By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Several years ago, the mom of one of my students expressed her frustration that no one before me told her that her son’s transcript was going to be the most important part of his college application process. She had hoped that his stellar SAT score would more than compensate for..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. In one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, “Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade,” Bart and Lisa are both moved into the third grade. Bart moves down from fourth, because he fails a standardized test, while Lisa moves up from second, because she excels on that same test...
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. There are a few challenges I expect to face with students year in and year out. First, most students will like their Reach Schools better than their Likely Schools, and some of my seniors will try to apply to zero Likely Schools (trust me, that is a no-no). Second, most..
By Nora Lessersohn, A.M. “It was a ____(adjective)____ and stormy night, and I was ____(adjective)____. My ____(noun)____ asked me if I wanted some ____(noun)____.” Remember MadLibs? The game where you fill in the blanks with adjectives, nouns, and verbs to make a funny story? Well, believe it or not, you can look to this childhood..
By Nora Lessersohn, A.M. Unlike most high school students, I knew exactly what I wanted to study in college: Religion. I indicated this on all my college applications, and when I got to campus I never changed my mind. I even wrote my personal statement about a conversation I had with a Henry David Thoreau..
By Paul Rivas, Study Skills Specialist at SMITH RIVAS Study Skills & Academic coaching. Middle school through grad school, figuring out how to earn better grades in less time is the key to thriving in school and life. Only by getting better grades in less time will you have more time to do cool stuff..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. There is perhaps no class requirement as feared and loathed as the foreign language one. Maybe it’s the fact that you actually have to speak in class, or that studying grammar requires incredible attention to detail. Maybe your teacher hasn’t figured out how to make the material fun, or there..