Admissions Consulting Archives

SSAT and ISEE Test Preparation: Why And For How Long?

January 5, 2021 Brad Hoffman

ISEE test preparation, why do it? How much time should be spent on it? THAT MUCH? Is the ISEE different from the SSAT? Those are really good questions.

The Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) and the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) are used for private school and boarding school admissions to grades 3-12 and skew way above grade level in what they assess, so just learning test-taking strategies is insufficient. Moreover, earning stanines of 7s, 8s, and 9s requires near perfect section scores. That’s why we recommend a nice long runway to prepare for the ISEE or SSAT. Most of our students are engaged in 1:1 programs meeting twice weekly–once with a literacy specialist and once with a math specialist–for 15-25+ weeks, which translates to 45 to 90 hours of instruction (plus homework). Yes, that much and here’s why.

At My Learning Springboard, we believe that ISEE test preparation, and most other preparation for standardized assessments, should be aligned with and extended from a curriculum framework. What we are doing should tie in closely with what your student is learning or will learn in his or her classroom. All learning is enhanced when it is connected with something that you already know and/or something you want to know. Preparing for an assessment such as the ISEE helps streamline that focus towards a multi-faceted endpoint; not only does your student solidify their foundational skills, but they extend them while also implementing targeted test-taking strategies. For this reason, we view ISEE test preparation as an opportunity to bolster middle and high school readiness. My Learning Springboard also offers specialized instruction for students with learning disabilities and/or heightened anxiety. These students also benefit from more time to learn, apply, and integrate testing content and strategies.

Over time we have found that the approach to ISEE test preparation that works best for families and students is one that allows for incremental improvements over time. We always start with diagnostic testing so that our recommendations are individualized, and we recommend this planning begin in January, February or March prior to the upcoming admissions season. We need this runway to effectively plan and implement both grade level and above grade level instruction in all areas of the test, including Verbal Reasoning (vocabulary development), Reading Comprehension, Quantitative Reasoning, Math Achievement, and 5-paragraph essay writing. ISEE preparation provides ample opportunity for enhancing executive function skills, such as planning with the end in mind, managing time more effectively, initiating and completing tasks, and controlling impulses and emotions.

Cramming for the ISEE is not effective. Taking the long-view for test preparation–making it a marathon, not a sprint–allows each student to adjust their pace based on numerous factors, such as diagnostic results, learning style, previous experiences, family and school commitments, and time for practice, practice, practice. Taking a longer-term approach allows each student to internalize the grade level material covered in their classroom and during test preparation sessions and firmly establish the building blocks to move towards mastery of above grade level material. Many of our students have commented that due to ISEE test preparation with My Learning Springboard faculty they feel better prepared for their school work and more confident when new material is introduced, especially in mathematics. This extended time frame for test preparation allows for true content mastery and creates a much better long-term value for students and families engaged in the process.

By Brad Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, and Laurie Gross, Educational Consultant and Reading Specialist.

What NOT to Expect from the ISEE

January 4, 2021 Brad Hoffman

Your child has always done well in school, so you reasonably assume that they’ll do well on the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) as you pursue a school transition. So you have your child sit for an ISEE diagnostic test. You fully expect that your child will knock it out of the ballpark, since, after all, they are already reading above grade level and get perfect scores on all of their math tests. You think that maybe they will need only one or two sessions with a test preparation tutor, just to go over some basic strategies and pull in those few extra points.

Your child’s diagnostic scores come back. Your jaw drops. Your child, the one who always exceeds expectations in school, has gotten dismal scores. They have scored around the 25th percentile on all sections of the test. How is this possible? How can you make sense of this?

Simple: the ISEE differs from teacher-made assessments and grade level achievement tests in a few very important ways:

1) Each level of the ISEE is aimed at a range of grade levels and abilities. It’s very possible your child hasn’t even seen some of the material covered on the test yet as it’s designed to be well above grade level and assumes mastery of prerequisite and current school year content.

2) The questions are written in a trickier way. On your school tests, for the most part, the questions resemble the questions you have been working on all along in your homework and classwork. However, some questions on the ISEE are designed to present information in a more convoluted way, so you have to do some more detective work to figure out what the question is asking of you. Moreover, a student has to nimbly move between topics, skills, and concepts with integrated multi-step problem solving, advanced vocabulary, and critical reading.

3) The makers of the test don’t expect you to get every question right. This is probably the hardest thing to wrap your head around, since of course in school, in order to obtain the highest possible score, you have to get every question correct. The ISEE is designed to have questions that really push the edge for a particular age bracket. What’s especially tricky is that the curve for each section varies from year to year and each version of the test presents a unique mix of content that is limited for any particular topic or category, such as geometry or algebraic reasoning. The verbal reasoning section, for example, can only assess a few dozen words out of thousands of possible words.

You want your child to be the best. We all do. But, for some standardized tests like the ISEE, being the best doesn’t necessarily mean getting a perfect score. Slow and steady is the best approach for mastering the range of content presented on any level test (lower, middle, or upper). In addition to learning the content, working on practice questions, and meeting with a test preparation tutor, your child should know what the makers of the test expect from them. Parents and teachers play an important role in helping students to maintain an appropriate perspective about this test and what the scores mean.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard

Educational Planning With A Multidisciplinary Team

January 3, 2021 Brad Hoffman

January is always an important check-in time for our families with parent-teacher conferences having recently occurred and new year’s goal setting top of mind. Most schools have sent the first set of report cards and/or progress reports by now, and those who haven’t will send them this month. In addition, many families have completed or are working to complete the admissions process for this past fall, while other families are starting to plan for the admissions process for the upcoming fall, whether they’re applying for the 2s, preschool, kindergarten, 6th grade, 9th grade, college, graduate school or something in between. Because families are faced with so many considerations and decisions, there is a tremendous advantage to educational planning with a multidisciplinary team.

At this time of year, there are many important questions that our families are discussing with us, including but not limited to:

My preschooler will just miss the cutoff for starting Kindergarten this upcoming fall, what should we do?
How do we manage private school placement if we’re moving to NYC from a foreign country or another state?
How do we change schools if we’re not totally happy in our current school?
What is my child’s reading level and how does it compare with quarterly benchmarking and grade level expectations?
How do I help my child to master their basic facts? Improve math fluency?
How do I manage accommodations for standardized testing, including extended time, typing an essay, or marking directly in the test booklet?
Is a neuropsychological evaluation valuable?
Should I take the ACT or SAT and when should I start preparation? How do we juggle the demands of junior year?
Should we consider boarding schools? If so, why?
What is Singapore Math? Everyday Math? Exeter Math?
How can we enhance executive function skills within the context of the school curriculum and content support?

As a multidisciplinary educational consulting firm focused on supporting the entire educational journey, our executive team and faculty has had the privilege of working with so many great families to accomplish so many targeted goals over our 15 years as an organization, and our hundreds of years of combined professional experience. In each instance, we define success in partnership with families and work toward that shared goal.

There are myriad scenarios that occur for families over the course of the school year and our team is here to help with educational planning through an integrated and collaborative approach. We know results are best achieved when we work as a team in partnership with parents and schools, and we believe in customizing the approach for each of our students and families in order to create an optimal experience.

Please contact our office to discuss your needs.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard

Under the leadership of Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman, a husband-and-wife team, My Learning Springboard offers private tutoring, test preparation, special education advocacy, admissions consulting and school transition support at every level from nursery through college, including specialized school placements for students with learning disabilities and therapeutic school settings.

In addition to their years of classroom teaching experience and consultation with both families and schools, Brad Hoffman is a Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) with speciality designations in mainstream (day and boarding schools), specialized (learning disabilities), and therapeutic school placements. He is also a member of The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS), The Enrollment Management Association (formerly SSATB), the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP), the Association of Educational Therapists (AET), the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). My Learning Springboard is a member organization of the Washington Independent Services for Educational Resources (WISER).

How to Handle the Dreaded Dastardly Deferral Letter

December 22, 2020 Brad Hoffman

It’s the holiday season, you’ve worked as hard as possible to keep up with your schoolwork AND write the Common App AND fill out endless application forms, and the response from your Early Decision school is a blow to the gut: a deferral. You wander around in dismay, devastated, embarrassed, not sure what to do next or how to wrap your head around the possibility that your first choice school has not sent you a hearty welcome!

Do not despair! Let’s talk about what a deferral actually means for a moment.

Being deferred is not a rejection or an acceptance: it is simply another word for the college asking you to wait for a little bit. Basically, a deferral means that the college has decided to hold onto your application while they weigh it against the rest of the applicant pool. For some reason, your application did not leap out of the pile and dance in front of their eyes.

There is still hope.

Now this is where you do have a choice: how do you react to this setback? Do you swallow the raw lemon and gag, or do you make lemonade? At My Learning Springboard, we suggest you learn how to make lemonade, and quick!

There is still some work to be done if you want to see whether you can change that “maybe” to a resounding “YES!!” You thought you were done with this hellacious process? Think again. Now is the time to RALLY!!!

The reality is that for some reason, your application did not stand out, as perhaps it could have, on the first round. So what do you do now? BE PROACTIVE!

Step 1: Contact the Admissions Office

Contact your dream school’s Office of Admissions and ask to speak directly with an admissions counselor, if not the Dean of Admissions. You have nothing to lose provided you plan properly and communicate appropriately.

Before calling, sit down and jot down 3 bullet points – what are the 3 “messages” you want to convey to this admissions person? What is the final take-away point that you would like to leave him/her remembering?

Politely ask why your application was deferred. Engage in a short conversation about it. DO NOT BE DEFENSIVE. Many schools are now expecting these phone calls. But before you call the school, you MUST study their website with a fine tooth comb to be certain whether or not the college has specifically asked students NOT to call. You certainly do not want to jeopardize your deferral by overstepping important boundaries at this point.

Basically, you have 3-5 minutes to begin to turn the situation around. Ask for suggestions. What can you do at this point? What supplemental material could you submit? Reconfirm your specific interest in the school.

In doing so, you are making the school representative, and hence your dream school, aware of your COMMITMENT and your worthiness of an acceptance. You want to convey your sincere desire to attend this particular college.

If in doubt about what to say, contact the My Learning Springboard office ASAP to discuss an appropriate strategy. We are available over the winter break.

Step 2: Write a Letter

Write a letter. How simple! How sweet!

Your goal in writing this short letter? Basically you want to convey your continued interest in this college. Why would it be the perfect match for you? What one quality do you possess that would make this a win-win for all?

Remember, saccharine is NOT the correct tone to take here. This is THE moment to be genuine and honest. Do you want to sound whiny, angry, or petty in this letter? Absolutely NOT. Your goal is to be upbeat and positive!!!

In your letter, you might choose to mention a recent personal or academic development that makes you stand out, like the fact that you just received a good samaritan award for helping the elderly, or that you are volunteering over the holidays in a soup kitchen, or that you have been invited to be co-chair of a new club at school. If nothing like this has happened in the recent past because you have been chained to your desk writing essays, don’t bother making anything up. Your letter must be authentic if you have any hope of swaying the Admission Committee’s minds.

Step 3: Improve Your Test Scores

If you think you could improve your test scores because you believe the scores did not represent you properly, and you think you have a real chance to improve them, SIGN UP TODAY and contact the My Learning Springboard office ASAP to schedule meeting times with a test preparation tutor. We have a number of teachers with availability over the winter break, either in person or remotely.

Step 4: Share Updated Report Cards

Mid-year Grade Reports: Once again, check college websites to see if they ask for mid-year grades. If so, make sure you contact your high school registrar ASAP to request that they are sent to the Admissions Office. Be sure you meet the school deadline for this submission.

Step 5: Organize An Additional Recommendation Letter

Consider submitting one final shining teacher or personal recommendation that addresses your finest qualities and why you would be such a perfect fit for the school. Again, check first to see whether the school will even accept additional recommendations. Many schools do, some don’t.

Step 6: Let Go

This is the moment of truth: you may never receive that much hoped for letter of acceptance from your “dream” school, because frankly, adult to adult here, there is no one perfect school for anyone. Just like you understood deep in your heart that the letter of deferral was in fact not really a “rejection” of you, now you are also beginning to understand there are moments in life when we just have to let go. Letting go is a tremendously difficult, but life saving skill to learn. The only thing we can be certain about in life is that everything changes.

Step 7: Complete All Other Applications

Whether or not you decide to do any of the above, the one thing you MUST do at this moment is make sure all of your other applications are completed and you hit send, even if in your heart you are still holding out hope for an acceptance from your the school you originally thought was your dream school.

Time to be practical. You’ve simply got to RALLY again!

Write the best applications you can. Take another look at the school websites. You might even surprise yourself, there may be an even better match out there waiting for your application — a place where your real value will be seen, appreciated, and welcomed with open arms!!

A final note ~ When you are sitting on the sofa over the holidays with that enormous box of chocolate on your lap, just remember:
You have done your best and we are proud of you!!!

This has been an incredible journey and process of growth for you. You have climbed a mountain and reached the top, whether or not you know where you’re headed next. And therein lies the adventure. Don’t let a deferral get you down!

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Why Studying Grammar Matters

November 13, 2020 alla

In an age of auto-correct and casual texting, it’s common to think of grammar as a rigid set of rules that is unnecessary to study. Often, students have an intuitive grasp of language and what “sounds right” based on years of reading and writing. Educators face similar questions about studying grammar. In fact, debates over teaching grammar have been raging in the United States for the last fifty years. Those who advocate against teaching grammar argue that students will learn grammar in an organic way, through reading and writing. They state that grammar instruction is often prescriptive and focused on rules, thereby limiting student expression. Certainly, there are dreary and constricting ways of teaching and learning grammar, but can we ever separate our thoughts and ideas from the sentences we are using to express them?

When we understand the relationship between words in a sentence, we gain a clearer sense of what it is that we mean to say. Rather than seeing grammar as a “mechanical” layer of writing, we can use grammar to more fully understand the linguistic choices we’re making and their effect on our readers.

Here we’ll take a look at some of the ways studying grammar can help our writing and language acquisition.

Fluency

When we understand the necessary parts of a sentence, we can feel confident about clarifying convoluted phrasing. Let’s look at an example:

June was at the grocery store when she ran into a girl who used to go to her school named Essie, and she bought three avocados and a seltzer.

This sentence is technically correct but reads quite sloppily. We aren’t sure who bought the avocados and seltzer, June or Essie.

One way to clarify the sentence is using a prepositional phrase to situate us in place, adding an appositive to separate the additional details about Essie, and adding in the adverb “then” to clarify the order of actions.

Syntax

Often, complex syntax can reflect a nuanced and sophisticated way of connecting ideas. By studying grammar, we can start to make our sentences more intricate, and more aligned with our critical thinking.

For example, let’s say we are thinking about the benefits and drawbacks of remote learning.

On a first draft, we might write: Remote learning is beneficial for students who can focus better in their own homes. It is harmful to those who don’t have access to technology or who focus better in a group setting.

Then, we decide that we want to directly show the relationship between the benefits and drawbacks and can use transitional words to combine the sentences.

While remote learning is beneficial for students who can focus better in their own homes, it is harmful for those who don’t have access to technology or who focus better in a group setting.

Remote learning is beneficial for students who can focus better in their own homes; however, it is harmful for those who don’t have access to technology or who focus better in a group setting.

Varying syntax also helps the reader stay engaged with your writing. When our language is monotonous, the reader may have a hard time moving through a piece of writing. Even when reading silently, our “inner ear” enjoys musicality, or at least a change of pace between sentences. Studying grammar can open up more choices for us to create dynamic sentences.

Here is another example:

I walked my dog and I got some flowers. I read a book and I called a friend. I took a shower and listened to music before bed.

All of the sentences above use the simple past verb tense. The syntax does not vary and as a result, the sentences sound more like a list of activities than a narrative.

In the revised sentences, both simple past and past continuous verb tenses are used, which makes the day flow in a livelier manner. By adding in prepositional phrases are added, we are not only mixing up the syntax, but also conveying important details. Adverbs help to locate the activity in time.

Learning another language

Another reason to study English grammar is to improve our ability to learn another language. Students often find that having a familiarity with parts of speech, tenses, and other grammatical components can help them transition into learning other languages. Likewise, students often find that studying another language improves their understanding of English grammar. Even when the grammar structure varies dramatically between two languages, understanding these differences can help students avoid common errors. There are many similarities in grammar structure between English and Mandarin. However, English-speaking students studying Mandarin often face difficulty with adverbs and denoting amount. In order to learn Mandarin grammar, it’s helpful to understand where adverbs are placed in English and how “measure words” are used. Once we start studying grammar across multiple languages, we begin to see how the language choices we make are not arbitrary. Rather, grammar is the architecture of language, setting up the foundations – and possibilities – for how we can express meaning.

Where to Begin

The good news about studying grammar is that we can find it all around us. When reading an interesting article, we can try to identify verb tenses or ways that the syntax is varying. When reading a poem, we can consider the grammatical choices an author made, and how they affect the text. Even when casually texting, we can think about the linguistic choices we are making.

For additional resources, Purdue Owl has excellent online resources on grammar and writing. The classic book Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk, Jr. is a helpful guide to writing clearly and concisely. Additionally, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus offers clear instruction on grammar and punctuation usage, as well as detailed examples and quizzes.

By Joss Lake, MFA | Private Tutor and Writing Coach