In - Your Guide to College Admissions from The Princeton Review

A Student’s View: Still Fighting Senioritis

Jennifer Angelo is a high school senior and a contributor to The Princeton Review’s IN blog.

I am one of the many still suffering from senioritis.

Not that I’m alone. At the moment, everyone I know at school seems to have a case of it. In class, we spend only half of our time learning because it is too hard for the teacher to keep everyone’s attention.

I’m most affected by senioritis during the school day, when all anyone wants to do is take pictures and talk about how high school will soon be over forever. No one wants to look at a physics review packet or a macroeconomics essay prompt.

My strategy for dealing with senioritis is twofold. In each class, I try to stay focused for as long as I possibly can. Then, to make up for the work I don't do in school, I work at home. I prefer to get homework and studying done in a quiet place rather than among the chaos of collective senioritis.

Even though I’ve already gotten into a great college, I still want to do well on my finals. It’s just my personality to want to get an “A.” However, it’s good to know that the stakes are considerably lower now; a “B” won't derail my future.

I only have three weeks left of school. That’s three weeks to deal with senioritis and give my best effort!

The Right Way to Prep for Finals

Want to maximize your study time during finals season?

The College Solution recently posted some great advice on prepping for exams. Check it out here.

Also be sure to check out the IN post on the study techniques scientists recommend.

Surprise: You Have to Retake the SAT

Imagine sweating through the SAT only to be told that you’ll have to do it again if you want to get a score.

According to the Wall Street Journal, that’s exactly what happened to a group of test-takers in New York.

An ETS audit found “numerous infractions” during a recent SAT administration at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn. The 200 test-takers at that location on May 5 have had their scores disqualified. A special makeup-test for them has been scheduled for this weekend.

Click here to read more on the Wall Street Journal.

New Test-Optional School: Ithaca College

Students who are anxious about taking the ACT or SAT may find comfort in the fact that many selective schools are now “test optional”—they don’t require students to submit standardized test scores with their applications. As such, disappointing test scores won’t exclude applicants from the world of selective-college admissions.

Earlier this week, Ithaca College in New York joined the growing ranks of test-optional schools. According to Ithaca’s press release on the move . . .

. . . research on our past applicant pools and the performance of [Ithaca] students demonstrates that a student’s standardized test score adds little predictive accuracy in understanding his or her subsequent success at Ithaca College, beyond the information contained in high school GPA, class rank, and curricular strength. In this respect, our own research confirms findings from studies conducted at many other colleges and universities.

Click here to check out the full release.

Study Encourages Students to Bring Water on Exam Day

A recent study found that test-takers who brought a bottle of water on exam day performed better, on average, than those who brought other beverages—or no beverage at all.

The study, conducted at the University of East London and the University of Westminster, included over 400 undergraduates. Its researchers theorize that water improves test performance by keeping students hydrated and reducing anxiety.

Both ACT- and SAT-takers may bring beverages to consume during test breaks. It seems water would be the savvy student’s beverage of choice.

Click here to read more on PsychCentral.

When Freshmen and Sophomores Should Take the SAT

If you’re not yet a junior in high school, you might feel as if the big standardized tests—the ones that will factor into your college admissions decisions—are still a long way off.

To a certain extent, this is true: you won’t need to take the ACT or SAT until the spring of your junior year. However, if you plan to apply to colleges that require SAT Subject Tests—and many elite colleges do—you should take these tests immediately after you finish the related classes in high school. And many of these classes are given during freshman and sophomore years.

If you want to take an SAT Subject Test this June 2 (i.e., the last test date before summer arrives and you forget a large percentage of what you’ve learned this year), you should register to do so by May 8.

Click here to learn more on the Montgomery Educational Consulting blog.

Five Note-Taking Tips

Final exams are almost here, and students everywhere are cramming large amounts of information into their brains.

If you sometimes have trouble remembering the stuff that you read and hear, listen up: the way that you take notes might be limiting your natural recall abilities.

Some students consider note-taking to be just a prelude to “real” studying. However, if done properly, it can be an important part of the learning process.

Additionally, your notes are never set in stone—you can greatly improve them after the initial note-taking session.

Chegg recently posted five tips for writing and revising notes. Click here to check them out.

June: Last Chance Before Summer to Take Standardized Tests

If you’re a junior, there are plenty of reasons to take the ACT or SAT (or an SAT Subject Test) before the summer begins.

The registration deadlines for these tests are coming up over the next few days. Click here to register for the ACT; click here to register for the SAT or a Subject Test.

Thanks to Montgomery Educational Consulting for the tip!

Homework Linked with Lower Test Scores

Do you feel as if you’ve had mountains of homework ever since you were a little kid?

According to a group of Australian researchers, your teachers have been doing you a disservice.

The researchers found that the more homework students get, the worse they perform on an international standardized test.

Click here to read more on the Huffington Post.

ACT and SAT Revise Their Plans for Student Photos

The ACT and SAT recently announced that, starting this fall, students will be required to upload a photo of themselves upon registering for either test.

A clear product of last year’s SAT fraud case, the photos will be printed on students’ test tickets and reviewed by proctors on test day.

While initial reports also had the photos appearing on the score reports that colleges receive (which would link them with individual students' applications), the New York Times has reported that both the ACT and SAT have backed off this part of the plan.

According to the Times, the ACT has decided it won’t make its student photos available to colleges in any way. The SAT, on the other hand, says it will still make its student photos available to colleges, but only in a separate database (which schools would access if they had a strong reason to verify a student’s identity).

Click here to read more.