Five Good SAT Words

For those studying for the SAT, the Sentence Completion (i.e., vocabulary) portion of the Reading Test can be daunting. After all, you can’t learn every word that might be tested. You can, however, learn a few “good” SAT words before the next test.

To get you started, here are five words indicative of what you might see on the SAT. In fact, some of these words are words that we have seen on practice tests. To learn these words, define each one and try to incorporate them into your daily conversations. Good luck on your studies!

Capricious

Innocuous

Taciturn

Tenuous

Reconnaissance

Be sure to check our Facebook page for more SAT tips and updates. For a list of upcoming SAT and ACT test dates (with registration deadlines), click here.

As always, if you need individualized and in-depth instruction on SAT preparation, please contact us. We would love to help!

2013 ACT and SAT Test Dates

We’re well into the ACT and SAT test seasons with several tests coming up in the next few months. For easy reference, we’ve compiled upcoming test dates (through the end of the year) with registration deadlines. Be sure to consult the ACT and SAT websites for more information on how to register for each test. Keep in mind that a late fee will be charged if you register during late registration.

ACT Test Dates

October 26- Register by Sept. 27 (Late Registration is open from Sept. 28 to Oct. 11)

December 14- Register by Nov. 8 (Late Registration is open from Nov. 9 to Nov. 22)


SAT Test Dates

The October 5 test date is coming up! Registration for this test has closed. Check here to see if you can request waitlist status. Keep in mind that waitlist status does not guarantee that you will be admitted to take the test.

November 2- Register by Oct. 3 (Late registration is open until Oct. 18 for registration by mail OR Oct. 21 for registration by phone*/ online)

December 7- Register by Nov. 8 (Late registration is open until Nov. 22 for registration by mail OR Nov. 25 for registration by phone*/ online)

*Phone registration is available only to those who have previously registered for the SAT. See the SAT website for more information.

If your student needs a little (or a lot) of one-on-one customized help with ACT or SAT prep, we are here to serve. Let us know how Brainiac Tutoring can help.

The Importance of Reading

Have you heard of the Shelby County Books from Birth program? If you have a young child, you probably have. The program, which is our local branch of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, provides a free book to enrolled children every month from birth until age five. What’s interesting about this program is the positive impact it is having on young children, especially those in our community. A 2011-12 study by Books from Birth, The Urban Child Institute, and Memphis City Schools found that:

[C]hildren who participated in Books from Birth have stronger early childhood reading habits and higher reading readiness scores. The report also indicated that participation in the program increased the amount of time parents spent reading with children, levels of children’s interest in books increased, and parental awareness of children’s reading levels increased as well. (via Shelby County Books from Birth)

The results of an ongoing British study further reveal the importance of reading for children. The British Cohort Study is following the lives of 17,000 people born in the same week in 1970. In a recent article in The Guardian entitled "Reading for fun improves children's brains, study confirms," Dr. Alice Sullivan discussed the results of cognitive tests taken by some study participants. She noted that children who read a certain amount for pleasure scored higher on those tests than children who read less. Read the article here for more information.

These results are encouraging and exciting! Both studies mentioned above reveal (as do others) the importance of reading to young children and encouraging reading for fun in older children. If you have young children, read to them often from an early age- long before they seem ready to listen or participate. If you haven’t already registered your child for Books from Birth, do so here. Any child from birth to age five living in Shelby County can be registered to receive books from this program. If you don’t live in Shelby County, search the Imagination Library website to see if your area is participating in the program.

If your children are older, work with them to find book genres that interest them. Try reading a book series as a family and have family nights to discuss. Then, if the books have been made into movies (i.e., the Harry Potter series), watch the movies as a family. You can also create a reward program to encourage pleasure reading. Set up a chart that rewards your child after he reads two books. Increase the reward as the number of books read (or difficulty of books) increases. It’s never too early to instill a love of reading. Start today!

Spotlight: Recommended Homework Resources

The next time you need help answering some of the more difficult homework questions your child brings home, head over to our newly revamped* website for help. We’ve included a section entitled “Resources” with links to websites that we suggest for help with just such questions. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Fact Monster- This is a free reference site that contains facts on thousands of subjects, including sports, entertainment, geography, history, biography, education, and health. We also recommend the online flashcards and other learning tools found on this site.

• Khan Academy- We LOVE this site! The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. The 1800+ video library is the most-used educational video resource as measured by YouTube video views per day and unique users per month.

• Education.com- This is a free reference site that provides expert advice, features, columns, thousands of reference articles, and a community for parents of pre-school to high school students.

You can find links to even more educational resources on our website with topics ranging from college planning to foreign language, science, and math. Please visit our website to learn more.

* By the way, we are inordinately proud of our newly re-designed website and are so excited to share it with you! We worked hard to ensure that it is informative and easy to navigate. Please let us know what you think.

Tips for a Great ACT Test Day

The next ACT test date is fast approaching this Saturday. Read on for a few tips and resources (from ACTstudent.org) to help you get ready. Good luck on the test!

• Now is a good time to make sure that you know where you will be taking the test and how to get there. Check your ACT registration ticket for your test location and test start time.

• The night before the test, get everything together that you will need to take with you, including several sharpened No. 2 pencils with erasers, a permitted calculator and back-up calculator with new batteries, a snack and drink, a watch, your admission ticket, an acceptable photo i.d., and a light jacket. Here is ACTstudent.org's list of what you should bring (and what to leave at home).

• There are strict guidelines here regarding calculator use during the test. There are also strict guidelines here regarding what types of calculators are permitted during the test. Read these guidelines to ensure that your calculator is permitted and that you use it in accordance with test rules.

• You must bring an acceptable photo i.d. and your printed admission ticket to the test site. Read here for examples of acceptable forms of identification.

• The night before the test, try to relax and get a good night’s sleep. The night before the test is not a good time to try to study or cram one last time. Instead, take the night to clear your head and rejuvenate before the big day.

• Set an alarm and a back-up alarm that will wake you with sufficient time to get ready and travel to the test site. Ask a parent to make sure you are awake on time, as well.

• You will not be allowed to test if you are late. Make sure you arrive at the test site at least 15 minutes early to allow time to check in.

• Eat a healthy breakfast before the test and bring a snack and drink with you to eat during the break. Being hungry during the exam is a good way to lose concentration.

• Finally, relax, focus, and do your best!


Here are a few additional tips from ACTstudent.org that might be helpful:

• Test Day Tips;

• A Test Day Checklist.

• Do not engage in any Prohibited Behavior on test day.

• Some General Test Taking Tips.

If you would like help preparing for the next ACT and/ or SAT, we have excellent tutors for both tests. Email us for more information at Brainiac@BrainiacTutoring.com.

Home-schooler Course Offering: Pre-calculus

If you are a high school junior or senior who has completed Algebra II through a home-schooling program, you might be interested in taking Pre-calculus in preparation for college. Here is a great opportunity for the school year: 

Brainiac Tutoring's Pre-calculus Course

Class schedule: Classes will take place at the Germantown Library on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 AM until 11:00 AM.  Classes start on September 3 and end on May 20. The following are important dates to note:

·         October 22  (Fall Break/No class)

·         November 28     (Thanksgiving/No class)

·         December 12 (Mid-term Exam/Last meeting for first semester)

·         December 17 (January 6 (Christmas holiday/no classes)

·         January 7 (First day back for second semester)

·         March 11 (Spring Break/no class)

·         March 13 (Spring Break/no class)

·         April 17 (Easter/no class)

    May 20 (Final Exam/last class)

Course Objectives and Description.  The goal of the course is twofold: (1) to prepare the student for the ACT and SAT exams, and more importantly, (2) to prepare the student for a university calculus course.  Topics include essential algebra; quadratic equations; the standard functions of engineering and the physical sciences, such as exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions; graphs; right triangle trigonometry; and real-world applications.  The course will emphasize definitions, the understanding of concepts, problem-solving, and applications.

Textbook.  Contemporary Precalculus: A Graphing Approach by T. W. Hungerford, 5^th ed., Thomson Brookes/Cole, 2009. We are happy to loan a copy of the textbook to your student with the understanding that it is not to be written in, and that if it is lost or damaged, you will be liable for the replacement cost.

Calculator.  A graphing calculator is required.  It will be used (1) to illustrate concepts; (2) to graph complicated functions; (3) to perform calculations that are impossible or too tedious to do by hand, such as finding real roots of polynomials; and (4) to help check pencil-and-paper work.  Recommended models: TI-84+ or TI-89.  If you already own a graphing calculator, do not purchase another one until you have consulted the instructor as it may suffice for the course.

Course cost: Given that the class will have 60 class meetings, our normal hourly tutoring rate $55 per hour would be cost-prohibitive for students and their families. Thus, we have placed the cost of the course at a flat fee of $1200, which covers 60 class meetings, as well as the teacher’s class prep time, test design time, and grading time.

Payment plan options: One of the options below must be honored to secure a place in the class.  If the student drops out for any reason, full payment is still expected. Fees are non-refundable.

·         Option 1: Full payment of $1200 by Aug 30

·         Option 2: 4 payments of $300 each on Aug 30, Sept 30, Oct 31, and Jan 30

·         Option 3: 6 payments of $200 each on Aug 30, Sept 30, Oct 31, Nov 29, Dec 31, and Jan 30

·         

The instructor: Leigh C. Becker, Ph.D., recently retired from his position as Professor of Mathematics at Christian BrothersUniversity.  Over his 34 year tenure, he taught a variety of courses ranging from first-year business and liberal arts math courses to Pre-calculus and the Calculus sequence, Real and Complex Variables, Probability, Special Topics, and Senior Seminar.  He has also taught at a high school in Illinois for one year and at a gymnasium (high school) in the German school system for two years.  His favorite class was Differential Equations, an area in which he specializes. The Differential Equations textbook used at CBU, and which continues to be in use, was authored by Dr. Becker. While at CBU, he was awarded three sabbaticals and several grants. He was honored in 2001-02 and again in 2012-13 with the Dr. Marguerite Cooper Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching in Sciences and Mathematics.  In addition to tutoring, teaching a home-school pre-calculus course, and updating his textbook, he continues to publish his research in several international journals of mathematics.  Dr. Becker holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  

2012-13 ACT Test Dates and Registration Deadlines!

Register online at http://www.actstudent.org/

ACT Test dates for this school year: 

Sept 21, 2013 (late registration due by Sept 6)
Oct 26, 2013 (late registration due by Oct 11)

Dec 14, 2013 (

late registration due by Nov 22)

Feb 8, 2014 (on-time registration due by Jan 24)
Apr 12, 2014 (on-time registration due by Mar 21)
Jun 14, 2014 (on-time registration due by May 23)

If your student needs a little (or a lot) of one-to-one customized help with that ACT (or SAT) prep, we are here to serve. Let us know how Brainiac Tutoring can help.  

The Re-design of the SAT Test

The SAT was created in the 1920's and is used by many American colleges and universities to select each year's incoming freshman class. Over the years, the test content and structure have been adjusted numerous times, most recently in 2005. 

Read more about the upcoming changes recently announced by College Board. 

Interpreting Scores for 7th Grade Duke TIP Participants

Some of our 7th grade friends took the ACT or SAT recently as part of the Duke TIP program.

The link below shows how 7th grade students who took the test in 2011-12 can interpret those scores. If your student took the ACT this year, the interpretive report will be available and mailed to you in May, but in case you are curious about how your young scholar's scores stack up against the students who took the tests last year, check out this article.

I would not expect too much of a shift (no more than a point or two) in these charts for this year.

http://www.tip.duke.edu/downloads/ts/7/summary.pdf 

ACT/SAT Prep Courses for This Summer

Brainiac Tutoring is offering PSAT/SAT Preparation either in one-to-one meetings or through group classes this summer.  Here is the line-up: 

PSAT/SAT Prep Course: 

July 22 - 26       (9:00 AM - 11:45 AM) 

July 22 - 26       (12:15 PM - 3:00 PM)

Individual Instruction

Available weekdays and weekends. 

Contact us directly to discuss your needs. 

Costs: 

For one course:   $325, includes supplies and materials

For individual instruction: $50 per hour plus supplies 

Locations: 

Group classes will be taught on the campus of St. Agnes Academy, 4830 Walnut Grove Road. 

Individual instruction locations determined on a case by case basis. 

ACT Prep Courses Offered this Summer by Brainiac Tutoring

Brainiac Tutoring is offering ACT Preparation either in one-to-one meetings or through group classes this summer.  Here is the line-up:

ACT Math and Science Prep Course: 
June 3 - June 7       (9:00 AM -  11:45 AM)
July 29 - August 2  (9:00 AM -  11:45 AM) 

ACT Reading/English/Writing Prep Course: 

June 3 - June 7       (12:15 PM - 3:00 PM)
July 29 - August 2  (12:15 PM - 3:00 PM)

Individual Instruction
Available weekdays and weekends.
Contact us directly to discuss your needs.

Costs: 
For one course:   $325
For two courses: $595
For individual instruction: $50 per hour plus supplies

Locations: 
Groups classes will be taught on the campus of St. Agnes Academy, 4830 Walnut Grove Road.
Individual instruction locations determined on a case by case basis.

January SAT Scores Are Available Online Now

Did you take the SAT in January? Most scores are now available.

Click here to go get your scores.

Don’t Let Economists and Politicians Hack Your Math

"In this brave new world, in which formulas and equations play a much bigger role than ever before, our ignorance of mathematics is being abused by the powers that be, and this will continue until we start taking math seriously for what it is: a powerful weapon that can be used for good and for ill."

Intrigued? Read on.. http://tinyurl.com/b6ejjt9