Friday, March 18, 2016

Let's Stop Contraction Abuse!

When my kids were learning to read and spell, contractions were one of the thing that seemed to trip them up the most. They can be tricky buggers! Trying to explain to a the concept to a child can be a bit difficult. Thank goodness for sites like spelling city that help to make learning about contractions easy and fun.

Now my kids get annoyed when they see a contraction misused. Such as using they're in place of their or your for you're. That happens all too often on Facebook and other social media sites. Quite frankly it annoys me when I see it too.

Perhaps if we raise awareness then fewer people will abuse poor innocent contractions! I mean what did they ever do to these people anyway??

Saturday, January 30, 2016

A Redesign of the SAT; It's Finally here!

It's 2016 and there is a a  Redesigned SAT!!!

The SAT® has changed. Rather than drift off into oblivion, the SAT folk (ie the College Board) changed directions!

In March 2014, the College Board  announced a complete overhaul of the test. It's becoming much like their arch rival, the ACT!  


The new SAT is no longer referred to as the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Its an test of academic skills, not than the old of aptitude or IQ. Basically, it tests what you've learned in Math,  Reading. and Writing. 
  
Prepworks software helps student prepare by both familiarizing them with the test questions, providings strategies for approaching the questions but most importantly, it actually builds the skills that the SAT tests. In some ways, its a course totally focused on the skills that the SAT will measure. 

In terms of knowing the strategy for test taking, here is some of Prepworks info on scoring:

The Redesigned SAT scoring breakdown is one of the most noticeable changes to the College Board’s test.
The Old SAT penalized students ¼ point for an incorrect answer and was scored on a 2400-point system. Starting March 5, 2016, students will no longer be penalized for wrong answers and the composite score (a.k.a. overall score for the test) will use a 1600-point system, pulling from 2 section scores that range from 200-800 points.
The new SAT Score Breakdown:
  •    Math: 200 min./800 max.
  •    Evidence-Based Reading and Writing: 200 min./800 max.
  •    COMPOSITE SCORE = 400 min./1600 max.