The problem with AP exams for homeschoolers in Ontario has always been that these exams must be written in accredited high schools who have registered to offer AP examinations.  The chances of your local Ontario high school offering AP exams isn’t all that great, since the Advanced Placement program isn’t nearly as popular here as it is in the U.S.

And, even if a school near you does hold AP examinations, there’s no guarantee that they will allow outside students to write exams at their school.  They are not required to open their testing doors to everyone, and some schools have very reasonable restrictions on external students on exam day.

For example, one of the leading AP schools in the province is an all girls school, and they do not allow outside students to write AP exams with their own students.  How fair would it be to have their female students suddenly surrounded with boys on high stakes exam days?  How fair would it be to say that only female homeschoolers can join the girls for these exams?  You can obviously appreciate that there can be reasonable justifications for what may at first seem like unreasonable, exclusionary policies.

I think for a couple of years now I’ve been casually mentioning on various message boards that there’s “some school just west of Toronto” who has been open and welcoming to having homeschoolers participate in their AP exams.  Allow me to now formally share the details:

Dear Sarah,

Thank you for your awareness of Bronte AP program, we are offering a wide
range of AP exams (about 27 different exams out of 39 exams offered by
College Board) we are proud of being the first school offering AP exams for
external students in GTA. Each AP exam will cost $150 and we are also
offering AP exam preparation sessions for three months prior to exams
schedule (Once a week) a copy of our AP exams tutorials for 2008 is
attached. If you have any more inquiries don’t hesitate to contact me

Regards,

Dr. N. Gouda
Head of Student Governance
BRONTE COLLEGE OF CANADA
88 Bronte College court Mississauga Ontario L5B 1M9
Tel. 905 270-7788 ext.2042        Fax. 905 270-7828
ngouda@brontecollege.ca
http://www.brontecollege.ca

Dr. Gouda has been personally recommended to me both by the head of the Ontario Council of AP Schools in Ontario and by a homeschooling mom whose daughter took a few AP exams at Bronte College and was very impressed with the whole examination environment and proctoring at Bronte.

Unlike the SAT and ACT tests, AP examinations are held only once per year.  Also unlike the SAT/ACT, AP examinations cover first year university level, subject-specific material.  In other words, you don’t have the luxury of writing it over a few times a year until you get the score you like (although, you may write again the following year – there is no restriction on rewriting) and the material is much more challenging.  Both of these elements combined can make for a pretty stressful exam day!  Knowing that you’re in good, competent hands and that every effort will be made to provide optimal test-taking conditions is worth its weight in gold. . . or at the very least, $150!

Like the SAT/ACT, however, the exam can be written “cold.”  You are not required to take any AP “classes” before writing the exam.  The review classes offered by Bronte College are available to but not required of homeschoolers.  Just as with any standardized test, familiarity with the test format and types of questions generally asked is just as important than the content covered by the test itself.  So, I don’t actually recommend writing the test with no prep, but preparation can be as simple as a $20 AP exam prep book from Chapters or Amazon (or free from the library).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Gouda for being a model of accessibility.  For many students, AP exams are a fantastic alternative to Ontario high school credit courses.  It’s great that Bronte College is promoting this option to a group of students who can really benefit from it.

If Mississauga is a bit too far for you to travel for an exam, you can visit www.ap.ca to find a list of AP schools in Canada.

If you need reminding why the AP program is a path to university that you definitely want to check out , visit the message board to see university-by-university AP policies and how many university credits can be earned for success on an AP exam.

Taryn Vandenberg of Markham, Ontario came in an impressive 16th in the 2008 U. of T. National Biology Competition. Taryn, who has always been homeschooled, placed ahead of all students from a handful of prestigious Toronto private schools including Crescent, University of Toronto Schools, and Havergal whose top students placed in the 17 – 21 positions.

The 14th annual competition was written by 5,927 eligible contestants at 415 schools on May 1, 2008 (see Results). Over 66,000 students have participated in the competition since 1995. The competition is open to all secondary school students, including homeschoolers. Top students may receive cash prizes and/or admission scholarships to the University of Toronto.

On a personal note, I can’t think of a better ambassador for academically successful homeschooling teens. Taryn is an articulate conversationalist, a curious, thoughtful scholar and a delightful young woman. It’s people like Taryn who give me the motivation to work towards ensuring that no qualified applicant is denied university admissions simply because of his or her unconventional educational path.

This young woman is going to have her pick of universities because she made a name for herself, not because she jumped through hoops picking up credits here and there to satisfy the OSSD requirements. This is what I mean when I say that homeschoolers have the freedom to distinguish themselves, so why waste so much time and effort trying to look like every other applicant?

It’s just a good thing she wasn’t trying to enter the Subway Sandwich contest, which strictly forbids homeschooled applicants. I’m pretty sure her UT Bio Comp achievement tastes sweeter!

Not sure what AP is and why you should care?  Come on over and read the standardized tests primer on the message board!

Helpful Hint of the day:  If you want to see all the posts I’ve ever written about a particular topic, you can either use the search function at the top right hand side of the screen, or simply scan the list of “categories” down the right hand side and click on one to reveal all posts that have been categorized under that term.

Maclean’s education site reports that the idea was raised at the recent Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance Partnership in Education dinner as a proposed solution to today’s issues in undergraduate education: student apathy and disengagement; grade inflation at the high school (read: university admissions) level; and academic dishonesty.

One speaker suggested the use of standardized testing at the high school exit stage of the university admissions process with the article’s author, Joey Coleman, advocating the idea of a Canadian, SAT-like, national test.

I have always called myself a “fan” of standardized tests for university entrance, but it’s more accurate to say I’ve been a fan of the option to take standardized tests for university admission.

In my “Ontario University Admissions for Homeschoolers” seminar I mention that I would trade four years of a prescriptive, monitored, structured high school education for the chance to accomplish the thing (i.e. university entrance) with a 225 minute test on a Saturday morning. I’m guessing others would make that trade, too.

I’ve been able to overlook the negatives of standardized testing because it, thus far, has always been a student’s choice. There are 7 ways to get into an Ontario university without a high school diploma, and if standardized tests aren’t your thing, then you can try out one of the other six.

I may not approve of your standardized test, but I will defend to the death your right to take it! (OK, so it was a little more impressive, and literally true, the way Voltaire said it.)

But, I question whether mandatory standardized testing for university entrance is the solution.

For us to adopt these tests universally is an implicit endorsement of the tests, and of a testing mentality.

Furthermore, it would be an admission that our high school grades have become so meaningless they can’t do the one thing they really are supposed to do: measure academic achievement. But, instead of trying to structure high school programs so that they are meaningful, the proposal on the table seems to concede defeat in that arena.

If the symptom of our current “undergraduate crisis” is that too many kids are in generic undergraduate programs simply because they don’t know what else to do with themselves (but yet don’t really seem to be getting anything out of being there), then surely there’s a better way to remedy the situation: stop perpetuating the mass delusion that university is the one right path for everyone.

It’s not as simple as saying, “Leave university to the kids who really do want or deserve to be there for the right reasons.” This is easier said than done since no one can seem to agree on what the purpose of a university education is for or what the right reasons to attend are. (Nod to Jeff Rybak.)

I don’t pretend to have the answer to the problem, but I know that the answer isn’t widening the university’s mandate so that there’s something for everyone . . . and then erecting entrance barriers in the form of standardized tests to keep out the riff raff.

Ontario’s colleges were on the right track with their “Obay” advertising campaign. (This campaign attacked the “my kid is going to university no matter what” mentality and you can read about it in the Toronto Star and see more of the fake ads at the Torontoist here, here and here.)

Unfortunately, Ontario colleges aren’t all prepared and/or willing to handle homeschoolers, but the sentiment is right: stop trying to make everyone go to university, and (my wish) stop trying to make university into the place for everyone, lest we end up with nothing more than a K-16 system.

If the universities are dissatisfied with their student population, it’s their own fault. For years, they added more and more programs so that they could attract more and more students who might not have considered themselves to be university-bound.

An interesting experiment would be to take all business, management and commerce programs out of university. We know that these programs are largely composed of the kids who are looking for academic credentials to land them high paying jobs in the financial sector. (My apologies to those who will go on to become economics professors, but you have to admit, you’re in the minority!) Suddenly I think we’d see the “university or bust” stigma disappear.

Of course, let’s not forget that we still have Open Universities, which can make one wonder what all the fuss is about anyway!

Saturday, April 5 – Kitchener Waterloo Christian Home Educators’ Conference

Friday/Saturday, April 25/26 – Ontario Christian Home Educators’ Convention

Saturday, May 3 – O.F.T.P. Diversity in Education Conference

This will be my fourth year of presenting the University Admissions seminar around the province at conferences as well as smaller venues. While it’s not exactly old news, if you’ve seen it before, should you attend again? Here’s how to decide:

• The basic format/content of the presentation is the same. I’ll discuss any news and updates since last year, but essentially the purpose of the seminar is the same: describe the ins and outs of applying to university as a homeschooler.
• I recommend this presentation for families who have (ideally) 3 – 4 years before they need to go through the application process. This allows you to plan your high school studies with the university application in mind. However, if you’re currently going through the process of applying of university, you’ll probably have a lot of questions personal to your specific situation that you never would have had when you were in the general “finding out about the process” stage. I’m perfectly happy to answer these very specific questions in the seminar as well, since these “case studies” can be very informative for the group. So you may wish to attend again if the process is more “real” to you this time. But *please* remember that this is a general information session and the rest of the audience wants to walk away with more than the details of your situation.
• A good part of the session will be answering audience questions, so I never know what I’m going to be hit with, and you never know what you’re going to learn! (Don’t worry — I know how to keep things on topic and relevant to the group.) If you felt that you benefited from the Q&A portions of the session last time you attended, then you may be interested in what pops up this time.

Most of you have never seen the Standardized Tests for University Admission seminar, since it has only been presented once before (KWCHEA 2007 Conference). What can you expect to see here?

• Disscussion of the following standardized tests: SAT, ACT, SAT subject tests, AP (Advanced Placement) and CLEP exams. We will not be discussing the GED, CAT or IB programs because these are not generally used in university admissions for homeschoolers. Some post-secondary schools will have provisions for using other test results, but the “big five” are the ones accepted/recognized (to varying degrees) by all Ontario universities.
• How to choose the testing program that works for your situation including sample test questions
• Test prep strategies and resources
• We will not be discussing university admission in general. This seminar is solely for information about the standardized test path to university entrance.

If your child plans to present standardized test scores for university admission, I would strongly suggest attending this session. Canadians are generally ill-informed on these options because the SAT isn’t a normal part of the Canadian high school experience.

Hope to see you in April or May! Get your questions ready, and feel free to submit any questions to me ahead of time that you’d like to see answered.

The College Board has compiled a collection of Canadian AP policies from universities accepting AP courses for university credit. Something to keep in mind during your university admissions planning.

So stay inside, heat up some hot chocolate, and browse the sites!

I always mention the fact that “everyone knows someone (who knows someone etc.) who went to university with a 10 or 12 or 14 year old.” This is a perfect demonstration that there are very few “rules” that can’t be broken for the right child. Universities want exceptional applicants, and so I always suggest that effort is better spent cultivating the real and natural talents of a child instead of constraining them to fit in some arbitrary box to be packaged up for university admissions.

This advice is well-received by parents of the gifted/talented, but sometimes parents of “average” kids feel that it can’t be a strategy for them. I think they’re (often) wrong.

In fact, it may be the “average” kids who are most helped by this strategy. Students who would otherwise plod and/or struggle through a series of courses when they’re not the most academic kids in the world could instead be developing a real passion for something. I’m not one of those people who believes that “every child is gifted” but I do believe that every child can be really good at something. . . and that goes a long way to standing out as a homeschooled applicant.

I’ve written before about the possibility that formalized homeschool university admission policies can feel constraining; perhaps it was (in some ways) easier when we could naively walk up to the university and say, “I didn’t know you’d want that!” and then everyone would work towards a compromise based on what the child had already done. But, I firmly believe that most of the current policies are flexible enough to allow the “average” kids to spend some time working on standardized tests or other external evaluations while leaving loads of time to get really good at or really into something entirely different.

If you’ll allow me to put on my educator’s cap for a moment and be very frank, if a student can’t pull off average marks on standardized tests, 12U correspondence courses or other methods of evaluation, then perhaps a university program isn’t for him/her. All of the Ontario university homeschooling policies that allow standardized tests in lieu of a high school diploma require only slightly better than average test scores. This should be a relatively easy condition to meet, especially given that students can (and should!) plan years in advance for this.

This is a huge advantage over the traditionally-schooled kids who are sweating to bring their 85% up to an 87% because with grade inflation, that could be the difference between an acceptance letter and a rejection letter. These kids only have one way of getting in: earning the highest grades possible.

Not only do homeschoolers have the opportunity to look impressive by pursuing a passion, but the very fact that they are well-developed in one area will translate to better achievement in traditional academic assessments. Kids with self-discipline, self-awareness, curiosity, focus, drive and motivation from even non-academic activities can easily apply these skills to their academics. Success, in any activity, breeds confidence. With this well-founded confidence (based on believing in themselves and not on someone else’s attempts to artificially boost self-esteem) there is no reason why “average” kids can’t achieve “average” test scores.

You can get angry with that statement (or me for saying it!) all you want. But, I’ve seen enough tests and worked with enough students over the years to know that it’s true.

So, even if your child is applying to one of the universities who explicitly state that only academic information will be used in the admissions decision, developing a passion and taking a skill/talent to the next level makes a lot of sense. You could spend your high school homeschooling days focused on the math that always seems too hard, or the books that are a struggle to read. Or, you could make a plan that satisfies university entrance requirements, execute it steadily over a number of years, and allow your child to spend just as much if not more time working at a high level on areas of strength as he/she does working at remediating weaknesses.

Although the article is seven years old, In a class by themselves (Christine Foster, The Stanford Alumni Association November/December 2000 Vol. 28, No. 6) clearly articulates why Stanford loves homeschoolers:

Among the nation’s elite universities, Stanford has been one of the most eager to embrace them. Despite the uncertainties of admitting students with no transcripts or teacher recommendations, the University welcomes at least a handful every year. Stanford has found that the brightest homeschoolers bring a mix of unusual experiences, special motivation and intellectual independence that makes them a good bet to flourish on the Farm.
. . .
For the past two years, for instance, the University has tracked every application from a home schooled student. These forms get flagged with a special code that lets reviewers find them among stacks of applications and helps admission officials chart emerging trends.
. . .
That’s a tiny subgroup, just 0.2 percent of the applicant pool. So why is the University interested? Admission officers sum it up in two words: intellectual vitality.

It’s hard to define, but they swear they know it when they see it. It’s the spark, the passion, that sets the truly exceptional student-the one driven to pursue independent research and explore difficult concepts from a very early age-apart from your typical bright kid. Stanford wants students who have it.
. . .
Among homeschoolers who end up at Stanford, “self-teaching” is a common thread. Parents usually teach in the early grades, assigning and correcting work, but later shift to a supervisory role, spending more time tracking down books and mentors. Stanford-bound homeschoolers typically take several college courses before they apply. The admission office encourages this, both to help with evaluation and to give students a taste of classroom learning before they arrive on the Farm.

Granted, Ontario university admissions is a different ball game. Applicants don’t generally provide extensive applications here like they do in the US. Ontario universities don’t often have the chance to offer admission to applicants based on their “intellectual vitality” as they are generally forced to use grades as the primary, if not sole, admission criteria.

But, those people who knew people who went to university with a young genius — those were Canadian stories, too. (One of my former staff tutors was in a math faculty in Alberta at the same time as a 12 year old.) And, what do you want to bet that this 12 year old had weaknesses in some other academic areas? Do you think he got such special treatment in the admissions process because he was forced to work, day after day, at his poor language skills? Or, do you think that he was able to stand out because he was allowed to cultivate his talent for mathematics?

Similarly, a passion for building from a young age could be very attractive to a university engineering department. A passion for animals can quickly lead to advanced scientific study. A strangely specific obsession with bridges or lighthouses will go a long way to laying the foundation for an architectural program. The basic math and language skills will come as long as they are not ignored. And, it will be a lot easier for students with minimal interest in core academic skills to study with specific goals in mind, such as the SAT, and not just because “math is important.”

This is why I believe that, for “average” homeschoolers trying to get into university, standardized tests are a huge blessing. (Yes, I said it!)

You as a parent can be sure that your child is focusing on some core academic concepts. The tests certainly aren’t about “education” — but how many other courses and programs out there truly are? If you have to jump through hoops, why not a hoop that takes up the better part of a Saturday as opposed to a hoop that requires four years?

The beauty is, that if you plan for it, you can make them about education because you don’t have to get caught up in the last minute cram frenzy. And, working slowly over years means that the test prep doesn’t have to take that much time in any one day/month/year, leaving plenty of time to develop natural talents and skills. At that point, you won’t be looking for ideas about “how to make math relevant to daily life” because your builder will be measuring and your animal lover will be organizing fundraisers for the local shelter.

And if by some chance the standardized test thing doesn’t go your way, your child has a talent/accomplishment/skill to fall back on. Johnny could simply start his own business right out of high school. Beth could continue doing what she’s been doing (since we know she’s passionate about it anyway) and apply to university again in a few years as a mature student. Tammy could apply to an Open University and start earning her degree that way, building up an academic portfolio. Justin could decide that it wasn’t really university he wanted/needed anyway, and look towards college or apprenticeship programs. But, no one would feel their time had been wasted.

How many high school students can say that?

Recently, the Thomas B. Fordham foundation sponsored a study “Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate: Do they deserve Gold Star Status?” to compare the academic merits of the two programs, specifically comparing the Biology, English, Mathematics and History offerings of each.

The very act of comparing the two, however, requires some judgement calls: since the IB program requires all students to take a senior math course, there can be as many as six different “levels” of math courses offered by Ontario IB schools. Obviously, the content and goals of these courses will vary widely. Certainly, taking the highest of the “Higher Level” (HL) offerings provides a very different foundation than the lowest of the “Standard Level” (SL) courses. Similarly, there are two AP Calculus exams: AB is meant to cover a half-year college course, while AB is meant to cover the material found in a full-year, first year, American college calculus course. The study chose to compare the SL curriculum to the AB exam, citing the justification that both programs are for students not continuing in a heavily math-based university program.

The first problem I have with the comparison is that students who are not intending to study math (or math-related fields) in university have the option of avoiding AP Calculus altogether. Yet, every IB student must take at least SL level math to graduate with the IB diploma. It’s perhaps a little unfair to compare a voluntary, advanced credit course with a required, high school mathematics program, but the point of the study was to establish whether one or both programs really deserved the reputation as a stellar academic program. So, we’ll go with it for now.

Given that comparison, I couldn’t comprehend how the IB math program scored higher (B-) than the AP calculus (C+). One of my beefs after several years of tutoring students in the IB program is how students are “pushed through” advanced math topics. This is because senior math is required of all students, and quite frankly, not all students are suited to senior level studies in math. And, given that your final IB “score” is dependent solely on the mark from the IB exit exams, an IB SL program really lends itself to teaching to the test.

When you know, for example, that there will be only one exam question concerning derivatives, probably based on throwing something into the air, it’s not too difficult to teach the least talented of students a pattern-based answer that requires no real understanding of the math concepts. (Remember, I taught you in about 45 seconds how to do it here.) There are few 12 year olds who aren’t capable of mimicking these steps.

Today’s update to the story comes via Jay Matthews at the Washington Post in Professor Says Editors Altered Review of AP, IB Courses:

David Klein of California State University at Northridge posted on his university’s Web site his original assessments of AP Calculus AB and IB Mathematics SL, which showed he would have given a C+ to the AP course and a C- to the IB course. The final version of the report, released Nov. 14, raised the IB grade to a B-, contradicting Klein’s view that the AP course was better
. . .
Klein says he does not consider either the AP or IB courses the gold standard for high school math, although in his original report he said they had some strengths not found in mainstream high school programs.
. . .
Klein also says that many of what he considered his strongest points were deleted by the editors, particularly his view that overuse of calculators could interfere with students’ mastery of analytical skills and conceptual understanding. (The report can be seen at http://www.edexcellence.net.)

This, I get. I’ve long taken issue with how both of these programs overuse calculators and minimize manual calculations. The standard argument in favour of using calculators to remove computational barriers is this: the kids can then focus on anaylzing and higher level thinking skills.

The problem is, as any good math student knows, our real understanding of mathematical concepts comes from using the underlying math, not avoiding it.

If you don’t know what dance the numbers are doing, you can’t possibly make meaningful sense of the result.

This is one reason why the MDM4U course (Data Management) is so hard for so many kids. I remember studying statistics at university before computer programs were used for the number crunching. I needed to know, by hand and with no formula cheat sheet, how to compute things like standard deviations and correlation coefficients.

You couldn’t get through that course without seeing all the nitty gritty steps involved in arriving at your stats. More importantly, since you knew exactly what you did with all the numbers, you understood what they meant. In the Data Management course, however, many students are using calculators and computers to avoid the “trivial” act of actually calculating the statistics — as if that somehow weren’t part of the point.

Granted, arithmetic isn’t mathematics, but arithmetic is how most of us come to understand numbers. Take that away from students, and they’re making a whole bunch of advanced conclusions, based on very little understanding.

I’m not arguing that it’s perhaps more interesting for lower-ability math students to be able to answer questions about whether given data shows a particular trend or correlation. But, without the ability to do all the work by hand, or at the very least understand it, these students are never going to be in positions where they’ll get to do that kind of higher level mathematical anaysis anyway. So, what exactly is this really preparing them for?

It would be one thing if these programs made it very clear that they are shielding the kids from a lot of the real work. I’m all for a full-disclosure statement that informs the students there is a lot more involved in doing this stuff for real, and that they should use their interest/success in these courses to decide whether they want to actually study these concepts (properly!) in university.

But the problem, and the point of this study, is that these programs are often heralded as models of excellence in education. That’s not exactly consistent with the “warning — we’re taking out the “hard stuff” so you can work at a higher conceptual level” disclaimer that should accompany these courses, at least as far as mathematics is concerned.

Public misunderstanding of mathematics and mathematical literacy (I guess the educrats want us to use the phrase numeracy now) have created a real problem in mathematics education. Because so many people think that math is “hard to do” they don’t realize how easy it actually is to teach and learn math through memorization of procedures and ignore understanding altogether. Therefore, to look at the “hard” questions on an AP Calculus or IB math exam and to see kids answer them looks impressive. Memorizing the encyclopaedia sounds impressive, too. And it is, but it’s a feat of memory and not of understanding or appreciation of knowledge.

For homeschoolers, the choice between the two programs is simple. It’s simply not possible to participate in IB offerings without regular enrollment at a local high schools, so AP is your only option.

Is AP worth taking at all? Yes, for many reasons. But, do so with the understanding that the act of preparing for the exam is separate from the act of learning calculus.

Even though I spent most of my 18 years as a tutor working in mathematics, I firmly believe that reading is the most important skill to develop in children. If you can read (and by that I mean all the subskills of reading: scanning for information, reading for comprehension, evaluating what you read) then no information is beyond your grasp. Want to be a better writer? Read more.

Readers — real readers — intuitively pick up grammar and language rules that SAT students struggle to memorize. The 2005 changes to the SAT made language the focus of 2 of the 3 subsections of the test. Instead of 50-50 Verbal/Math, the SAT is now 2/3 language (Critical Reasoning and Writing) and 1/3 math. (Although, there are still several schools who either do not require or do not put much stock in the new Writing section, since it is not as tested and evaluated as the other sections.)

But wait, there’s more! Reading skills help on the math section, too, since most of the SAT questions are not technically challenging; they are tricky word problems. The math questions that routinely give students the most difficulty are in fact simple logic, counting or categorizing questions where the conditions are spelled out in words. Here are some examples that are all freely available online at various test prep sources (SparkNotes Test Prep, Number2.com and the College Board):

Of the lions at the zoo, 13 eat zebra meat, 11 eat giraffe meat, and 7 eat both. How many lions are there in the zoo?

Let the expression §x§ be defined as the smallest integer greater than x. What is the value of §-7§ times §-6§ ? 

Two years ago, a rabbit breeder had 75 rabbits. Since then 500 rabbits have been born, 220 have died and 185 have been sold. How many rabbits does the breeder have now expressed as a percentage of the number she had two years ago?

Three years ago men made up two out of every three internet users in America. Today the ratio of male to female users is about 1 to 1. In that time the number of American females using the internet has grown by 30,000,000, while the number of males who use the internet has grown by 100%. By how much has the total internet-user population increased in America in the past three years?
If A is the set of prime numbers and B is the set of two-digit positive integers whose units digit is 5, how many numbers are common to both sets?

These questions require little more than the four basic operations of arithmetic, but they are some of the most difficult questions on the SAT for non-readers.  And, even for readers they may pose a problem under the time constraints and stresses of test day.  It is easy to see how your child’s math score is directly affected by his reading level.

There is nothing geeky, cruel or abusive about getting your kids hooked on reading at an early age. But, my kids don’t like to read, you say? It could be that you simply haven’t found the right reading material. Most young children love stories, but many kids (especially gifted students) may soon grow into a taste for non-fiction. I remember that my elementary school report cards always had two separate check boxes for evaluating our reading skills: “Reading for information” and “Reading for pleasure.” Personally, I always wondered why the two were thought to be different things. Kids who have outgrown stories may instead be interested in reading to learn about a topic of interest.

Even reading instructions (since that’s really what many of the SAT math questions are) without a context can be a useful and fun (ok, maybe that’s starting to get a little geeky) exercise.  I recently came across a puzzle in one of my Official variety puzzles magazines that just screamed “SAT prep” to me:

Do as you’re told ~ Follow the instructions to discover the surprise answer.

1. Print the phrase BLACK BEAR, omitting the space.
2. Add an O at the left end of the row.
3. Insert a P at the exact center of the row.
4. Delete the fifth consonant.
5. Switch the second consonant from the left with the second vowel from the right.
6. Repeat step 2.
7. Change the fifth letter to an I.
8. Add a T at the right end of the row.
9. Repeat step 3.
10. Change the first consonant to an S.
11. Move the E to the right end of the row.
12. Repeat step 2.
13. Delete all consonants that come before J in the alphabet.
14. Repeat step 3.
15. Switch the first vowel with the second consonant.
16. Switch letters three through five, as a group, with letters nine through eleven.

I also find that it’s easier to consciously learn math.  Once a child knows how to read, they “know how to read” . . . right?  Wrong.  Just because you can identify each word in the above math questions doesn’t mean you are equipped to answer the question. Yet, with math, it’s understood that we are continually learning more math, and that math “gets harder.”  That’s why it’s so important to get reading right early.  It’s easy to see when you’re on to the next unit in math, but not so easy to see when you’re reading “at the next level.”  So the best you can do is start early and keep it continuous.  And then, you won’t be throwing up your hands in frustration trying to help your child prepare for the math portion of the SAT!  (Well, not for that reason.)