If you are submitting ACT or SAT scores to colleges, or SSAT or ISEE to private schools, does the movement toward test-optional admissions help you or hurt you? The answer is simple: Yes, it does. But how can this be so? Won’t my excellent test scores make me stand out from those who are not submitting any scores? The answer to this question is: no. If all this seems counterintuitive to you, that is because colleges and private schools are...

The Five Best and Worst Activities for Summer

Summer is when high school students can engage in meaningful activities that greatly enhance their college applications. Since college applications contain information about a student's record from 9th through 12th grade, it makes sense to plan advantageous summer activities for the three summers that precede a student's entry into college. The summers after 10th grade and 11th grade are...

If your test scores are good, they will certainly help your case for admission. If they are not very good, then by all means do not submit them. The choice is yours, and having a choice gives you an advantage in college admissions. Take advantage of it while you still can!

It is a fact that five out of the eight Ivy League colleges give college credit for AP exams in which students have scored at least a 4, or in some cases, the score must be a 5. While the AP credit policies vary from school to school, they can also vary from department to department within a school. In all cases, earning high scores on AP exams helps you earn admission to top colleges. It also allows students to circumvent certain basic...

Is it a good strategy to opt into the ACT Writing Test? While the answer to this question can be somewhat complicated, the simple answer is, “Yes, but only if you are an excellent writer and you are familiar with the format of the test.”

Only a few years ago, we at NC Global posted an article in which we provided a list of colleges that required or recommended the essay portion of the ACT or SAT. Even then, the list of colleges had...

If you are like millions of other families across America and across the world, you hire tutors to help your child with a difficult subject, to write a paper, or to pass a test. Indeed, tutoring in America is a $15 billion industry. Most tutoring is done by individuals with little or no training in the fine art of teaching. Much tutoring is done by college students or graduate students. There is no class a person can take to learn to be a...

How proud of your child would you be if she qualified for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) program? How proud would she be of herself if she were part of this highly-regarded program? How impressed would colleges and/or private schools be, knowing that she is a gifted and talented student? The fact is that the Johns Hopkins CTY program is one of the most prestigious programs that students can attend. Being accepted into the...

Last year (2017) a new test was introduced by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA), the producer of the SSAT. The test is called The Character Skills Snapshot and was designed to provide additional information about students applying to independent secondary schools. This new tool is a 20-30 minute on-line assessment that measures eight essential character skills that were not previously considered in any objective way in the...

As someone who has tutored and counseled students for well over 30 years, who has written countless tutoring and training guides, and who has personally trained more than 500 tutors and counselors, I can tell you first-hand, second-hand, and third-hand that being an effective tutor requires significant skills that go far beyond IQ and subject-matter expertise.

Unfortunately, many tutoring companies are merely involved in window dressing...