If you’re a high school senior, consider the growing trend of taking a gap year before committing yourself to college. Taking a year off between high school and college has many benefits for self-discovery and personal growth. You’ll find yourself more refreshed and focused on education after taking a gap year to discover your interests. Especially if you’re unsure which major you would like to pursue, a gap year will help you define your academic…
Is your child applying to a parochial school next year? You need to know about the HSPT. The High School Placement Test, or HSPT, is a high school entrance exam taken by students in eighth grade, seeking admission to ninth grade in a parochial high school. The HSPT contains 298 questions divided into five sections: Verbal Skills, Quantitative Skills, Reading, Mathematics, and Language. You have the choice of taking one optional section in Catholic Religion,…
Are you a Boston resident looking for better educational opportunities for your child? Boston Exam Schools provide a top notch education at no cost — the only trick is getting in. There are three exam schools – Boston Latin Academy, Boston Latin School and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. All three accept new students for grades 7 and 9. The O’Bryant School also accepts a few new students for grade 10.…
College can be daunting if you’ve signed up for a full-time course load and are also working a part-time job on the side. Avoid the stress and frustration of juggling all of your responsibilities by organizing your time wisely. Here are a few tips for successfully managing your college workload. Avoid time conflicts by using a planner. By creating an organized schedule for the semester, you can develop a practical routine that you can actually…
Get a jump start on establishing your career by applying for summer internships in your field of choice. While most student internships are based on college credit, there’s been a growing number of companies offering paid internship positions. The most valuable compensation, however, are the professional skills and real-life work experience you will acquire. Since college internships typically run a few months during the summer, maximize your time by taking advantage of the following opportunities: Developing…
Beginning next Spring, there will be new changes to the 2016 SAT exam for students to be aware of. Components for the redesigned SAT will include a new evidenced-based Writing and Language Test, along with a Reading Test. The Math Test has also been streamlined to focus on fewer subject areas. To test college readiness, more emphasis will be placed on the student’s reasoning skills and knowledge. Use of modern language commonly encountered in college…
I wanted to continue with some more strategies for enjoying the writing process. Many parents are tempted to just buy workbooks and have children work endlessly on the technical skills until they master them, but children can write stories before they can write at all, just through illustration. You can add to that by building in words in small amounts, as children get more and more comfortable with the letter sounds and letter formation. Children…
At first, working with your child on writing seems like it should mainly be about letters: letter sounds, letter formation, etc., but you don’t want to only focus on the technical writing skills. From the beginning, writing should be a fun and expressive activity, and the technical skills will develop alongside the more enjoyable elements of writing. I had spoken previously about developing stories and adding additional details, and the following activities are a great…
As I mentioned previously, it’s important for your child to understand that writing has a purpose, so I wanted to list some activities you can do at home that demonstrate the purposeful nature of writing. One thing your child has probably seen you do is write lists: shopping lists, to-do lists, etc. The next time you are writing a list, have your child watch you, and sound out the words as you write them, stretching…
