Online Prep Course

You probably know by now that I live in a small town, far from those SAT prep schools.  I am not sure if I would have the time to take my son to those classes even if there were some nearby because I am a single father and have a full time job, and my older son does not have a driver’s license, yet.  When I was preparing for college, I was told that SAT is not something you can study for.  Well, Mr. Kaplan’s gospel had not reached my small town, then.  Now many students prepare for SAT and do well.  In helping my son, there are two choices: buy the Blue Book by College Board or go online.

During his summer vacation, I started my son studying the Blue Book.  He hates it.  He really does.  It is monotonous.  I have him do reading comprehension, or the critical reading part.  He does one or two sections each week.  He still has a lot of time before the actual SAT so I am letting him go slowly. I do’nt want him to burn out before the actual SAT.  I will discuss on this topic more later, and let’s move on to the second option that we have.

Online prep courses can be very effective, especially the writing part.  I have not had my son enroll in any online courses, yet, so I am giving my ideas to you here without any experience.  If someone misses certain types of math problems, he needs to practice many similar problems in order to be comfortable.  For the reading and sentence completion parts, I think most people can do it alone.  My son is doing it alone.  He just needs to read a lot of passages and answer questions from those passages.  However, the writing part requires the help of teachers.  Writing essays with same mistakes over and over does not help anybody improve writing.  Someone needs to point out the mistakes and help correct them.  This can be done offline and that is probably more effective.  But what if you don’t have someone to help your children with writing in person?

Using an online prep course in writing seems very similar to what we do at school.  We get an essay topic, write about it, turn it in and the teacher hands the essay back to us, pointing out mistakes with suggestions on correcting them.  I have not tried any online prep courses, so I do not know exactly how they are run, but I think they do it quite similar to the way we do it offline, like in school.  You get a topic to write on, write an essay, turn it in and then get a response on the website or maybe in e-mail.  Check out this site to get an idea.  The only problem may be finding the right web site and the right tutor on that web site.  Please make suggestions if you have had experience with any online writing courses, or any type of online SAT prep courses.

Linked web site is only used as an example and I neither endorse nor disapprove it.

Cell Reprogramming

Diabetes Type I occurs as a result of destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas.  For some reason, these insulin producing cells are destroyed by the body of the host.  Without these cells, the human body can not produce insulin and blood sugar level can not be regulated.  So Type I diabetic patients take or inject insulin in order to control the blood sugar level.  If there were ways to prevent the self-destruction of the insulin producing cells, or ways to restore them, Type I diabetes will be put under control.

Some Harvard scientists have discovered a way to reprogram cells.  Harvard scientists “were able to turn ordinary mouse exocrine cells of the pancreas into beta cells, vital insulin-producing cells that die off in Type I diabetes patients. “  This basically means that they will be able to cure diabetes and possibly many others, including disease that affect the heart and the nervous system.

This experiement has been successful in a mouse model and has not been proved to be successful in humans.  There still seems to be a long way to go before this treatment method becomes practical for humans, but it is a good start.  Its possibilities may include making heart, nerve tissues and other vital organs from ordinary cells.  For further reading check out this article from The Harvard Crimson.

This article was modified from gumresq’s blog with permission.

Flash Card Quiz Program

Memorizing a bunch of facts, such as vocabulary and US states and capital cities, can be daunting.  Let’s say that you are in a medical school and taking the human anatomy class.  You will likely have to memorize a lot of things: different muscles, including their insertion points or nerves, or different bones in the body.  Or a biology class will make you memorize what photosynthesis is, what osmosis is, DNA, RNA, protein synthesis and so on.  You have so little time and have so much to memorize. 

There are different methods in making memorization efficient. Mnemonics and flash cards are undoubtedly very effective.  I will talk about mnemonics in the future and will talk about using flash cards.  Sebastian Leitner suggested a method in making flash cards very efficient when memorizing facts.  Of course, his method is called Leitner method.  You can probably google his name and find a site that explains his methods brilliantly.  What I do with flash cards is similar to his method.

I will have a deck of 3 X 5 index cards with the definition on one side and the meaning on the other side of the index cards.  I go through all of the cards once.  If I come across a card that I can not come up with the definition instantaneously, then I put that card aside.  After going through the whole deck like that, I am left with two groups of cards.  One group (group A) has the cards that I know really well, and the other (group B)has the cards that I do not know at all or know vaguely.  I go through the cards in Group B and again separate the cards.  The ones that I know really well are put into Group A.  The ones that I do not know really well remain in Group B.  Again I go through Group B and repeat as above.  I repeat this step until there are no cards in Group B.  Then I go through Group A or the entire deck of cards.  By this time, the ones I thought I knew may stumble me.  All of these are placed into Group B again.  Repeat as I have done before until all cards from Group B can be placed in Group A.  I repeat all of this again and again until I can come up with the definition on the side of the card from just the glimpse of the word on the card.  The key to this whole process is that you must be able to come up with the definition in a few words of your own.

As I repeat this process, my mind is working hard and fast.  After a 30 minute session, I sometimes get dizzy.  Some people told me that they got headaches.  So, use this method at your own risk.  But this method is very efficient.  You can memorize so much in so little time.  Making flash cards takes time, but making them also helps you learn and memorize.  To save time, I print the words and definition onto a table in a word processing software, such as MS Word.  The table has two columns.  One has the words and the other definitions (or whatever).  I print out the table.  Cut them into rows so that small strips of paper have words and definitions.  Then I fold them.  Then, I mix them up so that I never memorize them in order.

There is an easy way to do something like this.  You can try pre-made SAT type vocab testing at Free Rice dot com  or you can make your own quizzes on your computer or Palm (Check out Quizz-buddy under educational softwares on the right side).

Early Look at College Application Forms

It is a good idea to have an early look at the application forms of the colleges that your children might be interested in.  It can be a big surprise if you look at the application forms just before applying to the colleges.  These forms ask about things that you may have never thought about.  Let’s have a closer look at Harvard’s forms, for example.

From their web site, you can download 6 PDF files.  In addition to the common application form, there are online supplements, school report, teacher evaluation, mid-year report and, of course, welcome instructions.  If you look at the teacher evaluation form, you will get a glimpse of how teachers will evaluate your children.  In other forms, they ask about summer experiences, any summer schools, awards and so on.

As some professional admissions advisors recommend, if you want to put your children’s case together and present it in a way that will make your children stand out from the rest, you should look at the application forms early, even before the 9th grade.  You can “reverse engineer,” if you will, and have your children do activities that will allow them to fill in all the blanks in application forms and leave nothing to be desired. 

However, do not try to fit your children into the type of people colleges look for.  After reading and studying about college applications, I learned that you should do things that are enjoyable and be successful at doing them.  Then, the good colleges will want you to come.  So, take a look at the application forms early and keep your children busy.  It will keep them busy and keep them out of trouble, at least.

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

College Ranking and Selection

Well, Harvard is on top of the list.  Then come Princeton, Yale and so on.   Does it really matter how US News people rank the colleges in the US?  They do give us some objective data, the usual scores, acceptance rates and so on.  Rankings based on numbers alone can be misleading, in selecting the right college for your children, or yourself.  Studying at a top ranked schools can be challenging and rewarding.  Should you try to get into one the top ranked schools?

“Dropping the H-Bomb” is what the Harvard students call it when they let people know that they attend Harvard, and it sounds so cool.  Tons of people would do anything to be able to say it.  Am I trying to put my children into Harvard or Princeton?  Not really.  I want my children to attend a competitive school where they will get good education and have to work for it.  I want them to learn that hard work in school pays off with good grades and apply that later when they join the work force.  I want them to have the opportunities to really test their abilities and still do well. 

“A stretched mind never goes back to its original size.”  As my older son studies in high school, I want him to be prepared to do well in any college he goes.  I try to teach him how to study, how to manage his time, how to prepare for tests and etc.  I want him to make the best of his opportunities and his talents.  College should be the time to have fun, meet different people and also prepare for the future.  I want him to be ready for the right college that he chooses.  Where will he end up?  Harvard? Yale? UCLA? or???  I will let you know in about 3 years; so, keep reading!

Please, feel free to leave your comment.

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