out of the thousands who apply.

Finally, subjective parts of the application, like essays and letters of recommendation, are used to find the best of the best. It is a lengthy process that breaks many hearts, but there are only so many spots in a freshman class.

There are always exceptions, but generally the objective measures are a starting place for both anyone thinking of applying and admissions staff.

How Does The SAT Reasoning Test Work?

The first and most important test is the SAT Reasoning Test. This test lasts for 3 hours 45 minutes and covers reading, math, vocabulary, grammar, and writing.

These topics are divided into 3 overall sections and further divided into smaller 15-25 minute chunks. Scores range from 200 to 800 per section with a possible maximum score of 2400. The average SAT score is 1500 (500 on each of the 3 sections).

In all sections except for the essay and write in for math there is a ¼ point deduction for every wrong answer.

Below are the average SAT scores of students entering a wide variety of universities. These universities are all for students who perform above average, but there is data available for every school on the Internet.

The first thing to do is to compare your SAT scores with the averages from the school you are interested in attending. While there is much more to an application that a test score, seeing where your score fits is an important step to finding a college you want to attend. Do you want to know what a good SAT score for 2013 is?

Is Your SAT Score Good Enough for College?  

School	SAT Math	SAT Reading	SAT Writing
Harvard	710-790	700-800	710-800
Brown	660-770	660-760	670-780
UCLA	600-760	560-680	590-710
Penn State	560-670	530-630	540-640
University TX Austin	580-710	550-670	540-680
Ohio State	610-710	540-650	550-650
American University	570-670	590-690	580-680
Pepperdine	570-680	550-650	560-670
NYU	630-740	620-710	640-730

 How Does The ACT Aptitude Test Work?

The ACT is the other widely accepted standardized exam that colleges accept. This test covers additional topics that are not on the SAT like science and trigonometry. The ACT is widely known as a test on knowledge (either you know the answer or you don’t), while the SAT is about reasoning (figuring out the answer). 

The ACT takes 3 hours 25 minutes, but there are more questions than on the SAT, so speed is essential. The ACT is scored out of 36 points and the average composite score is around 21. There is no penalty for guessing  on the ACT.

Below are the average ACT composite scores for the same schools where I listed the SAT scores above. Again, scores are not everything, but they act as a good guideline for future applicants. 

Is Your ACT Score Good Enough For College? 

ACT Composite Score Averages

How Do The SAT II Subject Tests Work? 

SAT II Subject tests cover specific subjects and are much shorter than the regular SAT or ACT. The subjects covered by the SAT II’s are: Literature, U.S. History, World History, Math 1, Math 2, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Chinese, French, Hebrew, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, and Spanish.

These tests generally last one hour each and you can take up to three in a single day. The average scores for SAT Subject Tests are rather high, but that is because most people who take a subject test have knowledge about the subject.

Subject tests are useful because they allow a student to stand out among a sea of people as someone who understands a particular subject fairly well. They are another objective measure that colleges and universities can use to compare students to one another when making admission decisions.

Is Your SAT II Subject Test Score Good Enough For College?

Literature	576	Chinese Listening	758
US History	608	French	622
World History	607	French Listening	646
Math 1	610	German	622
Math 2	654	German Listening	611
Biology	605 (Micro 635)	Hebrew	623
Chemistry	648	Italian	666
Physics	656	Japanese	684
Korean Listening	767	Spanish	647
Latin	611	Spanish Listening	663

How Do The AP and IB Subject Tests Work?

Finally, this leaves AP and IB tests. These exams are both subject tests that a student would take at the end of the school year, usually in May. AP is much more common in American schools so I will focus primarily on those. However, most of the AP subjects are also covered under the IB program.

AP classes cover Art, English, History, Social Science, Math, Computer Science, Sciences, and World Languages/Cultures. Rather than list all of the AP courses please look at them here. https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse

AP exams take an entire afternoon, and are usually over three hours long. There are extensive essays on most exams and multiple-choice questions. AP art students submit portfolios to the College Board to be graded. Tests are graded on a 5-point scale, with 3 usually being a “passing” grade.

Some colleges and universities will only accept 4’s or 5’s but it is different at every institution. There is also no penalty for guessing on AP exams. There used to be a penalty, but it was removed in 2010, so it is to a student’s advantage to fill in every blank bubble.

Conclusions About the State of Standardized Testing

So what do all of these tests really mean? Honestly – absolutely nothing. They are an easy way for colleges and universities to compare candidates when making admissions decisions. Many smart students perform poorly on these tests while many students who are “good at taking tests” can score very highly.

 It is unfortunate that these tests have such a huge weight on the college application process. There are many more important things to consider in an applicant than scores, but these are the easiest and most objective measures.  Until something new is created, all students must play the game and take the tests.

I took the SAT four times before I earned scores that I was satisfied with. It is a waste of money, but what else is there? Don’t feel bad if your score isn’t “good enough.” There are plenty of colleges and everyone can find a perfect match.

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