In today’s episode, I address many of the most important questions that people are asking in light of the coronavirus shutdown. These are timely questions that cannot be ignored. The answers to these questions give immediate direction to juniors, who are most at-risk, as well as to sophomores who should do everything in their power to avoid related pitfalls.
I encourage parents and students to listen to this podcast together. While much of the advice is corona-related, it is 100% relevant to younger students coming up the ranks. These types of challenges are bound to happen again and again. My job is to prepare you for them.
Here is what I discuss in this episode:
0:01:27 Congratulations to PrepWell Juniors
0:02:00 Stick to the Plan
0:02:20 My thesis on early preparation
0:03:00 Why are these students loving life?
0:03:55 Why should sophomores pay attention?
0:06:40 Should I bother taking the SAT or ACT?
0:09:46 Will it be easier to...
It was over two month's ago when I sat down with my 10-year old son to discuss the academic tasks he was assigned over the summer by his 5th grade teacher:
At the time, nothing about these tasks seemed particularly difficult, especially with the "whole summer" to do it.
Preparer or Crammer?
He and I discussed two options:
"Chip away method" - this involved spreading the workload over the entire summer. We did the math, and it came out to roughly 2 pages of reading per day and 1 vocab word and 1 math problem every other day. This amounted to about 8 minutes of concentrated work per day. No big.
"Cram-it-all-in method" - this involved skipping the daily 8-minutes of work in exchange for a 3-week cram session at the end of the summer when all the work had to be completed at once.
We prepared a spreadsheet that mapped out 10 weeks of daily tasks. He could...
As the estimates for quarantining seem to get longer by the day, what can your 9th and 10th-grader do to thrive at home?
They may not appreciate it, but this downtime gives them unprecedented opportunities to grow as a student, citizen, and person.
I've broken down my ideas into a few buckets. My hope is that your child will take some of these suggestions for action.
PREPWELL ACADEMY (College Prep)
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
As the estimates for quarantining seem to get longer by the day, what can your junior PrepWeller do to thrive at home?
They may not appreciate it, but this downtime gives them unprecedented opportunities to get ahead in the college admissions process.
My guess is that they've been slammed with schoolwork since September and have found it difficult to keep up with all their PrepWell videos and Journaling.
Well, kiss that excuse goodbye.
With weeks and weeks of downtime ahead of them, a meticulous review of every PrepWell video is a must.
Here's how they should be thinking about the next few weeks and months:
Standardized Tests
As we all know by now, your child's SAT or ACT score is a key factor in determining what colleges to focus on. If they have a 4.0+ GPA, but no legitimate SAT or ACT score yet, it will be difficult to determine where they stand on the college admissions continuum. Lots of students have 4.0+ GPAs.
Until they secure a solid SAT or ACT score, they are in...