GED to TASC

If you, a friend or family member did not complete your High School diploma requirements you should know that now might be the time to get it. Starting January 1, 2014 the GED (General Educational Development) will no longer be the High School equivalency diploma exam recognized by New York State. Used since 1926 in NYS this pen and paper instrument was offered free to individuals in the State. The State paid the $60 fee the GED publishers had been charging. After Jan. 1, 2014 the cost was going to be raised to $120 for the 2014 version of the GED. That price increase came after Pearson purchased the former not-for-profit publisher of the GED.

Personally, I find that a ridiculous price increase as did the officials in the NYS Education Department. The change to the TASC comes at a time when NYS was already looking to have a equivalency exam that matches the new State educational standards, could be administered on a computer in a phased approach and was cost effective. The TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Completion) fits the bill and is going to cost the State $54 per application. The TASC is going to be developed by CTB/McGraw-Hill.

Recognizing that the change will be a bit dramatic for students currently desiring to obtain their equivalency diploma NYS is allowing individuals to take the GED up to three times this year. This is especially important for individuals who have passed parts of the GED since they will only have until Dec 31 to pass the other parts or they will have to take the entire TASC starting in 2014.

One of the best ways to prepare for the GED is to talk to your local school districts counseling center or BOCES. They can offer advice and often have material for your use. Some even have classes you can attend to brush up on your skills. Other options include books and tutoring. Usually all these options have pre-tests that allow you to assess your strengths and weaknesses thus allowing you to focus your study.

Note: New York State Law prohibits charging people to take the high school equivalency exam and there are currently only 269 NYS Educational Department testing sites.

5 Hottest Tips for Final Exam Preparation

Spring is here and, along with the promise of long lazy holidays, it also brings that most dreaded of trials – the final exams. Whether you have worked hard all year long or are just emerging from your winter hibernation, getting a good grade and keeping a high grade point average starts with good final exam results. Unfortunately, many students just don’t know how to prepare for exams and often under-perform. We are here to set the record straight! Here are the five best tips for exam preparation.

Planning is Everything
Ever found yourself cramming the night before an exam with tons of work to go through and not enough time? This happens to everyone at some point in their academic careers. Don’t underestimate the amount you have to work through and remember that during the exam period, you will be writing and learning a number of different subjects and may not have as much time or energy as you think.

Start by creating a reasonable study schedule. Ensure that you only leave a couple of hours every day for studying over a long period of time rather than a short period of intense studying. Ensure that you have enough time to study everything before the exams. During the exam period, all you should have to do is revise.

Work Smarter not Harder
Reading whole text books and reams of notes just isn’t practical. Get a study group together and divide the text books into sections. Each group member must summarize the notes and pertinent points from the text books. Choose your study partners carefully; select people who will be reliable and thorough with their notes. You don’t want to lose out because your study group is lazy.

Understanding not Rote
Learning things by rote is much harder. Don’t memorize your notes, understand them. To do this read a section or lesson and then close your text book. Repeat the concepts to yourself or teach a friend, a pet or your house plants. Being able to talk through it will help you to remember.

Some rote learning is inevitable and in these circumstances you need to make a poem or use word associations to help you to remember. For example, if you have to memorize the parts of the eye (cornea, retina, iris and sclera), use the sentence; “Come Rain In Summer” to remind you of the names you need to learn.

Mix it up
Understanding your learning style is key to effective exam preparation. Ask your teacher or your tutor for help ascertaining your learning style. Adapt your materials to suit your learning style. For example, if you are a visual learner, make charts, mind maps and infograms to illustrate lessons. Watch videos and draw pictures to help you remember. Use highlighters and colors to flesh out your notes.

Test Prep
Get old exam papers from your teacher. This will help you to practice for the exams and will reveal gaps in your knowledge. It will also help you to understand the exam style your teacher has and to answer the exam questions effectively.

Eat well to ensure that your brain has the fuel it needs to perform well. get regular exercise to keep you sharp and try to get enough sleep.

Good luck for your exams from all of us at Tutor Doctor!

Note: This entry was originally published on April 1, 2013 on the Tutor Doctor Home Office Blog

Killer SAT and ACT Test Preparation Tips

The SAT and ACT tests are probably the most nerve-wracking and important tests you will have to take in your life (no pressure!) While you may feel overwhelmed by the mammoth task that faces you, good planning and plenty of preparation time will give you the scores you need to succeed. Remember; if you don’t get the scores you want, you can take the tests again. Stress is your worst enemy, so take a deep breath and make a realistic plan that works for you.

Be realistic
You can’t cram for this one! Aim high, but don’t set yourself impossible study schedules. Inevitable failures to comply with your schedule will only leave you feeling nervous and will damage your confidence. Instead, be realistic about how much time a say you are likely to study. Leave time for exercise and socializing so that you can recharge your batteries.

Get a tutor
Tutors are a great way to fill in the missing building techniques and skills you will need to pass. You can also ask your in-home tutor to help you identify your learning style. This will help you to compile the information you need to remember in a format that suits you. This means you will be working smarter and not harder and it will save you time. For example; if you are a visual learner, you can video tape your science experiments to remember the process better. You can make infographics and mind maps to improve your understanding. Compiling information in a way that suits you learning style will really improve your exam performance.

Brush up on your writing skills
No matter how amazing your knowledge and skill, if you can’t communicate your thoughts effectively, you won’t get good marks. Write practice essays and short answers to hone your writing skills and ensure that you are able to get your points across.

Exam Prep
One of the biggest problems for most students are the ways in which the questions are asked. The formats for the SAT’s and ACT’s are very different. Ensure that you do as many past exam papers as possible so you can get accustomed to the way in which the questions are asked. Go through the answers carefully to see how and where mistakes were made so that you can improve your exam performance. There are many sites where you can download past exam papers, some of which are listed below.
Remember; there are no short cuts to exam success. Take your time to prepare and you will do much better than you imagined possible!

Test Prep Sites
ULS
Test Prep Practice
SAT Test Prep Review
ACT Test Prep Review

Eat Your Way To Better Grades

When you’re in exam mode, you usually feel stressed, get little sleep and live on coffee, sports drinks and sugary foods. This creates a perfect storm for your brain to throw a temper tantrum and refuse to perform just when you need it most. Would you run a marathon without a good breakfast? No, you’d know to fuel up and give your body the energy it needs to stay on top of your game. Well, your brain is no different. If you want your brain to perform at its peak, you have to give it the fuel it needs.

What happens when I starve my brain?
Your brain may only take up a small amount of your body weight, but it uses 20% of the energy you burn every day. Without proper fuel, your brain functions start to fail. The first thing that goes is your higher brain functioning and this affects your ability to reason and solve problems. That means you won’t be able to understand the questions, formulate complex answers or communicate as effectively if your brain is starved of the energy it needs to perform.

What kinds of foods do brains need?
Like the rest of your body, your brain cannot live on coffee and sour gummies alone. It needs a balanced diet of carbohydrates and proteins as well as fruits and veggies. There are also healthy ingredients that go a long way to ensuring that your brain is firing on all cylinders:

Antioxidants: Toxins called free-radicals collect in your bloodstream and end up in your brain. Here they break down brain cells. The best way to combat free-radicals is by eating foods high in anti-oxidants. There are tons of these in fresh fruit and veggies, especially in berries (and especially blueberries and acai berries), tea, soy, read grapes, spinach, garlic, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and whole grains.

Omega-3 oils: You already know that fish is good for your brain – that’s because it contains oil from the Omega-3 family which helps to improve your memory and brain functioning. The best brain fish is salmon, but you can also find omega-3 in eggs, canola oil, flaxseed oil, wheatgerm and nuts.

Fiber: One of the biggest problems for exam writers is the dreaded crash. If you started your day with a doughnut and a cup of coffee, you’re in for a nasty surprise. About an hour after your breakfast, your blood sugar will crash and you will start to feel tired and lethargic. You won’t be able to keep your eyes open and you’ll find it harder and harder to concentrate.

Ensure that your body has a steady supply of energy by consuming foods high in fiber. Fiber helps to slow the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream which means you will have enough energy to last you all the way through the exam. Foods high in fiber include beans, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds and whole grains.

Following these tips will help make sure you have enough brain power to get through your exams by giving your brain the fuel it needs to succeed.

Be An Exam Superhero!

Image Source: http://tutordoctor.com/blog/blog/be-an-exam-superhero/

No matter how well you prepare for exams, you will only do as well as your performance on the big day. While you are taught everything you need to pass an exam, you’re not really taught how to take tests and this is where many students underperform. If you want to pass your exams with flying colors, then take heed of the tips below.

Be exam ready
Cramming the night before may seem like a good idea, but it’s just about the worst thing you can do. You need to get at least eight hours of sleep so that your brain is performing at its peak. While we’re on that subject; you wouldn’t attempt to run a marathon on coffee and chocolate, so don’t ask your brain to run a mental marathon on junk. Have a good breakfast before you write an exam so that your brain has the fuel it needs to perform at its peak. Exhaustion or lack of protein and carbohydrates will severely affect your ability to think and engage in higher cognitive functioning. Your brain uses 20% of your energy intake – so give it the fuel it needs to perform well.

It’s all in the timing
You should never run out of time in an exam. Start by reading through the entire exam so you know what you have to accomplish. Divide the time you have among the questions and then start. When you have used the time you set aside for a question, move on to the next one. If you have free time at the end, you can come back to it.

Relax… you’ve got this
Anxiety is the enemy of clear thought. If you feel nervous or get worried when you come across a question you can’t answer, take a deep breath and calm down. Skip questions you find difficult to answer and start with those you can so that your confidence builds through the exam. You may feel differently about a question the second time around.

Write clearly
No matter how great your answer is, if the teacher can’t read it, they can’t give you a mark. Write slowly and legibly and answer questions clearly. Leave space at the end of each answer so you can come back and elaborate if you have time at the end of the exam.

Check it twice!
When you get to the end of your paper and still have time left over, check your answers carefully. You may have made a mistake or misread a question and you can save yourself valuable marks if you catch those mistakes before it’s too late.

Let it go
When you are done with your exam, try to put it out of your mind. The exam season is long and its best to not enter into exam post-mortems that will leave you feeling anxious. Rather focus on your next challenge instead.

Take care of yourself during exam time. It’s a stressful period and its easy to get into a cycle of junk food, little sleep and anxiety. Try getting some exercise, eating well and getting some sleep; you’ll be amazed at the difference it will make to your grades.

Five Tips for Final Exam Preparation

Spring is here and, along with the promise of long lazy holidays, it also brings that most dreaded of trials – the final exams. Whether you have worked hard all year long or are just emerging from your winter hibernation, getting a good grade and keeping a high grade point average starts with good final exam results. Unfortunately, many students just don’t know how to prepare for exams and often under-perform. We are here to set the record straight! Here are the five best tips for exam preparation.

Planning is Everything
Ever found yourself cramming the night before an exam with tons of work to go through and not enough time? This happens to everyone at some point in their academic careers. Don’t underestimate the amount you have to work through and remember that during the exam period, you will be writing and learning a number of different subjects and may not have as much time or energy as you think.

Start by creating a reasonable study schedule. Ensure that you only leave a couple of hours every day for studying over a long period of time rather than a short period of intense studying. Ensure that you have enough time to study everything before the exams. During the exam period, all you should have to do is revise.

Work Smarter not Harder
Reading whole text books and reams of notes just isn’t practical. Get a study group together and divide the text books into sections. Each group member must summarize the notes and pertinent points from the text books. Choose your study partners carefully; select people who will be reliable and thorough with their notes. You don’t want to lose out because your study group is lazy.

Understanding not Rote
Learning things by rote is much harder. Don’t memorize your notes, understand them. To do this read a section or lesson and then close your text book. Repeat the concepts to yourself or teach a friend, a pet or your house plants. Being able to talk through it will help you to remember.

Some rote learning is inevitable and in these circumstances you need to make a poem or use word associations to help you to remember. For example, if you have to memorize the parts of the eye (cornea, retina, iris and sclera), use the sentence; “Come Rain In Summer” to remind you of the names you need to learn.

Mix it up
Understanding your learning style is key to effective exam preparation. Ask your teacher or your tutor for help ascertaining your learning style. Adapt your materials to suit your learning style. For example, if you are a visual learner, make charts, mind maps and infograms to illustrate lessons. Watch videos and draw pictures to help you remember. Use highlighters and colors to flesh out your notes.

Test Prep
Get old exam papers from your teacher. This will help you to practice for the exams and will reveal gaps in your knowledge. It will also help you to understand the exam style your teacher has and to answer the exam questions effectively.

Eat well to ensure that your brain has the fuel it needs to perform well. get regular exercise to keep you sharp and try to get enough sleep.

Good luck for your exams from all of us at Tutor Doctor!

Universal Preschool With Parent Education

Reblogged from goodparentsgreatkids:

 

I must admit that it boggles my mind.  I know I should be more realistic. I am certainly aware that attitudes regarding parent education, although mostly positive, do not usually translate to any real action.

I am writing this blog about the recent push by our President to mandate universal preschool. I agree, in theory that children would benefit from extra stimulation and a positive environment in which to explore and thrive.

Read more… 468 more words

Nice post that captures many partial posts I have in my WP draft files. Parents need the support to be better parents and to understand that they are their children's lead teacher.

Adding Another Race When We Are Barely Started With The First?

Image Source: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2012/03/26/11220/race-to-the-top-what-have-we-learned-from-the-states-so-far/

So by now most of us have heard of President Obama’s State of the Union speech and his call for three new educational initiatives. As taken from a transcript of the speech these initiatives are:

1. “Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America”
2. “Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy”
3. “Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.”

So where does that leave ‘The Race to the Top’, or RTT, initiative and fund of the Obama administration?  This $4.35 billion competitive grant program aimed to kick-start many key education reforms in states and districts. It was also intended to create the conditions for greater educational innovation. “America will not succeed in the 21st century unless we do a far better job of educating our sons and daughters,” President Barack Obama said when he first announced the program in July 2009. “The race starts today.”

As described by the Center for American Progress Race to the Top promises to help states and districts close achievement gaps and get more students into college by supporting key reform strategies including:

• Adopting more rigorous standards and assessments
• Recruiting, evaluating, and retaining highly effective teachers and principals
• Turning around low-performing schools
• Building data systems that measure student success

States that applied for the grant also had to show momentum around collaboration and reform as well as promise to work in key innovation areas, including expanding support for high-performing charter schools and reinvigorating math and science education.

Since the challenge was put forward forty states and the District of Columbia applied for funding, and the U.S. Department of Education announced the winners of Phase 1—Delaware and Tennessee—in March 2010. Phase 2 winners were named in August 2010, and they included the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island. (Note: Another seven states received RTT Phase 3 grants in December 2011.

So in the 3.5 years of the ‘Race’ being initiated what impact has it had on our 1000 student school district in NY since it was awarded to the state about 2.5 years ago? The answer would be that while much has changed the impact of these changes on student ability, student college and career readiness, measuring student success and teacher competence are still just starting to take root.  It will take years for these changes to become part of the cultural and social fabric of our academic institution. It will also take almost as long for empirical measures to assess the impact.

While I don’t disagree with the Presidents ideas and desire to move our education system forward I do disagree with adding more federal involvement in education.  Dangling more sticks with carrots hanging on them to promote more change without completing the initial set of changes is only asking for trouble and chaos at the school district level. Pre-K is funny here in NYS because right now Kindergarten is NOT a required level of education and Pre-K is viewed the same. Pre-K is something we do as a school district because we get a state grant of $200K to offer it. That is great, but the program actually costs $250K. So in these tough economic times the elimination of Pre-K from the budget for next school year is a very real possibility.

As bad as NYS is on keeping promises to fund initiatives we know that the Federal government is worse. Letting the Federal Government dictate education and education standards is not in the best interest of students especially if they continue to create these ‘Presidential races and initiatives that are never given the chance to succeed. Infact, estimates are that the standardized state tests that will be given this year will have 60% higher failure rates then last year. How are our children going to feel about that?

 

Acosta's 'Crayons' mural recalls Sandy Hook

Reblogged from Pied Type:

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This 6' × 24' graffiti mural is the work of Gamma Acosta, Longmont, Colo. "Crayons" is his statement about the Sandy Hook school massacre, done a day later. It's gone now, boards and all, to an anonymous art collector who wanted it preserved. Normally Acosta, who paints on his uncle's vacant building, would have painted over it to make way for his next mural.

Read more… 267 more words

I just came across this and just find it really powerful. To me the artist really captured the essence of the pain, suffering and loss.

Volunteer Recruitment

Image Source: http://www.serve.gov/vets.asp

Things I’ve learned about volunteer recruitment:
1.) Volunteers have very specific ideas about what they want to do, and trying to make them do something that does not fit within that very narrow guideline is almost impossible, which brings me to point
2.), which is that volunteering is, for most people, less about the organization they are ‘helping’ and more about themselves. Therefore, it may come as little surprise that
3.) the best volunteers are friends and family.

So the next time you feel like volunteering, why not try asking the organization what they actually need instead of immediately imposing your own idea of what they need on them? This public service announcement is in no way intended to discourage people from volunteering in any capacity. It is ALWAYS better to volunteer than to not volunteer.