Tutoring: Ivy Bound

About IVY Bound

We have one piece of advice that far too many guidance counselors don't follow, and on this one we know we're right: START EARLY.

Colleges do not penalize an applicant for taking the SAT multiple times. The SAT is not a test that rewards skills acquired only in Senior year. So long as you have had a semester of Geometry and a semester of Algebra I, you have the tools to take advantage of this class. Since most students have this by tenth grade, there is nothing wrong with taking the SAT prep course the summer following 10th grade – or even earlier!

The best results come when students reinforce what they learn soon after learning it. That's why your teacher will strongly suggest reviewing the notes from class WITHIN 24 HOURS of having class. Each class has a suggested calendar for getting through a minimum of 50 hours of home study by test day. A student who can devote two good hours a day three days a week is on pace to do this over a nine week course. The SAT II will also be offered over the course of the year.

CTC’s Ivy Bound course will take place at Loyola University School of Law starting Monday March 7th. All classroom instructors and tutors are among the top 2% scorers, pass the Ivy Bound standard for ability to deliver the material effectively, and genuinely like teaching high school students. Admissions Essay Brainstorming and Editing services are also available through Ivy Bound. Your consultant will walk you through the entire admissions essay process, as well as provide an in-depth review and edit of your admissions essay.

In a recent set of classes, our students improved an average of 168 points. This compares favorably with the big national prep organizations, Princeton Review and Stanley Kaplan. We attribute our success to being able to concentrate all our resources onto one test, the SAT. We also attribute it to the dedication of our students. They want to excel and they are dedicated to doing the course right. Our students have been accepted to every Ivy League school, along with Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, and Cambridge. Their testimonials attribute much of their success to the "smart approach" and "extraordinary teaching" of Ivy Bound Test Prep.

Preparing for Success

We at Ivy Bound realize that an SAT tutoring course represents a serious investment of time, energy, and financial resources. As private educators, it is our mission to see that both you and your child get as great a return on that investment as is possible. With that end in mind, we'd like to make a few suggestions.

Please be diligent about Home Study assignments. Our teaching time presents and reinforces every strategy we know for SAT success, but this is still not enough to MASTER them. Home Study is assigned and targeted for a reason: it allows students to apply concepts learned in the last lesson to a variety of problems. Without this practice, students may think they understand a concept, but falter when it comes time to apply it. We recommend at least one hour of Home Study between meetings with an instructor, and preferably two hours. (The Home Study problems are assigned in the first pages of the Ivy Bound binder.) In addition, most students should devote 10 minutes a day to vocabulary study.

IVY Bound Extra Support

Without a commitment to Home Study and vocabulary review, a student is, in effect, only completing half the class. Please help us to maximize your child's scores by encouraging the weekly Home Study follow-through.

Please plan to have your teen make time to complete three full length practice tests before his/her SAT date. Practice tests are a valuable way to assess progress and prepare for the actual full length exam. We normally expect a parent to be the timekeeper for these tests. We invite all of our private tutoring students to attend organized practice tests at any of our open class sites. Please e-mail us six weeks prior to the target test date so we can inform you of any practice test sites in your area.

Our most successful students take advantage of the extra resources Ivy Bound has to offer. We make every effort to go the extra mile for our students. This includes electronic explanations for assigned Home Study questions, e-mailed word lists, topical math software available upon request, vocabulary quizzes available through our student website www.ivycontact.net, and access to "Help Line", our conference call sessions. For the rest of the year, our conference call number is (withheld). We "meet" promptly at 9:15pm eastern on Tuesdays (verbal) and Thursdays (math). Please use only a land line OR a cell phone with a highly reliable signal.

Support for Parents

We also have a conference call for Parents. Each month Mark Greenstein or one of our senior instructors fills in parents, particularly parents of 9th and 10th graders, on the following topics:

• What is tested on the current SAT and how should kids attack it?
• Where does the SAT fit into the college admissions scheme?
• Where do the SAT II tests fit in and when should we schedule these?
• Is the SAT fair, is it coachable, is it culturally biased?
• Don't grades count anymore?
• What's the use of the PSAT?
• How does Early Decision affect admissions?
• What else are colleges looking for?
• How does the ACT differ from the SAT?
• What are AP Tests and when do students take these?
• The Ivy Bound Course and how to get the most out of it. (optional last 10 min.)

The calls take place on the first Sunday of every month at 9:15pm eastern using 605-990-0300 x294454 -. No reservations are needed. Just chime in between 9:12 and 9:15pm. My staffers are happy to e-mail replies to parents' thoughtful follow-up questions on the above topics.

We understand the schedule restrictions most teens are under and that budgeting time for a far-off priority is difficult. For students who make SAT prep a NEAR term priority (treat their 3 - 5 months with us as they do an honors course), we can almost guarantee a vastly better score.

If you have questions, please e-mail or call our office (877-975-1600) and someone will be happy to assist you.

The Reason Behind the Exam and Hard Truths

Some of you are new to the modern College admissions process. We who attended high school in the '60s, '70s, and '80s didn't face the same pressures and timetables that college-bound kids face in this decade.

Whether to invest effort in prep for standardized tests is greatly determined by the student's goals. It also relates to the student's GP A. Except in the case of athletes, no college counts the SAT test more highly than overall GPA. But recognize that the time spent prepping for and taking one test is miniscule compared to the time spent collectively working towards good high school grades.

For the varsity athlete, many colleges weigh SAT scores especially highly, because they know that it is very difficult for busy athletes to garner the very best grades. Thus the admissions committees look at an athlete's high SAT score as excellent reassurance that she/he can do college level work.

For all who are seeking merit-based scholarships (which abound at every "tier" of colleges) the SAT is now the single biggest determinant of merit scholarship awards.

For the hard-charging student who will be aggressive in getting hired from college (or grad school), the benefit of being in a better-ranked college program is somewhat calculable: all other things being equal, graduating from a college one tier better, is likely to result in a difference of OVER $1,000,000 in lifetime earnings (higher if you presume a decent chance of marrying a college sweetheart who's equally aggressive).

For first-time parents with busy kids, allow me to lay out the time spent / reward ratio:

• SAT I Verbal - skills come quickly, as only three skills are tested. Vocabulary does not. Verbal study means that there is fairly little class time needed (8 - 12 hours), but commitment to memorizing vocabulary, either alone or with a drilling teacher or parent, is an important additional commitment.
• SAT I Math - Slow. (12 - 20 hours) Since there are so many skills tested, including reasoning skills that students may not have been exposed to in high school, this is a big endeavor, in and out of class.
• SAT II Writing - Fast. 5 - 8 hours with us will almost guarantee a 600+ score even for students whose grammar is now weak. Experienced readers who work on their essays under our tutelage should be in the 700s (or higher). Unfortunately, this is a second tier test for some colleges.
• Other SAT II tests - though many Ivy Bound instructors coach them, we first recommend using your own high school teacher to fill you in on the tested stuff that was not covered in class.
• ACT - Slow, because there's more variety of questions, including science reasoning, trigonometry and higher-level math. Our view is to spend whatever time you'd otherwise spend prepping for and taking the ACT and invest it into SAT prep. If after diligently prepping for the SAT and taking it twice, the score is still far from helping you to your choice college, then ACT prep makes sense.

We have no problem with students taking the ACT as a sophomore year experiment, within 6 weeks of taking the SAT, and comparing scores. If the ACT comes back more promising, then ACT-only may be the way to go.

Though I never want to replace a good guidance counselor, I and some of our instructors are willing to advise students on how to best present their credentials to colleges. For a general approach, join us on our "Sunday Conversations", the Conference call we conduct the first Sunday of February, April, June, August, and October at 9:15pm Eastern. These are dedicated to test scheduling and college admissions issues, and should be helpful to first-time parents of college-bound kids. To "attend", call 605-990-0300 x 294454.

Location and Hours:

University of Loyola School of Law
25 E. Pearson St
Chicago IL 60611
Every Monday night 5:30pm – 8pm starting March 7th