COLLEGE ADMISSIONS MASTERCLASS Week 6 Video 2- Key (& Not-So-Key) Examinations

All right, welcome back. Week six, video number two. And we're going to talk about all the different examinations that our students get the joy of going through. And before I do that, I want to talk about Alex. Alex is actually a female. I think her name is Alexa, something like that. She goes by Alex. And she's an extremely nice person, very bright, very studious, very focused on her work. And in high school, I had received a phone call from her mother. Most of these calls seem to come from the mothers. So as fathers, we need to do a better job of tuning in on what's going on with our children. And what she was saying is, I'm worried about her, that she is so stressed out that I don't know what to do. And her stress seems to be focused on her upcoming SATs. And I went and talked with her and I could feel the stress when you walk in the room and walk in the room. And I sat down at the kitchen table and she sat across from me. I could feel the tension in the room. And the look I got back from her was, you're wasting my time. I could be spending this time studying for my sat. And as we sat there and she's talking and talking about how she really needs to go and that her SAT is going to make or break her life, 17. That the sat is going to make or break her life, that I need to leave, in essence, in a nice way. I talked to her about some of the stories that I shared with you. And then I talked to her about some of the stories of students that I've worked with who had less than satisfactory SAT grades, who have done quite well. And none of those stories seemed to resonate with her. And as much as we tried to get her to stop obsessing over her SATs, it became apparent that this is where she wanted to direct her focus to the point where everything else fell off the table for her, including her extracurricular activities. She was involved in the basketball team. She decided to quit in order to focus her time her basketball team or on her SATs. That her activities at church fell off the wayside. Her time with her family fell off the wayside. That all of her activities beyond studying for the sat, including her classes, became played second fiddle to the sat. And at the end of the day, she ended up getting her SAT scores back. And she had set the expectations so high that there was no way she was going to reach them. And that's what happened. She ended up with a good score, didn't meet her expectations, but she had this feeling of was it worth it? That all the time she spent studying for the SAT and giving up the rest of her life for what may have been a few extra points, was it worth it? We subsequently had a phone conversation in which she said that she was frustrated that she had spent so much time and had missed out on so much during her senior year of high school. Because what she had done was she was retaking the SAT with this hope that she could drive it up even higher, that she had a nice SAT score here, and that if I could just work harder, I can get it up to here, was her thought process. And then this lift right here, she thought would open doors to schools where she thought she could get into. And what had happened was everything else that was in her application suffered. And because of this being a problem and this not being as high as she wanted to be, she came away with a sense that she had failed. So I tell this story to parents usually because they have to recognize that the SAT is not going to make or break their child's college application. And that message starts with the parents so always asking about the sat, asking them to make sure they study for three to four hours a night for the sat. Making sure that students keep a well rounded approach to their studies, their life, throughout their junior and senior year. And this is where we always see it. The junior and senior year is where we see this problem come up. Especially if a student does poorly on the SAT or ACT in their junior year and they're faced with retaking it their senior year while also applying to colleges, keeping their AP courses going, and doing 38 other activities. So the theme of this entire college admissions masterclass, two themes. Let your story do the selling. Let your story come alive. And number two, less is more that where everybody else is trying to fill up their applications with 38 million things that they're doing that you're focusing in on where you're passionate about and where your strengths lie, and directing the attention to the admissions committee to those strengths. And that when everyone else is stressing out about 58 million other things, you're able to focus your attention on these two things and keep your sanity. That's a beautiful thing. This is a scary thing. And it leads to the problems that we saw with Alex. Okay, so whenever you come out of this course and you're working on your mountain exercise, generating your opening statement, always think about, what can I get rid of in my schedule? Not what can I add. You first need to take things out. What can you get rid of that's inconsistent with your opening statement. Which of these things that are on your list are taking away from your ability to excel in the things that you're passionate about and. And that are going to differentiate you from everybody else. That if everything in here is just a distraction for you, it's a distraction for the missions committee too. And it comes across as being an inconsistent story that takes you away from where you should be. And I see this especially true with the SAT and acts. Okay? The other place you want to focus in on are your AP exams and your SAT subject tests. So these are great ways to show that you are indeed focused in on these areas here. So, for example, we talked about our MIT student, right, who had a love of science to show that, you need to show that you are actually taking the AP exams in those subject matters. You're taking the SAT subject test ideally soon after you took the AP exams in those subjects and anything else. Right. Remember, he has a grade in the English Literature class, may not be so important to take that class. Right? This is a conversation you could have with your school counselor about is this going to somehow drop you down from saying that you took the most challenging courses available? But if it's going to make your life miserable and it's going to impact your grades overall and is inconsistent with your story that you want to tell, that you have a love of science and you make an impact in this world, then you may want to possibly take those classes out of your schedule. So it allows you to focus in on the classes that are consistent with your opening statement and allows you to get your AP exam scores up, your SAT subject scores up in the areas that you care about. This is about keeping your sanity, folks. It's about keeping your storyline consistent, getting rid of things that are distracting and allowing you to focus your attention in those areas that allow you to stand out. And the only way to do that is to make sure you get rid of those things that are taking away from your story. Okay? Get rid of your distractions, focus in those areas, and allows your AP SAT subject tests, sats and acts to stand out. So let me talk about sats and acts. These are the. Look at them as games. Always look at them as games. I've taken seven BAR exams because I like them. I actually like taking exams. SATs and ACTs can be fun if you look at them as games. Stop laughing. It's true. Sats, acts. The question I always get, what should I take? Take either one. I didn't say take both. Take either one. What you want to do is take a practice test. In both of them, you want to take the psat, the baby sat. Right. And in some places they offer the plan, which is the baby act. So through doing these three things under test conditions, obviously these two are under test conditions. I'll generate scores for you. Okay. And you will see usually that you score higher either on the SAT or the act. And I encourage students to do this early sophomoreish year so that they can see where their strengths lie. These tests really are quite different. They really do generate for most students a different score. So if you see, for example, that you score higher on your sat, on your PSAT, or your practice test than you do on the practice ACT or the plan, then you should not take the act. Getting rid of distractions. Here's where you're going to put your focus, right? So now you can focus in on the sat, and then this becomes your focus. What test are you taking? You're taking the test where you're going to score the best. The SAT becomes your focus, and then it's a matter of building it into your schedule at a level that allows you to do it consistently and in a way that's manageable over time. It's the same thing we talked about in the very first video, that once you find where you're going to take your test, it's then a matter of focusing in on that, setting your plan, making sure that you do it when there's no tomorrow on my calendar, right. There's only today. So you're going to set forth your plan, approach it with urgency, most importantly, with consistency. You're going to do it with energy and enthusiasm. You can be energetic. Enthusiastic about tests you can't. I am. Right. It's just a matter of looking at it as a game. And then finally with a level of expectancy. If you approach your sat, at ACT and pretty much anything, any test with a level of expecting that you're going to do well, you're going to do better than if you approach this. If. Oh, my gosh, I can't believe I have to take this. I'm going to bomb this. So true. Set your plan, your study schedule, make it manageable, approach it and do it. Start it now. Don't wait for your month out from your test. Make sure you study consistently. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Slowly, over time. I wonder what an elephant tastes like anyways. Well, and then you do it with energy, enthusiasm. And then do it with a level of expecting. That by doing this, you're going to get the score that you want and it's going to open the doors for colleges where you'd like to go. Okay, now for those students who do horribly in their eyes, maybe on the SAT and ACT practice test, you might have an allergic reaction to taking tests. It's true. Some people just don't test well. The rest of their application might be awesome. Great stories, great extracurricular activities, teacher recommendations, talking about how he walked on water on the way to school. But you can't seem to test well. The good news is that a lot of schools, a growing number of schools, are now putting forth test optional application processes, meaning that you don't have to submit a score. And that list is growing. And where you want to go for that is fairtest.org. that website is a gold mine for this. It lists the schools it keeps very updated. You of course, want to double check the website of the school to see if it's still true. But look there. If you have trouble with these tests and it's making your life miserable and you're turning into Alex, consider these schools. There's some really good schools on that list. And you don't have to submit your SAT and ACT scores. You can submit the rest of your application and that ultimately may win the day for you. So that's one resource that you want to look to if you really do have a problem taking tests. And a lot of people do. I know a lot of very successful people that just have a hard time taking standardized tests. Okay, we're going to take a break, come back in the next video. And in the next video, we're going to actually put this into practice and do what's called the viability test. The next video viability test.