The TOEFL Junior is a Standard Test of English created by ETS for young learners ages 11-15. With the ever-increasing number of young international students applying for admission to schools in the United States, this test meets the demand for an English language assessment. There are many types of institutions that can use the information provided by the TOEFL Junior tests to help make placement decisions or measure student progress in English: English-language programs, private middle schools, and schools in Non-English speaking countries.
There are two TOEFL Junior tests: Standard (launched in Oct.2010) and Comprehensive (launched in July 2012). The TOEFL Junior Standard test is administered in paper-based format testing: Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, and Language Form and Meaning. Each section contains 42 questions, and the approximate total testing time is 2 hours, with total score scales ranging from 200-900. The TOEFL Junior Comprehensive test is administered on computer testing: Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Writing. Each section in Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension contains 36 questions, with each of the sections in Speaking and Writing containing 4 questions each. The approximate total testing time is 2:15 hours, with total score scales ranging from 140-160 in the Listening and Reading Comprehension sections, and score scales ranging 0-16 for each the Speaking and Writing sections. For more information about this standard test or our TOEFL Test Prep Programs, you may contact us.
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The SSAT Standard Tests are held on eight (8) Saturdays during the testing period (August 1- July 31). Students should register early to avoid additional late fees and to ensure seating at their preferred test site. Regular Registration will close three (3) weeks before the test date. Registrations are submitted online. Register for your SSAT here.
Creating an #SAT or #ACT study schedule that allows you to pace yourself will help you avoid burnouts.
For many students entering their junior year of high school, one of the most stressful parts of preparing to apply to college is taking the SAT or ACT. When students are inundated with so many different test-taking tips, strategies and services, it can be quite challenging to sift through them all. One of the most important things for students to do in preparation for the SAT or ACT is to map out exactly when they will take the test and how they will study for it. The following are three tips for designing such a timeline. 1. Sign up for a test date far in advance: The SAT is offered seven times per year nationally; the ACT is offered six. Once you determine which test you will be taking, the first thing you need to do is look at the upcoming test schedule and decide on a date to take it. Make sure that you avoid all possible conflicts in the time immediately preceding it. Don't let things that you can control interfere with your preparation during that time. 2. Take the test early: While it would be great if you could reach your target score the very first time you take the test, you will most likely have to take it once or twice more in order to attain the score you want. Improvement comes naturally through repetition. No matter how many practice tests you take, it is difficult to simulate test day conditions before actually experiencing what it's like to be sitting in that test-taking room. It will be impossible to take the SAT or ACT multiple times prior to applying to colleges if the first time you take it is late in the fall of your senior year. With plenty of time left in your junior year, you leave yourself ample time to take the exam once or twice more. 3. Simulate testing conditions: Reserve the last two weeks in your studying schedule for taking a full sample exam, and make sure to simulate test day conditions as much as possible. The closer you can get to feeling exactly what it is like to take the test, the less stressful the real experience will be. For more tips on how to set up a study plan timeline for yourself, get in touch with our experts. Here are some of the top reasons why students need to kick the television out of their bedrooms right now:
Contributed by Joyce Mei, Hunter College HS (Class of 2015)
We’ve heard countless times that the early bird catches the worm, but what happened to slow and steady wins the race? So in terms of applying for college, is it better to rush to submit our applications early? Despite the common belief among teens and their parents, there is no need to submit an application in mid-August when the deadline is in early November or December. It is better to have a more thorough and complete application that handing in an early, rushed application. In addition, college admissions officers have admitted that they do not look at applications until they are “complete” with transcripts and recommendation letters from high school. Therefore, an application submitted in August will not be looked at for weeks until all the necessary paperwork is handed in as well. Submitting in applications early also gives more time for students to worry about if they will be accepted into the college of their choice. Students now also have to stress out about if they filled out the applications correctly, if they wrote their personal statements to express who they are in the best way, and if they change their minds about anything in the upcoming months. Once we hit “submit,” there is no going back. Therefore, take your time and make sure your applications are done right. For more information, contact Lee Academia experts. As you prepare to start the new term, you will need new college semester success tips whether you are coming back or are new to college. Getting ready to start the semester, you are filled with optimism and you are maybe a bit nervous. If you are starting out you feel that you were well prepared and made the right choice and are ready.
You want to start with a clean slate. New notebooks for each class or new folders in your computer—ideally both. You will need to save the syllabus for each course. Review the syllabus carefully and use it to do the following things:
Fill your calendar or planner. Time management is one of the toughest things that students face and it is a key life skill. You use the planner for planning. Planning is not simply recording when you have a dinner date or a paper due. It involves looking ahead and also back. You look ahead to see, for example, when your paper is due, then look back to see where you have blocks of time to work on the paper. You not only impress your teacher, but keep yourself from procrastinating. Other assignments, such as reading a novel for your literature class, may be done in small time chunks. Find out when and where you can find your professor. You want to get to know them so they can be helpful to you. Use office hours. The students who do the best also have the best relationships with their professors. Faculty enjoy the interaction with interested students and helping those who may be struggling to get better. Getting ready to start the semester begin by making a friend of your professor. Find out how the grades are structured. Sometimes there may be quizzes, papers, exams, projects or class participation. See where you are going to have to apply the most effort to get the grades you want. If you know you will need help plan to schedule time at the tutoring or writing centers. Sometimes they are first come first serve and so making an appointment while you are getting ready to start the semester is smart. Doing all these things at the beginning of the semester will assure a good outcome at the end. Stephenie Lee is the founder of Lee Academia Educational Consulting, consultant and the author of "Writing a Compelling College Application Essay: Workbook" and other College series workbooks. She is also an expert on test taking strategies, study skills and college admissions strategies. Find out more about Stephenie at website. Contributed by Joyce Mei, Hunter College HS (Class of 2015)
A crucial part of the college admissions process is the application essay. And we all want college admissions officers to read our application and totally understand who we are from these couple paragraphs that are supposed to capture our essence. One must consider, then, how will a college admissions officer dub you? We must keep in mind that these admissions officers have over 1000 applications to look over and that they will only spend an average of eight minutes per application. Therefore, they will label each applicant with a couple of words that stand out. It is the applicant’s job to make sure that dub is a good one. Here are a few examples:
For more information and advice on writing college admissions essays, contact Lee Academia experts. Students can say farewell to vocabulary flashcards with arcane words like “membranous,” “pugnacious,” and “jettison.” In the new SAT, to be unveiled in 2015, David Coleman, president of the College Board wants to get rid of obscure words and replace them with more common words like “synthesis,” “distill” and “transform,” used in context as they will be in college and in life.
And the math? “There are a few things that matter disproportionately, like proportional reasoning, linear equations and linear functions,” Mr. Coleman said. “Those are the kinds of things we’re going to concentrate on.” He also mentioned that it shouldn't be about picking the right answer, but about being able to explain and see the applications of math. Big changes are coming to the nation’s two competing admissions tests. Mr. Coleman is intent on rethinking the SAT to make it an instrument that meshes with what students are learning in their classrooms. Meanwhile, the ACT, which has always been more curriculum-based, is the first of the two to move into the digital age. In adapting its test for the computer, ACT Inc. is moving toward more creative, hands-on questions. Both organizations are striving to produce something beyond a college admissions test. ACT plans to start yearly testing as early as third grade to help guide students to college readiness. One of Mr. Coleman’s goals is for the College Board to help low-income students see broader college possibilities. Since he arrived at the College Board in October, Mr. Coleman has been working on a fundamental redesign of the SAT, which he announced in February. The test, he said, should focus on “things that matter more so that the endless hours students put into practicing for the SAT will be work that’s worth doing.” As the architect of the Common Core standards — guidelines for what students should learn in each grade — that are being put into place in most states, it is no surprise that he has clear views on what the SAT should test, although he declines to offer specifics because College Board members need to be consulted on every element of the redesign. In 2005, spurred by the threat that the University of California system might no longer consider its test for admission, the College Board introduced with fanfare the “New SAT,” dropping quantitative comparisons and the “warm is to cool as top is to ___” analogies and adding more advanced math, in the process making the test more like the ACT. Competition between the two tests has not let up: for the first time last year, the ACT surpassed the SAT in market share. With the new redesign, the SAT seems likely to inch even closer in content to the ACT, which focuses more on grammar, usage and mechanics than on vocabulary. “Kids need to have a level of ambition,” he said, “because what we find is that absent the intensity of a peer group committed to getting into college, kids just fall away, even a lot of the ones who do very well on the test, and could go to top colleges.” Recent research on how few high-achieving low-income students apply to top colleges, and that the College Board must help ensure that these students get information about colleges they could aspire to and financial aid that would pay for it were considered. “We will consider students who take the assessment as within our care, and that means that sending out a score report isn’t the end of it,” he said. Starting in 2015, the ACT will be available on a computer as well as, for the time being, on paper. Those who take the test on a computer will see a new breed of questions — free-response questions in which students manipulate on-screen images to form their conclusions. In one sample question, students move a plunger on a cylindrical gas tank to change gas pressure and temperature. They then write a few sentences describing the relationship between distance and pressure and between temperature and pressure, and graph those relationships. Many details of digitization remain to be resolved. Which questions will be graded by computer, and which by humans? And because the two versions need to be comparable, just how many beyond-the-bubble questions will be added to the mix? One decision that has been made: content will be unchanged. Indeed, ACT wants to reach ever younger — into elementary school. Next year, it will start rolling out a series of computer-based tests that track student learning over time as well as progress in the current school year, and measure how far above or below grade level a student is in core subjects. Alabama, for one, has signed on to use the tests as its end-of-year assessment for Grades 3 to 8. In the program, parents and teachers will get increasingly detailed reports outlining the skills needed to be ready for college. Contributed by Edmond Loi, Stuyvesant High School (Class of 2015)
Colleges are always on the look-out for students not only exceptional in their academic ability to achieve high grades, but are participators in afterschool extra-curricular organizations as well! There are many extra-curricular clubs and sports that colleges look extremely favorably upon, and they include but aren’t limited to:
Colleges always like students who are dedicated to the subjects they love so much that they are willing to go toe to toe with each other in competitions based around their knowledge in their respective subjects. Math team, Science Olympiad, Robotics, among others, are examples of such academic teams to join.
Community service is a nice way to show colleges that you’re not completely absorbed into your academic work as to ignore your duties to be a benefit to society. Examples of community service include volunteering in a soup kitchen or local homeless shelter.
The arts tend to be more expressive of the character and personality of the student, and colleges, always eager to bring a little more color and diversity to their campuses, always like a student who is able to express their creativity through music, painting, drawing, etc.
Students who participate in student government express themselves as leaders who are capable of handling the responsibility of representing their fellow peers and giving voice to their concerns. Colleges often look very highly on elected student officials. Examples include being class president, vice president, treasurer, etc. Of course, these aren’t the only clubs/extra-curricular activities you could join! There are countless others that are just as respectable if not more in colleges’ eyes. In fact, if you find that there are no existing clubs or sports that suit your needs or you are not happy with, you can always create your own club or sports team! Just make sure to run it by the school administration first. For more extra-curricular activities you could find an interest in and potentially put on your college application, speak with a Lee Academia college counseling expert now. Contributed by Douglas Lee, Case Western Reserve (Class of 2016)
Most successful students share a couple common habits and tendencies. Top students know there are no short cuts to success and that you can always improve and take advantages of the opportunities that are presented. For those of us that aren’t geniuses, here are a couple tips that may help.
Top students are internally driven to succeed. What drives each one is different, be it a prestigious medical school acceptance, a dream job, or personal validation, find one that motivates you from inside and see how you can use it to channel your focus. Setting a goal to achieve and having a plan to follow to reach it may help you stay on track.
Like athletes, top students like winning and coming out on top. There is some thrill and satisfaction when you, for example, come out with the highest grade on a test. Aiming to come out on top may provide some extra motivation for you to succeed.
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Stephenie Lee
Stephenie, having been a tutor/instructor/mentor since 1996, discovered her passion and founded Lee Academia Educational Consulting, LLC. after she left the dental and medical field. She loves teaching/mentoring and counseling her students. Her passion lies in educating others and helping them pursue their educational path. Today, certified in College Counseling and with more than 10 years of experience, Stephenie and her team continues to blog about current updated educational news and events. Archives
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