Comments on: Is Studying for the SAT Cheating? http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/is-studying-for-the-sat-cheating/1953/ Helping Parents Homeschool High School Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:45:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Lee http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/is-studying-for-the-sat-cheating/1953/comment-page-1/#comment-2142 Lee Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:51:29 +0000 http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/?p=1953#comment-2142 Lois, it didn't sound dumb at all, and I have heard the sort of question before. It's really just a frustration about the SAT test as a whole, I think, and I'm sure everyone understands that. Then again, that's why I always ask permission to use names on the questions on my blog. That's why sometimes my questions don't have names at all! No worries! I'm glad the information helped. Blessings, Lee Lois, it didn’t sound dumb at all, and I have heard the sort of question before. It’s really just a frustration about the SAT test as a whole, I think, and I’m sure everyone understands that. Then again, that’s why I always ask permission to use names on the questions on my blog. That’s why sometimes my questions don’t have names at all! No worries! I’m glad the information helped.
Blessings,
Lee

]]> By: Lois http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/is-studying-for-the-sat-cheating/1953/comment-page-1/#comment-2141 Lois Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:45:40 +0000 http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/?p=1953#comment-2141 When you read yourself on someone's blog, you always see what a doofus you sound like! (Tee-hee!) I in no way meant to imply that people who study for a test are cheating, but that's certainly what I sounded like. All I meant was, if I study class notes, attend lectures, read the book, I should do fine on the professor's test. However, if someone gets ahold of last year's test copy, or somehow finds out what's going to be on the test, and gets a better score than I do, that isn't right. As I see it now, the ACT/SAT concept has radically changed over the last 20 years. When I took it, it was to test your aptitude/readiness for college work. There weren't any classes or other helps you could get---you just took it and did your best and hoped you had taken all the classes you needed to. Now, it's a competition for college admission and scholarship. Armed with that knowledge, I will now try my best to milk the system without feeling guilty. When you read yourself on someone’s blog, you always see what a doofus you sound like! (Tee-hee!) I in no way meant to imply that people who study for a test are cheating, but that’s certainly what I sounded like. All I meant was, if I study class notes, attend lectures, read the book, I should do fine on the professor’s test. However, if someone gets ahold of last year’s test copy, or somehow finds out what’s going to be on the test, and gets a better score than I do, that isn’t right. As I see it now, the ACT/SAT concept has radically changed over the last 20 years. When I took it, it was to test your aptitude/readiness for college work. There weren’t any classes or other helps you could get—you just took it and did your best and hoped you had taken all the classes you needed to. Now, it’s a competition for college admission and scholarship. Armed with that knowledge, I will now try my best to milk the system without feeling guilty.

]]> By: J W http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/is-studying-for-the-sat-cheating/1953/comment-page-1/#comment-1984 J W Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:02:46 +0000 http://www.thehomescholar.com/blog/?p=1953#comment-1984 Knowing how to adapt to unfamiliar problems and settings, setting goals, and determining what to do in order to achieve those goals is *not* cheating!!! It's strategy. I didn't do very well on the PSAT even though I was a mostly straight-A student. Why? Because I did not have test-taking *strategy* under my belt. One simple fix for one problem - take a jacket or sweater (the heat wasn't working that day). That's something the smartest of students wouldn't necessarily have thought of to improve scores, but believe me, it's hard to perform when you're freezing cold. Not so simple issues were how to take the test itself. Mom bought me the Princeton Review book _Cracking the SAT_ for that. One of my children has used the strategies I learned from that since 4th grade every year for her state-required testing. I'll toss a couple simple strategies out at you. One is to make a mark by a question you don't know (on your answer sheet of course), go on and finish the questions you do know, then come back to the ones you marked. Another is to put a ruler or the edge of a paper along the row of bubbles on your answer sheet (as a mildly dyslexic person, this strategy was a Godsend). Little things like that which actually are very helpful on college finals!!! The book also outlined the types of questions asked, the reasoning behind them, and the methodology for solving them. I tell you it really saved my bacon to study for the SAT!!! By the way, one of the things I like doing when I can't sleep is to take online IQ tests (totally stupid waste of time IMHO). It amuses me that my scores keep improving because I know how to approach the different kinds of problems. My Dad said he did the same thing (only without computers) in order to score well on the IQ test he had to take for something or another. Knowing how to adapt to unfamiliar problems and settings, setting goals, and determining what to do in order to achieve those goals is *not* cheating!!! It’s strategy.

I didn’t do very well on the PSAT even though I was a mostly straight-A student. Why? Because I did not have test-taking *strategy* under my belt. One simple fix for one problem – take a jacket or sweater (the heat wasn’t working that day). That’s something the smartest of students wouldn’t necessarily have thought of to improve scores, but believe me, it’s hard to perform when you’re freezing cold. Not so simple issues were how to take the test itself. Mom bought me the Princeton Review book _Cracking the SAT_ for that. One of my children has used the strategies I learned from that since 4th grade every year for her state-required testing. I’ll toss a couple simple strategies out at you. One is to make a mark by a question you don’t know (on your answer sheet of course), go on and finish the questions you do know, then come back to the ones you marked. Another is to put a ruler or the edge of a paper along the row of bubbles on your answer sheet (as a mildly dyslexic person, this strategy was a Godsend). Little things like that which actually are very helpful on college finals!!! The book also outlined the types of questions asked, the reasoning behind them, and the methodology for solving them. I tell you it really saved my bacon to study for the SAT!!!

By the way, one of the things I like doing when I can’t sleep is to take online IQ tests (totally stupid waste of time IMHO). It amuses me that my scores keep improving because I know how to approach the different kinds of problems. My Dad said he did the same thing (only without computers) in order to score well on the IQ test he had to take for something or another.

]]>