Does your school prep you for the SATs?

Test Preparation
1

<p>I go to a school in South Florida, and the only thing they are interested in is these stupid test called the FCATs, and if we get a level 4-5; based on 1-5, then our school gets money. Also, our school encourages us to take all APs, because for every person who takes AP and passes the exam, they make $1,000 on. So, as you can see, my school is compared to a fortune 500 company, that is only interested in making money and that could careless about the employees(the students).</p>

<p>From my knowledge, it seems the Ivie leagues as well as the majority of the highly competitive schools; the Umich, UVA, GWU, UCLA, UCSD, UCB, Washington U, Notre Dame, NYU, etc, take many students from the tri-state area and the Chicago area and only a small handful from the Florida regions. </p>

<p>All the Harvard applicants from my school have been denied, while only one student(All different students, not just one) has been accepted to George Washington University, Northwestern, Brown, and M.I.T.</p>

<p>I talk to my friends who live in New York; Roslyn, Jericho, Half Hollow, and also New Jersey(Livingston) and Pennsylvania(Shady Side) and get so jealous when I hear that a handful of the students have been accepted to the major Ivy league schools as well as the highly competitive; Duke, Cornell, UNC, Wash U, UPenn, etc. </p>

<p>Why is it that the northern public high schools tend to draw in a lot more students to these Ivy league schools? Also,why are there SAT scores so much higher? Do your schools help prep you for these exams?</p>

<p>I don't know. I'm just really frustrated hearing about my friend's and how their friends get into these highly competitive schools and they have the same E.C.s and GPAs as me.</p>

<p>And for some reason, there SATs seem to be a lot higher and they don't seem to be the smartest students in the world? That's why I have come to the conclusion that their school's method of teaching is different then mine and it helps their students achieve high scores on the collegeboards.</p>

<p>Also, I know there are alot of grammatical errors, but I am not trying to impress people with my grammar skills, so I'm not doing word check since this is a forum, so I'd appreciate it if you don't criticize my grammar skills.</p>

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<p>Our school doesn't really prepare us for the SAT. There's neither explicit preparation nor prep through making the curriculum based on reasoning and critical thinking.</p>

<p>That's why every student I know, even those with higher GPAs than I, cannot crack a 200 (people were <em>marvelling</em> at this one girl's 199). </p>

<p>So, my school is essentially in the same boat as you. If you want to do well on the SAT, you must take the initiative and prepare on your own.</p>

3

<p>My school preps us a lot actually. junior year in math you get homework assignments in an SAT workbook and get SAT quizzes. And in english you also get preparation specifically for the psat and sat.</p>

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<p>Yeah, my school typically has the lowest standardized test scores in the state...heh.</p>

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<p>I think kids who go to schools that prepare them for the SATs is at a huge advantage over others. My school never even mentions it except when it's time to register.</p>

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<p>But,</p>

<p>don't forget my other question,</p>

<p>Why do the schools accept many more Northern school kids over Florida, Georgia, and the South schools.</p>

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<p>Well, the South school systems are horrible, may account for some of it. Also, Northern institutions have much more applicants from northern schools, and Florida and Georgia have strong state programs, so most people are happy going to UF or GT.</p>

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<p>True. </p>

<p>But, then why do the Florida applicants get denied? The students who applied to Harvard are ranked #1 and #5 in the class.</p>

<p>And, </p>

<p>I totally think calling University of Florida, "the Harvard of the South" is cocky and so overrated. The "Harvard of the South" in my personal opinion is Emory or the University of Virginia.</p>

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<p>well, people in the north are actually at a slight disadvantage because they have no geographic diversity. then again, being from idaho or south dakota is still better than being from the south. if you're asking why these individual students got rejected, all i can say is admission to top colleges is a crapshoot.</p>

<p>also, id say the Harvard of the South is Duke. That said, who really cares lol.</p>

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<p>Or Vanderbilt, LOL. There are so many other universities in the Southeast portion of the United States that rank higher in academic excellence then the University of Florida.</p>

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<p>Our school doesn't even talk about SATs... No prep, just a small reminder in our agenda..</p>

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<p>where you from?</p>

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<p>Southern California. San Bernardino county</p>

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<p>haha 8888888888888888, same here!</p>

<p>it sucks :(</p>

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<p>ok ok ok ok. what about internationals like canadians? :P</p>

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<p>Living in Florida, they prepare us for the FCAT. Little SAT prep, if anything at all.</p>

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<p>Haha, War Chant is so right. </p>

<p>Still, Florida has many applicants to the NE schools that I know of (Yale guy mentioned this at a session) so a lot of people will get rejected. In the NE even more people apply, so that even more people get rejected, but a more people will get in.</p>

<p>Also, Florida's where they meet up most of their affirmative action targets. Since Florida has a large minority population (even though they're not minorities in my district really) the NE schools will be more likely to admit those and meet it's target of geographic diversity and ethnic diversity at the same time. Just my two thoughts. </p>

<p>I'm guessing you're white, since your name is BruinsJew. In NE there's much more percentage of white people, so that most of those accepted will be white. You might simply not know of a lot of non-whites in Florida. I know plenty of people personally who get accepted to NE schools, but it might be harder for non-minorities to make it in Florida than other places.</p>

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<p>Being a Jew, and my school being 95 caucasian, and 60 percent jewish. I dont know. The hispanic population has reached its maximum in Florida. I definitely agree that in Dade County and even Broward, the minority rate is at its all time high. But, I go an "A" rated school and we've many special programs such as the Scripps Biotech Academy and the Saturday Gilder Lehrman Academy. We get number one on FCATs in Palm Beach County and we still have no luck at the Ivy leagues. And from my understanding, my friends classes have like 440 students and mine has 100 more, but we get like a very small fraction compared to their schools of acceptances to Harvard, Yale, UPenn, Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia,etc.</p>

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<p>haven't read all the posts yet...but I am a New Yorker...and I want to comment on the first post by OP.</p>

<p>Northern Public Schools are among the best in the nation-look at the rankings. It's pretty amazing, I know that like 20 out of the top 100 are in JUST new york. </p>

<p>Why New York? It's the people. When I get standarized tests back, the New York percentile is a WHOLE lot lower than national, etc. It's because people move to new york, and have to pay high high taxes. High taxes do two things: 1) Only people with high-paying jobs (arguably smarter than average bear) can live there 2) lots of $$ for great teachers </p>

<p>New York City is a different story altogether-I don't know if that's what you're referring to, necessarily-you have to take a test to get into Stuvyesvant (sp), Bronx Science, etc. </p>

<p>Don't hate New Yorkers! In fact, it is a lot harder to get into school than from bad states, because there are so many heavy weight applicants. For example, 100 kids may apply and 30 get in, while 2 kids apply and both get dunked from your school.</p>

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<p>In my opinion, a school that teaches <em>to</em> the SAT is no better than one that spends all its time teaching to the FCAT or any other ultimately near-meaningless test. Most of the people I know who've been taught "to" specific tests did fine on the tests, but didn't have the skills to live up to their scores. An SAT score that helps get you into the college you want is all very nice unless you can't keep your head above water once you're actually there. </p>

<p>Like the OP briefly mentioned, I think there's a lot of value to emphasizing curricula that strengthen writing, critical thinking, and problem solving, as opposed to curricula that teach big words, analogies, and 5 paragraph essay writing (which is not to say that you can't learn critical thinking AND big words). This was the route taken at my high school, and while it was stressful at the time (every one of my AP teachers explicitly stated that s/he would not teach directly to the test, even though many schools do it that way), it ultimately worked out for the best.</p>

<p>As for geographic preference/bias, I have no idea, but it is something that stands out to me, as well (actually, in specific reference to FL). It'd be interesting to see actual numbers/percentages, or to compare results of similarly well-qualified applicants. From where I stand, it's little more than speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if numbers backed things up.</p>