by guest author and test prep expert Jon Siegelman, Ph.D.

Most of my students understand math fairly well. and they certainly understand English. Yet they struggle with word problems. What makes these questions challenging is that they require translating English into math. Here are two ways to help with that challenge:

The first is a tip: first translate, then solve. I often recommend solving problems in small steps, but students who try to translate a little, solve a little, translate some more, etc., usually end up very confused or make a careless error along the way. So you should do all of the translating first, before you solve anything.

The second bit of help is a useful tool that any translator seeks: a dictionary. Instead of translating from English to another language, this dictionary is for translating into math.

For many word problems, you can use this dictionary to translate word-for word.

Q. If 3 more than twice a number is 17, what is the number?

3 + 2x = 17

Q. If 15 percent of a number is 8, what is the number?

15/100 X n = 8

Q. If 5 per cent of 20 percent of a positive number is equal to z percent of 25 percent of the same number, what is the value of z?

5/100 X 20/100 X n = z/100 X 25/100 X n (divide both sides by n and just solve for z)

Note that you can convert the fractions to decimals with your calculator if you wish.

To be sure, not every word problem can be solved solely by translation. But the dictionary can still help.

Q. The price of a camera was first increased by 20 percent and then the new price was decreased by 25 percent. The latest price was what percent of the initial price?

Let p = initial price of the camera

Increased price = p + (20/100 X p) = 1.2p

Final price = 1.2p – (25/100 X 1.2p) = 1.2p – 0.3p = 0.9p, which is 90% of the initial price.

You can make this even easier by plugging in for p.  Say p = $100 (often a good value to use on percent problems). After the increase, the camera costs $120, and the 25% decrease means the final price is $90.

Finally, you can combine formulas with the dictionary to solve some problems. For example, if a problem has the words “area of a triangle,” translate them to 0.5bh.  You should also know that the formula for average (arithmetic mean) is avg = (sum of a list of values)/(number of values in the list).

Q. If the average of x and 2x is y, and y is 3 more than 5 times z, what is the value of x in terms of z?

Using the average formula, you can translate “the average of x and 2x” into (x + 2x)/2

(x + 2x)/2 = y

So (x + 2x)/2 = 3 + 5z (and solve for x in terms of z).

The dictionary should come in handy on your test, and it’s so short and intuitive that you should be able to memorize it easily.

Dr. Siegelman has worked as a private tutor specializing in test preparation for 35 years, and he has run Scorebusters Tutorial Service in New York for 23 years. You can read Jon’s blog at satdude.wordpress.com

By Jess Brondo

The US News and World Report just released their annual college rankings, and while traditionally this has been of utmost importance in decision-making, I’m finding that more and more of our students are enrolling in lesser known schools with smaller classes, more personalized attention, and better opportunities after graduation. Immediately below is the national list….how do you feel about rankings?

#1: Princeton and Harvard

#3: Yale

#4: Columbia

#5: Caltech, MIT, UChicago, UPenn, Stanford

#10: Duke

#11: Darmouth

#12: Northwestern

#13: Johns Hopkins

#14: Wash U in St. Louis

#15: Brown, Cornell

#17: Rice, Vanderbilt

#19: Notre Dame

#20: Emory

#21: University of California-Berkeley

#22: Georgetown

#23: Carnegie Mellon,USC

#25: UCLA, UVA, Wake Forest

#28: UMichigan

#29: Tufts, UNC-Chapel Hill

#31: BC, Brandeis

#33: College of William and Mary, NYU

#35: University of Rochester

#36: Georgia Institute of Technology

#37: UC-San Diego

#38: Case Western, Lehigh, UC-Davis, UMiami

#42: UC-Santa Barbara, University of Wisconsin

#45: Penn State, UC-Irvine, UIllinois-Urbana/Champaign, UTexas-Austin

#45: Yeshiva

#50: George Washington

The top 50 national liberal arts colleges are:

#1: Williams

#2: Amherst

#3: Swarthmore

#4: Pomona

#5: middlebury

#6: Bowdoin, Carleton, Wellesley,

#9: Claremont McKenna

#10: Haverford

#11: Davidson

#12: Washington and Lee

#12: Wesleyan

#14: US Military Academy (West Point), US Naval Academy (Annapolis), Vassar

#17: Hamilton

#18: Harvey Mudd

#19: Grinnell, Smith

#21: Bates, Colby, Colgate

#24: Oberlin

#25: Bryn Mawr

#25: Macalester

#27: Colorado College, University of Richmond

#29: Bucknell, Holy Cross, Mount Holyoke, Scripps

#33: Barnard, Kenyon, Sewanee, US Air Force

#37: Connecticut College, Occidental, Trinity

#40: Lafayette, Union

#42: Centre, Franklin and Marshall, Furman, Pitzer, Whitman,

#47: Dickinson, Gettysburg

#49: Denison, Skidmore

#51: Bard, Rhodes

Do you agree with these rankings? If you were to rank schools, what would you use as your criteria?

By Jessica Brondo

Hopefully you’re in the middle of enjoying the last days of summer (and not scrambling to finish your last minute summer projects), but since Labor Day is around the corner, it’s inevitable that you’ll need to start thinking about school and the fall exams. But how do you know if you need to take them again OR if you should take them for the first time.

If You’ll Be a Senior…..

You should really only take the SAT and/or ACT again if you haven’t hit the scores you need for your dream schools. Now when I say this, I don’t mean you need to be at the top of that school’s range, but if you’re at the low-end of the range, you might want to give the test another shot in order to see if you can bump your score up to the middle of the range. HOWEVER, if you have done zero prep this summer and plan to jump right back into school and take the September 10 ACT, you should probably hold that thought. There’s no point in taking the test again if your score isn’t going to increase (or, even worse, go down), and if you haven’t done any prep this summer, there’s no reason to assume that your score will magically increase. You could probably take the October SAT if you plan to commit to doing lots of prep work in September and taking several practice exams.

In terms of how many times you should take the test, it varies based on whether you’re taking the SAT or ACT. The ACT is a score choice exam, meaning that you don’t have to report all of your scores to colleges. So technically, you could take the exam as many times as you want and only report your “good” scores. You don’t want to burn yourself out, but I’d say go for it, if you’ve been prepping this summer, even if it will be your fourth time taking the test.

The SAT also offers score choice, but not all schools allow that, so you definitely have to be a lot more careful when deciding whether to take the SAT again. If the schools you’re interested in allow score choice, then test away, but if they don’t, you really want to take several practice tests in September to make sure that your scores will actually improve. The last thing you need is for your scores to decrease.

If You’ll Be a Junior….

You might not want to jump right into taking exams just yet, unless you’ve done a ton of prep during the summer and have been acing all of your practice exams. An ideal timeline would be to take your PSAT either October 12 or 15 (depending when your school offers it) and then take an ACT on October 22. Your PSAT scores are released in December and your ACT scores will be released in November. This will give you the opportunity to compare your SAT and ACT scores to see which test is a better option for you. If you score drastically higher on one test, you should probably focus your efforts on prepping for that test, rather than dividing your time between two exams. Then you should aim to take the exam again in the spring.

Hope this helps. Which tests are you taking in the fall?

By Jessica Brondo

The Common App just released its application for the 2011-2012 year.  There are still some parts missing (like individual school’s supplemental essays), but August is the the BEST month to get a jumpstart on filling out the applications.  Below is a sample timeline to get started early:

Week of August 1:

• Register on www.commonapp.org and begin to fill in your student data and add your preliminary schools.

Week of August 8:

• Add all of your activities, create your activity sheet (e-mail info@edgeincollegeprep.com for a great template), and draft your 150-word short answer question about “the activity most significant to you.”

Week of August 15:

• Brainstorm/free write/first draft of your personal statement.  It’s a great idea to speak with family members about this because you can get some good ideas of things you might want to include.
• Make a list of ALL supplemental essays you will need to write for your schools.

Week of August 22:

• Edit your personal statement
• Fill out student data for all school supplements
• Group together supplemental essays that can be used for multiple schools
• Begin writing supplement 1

Week of August 29:

• Draft your second and third supplemental essays and make edits to the first one.

This will give you a MAJOR headstart going into your senior year with the majority of your application completed.  Good luck and as always drop a comment or a question for help with specific issues on your application.

By Jessica Brondo

Many of you are probably well underway with your summer plans by now, but I definitely have a couple of students I know who have really taken to the beach bum lifestyle.  While I am all for a little downtime after a hectic exam season, I’m also a huge proponent of maximizing one’s free time.  And there’s no better time than summer to do some pretty awesome things that you’ll not only enjoy, but they’ll also look great on your college applications.  Here are 8 great things you can do this summer (ASIDE from working on your tan

1.  Get Out(side) and Volunteer

~Most students don’t have enough community service on their activity sheets and it is definitely one of the top things colleges are looking for in their applicants.  Summer is a great time to pack in a LOT of hours and it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be inside candy-striping at a hospital (although that is a great option for any of you pre-Meds out there).  If the thought of being inside when the sun is shining makes you cringe, think about outdoor volunteer options.  Anything dealing with beach/park clean-ups or building houses/playgrounds/community gardens will definitely get you outside.  If it’s kids you love, try volunteering for a camp for disabled children or become a “buddy” for a special needs child at a mixed camp.  Not only will you probably have a great time, but you will feel SO good about what you’re doing every day (and will have a pretty sweet tan by the end of the summer).

2.  Read something for fun

~I know this sounds crazy considering the proliferation of sparknotes, cliffs notes, and other tricks to minimize the amount you need to read over the summer, but you might actually find reading enjoyable when you’re reading something that interested you (CRAZY!).  If you’re a sports junkie, read a biography of one of the greats.  If you’re a sucker for sappy love stories, read the newest chick lit book on the best seller list.  Think about what kind of movies you like and go to that section in the bookstore and I’m SURE you’ll find something fantastic.

3.  Try something NEW!

~I’m sure there are at least 10 things you’re dying to try/learn how to do, and what better time to test ‘em out than the summer.  Whether you’ve always dreamt of being a surfer, or want to get more flexible in yoga, or want to try your hand at cooking or painting, there’s no better time than the present.  Get out there find a class or take some lessons, and who knows you might just discover your new passion (AND will probably have a great college essay topic in the process).

4.  Get a Job

~You might think that searching hot dogs at the snack bar or landscaping or waiting tables would add NOTHING to your college resume, but THINK AGAIN. I can’t stress enough how important JOBS are on your resume, however menial you might think they are.  Colleges love to see students working and earning money and think that it definitely adds to their characters.

5.  Take a college level class

~If you really want to showcase your spirit for learning, or get a sense of what college is actually like, you might want to participate in one of the summer programs at a college.  You can take classes in any number of subjects and can even do pre-Med/pre-Law type classes as well.  It’s nice to get a feel for what you’re in for for the four years after college.

6.  Learn a language

~If you’re really into learning languages, you might want to shoot for an immersion program and stay with a family in a different country.  Not only will you REALLY improve your language skills, but you’ll also be exposed to a totally new culture in the process (and will make some international friends to visit down the road!).

7.  Focus on your sport

~If you’re even remotely considering playing a sport in college, then you should most definitely be playing (a TON) over the summer.  Whether it’s private coaching, tournaments, showcases, camps, workouts, or travel teams, you should really be devoting a ton of time to improving your skills over the summer so that the coaches know exactly who you are come recruiting season.

8.  REALX!

~Don’t ever feel guilty about having some downtime to really relax and regroup.  Students’ schedules are jam-packed during the year, so you should really try to build in some time for R&R and catching up with your family and friends.

Here’s to a fantastic summer!  What are some of your plans?

By Jessica Brondo

Now that the spring testing season is finally over, we’re moving into summer application season.  Deciding on a finalized list of schools and filling out applications are complicated enough, so adding new terminology to that already blazing fire of confusion is probably the last thing you want.  I’m going to discuss 2 of the hot button words from last year’s (and most likely this year’s) application season: Score Choice and Superscoring!

Score Choice

Last year, the College Board introduced the option for Score Choice for all students taking the SAT and SAT II exams.  Score choice gives students the opportunity to pick and choose the specific test dates for which they want to submit their SAT scores.  For example, if a student took an SAT in January, March, and May, but only wants to submit her scores from January and May, she CAN!  Similarly with SAT II exams, students can pick scores from individual exams to submit.  (*Students can sit for a maximum of 3 SAT II exams on any given test date.)  For example, if a student took the US History, Math Level 1, and Physics in June and then took the Math Level 1 again in addition to the Literature in October, she can pick US History, Physics, and Math Level 1 (October) to submit to her colleges and they’ll never know her scores from the other exams OR that she even took them.

HOWEVER (and this is a big however), individual colleges have their own policies about Score Choice and how they will use the scores that you submit.  For instance, some schools require that you send ALL scores from ALL test dates while other schools have embraced the score choice policy.  Before banking on using Score Choice, you’re going to want to check the policies of the schools you’re considering here.

The ACT has always been a Score Choice test and you can take the test as many times as you want and then can pick the specific test dates for which you want to send scores.  The great news about the ACT is that schools are now allowing you to superscore it!

But what IS Superscoring?

Superscoring

Superscoring is when you take the highest score from each section of an exam.  For example if you took the SAT twice and your scores were as follows:

January: Reading-540, Math-670, Writing-610

March: Reading-620, Math-580, Writing-620

You would then take the highest SECTION scores to make your superscore:

Reading: 620, Math-670, Writing-620

This is EXTREMELY beneficial for students because it allows them to focus on specific sections for each test date.  Schools never allowed students to superscore the ACT, but just approved it last year when the policy was added to the Common App.  Some schools, however, DO NOT allow you to superscore, so you’ll want to check the above link for specific school policies on the issue.

Best of luck on this Saturday’s ACT!  Write in with any of your other questions about the wonderful world of standardized tests and college apps.

By Jessica Brondo

Most of you know I’m DEFINITELY not an advocate of cramming, but considering tomorrow is the last SAT of the year and next Saturday is the last ACT of the year, you really are kind of out of time in terms of doing any long-term studying, so I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 things you should remember for your last 2 tests…..

1.  When you see a variable, Pick a Number, Any Number and PLUG-IN.  Try to avoid 0,1, or a # already used.

2.  Look out for SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT issues.   And be wary of prepositional phrases in between the subject and verb to confuse you.

3.  Remember that the Shaded Area = Area of the big shape – Area of the unshaded region

4.  BEING = BAD….try to avoid answer choices in the writing section that use the word being, it is 98% wrong.

5. USE WHATCHA GOT, when you don’t know how to solve a math question aka guess and check with the answer choices. BUT, be smart and start with C….The answer choices are always written in order of least to greatest, so if you start with C and it’s too big, you only have 2 left to test out.  Same thing if it’s too small.

6. If you see a pronoun underline, MAKE SURE YOU CHECK TO MAKE SURE THAT IT AGREES WITH THE NOUN IT IS REPLACING.

7. Translate PERCENT questions.  Remember when you see:

%, you write /100 (ex) 60% =  60/100; what percent = n/100

what, you write n

is, you write =

of, you write x (multiply)

8. The words THAN, UNLIKE, and DIFFERED FROM  all trigger parallelism comparison errors

9. The slope of a line can be found when you know 2 points on the line using this equation:

(y2 – y1)/(x2 – x1)

10. Beware of Dangling Modifiers.  For example, take a look at this sentence “Baking while watching Dancing with the Stars, the cookies ended up burning because Melanie wasn’t watching the time.”  The clause before the comma is missing a subject–who was baking? The answer to that question (Melanie aka the subject of the sentence) MUST come immediately after the comma!  The way it is written above is basically implying that the COOKIES were watching Dancing with the Stars, which we know isn’t true.

Most importantly, get a GOOD night’s sleep, eat breakfast!, and don’t be nervous.  You can always use Score Choice (which I’ll explain more in detail in next week’s blog) or take it again in the fall.  If you have any questions about any of these tips or want extra, leave a comment or e-mail me at blog@edgeincollegeprep.com.