By Jed Applerouth
Applerouth Tutoring Services
Beginning this spring, students will need to flex their critical thinking and composition skills when they tackle the new writing sections on both the SAT and ACT. The SAT has been completely redesigned, and the ACT has made multiple updates. As a result, the essay sections for both tests are now completely different from what they looked like a year ago. They are more rigorous than prior versions, however, these tests better reflect the kind of writing assignments students will typically face in college.
To succeed on either writing test, students need to get the basics right first. They need to understand the formats for the new essay prompts, and know what the graders will be looking for in a student's response.
The SAT essay
The SAT essay writing exercise has been transformed from an opinion piece into an exercise in textual analysis and critical thinking; this is similar to exercises on certain AP exams. Students will be asked to read a short (600-700-word) persuasive passage and write an essay response that explains how the author develops and supports an argument.
It is irrelevant whether or not the student agrees with the author (the task of the old SAT essay); the student's task on the new test is to articulate how the author uses evidence, rhetorical devices and structure to support a claim. Students will be evaluated on three measures:

• Reading of the provided text
• Analysis of the text
• Writing skills

To optimize their scores, students will need to:

• Actively read the passage
• Scour for evidence that supports the author's main argument
• Use quotes that demonstrate they understand the author's argument
• Write a structured, organized essay that stays on topic
• Use smooth transitions between paragraphs
• Have an introduction, body and conclusion
• Use a variety of sentence structures
• Skillfully use vocabulary
• Write significantly longer essays

While longer essays typically generate higher scores, students will be evaluated on both the quality and the length of their essay. The College Board, which administers the SAT, has doubled the time (50 minutes!) allotted for the new essay, and will provide four pages (up from two) of paper to write.
The ACT essay
On the ACT's revamped essay, students will get 40 minutes to analyze and respond to three distinct perspectives on a topic that concerns a broad, national issue. Students will be asked to:

• Analyze and evaluate the three given perspectives
• State and develop their own perspective
• Explain why they agree or disagree with the perspectives given
• Support their ideas with logical reasoning
• Support their idea with detailed, persuasive examples

Essays will be evaluated using four metrics:

• Analysis
• Development and support
• Organization
• Language use

To generate higher scores, students must take their critical thinking up a level to identify the overarching themes across the three perspectives. For instance, do the perspectives address tension between change and tradition, or between the needs of an individual versus that of the collective?
Graders want students to critically evaluate the logic of the perspectives, and also to identify errors, assumptions, and potential pitfalls. Students need to organize their essay, use words properly, pay attention to grammar, transition smoothly between paragraphs and vary the sentence structure.
Is the essay optional?
Both the SAT and ACT have now moved their essays to the end of their tests and made them optional. But some colleges might require a writing test. It's best for you to find out how a school uses the writing test in admissions before making the decision to not take it. We always encourage students to write the essay, even if they think their schools won't require it. We've seen too many students discover after taking the test without the writing section that their new stretch schools require the essay. The additional time spent to stay for the essay can save a student unnecessary stress and headaches down the road.
The new SAT and ACT essays raise the bar for critical thinking and analysis, allowing students a chance to show off their thinking and writing skills. Students aiming for a highly competitive essay score would benefit from timed practice with the new forms and corrective feedback. This will help identify strengths and weaknesses early, allowing students to make adjustments and go into the official test ready to hit their optimal score.
Jed Applerouth is the founder and CEO of Applerouth Tutoring Services, an education services company with offices in major metropolitan areas across the country. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Georgia State University, Jed is a Nationally Certified Counselor with a PhD in Educational Psychology. Since 2001, Jed and his team of educators have helped thousands of students across the country optimize their scores on the SAT, ACT, and other admissions tests

 

3. What can you do to bridge the gap?

a. Every student is eligible for the Federal Student Aid program (college loans to the student for which the parents have no obligation).  The loan amounts top out at around $27,000 over four years (with some additional possible up to about $31,000 total).

b. Federal Pell Grants may be offered for students from lower income families.  Those are need-based grants-in-aid, not loans.

c. Draw on resources that present the lowest, possible risk. Some people go to home equity.  The risk is, should something happen to your income down the road, you could lose your home to foreclosure. Obviously, reducing current lifestyle expenses during the college years is the safest option (although not the most pleasant) to free-up extra cash.

Sometimes families are transferring wealth away unknowingly and unnecessarily.  We offer a no-obligation/no-charge audit to help you know.

Interview the colleges before applying.  A formal campus visit is the perfect time for that.  Develop a set of questions that cover the details of things most important to you.  Ask those questions and make certain they are answered specifically. 
 

Campus culture has changed a lot since mom and dad were in school.  Some campus policies are greatly relaxed, others are more restrictive.  For example, words that you may use commonly even absentmindedly  around your home and in your community may be taboo at some colleges. http://(http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6770)
 

 What are the school's Core Values? ( for example:  http://www.udel.edu/prominence/principles.html) 
Learn the details of the specifics behind broad and benign statements of ideals.  How are those values practically applied on campus, in the students' lives?  Remember, you're going to be living at this place for four years.  Make sure it's a good fit for who you are as a person.  The most expensive decision you can make is to transfer colleges.  It adds time toward earning a degree; and time is money. 
 

To reiterate: the college scene, since your parents graduated, has changed so drastically as to be unrecognizable to them.  There is no safe assumption about campus life, about course-work and about costs of attendance. 

Students say the most amazing things.  They say them to us, but the most amazing they reserve for each other.  Among them is, "I'm going to the University of Havagreatime on a full ride."  Also popular is, "I'm going to get a lot of scholarships instead of student loans."  A common delusion suffered by parents is, "We're planning on scholarships to help us pay for college."

 

Students are buzzing about "the four year experience."  The fact that the phrase is repeated verbatim by our students indicates to me that it is the buzz around high school hallways; maybe even in the classrooms.  My question to we parents is, "How much do we want to spend to give our students an "experience"? 

Here's a quick run-down: 

Come back next week to read my concluding words [http://www.succeedwhereitcounts.com/blog], answering the "So what shall we do?" Question.
 

Being the best in the nation is sometimes not good enough.  Consider Tim Tebow [visit website] and the NFL.
Read full story.

One lesson to learn may apply mainly to college athletes and a professional sports career. Another lesson, more widely applilcable, relates to the first question we ask our high school students, "What are you going to do the Monday morning after you graduate from college?" [http://www.succeedwhereitcounts.com]  Put another way, focus on the 40, not the 4 -- the forty years of a working career after college, and not just the four, delightful years of college. 

College is wonderful, and a good choice for many high school students.  College is also an artificially created and sustained community bearing very little resemblance to "the real world."  Just ask Tim! [view story]  

Tim was best in the nation as a college football player, a Heisman Trophy winner.  He competed for two national championships, winning one.  Everything he did in college was with an eye to playing professional football.  Sadly for Tim, he simply did not have the skill set to achieve his goal.  If only, while a scholastic athlete, someone had evaluated more thoroughly his skills and potential, he may have avoided the deep disappointments of the past several years.
 

Too few high school students move into their college dorm with a clear plan for the day after college ends.  Published graduation rates (barely half graduate within 6 years https://nces.ed.gov/-fastfacts/display.asp?id=40) -- and student loan default rates [view stats] approaching 23% lend underscore the reality [read more].
 

At Succeed Where It Counts, LLC [www.succeedwhereitcounts.com] we provide each student with a formal career assessment profile.  We use the Birkman profile, and are happy with it. [http://www.leaprogram.com] 

College?  Know the end-game before the kick-off.

 

Every family should interview any college they are considering applying to.  In the news is a case-in-point.  At least one professor at Washington State University (http://www.wsu.edu) threatens a reduction in class grade, even to the point of failing the course, for students who use certain, common words and phrases.  Those include such ordinary words and phrases as male, female, and illegal alien.  (http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6770) 

 

Whether you find this to be wonderful or horrifying, my point is simply that you must learn in detail what is the academic and social atmosphere of every college to which you plan to apply, and possibly to attend.  Your student must find his or her college a good, personal fit.  Campus visits are also invaluable. Otherwise a transfer may be in your future and an added year of college tuition, room and board and fees. 
 

Make up a set of questions that cover the details of things most important to you.  Ask those questions and make certain they are answered specifically.  

Another example comes from one of my students, a sophomore at a well-known state university.  One of her required courses is "LGBT Families."  Again, if that is within your cultural framework, no problem.  If, however, you would find that problematic as a required course, it is best to know that before applying, much less before matriculating. 
 

One of the points we make with parents is that the college scene, since they graduated, has changed so drastically as to be unrecognizable to them.  There is no safe assumption about campus life, about course work and about costs of attendance.

Succeed Where It Counts, LLC (http://www.succeedwhereitcounts.com) is committed to helping every student find "The Right College, at The Right Price, and to Graduate on Time with The Right Degree."©