Filling out the (online) FAFSA is simpler this year.
Some parents make financial mistakes when planning for college.
And if you don’t want to take out loans, these schools won’t make you.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
paying for it round-up
Saturday, January 16th, 2010what I read with students
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009I started reading Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Guillermo Martínez’s The Oxford Murders with math and science students, because both feature mathematician detectives. But it turns out that everyone, even alleged non-readers, likes these two books.
Students are also more-or-less guaranteed to read three times more brilliantly after breaking the following spines: Great Expectations (Dickens; a masterpiece of irony, laugh and it won’t seem long), Dracula (Stoker; gory, racy, intellectual), One Hundred Years of Solitude (García Marquez; starts slow and maddening, becomes brilliant and obscene, may take ages to read, which is fine), and Kafka on the Shore (Murakami)–or anything else by Murakami (who is going to win the Nobel Prize) or for that matter by any of these authors.
The SAT Reading section, part II: vocabulary trifecta
Thursday, November 19th, 2009Vocabulary looms large on the SAT Reading, not only because it’s tested as such, but also because of the intimidation factor: students get frustrated when reading words they don’t know.
Voracious readers have big vocabularies, so again, reading is awesome, reading saves, etc. It is the best thing anyone can do. But because the SAT has a limited view of what a big vocabulary should contain, students also usually need to study/memorize specific words.
Flashcards help, obviously–I will talk about them in a later post. But they are not an ideal way to learn. Here are some better, lesser-known tools that work for my students:
Flocabulary: A hip-hop vocabulary album. It’s available as a hard version or on iTunes; either way, it’s crucial to buy the workbook as well and READ the lyrics, at least at first, while listening.
The Illustrated WordSmart: A book of cartoon mnemonics. (Full disclosure: I once edited an edition of straight-up WordSmart, a related book. The Illustrated is way better). Feels silly, but it’s not.
FreeRice: A popular vocabulary game that raises money for the UN World Hunger Programme. Under each question, a small link lets you adjust the level. Level 25 is about right for SAT words.
Happy click-read-hopping.
About
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Welcome to Brooklyn Tutor, the blog of Marissa (Mo) Pareles, tutor-about-town. (I also moonlight as a PhD student.) This blog is about standardized tests, college admissions, high school admissions, academic life, college access, and other education matters. I hope you find it helpful, and if you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please ask!
For information about my tutoring services, visit marissapareles.com.
