Author Archives: AMJ

Setting up Routines for High School

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Do you know how you actually spend your time?  Gone are the days of my high school life when I was waiting for the bus, I would pick up my book and read.  Now you can fill your time with Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat, read through your texts, Tweet, take 10000 selfies of what you would look like with and without bangs.  And before you know it, that project that was due two weeks from now is due tomorrow.  There is no possible way you can get it done in time so you fake a stomachache and stay home to finish the project. 

 

How did this happen? You started the year off awesome!  You wrote all the due dates in that school planner, you started reading ahead, heck, you even took a pre-course course for your hardest classes!  But now you are so behind, you are looking forward to Thanksgiving break so you can “catch up.” 

 

Don’t worry, all is not lost.  You can catch up before Thanksgiving.  Here are a few things you can do in order to better manage your time.

 

For the next two days, start a log of all the things you do and how much time you spend on them.  Yes, every. single. thing. Log how much time you are on Facebook, youtube, etc., how much time you spend eating, attending a class, talking on the phone, watching TV, assignments. Everything!!! There is no judgment here, don’t try to change anything you do in your normal day just yet…

 

For instance:

7:00-7:18am –  wake up, check Instagram, get dressed

7:18-7:30am – eat breakfast and check Tik Tok, check emails

7:30-7:40am – ride to school with Mom, make a Snapchat of my mom lecturing me

7:40-7:45am- get my books from my locker and go to class

class (1.5 hours)

lunch- eat lunch with my friends and talk about the snapchats or Tik Tok we posted this morning

class (30 minutes)

…… and so on throughout the day

 

This exercise should be really eye-opening to how you spend your time.  Even while studying, you may be spending way more time completing a project than estimated. Look at your daily log inventory to make serious changes. For example, wherein your schedule can you completely put away your smart phone and social media and actually focus on completing your tasks?

 

Now that you’ve found all this time you can fill, let’s fill it productively!

 

Write in your planner:

plan your day to minimize time waste

Are you just writing due dates in your planner?  If so, that’s a great start.  Yes, I said start. Go back and read over the assignments, estimate how much time each one is going to take you, and block out times to complete before the due dates.  This includes writing down when you should start studying for finals and midterms, ideally starting to review at least 3 weeks in advance of your final.

 

Make a to-do list daily:

This should include your study times and goals for you to complete.  Once you’ve completed it, check it off!  Do this daily to manage your daily schedules and track if your goals. Also take some work with you to use your downtime, like waiting for your ride or riding the bus to school, as an opportunity to get some studying out of the way. 

 

Written by Jenny Bloom

This article is written by Insight Senior Counselor Jenny Bloom.

Jenny has worked with a variety of students since 2012 to help them take the right steps to achieve their academic goals. Part of her philosophy is to guide students to consider how they will build and hone their skills and talents to make a difference in the world around them. Contact Insight Education today to schedule an initial consultation with Jenny. Read her full bio here.

What are our Students are saying about Insight?

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I am here writing today as an Insight alum. I just wanted to take a quick minute and truly extend my thanks and gratitude to Purvi and Ajit for providing me with such exceptional guidance as I went through my college selection process. Were it not for them, I don’t think that I would have chosen a school that matches my needs and goals.

Working closely with Purvi to work through my essays and in general talking about college life with both her and Ajit was an experience I would not have been able to receive through my high school counselors. The care that these two take in helping you school goes above and beyond. They have the unique ability to understand the student through and through and help them achieve their potential. They ability to assure parents is definitely a big plus! It helps having such a team on your side where you can go with all your questions and concerns. Their resources are vast and they always will go the extra mile in helping you find the answers that you need.

The endless supply of literature on colleges across the nation continues to grow with each year! Their promptness in interacting with the student is something that definitely makes the whole application process a lot less scary. I definitely wasn’t as stressed about the application process due to Purvi’s diligence in making sure that I had every single base covered 🙂  Today, I see them help my younger brother with the same zeal and enthusiasm as they had when they were helping me during my own process. I know that he will also benefit, just like I did, by having Insight as such a great resource. 

I walked away from Insight with not only a great experience, but also two friends that still care just as much about my future as they did back when I was just a high school senior. It’s great having Ajit as a sounding board for advice as I continued through my college years.  As I am getting ready to graduate, I am thankful to still have Purvi and Ajit as mentors and friends who can provide me guidance and support as I start my own career in the business world. So if you are still not convinced, let me leave you with these simple words: trust me, your kid will definitely be getting that competitive edge by being a part of Insight and Ajit and Purvi will do everything to help them achieve their undergraduate aspirations!

To find out more about Insight College Admissions Counseling, visit https://www.insight-education.net/high-school-college-admissions-counseling/ 

The New SAT: What to know and how to prepare

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For the first time in 11 years, The College Board will be offering an updated version of the SAT exam beginning in March, 2016.  The new test will be administered only three times during this remaining academic year, once in May and then again in June.  With seniors awaiting college decisions and most underclassmen being unfamiliar with the previous SAT, the onus of exploration and success now rests on the growing shoulders of high school students in the graduating classes of 2018 and, especially, 2017.  What follows is a run-down of key changes to understand and reasons to tackle the new test.

 

Those familiar with the ACT may notice some similarities in the new SAT, perhaps unsurprising following widespread speculation that The College Board’s overhaul is directly correlated to the increasing popularity of the ACT nationwide.  With that in mind, they have made a number of changes to the test’s format, structure, scoring, and timing.  Rather than a 2400-point scale, the new SAT will revert back to the 1600-point scale, with the Math Section and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing section each scored between 200-800 points.  Rather than 10 sections on the exam, the new test will feature only 4, including Evidence-Based Reading & Writing, and Math sections to be completed with and without a calculator. 

 

A common complaint of the old SAT was that some students felt they were forced to jump around from section to section very quickly; with 6 fewer sections in 2016, students will have more time to complete each.  In addition, the new SAT essay section will now be considered optional, and without the essay the exam will only require three hours to complete*.  Also gone is the scoring system that subtracts a fraction of a point for each incorrect answer.  There will now be no penalty for wrong answers, a benefit especially to students who tend to take longer to finish questions and may otherwise run out of time.  There will also be only 4 answer choices for questions on the new exam compared to 5 on the prior version. 

 

 

So who should take the new exam?

For starters, any high school juniors who scored competitively on the new PSAT last October.  Even if you have completed and done well on the ACT, you will need to take the SAT at least once officially to avoid disqualification from National Merit Scholarship consideration.  If you have taken the ACT and decided that is not the right test for you, the new SAT will be your best option. And as a growing number of students take the new test for practice, many are finding they prefer the new structure to the old exam.  Furthermore, colleges will be holding the new SAT in equal regard with the old SAT and ACT, so it will be important for students to learn if the new test is the one they score

Curious what your ACT score is relative to your SAT score? Check out our ACT – SAT Conversion Table.