8 Easy Ways to Get SAT Prep Help

Dr. Patricia Fioriello - July 8th, 2010 1:17 PM PDT

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If you are planning on attending college, you will need to take the SAT or a similar entrance exam. Students who prepare and seek SAT prep help in weak areas often outperform others who don’t take these steps.

1) Students can take a practice SAT and see how they score. You can determine from this score if there are areas that need improvement. Tutoring programs can offer you the opportunity to take a practice test, in some cases.

2) Students can choose from many types of SAT prep help and resources. One-on-one tutoring can be the solution if you don’t have a regular schedule. A tutor can target your individual needs and meet whenever both schedules allow.

3) Meeting with a group of other students to prepare for the SAT can be another option of SAT prep help. This can help defray costs and some students prefer the small group setting. You can still receive individualized attention in a small group.

4) Online SAT tutoring is available today. This option can also be great for students with busy schedules. Students may find it to be less costly than a private tutor.

5) SAT preparation classes are offered in many cities and towns. Young people can search for these online and in local newspapers. These classes are not as individualized as some other forms of preparation, but they do help improve scores. Students who just need some extra confidence may especially find them helpful.

6) Whatever type of SAT prep help you choose, the tutor or teacher should help you determine what areas you need to improve. If you can’t finish the test in the allotted time, you need to work on pacing yourself during the test and keeping track of time versus the number of questions.

7) Some students may not know many answers on the practice test. In this case, they may need to work on content review. A capable tutor will know the content areas and questions most commonly asked on the SAT. The student can then focus on reviewing those areas.

8) Errors may have occurred on the practice test due to not reading carefully. Students can practice reading each question thoroughly and keeping up with their time. A tutor or tutoring service can assist you with this practice.

No matter what your problem area may be, SAT prep help solutions exist. It is definitely worthwhile to look into SAT preparation so you will be able to enter the college of your choice.

About Dr. Patricia Fioriello

Dr. Patricia Fioriello provides quality resources for the K-12 school community. She publishes articles, eguides and ebooks addressing the critical issues in today’s schools. Her three education blogs – DRPFConsults, High School Mediator and Kids Learn to Blog offer a wealth of information, resources and practical solutions for educators, parents and students. Her eguides discuss the most current hot topics in education and her recent ebook, “Teaching Literacy: Keeping Up with the Times” examines the relationship between technology and the way we teach children to read and write. Visit Dr. Fioriello’s writing service, Get-a-Writer to find solutions to your writing needs.

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There's no speed limit (The lessons that changed my life) by Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers - June 24th, 2010 11:10 AM PDT

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Whether you're a student, teacher, or parent, I think you'll appreciate this story of how one teacher can completely and permanently change someone's life in only a few lessons.

I met Kimo Williams when I was 17 - the summer after I graduated high school in Chicago, a few months before I was starting Berklee College of Music.

I called an ad in the paper by a recording studio, with a random question about music typesetting.

When the studio owner heard I was going to Berklee, he said, “I graduated from Berklee, and taught there for a few years, too. I'll bet I can teach you two years' of theory and arranging in only a few lessons. I suspect you can graduate in two years if you understand there's no speed limit. Come by my studio at 9:00 tomorrow for your first lesson, if you're interested. No charge.”

Graduate college in two years? Awesome! I liked his style. That was Kimo Williams.

Excited as hell, I showed up to his studio at 8:40 the next morning, though I waited outside until 8:59 before ringing his bell.

(Recently I heard him tell this same story from his perspective and said, “My doorbell rang at 8:59 one morning and I had no idea why. I run across kids all the time who say they want to be a great musician. I tell them I can help, and tell them to show up at my studio at 9am if they're serious. Almost nobody ever does. It's how I weed out the really serious ones from the kids who are just talk. But there he was, ready to go.”)

He opened the door. A tall black man in a Hawaiian shirt and big hat, a square scar on his nose, a laid-back demeanor, and a huge smile, sizing me up, nodding.

After a one-minute welcome, we were sitting at the piano, analyzing the sheet music for a jazz standard. He was quickly explaining the chords based on the diatonic scale. How the dissonance of the tri-tone in the 5-chord with the flat-7 is what makes it want to resolve to the 1. Within a minute, I was already being quizzed, “If the 5-chord with the flat-7 has that tritone, then so does another flat-7 chord. Which one?”

“Uh... the flat-2 chord?”

“Right! So that's a substitute chord. Any flat-7 chord can always be substituted with the other flat-7 that shares the same tritone. So reharmonize all the chords you can in this chart. Go.”

The pace was intense, and I loved it. Finally, someone was challenging me - keeping me in over my head - encouraging and expecting me to pull myself up, quickly. I was learning so fast, it had the adrenaline of sports or a video game. A two-way game of catch, he tossed every fact back at me and made me prove I got it.

In our three-hour lesson that morning, he taught me a full semester of Berklee's harmony courses. In our next four lessons, he taught me the next four semesters of harmony and arranging requirements.

When I got to college and took my entrance exams, I tested out of those six semesters of required classes.

Then, as he suggested, I bought the course materials for other required classes and taught myself, doing the homework on my own time, then went to the department head and took the final exam, getting full credit for the course.

Doing this in addition to my full course load, I graduated college in two and a half years - (got my bachelor's degree when I was 20) - squeezing every bit of education out of that place that I could.

But the permanent effect was this:

Kimo's high expectations set a new pace for me. He taught me “the standard pace is for chumps” - that the system is designed so anyone can keep up. If you're more driven than “just anyone” - you can do so much more than anyone expects. And this applies to ALL of life - not just school.

Before I met him, I was just a kid who wanted to be a musician, doing it casually.

Ever since our five lessons, high expectations became my norm, and still are to this day. Whether music, business, or personal - whether I actually achieve my expectations or not - the point is that I owe every great thing that's happened in my life to Kimo's raised expectations. That's all it took. A random meeting and five music lessons to convince me I can do anything more effectively than anyone expects.

(And so can anyone else.)

I wish the same experience for everyone. I have no innate abilities. This article wasn't meant to be about me as much as the life-changing power of a great teacher and raised expectations.

Kimo knows how much he means to me, and we're friends to this day. Read his full biography and buy his CDs at his website omik.com.

P.S. On a related note, see my talk to incoming first-year Berklee students.

About the Author

Derek Sivers is best known as the founder of CD Baby. A professional musician (and circus clown) since 1987, Derek started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby was the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients. After he won the 2003 World Technology Award, Esquire Magazine's annual “Best and Brightest“ cover story said, “Derek Sivers is changing the way music is bought and sold... one of the last music-business folk heroes.” In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby to focus on his new ventures to benefit musicians, including his new company MuckWork where teams of efficient assistants help musicians do their “uncreative dirty work”. His current projects and writings are all at sivers.org.

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Tutoring Strategies for Struggling Students

Dr. Patricia Fioriello - June 21st, 2010 11:50 AM PDT

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Tutoring is an effective way to improve reading and writing skills and develop strategies for struggling students. Often the one-on-one approach can work wonders with a child who cannot grasp basic reading skills in school.

• Each tutoring session should include different types of enriched learning activities. Students who learn how to write often show improvement in reading. Spelling and other related activities also help improve reading skills. A good tutor will make the session fun and use many different types of strategies for struggling students.

• A student who cannot think of rhyming words or has trouble spelling an unknown word may have problems with phonemes. Phonemes are the small sounds that make up the English language. A tutor can use fun-filled games and activities to help students acquire these phonemes. If the student is past second grade, a tutor is definitely in order, because these skills are not addressed after that point in school.

• A child may also have problems pronouncing words and figuring out new words. This is also related to phonic skills, just like phonemes. Some schools do not address this in a straightforward manner; a tutor can reinforce phonics with your student based on individual needs. Sometimes students who have the most trouble with reading just need basic phonics instruction to help them get started on the right path.

• Another literacy problem some children face is fluency. Fluency refers to reading smoothly and with expression. A tutor can assist with strategies for struggling students such as timed readings and repetitive practice. The child can also be taught to interpret context clues and punctuation for better reading expression.

• A lack of reading comprehension can be a stumbling block for students. Tutors can teach vocabulary and show students how to organize and remember information that they have read. Increasing reading comprehension assists students on many levels. It even improves math skills!

• If your student is having problems with any type of literacy skill, a tutor can be invaluable. Once a student reaches third grade, it can be very difficult to “catch up”, so these issues must be addressed early. If a child is older, a tutor can fill in gaps and provide strategies for struggling students that schools don’t cover at that point.

As students progress in grade level, it can become embarrassing to them if they have problems with reading. Their self-confidence and self-esteem may suffer. Invest in a tutor and develop strategies for struggling students to move forward with confidence.

About Dr. Patricia Fioriello

Dr. Patricia Fioriello provides quality resources for the K-12 school community. She publishes articles, eguides and ebooks addressing the critical issues in today’s schools. Her three education blogs – DRPFConsults, High School Mediator and Kids Learn to Blog offer a wealth of information, resources and practical solutions for educators, parents and students. Her eguides discuss the most current hot topics in education and her recent ebook, “Teaching Literacy: Keeping Up with the Times” examines the relationship between technology and the way we teach children to read and write. Visit Dr. Fioriello’s writing service, Get-a-Writer to find solutions to your writing needs.

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Taking Music Lessons as a Family

Staff Writer - June 3rd, 2010 3:50 PM PDT

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In the book Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America, edited by John de Graff, there's a statistic that (if true) is absolutely terrifying: an American couple that lives in a dual-income household (that is, where both partners work full-time) will spend an average of twelve minutes a day talking to each other. Twelve minutes. Think about that for a second. That's one-fortieth of the amount of time they'd probably spend at work. Just over half the length of an episode of The Daily Show. At an average careful reading speed, you'd have just about enough time to read this article twice.

And that's how long you can expect to spend chatting to your wife or husband. Twelve minutes.

It's not the only worrying statistic floating around out there, either. It's a fairly well-worn nugget of information that the average American worked 20 percent more in 2000 than they did in 1973, and has 32 percent less free time each week (http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwexmss/Offcampus/March2000/featurearticles.htm), and there has been no increase in the time devoted to leisure activities since World War II. Even though 43 percent of American families claim to eat together at least once a day, there's less time for conversation: sixty percent of mealtimes either have the TV 'always on' or 'sometimes on' (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/12/earlyshow/health/main6086647.shtml). That's without even considering the time taken up with text messaging, phone calls, emails, or even good old-fashioned newspapers and magazines. However you slice it, it's hard to avoid the fact that Americans are spending less and less time enjoying the company of their families than ever before.

Now that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's nothing to say that merely spending more time with your family is the best way to smooth over differences and keep things ticking over -- in fact, especially as children get older, it's important that they do get to spend some time developing into their own personalities without being forced to spend every waking minute with their nearest and dearest. However, it does mean that the time you do get to spend with your family should be spent as productively as possible, to make sure that everyone is getting something out of it. One of the best ways of doing this is to find a hobby that you all share and enjoy equally. In doing so, you'll find that spending time together is a lot more fun than it might be just sitting around the dinner table or playing board games on a Thursday night.

Although a lot of people choose something athletic as a means of bringing the family together -- surfing or rock climbing or even just going for runs -- it's becoming increasingly popular to take classes together, with music lessons being a firm favorite. While it's more common to find that people take individual classes with the same tutor, a lot of tutors will offer the ability for the whole family to come in on classes, teaching everyone at the same time. However, this is generally less efficient, and so a lot of tutors will only teach two (or perhaps three) people at a time.

What are the advantages? Well, beyond having another thing to discuss with your family after the classes are finished, it's a good way to bond over a common goal. If everyone's in the same boat, they know they can discuss any problems they're having with someone who understands exactly the difficulties of learning a new instrument. Even if you don't choose to get involved as a parent yourself, it can be a great way to get kids to bond with each other, especially if you start them early. Musical training of any kind is a good way to train mental and digital dexterity in childhood, and with a good proportion of tutors offering 'saver rates' for people booking classes for more than one person, it can make a lot of financial sense to take lessons as a group.

Whether you've thought about it before or have never even considered music lessons, if you're looking for a new activity for your family to do together, classes in singing or learning to play an instrument can be a great way to bond with your loved ones.

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Top 10 Benefits of Private Instruction vs. Online or Self-Taught Courses

Staff Writer - May 22nd, 2010 3:28 PM PDT

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The internet is a wonderful thing, and it has revolutionized the way a lot of people choose to learn. However, that's no to say it's completely taken over from personal tutoring. Here are ten reasons that private instruction might be a better bet than an online or a self-taught course:

1.  You get more say in who teaches you.

For all the possible courses available online, there's nothing quite like finding someone online or following a recommendation from a friend and getting to see if they're right for you in person, before you start your classes. There are always likely to be more tutors available in your local area, so you can pick and choose one that fits.

2.  There's greater security.

Anyone can claim to have any qualifications online (and a lot of people do). While it's possible to lie about your certificates when you're tutoring in person, it's a lot easier for prospective clients to check... and so as a prospective client, you can feel safer in the knowledge that you're getting what you pay for.

3.  The course is tailored to your needs.

A good tutor can adapt his or her lessons to your needs on a week by week basis. If you're struggling with a concept, it's no problem... you can just spend a little bit extra time on it. With online courses, this often doesn't happen, especially if there are weekly course requirements.

4.  It lasts as long as you need.

If you pay money for an online course, you're in for the full stretch. With personal tutoring, you can decide to cancel at any time, and so you don't end up spending money on classes you don't want.

5.  It's better value for money.

Most online or self-taught courses require a large payment upfront for the course. Overall, it might work out cheaper than forking over however many dollars a week for a personal tutor, but what if the course doesn't work for you? What if it doesn't suit your learning style, or teach you what you want to know? At least if a tutor isn't working out, you have the option to cancel your sessions and find someone else before you hand over any significant amount of money. 

6.  You get the personal touch.

Can you imagine being taught to drive by the use of a correspondence course or a series of YouTube videos? Of course not. It just wouldn't work. Sometimes, you need an actual person there with you, giving immediate feedback on your progress.

7.  There's someone to ask.

Self-teaching is OK as long as you understand what's going on, but what happens if you come across a concept you don't understand? Similarly, online teaching might not be able to properly explain tricky ideas very clearly. A good personal tutor, however, will find the best way to make sure you understand how things work, and will go over it until you do.

8.  A little routine is a good thing.

One of the downsides of tutoring is that you have to make the time to learn. Having said that, this becomes a lot easier when there's someone showing up on your doorstep at the same time every week in order to give you a lesson. When you're teaching yourself, you can set your own schedule, and so it becomes much harder to convince yourself to hit the books rather than watch a re-run of America's Next Top Model.

9.  You don't pick up bad habits.

Yes, it's true, there are different ways of doing things, and you have to find the way that works best for you... but at the same time, it's far too easy to get into bad habits that will actually hamper your ability once you get to a certain level of progress. If you teach yourself or learn online, it's often all too easy to slip into these patterns -- and worse still, when it comes to practicing, you're only making the problem worse. Having a tutor who's there to correct you before these issues become so ingrained in your learning can save you a mountain of time in the long run.

10.  You get to build a relationship.

Being tutored isn't like being in a classroom. You get one on one time to not only learn your subject, but also to build a relationship with your tutor -- a relationship that it's just not possible to get online, or if you're self-taught.

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How to Prepare for the SAT/ACT

Staff Writer - May 10th, 2010 3:19 PM PDT

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If you've got aspirations towards going to college -- and given that 28% of Americans have a college degree, this is a pretty reasonable assumption to make -- the SAT test and the ACT are a big deal. They're the most common means of judging a candidate for a university place or scholarship, and can be the deciding factor in which college you end up at. As such, it's easy to get overwhelmed by it. Here are a couple of tips to help you prepare for the SAT or ACT exams:

Don't panic.

If there's a single piece of advice to take away with you, it's to remember to keep a cool head -- both during the exam, but also before. You're going to need to do some practice papers in order to get the best possible score, which means that you're going to have to spend at least a little bit of time in SAT-mode even before you sit down at the test table. If you're stressed out about it beforehand, it's going to be an absolutely miserable time for you... which, unfortunately, means you won't be working at full efficiency when you're learning what you need to learn. Do some yoga, meditate, even go to see a movie with some friends -- but don't let the SAT completely take over your life.

Practice.

Yes, you need to practice the SAT. I know, I know... you have the PSAT, and it might be tempting to go in blind and see how well you'd do without putting any extra work in, but don't. While you might think it will push you on to do better if you get a low score (and in that case, think of the practice time you've already wasted in not training for the PSAT), if you DO manage to come out with a good score on your trial run, you might find yourself getting lazy and slacking off when it comes to the real thing. It's better to familiarize yourself with the structure, question types and timings of the test beforehand -- multiple times, if you can -- in order to minimize potential upsets later. That way, you can familiarize yourself with the type of questions asked (they usually follow a fairly straightforward pattern), and so you won't have to waste as much time struggling to figure out the instructions on the day.

Practice.

I know I said this already. It's important. Trust me.

Talk to people.

If you're worried about the exams coming up, there are a substantial number of avenues you can go down in order to get help. Your friends, for example, will probably be feeling exactly the same way you are, and talking things through can really help to put your mind at ease (be it in the form of a study group, or just a chat to help see how your own preparations match up to your peers). Similarly, your teachers (or a tutor) can also be a wealth of information just waiting to be tapped: after all, they see people going through the exact same things you're going through every year, without fail. If there's something you don't understand, or if you have any doubts, they're often well worth chatting to.

Use memory aids.

There's a lot of information you need to take into the exam room with you, and so any tips or tricks you have to help out (especially with scientific concepts) are extremely useful. Mnemonics are a great tool to help you keep things in the right order in your mind, but there are a lot of other ways to help you absorb (and, of course, recall) information you might otherwise be struggling with. Consider purchasing a book, or maybe asking the advice of a teacher or tutor for any tips they recommend.

Make the right final preparations.

The night before the exam, get a good night's sleep. In the morning, wake up refreshed, go downstairs, and eat a moderately-sized breakfast with enough liquid to make sure you're properly hydrated. The timings on the SAT and ACT can be a little strict, and the last thing you need is to be distracted by being thirsty, hungry, or tired.

Keep these things in mind -- and work hard at it -- and you should find the SAT and ACT aren't as horrifying as you might have thought.

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Tips for Learning a Woodwind Instrument

Staff Writer - May 1st, 2010 12:18 PM PDT

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When it comes time to choose an instrument, the woodwind section of the orchestra has a tendency to be a little bit left behind. After all, they don’t often make an appearance in the majority of the music we hear in our daily lives. When was the last time you heard a Billboard Top 100 star rocking out with an oboe? Exactly. Most people who choose a woodwind as their instrument of choice don't get the opportunity to jam with friends, but don't worry: there are a couple of things you can do to help ease the learning process.

Find your posture.

Posture is important for a lot of instruments, but for anything that depends as much on the free and unrestricted flow of air as the woodwind section it's an absolute necessity. This varies depending on the instrument, of course -- you're not going to make sweet, sweet music by holding a clarinet in the same position as a flute -- but generally speaking you need a clear, untensed throat and the strength to hold your instrument in position for surprisingly long periods of time. This takes practice and training, but you'll get there eventually, and it will help to make you a better all-round player.

Use the right embouchure.

For most woodwind instruments (with the exception of the recorder, piccolo and flute), the sound comes not from the lips but from the instrument's reed, but all instruments require a different positioning for the mouth. Known as an embouchure, this is something a lot of novices struggle with, but is absolutely crucial if you want to get the best (or any) sound out of your instrument. Because playing a woodwind instrument uses different muscles than are commonly used in day-to-day life, it often takes a while to get these working as well as you'd hope.

Watch people better than you.

Whether it's through live shows or just through videos on YouTube, it's important that you really get to grips with the way other people choose to play your instrument of choice. Watching how professionals (or even experienced hobbyists) get the sounds they manage to produce can help you learn little tricks to maximize your playing ability. If nothing else, it's a great way to introduce yourself to new, skilled musicians, and maybe even spur you on to become that good yourself.

Practice often.

There's an old joke: a couple of tourists in New York ask a guy walking past how they might get to Carnegie Hall. 'Practice, man, practice!' is the reply they're given, and it's the truth. If you're only practicing the minimum that your tutor prescribes, you're not going to progress as quickly as if you burst into the house after school or work and immediately run to pick up your instrument. The more you train yourself, the better you'll get (although be careful not to overdo it... unlike a lot of instruments, too much practicing can cause severe damage to your ability to form the right embouchure, which could throw off your playing ability for weeks or months).

Practice the right things.

Playing full-on pieces of music is awesome, and is no doubt the reason you picked up your instrument in the first place, but if you spend all of your time only playing the music you want to play you're going to find your progress dramatically slowed. As any good teacher will tell you, it's just as important to make sure you train yourself up in playing scales and arpeggios as well. It might be less interesting, but it will dramatically improve your skill level.

Find a teacher.

It's possible to learn all of these things from books or from online courses, but to stop you getting into bad habits (especially if you're only just starting out) it might be worth investing in the services of a professional music tutor who's capable of guiding you through the right way of playing a woodwind instrument. It might cost a little more, but it's a good way to make sure that you don't fall into the traps associated with a new instrument, and result is likely to be better, quicker and cleaner-sounding music at the end of it all.

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