Northeastern snobbery alert… We live in a “smart” state. College admissions are national. The SAT is a national test. Why would students in a state that is normally in the top 5 in every educational measure – with our leafy Connecticut suburbs being dragged down by our underperforming cities – not want a national test? […]
Read MoreWith PSAT results coming in, it is time to raise test scores When PSAT results arrive this week for Connecticut high school juniors, college kick-off season has begun. Why? Because as a recent parent of a student from Guilford High School said: “it just got real.” As much as you parents discuss college with their […]
Read MoreEven things that are not fun seem far better if “normalcy” is coming post-Covid. It turns out that “not-striving” is not good for mental health. Those in their teens do best when striving and building. Today, the PSATs came back for Connecticut students and parents are contacting The Learning Consultants related to test prep. The […]
Read MoreCovid has created massive learning gaps. Despite what seems to be collective misgivings about what is taught in school, there is no doubt that the fundamentals (the three Rs reading, writing. aRithmetic) do matter. Perhaps the biggest misconceptions propagated by those who do not understand the SAT (or ACT) is that the test can be […]
Read MoreAnxiety has become epidemic. Even pre-Covid, the number of students (and parents) with diagnosed anxiety had sky-rocketed. The pandemic did not create but merely exacerbated the anxiety trend. Having worked with Connecticut high school students for the past 2o years, I have noticed a significant uptick in the number of students with anxiety related to […]
Read More“Planning for college” has been among the many victims of Covid. Fear causes paralysis about the future. But college is the next step for most high school students. And, talking to their parents (or, sad to say, their high school teachers/guidance counselors) rarely gets them excited. Our SAT class does. Seriously! Among the reasons our […]
Read MoreThere are plenty of people that have had wildly successful careers without attending prestigious colleges. They did so despite not because of the college they attended. My high school best buddy attended Morris County College in NJ for a year because his father would not pay for college until he proved himself. My friend hated being […]
Read More“Do these kids think they will be professional athletes?” This was a serious question from a European educator who was visiting The Learning Consultants and shocked at how much time and energy parents had invested in training for sports. No. But many believe that their children will get college scholarships for sports. Small town Connecticut […]
Read MoreI wrote Motivate Your Son in 2012. The principles are timeless but I certainly did not anticipate the effect of Covid and how much social media would devastate the psychology of teen boys (and girls, but that will be a different post). This is a problem that could have lasting effects well beyond the early post-Pandemic years. […]
Read MoreAs one college admissions official directly told me: the SATs are the only way that we can compare a vast number of our applicants. He elaborated: we have a hard time telling the difference between grading systems at different high schools and parents vastly overestimate how much going to a “good” high school matters. For […]
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