SAT ACT Test Prep

“I’m terrible on the SATs.” said Kerry, a junior at Choate. As has become routine, I reviewed Kerry’s scores and explained that she had scored in the top 10% of the country.  Far from terrible.  Or -as she laughed when I said it – we would have to redefine terrible to include the bottom 90%! Kerry’s […]

SAT or ACT? While I generally have a great deal of respect for the college and guidance counselors that I know in Connecticut, I get bothered when some provide advice about standardized tests.  Most haven’t even looked at the tests in years and since most are a bit older most do not know much about […]

An article from Forbes illustrates the point.  The creation of The Learning Consultants stemmed from a desire to help students reach their potential. That’s the mission.  “Academic potential” is, of course, our practical focus.  But the real mission is to help students reach their human potential. Our work in becoming the best place in Connecticut […]

“I’m looking forward to studying for the GRE,  Haha!!!”  Gabriella wrote I first worked with Gabriella when she was an SAT student in my Old Saybrook class. She was terrified of big tests. She had created a story that she was terrible at tests based on hearing that she underperformed on the Connecticut mastery tests […]

The college investment is an enormous one financially, emotionally, and energetically.  In terms of energy, parents understandably want to choose their spots when it comes to getting their children ready for college.  And, they don’t like the battle required to get their student-children ready for the SATs. Many parents – not wanting to cause a challenge […]

“We aren’t really sure how to evaluate grades anymore.”  So said a college admissions official to me off the record.   I’ve heard this before – always off the record – as college admissions struggle to decipher what a 3.7 GPA is at schools where the top ten percent of the students have over a 4.0 […]

  Anxiety has become an epidemic.  The reasons are myriad and my take will go against the prevailing wisdom.  Simply put, it is not because of external factors.  The world has not become harder.  But rather, we have become softer.  Softer does not mean worse. I think our generation of parents is more compassionate than […]

Is your child about to enter junior year? Hard to believe but college is right around the corner. Talking to kids about college is a combination of stressful and confusing and about the last thing most high school kids want to discuss. While raising SAT (and ACT) scores has been the main reason our class […]

Small town Connecticut athletes do not get many Division I scholarships.  That proves to be a big problem for parents who have short changed academic training for sports training. The outliers tend to give false hope.  Luke Schoonmaker, an Old Saybrook native who attended Hamden Hall, will go to Michigan on a football scholarship.  Luke – […]

  As I have written elsewhere, I have no interest in debating the merits of using the SAT or ACT for admission but I do have a significant interest in helping our students gain admission to colleges of their choice. Parents are deluged by an overwhelming amount of information during the college process. Some of […]