Written by Thursday, January 19, 2012 9:00 PM on CBC-TV
Thursday January 26 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/surviving-the-teenage-brain.html
The Teenage Brain – a Nature of Things Documentary on CBC
Aaron Aardvaark Class of ’12 Applys to Ivey AEO : )
Dear Aaron Aardvark
Thank you for your interest in the Richard Ivey School of Business and our honors undergraduate degree in Business Administration – the Ivey HBA. We are happy to see that you have taken the time to open an Inside Track Account.
As the Ivey AEO application deadline draws near (January 18th, 4:00pm EST), we receive many questions from AEO applicants. Below are responses to a few of these frequently asked questions.Ivey AEO FAQ’s
Get ahead with your IB Diploma Program revision this break
Get ahead with your IB Diploma Program revision this break
The festive season is approaching but so is your IB Diploma Program revision. Whilst you might think you have almost 6 months before the May exams, they will be here before you know it.
4 Useful things to do over the winter break:
1. Sort out the workload that’s left. Find out all you have to do in the 17 weeks between New Year and the exams. Mark on a calendar your mock exams, visits, trips, coursework deadlines, holidays…
TIP: In class ask each teacher if they could give you a list – tomorrow – of all the work that’s left to do in that subject.
2. Reduce your revision workload. Take the last month’s notes and reduce them to notecards, mind maps, pictures, single sheets of papers. See how long it takes and how long you will need to revise each subject.
TIP: Make a list of questions for your teachers for when you get back to school – things you aren’t sure about.
3. Work or life? Get a perspective – decide when you’ll work and when you won’t. Try organising work in 80 minute blocks. Include a couple of breaks. Have a definite clear target for each block. Don’t just sit at your desk for hours. Definitely schedule days when you won’t work at all.
TIP: On two days during the holiday get up early and do an 80 minute block of work before breakfast (and maybe take the rest of the day off as a reward …). See if it helps to work without distractions.
4. Exam skills. Exams are strange and unnatural things – you need to practice skills like being calm under pressure, writing fast, planning quickly. Get some past papers for each subject, and practice doing outline answers / plans / bullet point answers – quickly, and even for questions you’d not choose to do in the end.
NYU Expands Testing Requirements for Admission!
NYU will expand the flexibility of their testing policy, allowing both NYU New York and Abu Dhabi applicants to submit alternative standardized tests to qualify for admission.
With the University of Oxford as a model in how a university can be more globally conscious in how it vie
ws testing yet still retain rigorous standardized measures of evaluation, NYU will now allow students to submit any one of the following options to meet our testing requirements:
• The SAT Reasoning Test; orThe ACT (with Writing Test); or
• Three SAT Subject Test scores; or
• Three AP exam scores; or
• The International Baccalaureate Diploma; or
• Three IB higher-level exam scores (if you are not an IB Diploma candidate)
SAT Subject Test, AP, or IB scores must be submitted in the form of: one in literature or the humanities; one in math or science; and one test of the student’s choice in any subject. If final examination results are unavailable at the time of application, predicted results may be sent. Our new policy appears in full on our website.
Yes, our new policy is long and admittedly complicated, but the global reach of a place like NYU – a place with more international students than any university in the U.S. and a university that sends more students abroad than any university, we believe a less “Americentric” policy was in order and we want to allow students from around the world to have a fair shot at marshaling forward their best case forward for admission. Any help you can provide in helping prospective students understand our new policy will be greatly appreciated.
Shawn L. Abbott
Assistant Vice President of Admission
A Definitive Guide to Winning Scholarships
I recently came across this gem of a publication. It is a great reference and primer for students seeking scholarship application advice. It also serves as a wonderful guide to help US college applicants write that winning personal statement. Enjoy.Scholarship_Training_Guide
Creating an Awesome Application Essay
One college’s application essay includes a prompt directing students to write a letter to their future first year roommate(s). This is a great exercise for all applicants to try. It is an effective way for you to jump start your essay writing skills; it is also a good exercise to get to know yourself a little bit better and become confident about putting it on paper.
While I was at my annual conference with admissions officers from across America and around the world, I attended a workshop called “Communicating Stories: Strategies to Help Students Write Powerful College Essays.”
Erica Sanders, an admissions officer at the University of Michigan, stressed that writing style – your authentic home grown writing style, is so very important to develop. Many students will obsess over their style and ultimately come up with very dry, one dimensional statements about who they are. The best essay is the one that jumps off the page – they have a three-dimensional quality about them and show off your personality. Other practical advice included:
• Get Organised and Make a chart. – outline all required essays – both main and supplemental statements.
• Read other applicant essays. Refer yourself to Connecticut College’s Web site, which posts the essays of select admitted students as samples.
• Write a résumé. Before selecting an essay topic, reflect on what you’ve done in and out of school, and what it’s meant to you.
• Make a list of personal traits. Write down the qualities you are proud of and want to convey in your essay. Reflect on what experiences or activities best demonstrate those qualities, for example, optimism, empathy or innovative tendencies.
• Start small. When completing the Common App, work on the short essay prompt before the longer personal statement, because “a paragraph is easier to toss out than a few pages,” and the early writing process may uncover a stronger topic for the longer one.
• Look for inspiration in the everyday. All panelists encouraged students to write about something meaningful, no matter how mundane.
• Keep it short and specific. Colleges don’t want long compositions. They want short moments in time. Do not write about the whole forest when talking about one tree is more compelling.
• Have an editor. A close, trusted editor and an objective, outside reader; your counsellor for instance.
• Finally, don’t get overwhelmed. You’ll be done by January.
More on the ACT vs SAT
After your overall high school transcript, American colleges give most weight to test scores. Over the past few years, I have been observing an increasing number of my students writing the ACT in lieu of the SAT.
The ACT with Writing benefits the majority of applicants. Since the colleges will take your highest scores on either the SAT I or the ACT with Writing, you can let them choose your best score. Also, it can offset a weaker writing SAT I score if you take the writing section of the ACT with Writing. Since the ACT with Writing is a bit less aptitude-oriented, some students do better on it than on the SAT I. Plus, it’s shorter than the SAT I so those who have trouble concentrating for four hours have an alternative.There is no guessing penalty, which means you can fill in every answer instead of figuring out which ones to leave blank.
Some colleges (you have to check each one individually) will accept the ACT with Writing in lieu of SAT Subject Tests, so that is often a very convenient option. In short, you have very little to lose, but could have a lot to gain by taking the ACT with Writing.
Top Summer Pre-College Programs
Want to preview your dream school and improve your admission credentials this summer? Check out these summer programs for high school students at some of America’s most selective colleges and universities…because you can only watch so many Jersey Shore marathons in one summer. Download Top Summer Precollege Programs for Links to a full list of amazing opportunities.
Use this useful questionnaire to help you choose your post secondary subject(s)
If you are still deciding which course and institution might suit you, take the Stamford Test. It is a short questionnaire which can help to match your interests and abilities to possible higher education subjects. Many students find this helpful when trying to make up their minds. While this is used primarily by students who are researching universities in the UK, it is helpful for any student researching what they might take at a university.
CLICK HERE to register and take the quiz
SAT and ACT Preparation Advice
As a new school year is getting/ about to get under way, I thought it would be important to lay out an intelligent timeline our students as far as the SAT and ACT goes.
1. Many Grade 11’s will take either the PSAT or PLAN in the fall. For many, this will be their second time taking one of these practice exams. Typically the PSAT and PLAN are offered to Grade 10’s as practice tests. The one thing we try to emphasize to 11’s is to give these tests 110% effort so that we can learn something when the results come back around December. It is a shame that for many students, who don’t try their hardest on these practice exams, the results are worthless since they are not an accurate indication of their abilities.
2. When the results of the PSAT or PLAN come back around December, 11’s need to go through the questions they got wrong or left blank and try to figure out either what they did wrong or how to answer the question correctly. Most 11’s do nothing with their results. Since these results give a student the most detailed picture of where they can improve, not going through a PSAT or PLAN is truly a wasted opportunity. Of course, many 11’s will need to go through these results with a teacher, friend, parent, or tutor to figure out the more difficult questions.
3. Grade 11 students should consider taking the January and/or May SATs since these are the only spring SATs that offer the Question and Answer Service. This service allows 11’s to receive in the mail an entire question booklet along with their answer key so they can analyze the exact questions they got wrong. Of course, analyzing a prior SAT is one of the most intelligent ways a student can prepare to take the SAT again. For the ACT, the same service is offered on the April and June exams. The ACT calls its service the Test Information Release.
4. This leads to the question “When is the best time for Grade 11’s to take the SAT and ACT?” In my opinion, every Grade 11 should take both the SAT and ACT once on an exam when the Question and Answer or Test Information Release service is offered. For example, a Grade 11 could take the January SAT and the April ACT. The student could then compare his or her scores to determine which test he or she scored better on. The student would then analyze the questions missed or omitted to understand where there is the most room for improvement. The student would then take whichever test he or she scored higher on a second time in the spring of the Grade 11 year. After this third test, the student would hopefully be done. But if the student had to take either exam again in the fall, at least he or she would have the benefit of three full exams to look through to understand where the most improvement could be made.
