EducationNews.org posts an article detailing A-List’s successful Graham Windham Scholars Program! Check it out!

Youth in Foster Care Dramatically Improve SAT Scores and Prepare for College with the A-List & Graham Windham Scholars Program

First and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS to the Year Up NYC Class of 2010! As Year Up NYC celebrates its sixth graduation, A-List is more honored than ever to be partners with this non-profit organization doing more than its fair share to level the playing field. As its mission statement reads, Year Up seeks to “close the opportunity divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education,” and it appears the job they’re doing is working.

The first five months of Year Up’s intensive one-year program prepares this group to enter the professional world by equipping students with the skills, behavior, and communication ability necessary to achieve success in entry-level corporate positions without a college degree. The second half of the program places Year Up students at internships with leading corporations, many of which support Year Up as corporate partners helping to steer these motivated youth toward success.

Dominique Wright, a Year Up graduate, was recently featured in a piece by the New York Times, “Chronicling a Life and Honing Job Skills.” As a teenage mother, Ms. Wright completed Year Up after dropping out of Kingsborough Community College and working a succession of hourly wage jobs in an effort to support herself and her daughter. After working a paid internship at Merrill Lynch through the program, she’s determined to move forward and excel professionally despite the difficult economy and her struggle to find a job. Andres Gomez, a case manager at the Community Service Society, who has just assisted Dominique in landing a paid apprenticeship at Citigroup speaks of her commitment, “She’s resilient,” Mr. Gomez said. “No matter what comes her way, she breaks down every barrier.”

Through our partnership with Year Up, A-List is contributing as we know how to advance the meaningful work being done—through education. Starting in the spring of 2008, A-List began providing Year Up with a course intended to introduce young adults in the Year Up apprenticeship phase to the college application process. The course was soon expanded to include college advising workshops that begin during the learning and development phase and continuing through the apprenticeships. A-List’s college advisors have assisted Year Up students in selecting schools, completing applications, perfecting admissions essays, and securing scholarships and financial aid.

In the fall of 2008, Year Up NYC added another A-List course to its Professional Skills curriculum. In Business Math, students learn the fundamental math skills necessary for success in the professional world. The course was designed to meet the specific needs of Year Up students as they enter the workforce and focuses on the real-life applications of math concepts in personal and professional life.

A-List representatives, Edward Smallwood and Adam Horowitz proudly attended yesterday’s Year Up NYC’s graduation and this Year Up class’ motivation was put on display through the students’ personal stories. Recent Year Up graduate, Christina Calenzani, who completed an internship at BNY Mellon and plans to attend college this fall shares, “The most vital lesson I took from Year Up is the importance of believing in myself. Once you do, nothing is off limits.”

With that positive attitude and the determination Year Up students exude, we think Christina’s right. Again, much-deserved congratulations to the Year Up Class of 2010! A-List looks forward to attending many more Year Up graduations, and seeing just what a difference a Year Up can make.

Any test can be stressful. Let’s think of a few—a calculus exam, your road test, A COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM. None are particularly pleasant experiences.  But college entrance exams, like the SAT and ACT, can be even more overwhelming since they mean a bit more than your average test.  While some stress before a test can be beneficial—it can push you to work harder and to put forth your maximum effort— too much test stress and anxiety will certainly take its toll on a student’s test-time confidence. It’s important to be able to manage the stress that comes along with the inescapable knowledge that the SAT and ACT play a significant role in getting you into the college of your choice. Check out a few of our tips for handling the stress:

• Take Practice Tests: The more comfortable you are with the test, the more prepared you’ll be come the actual test date. Take as many SAT or ACT practice exams as you can to get familiar with format, question types, and your time management abilities.  
  
• Get Some Sleep: It’s unlikely that that you’ll learn something the night before the SAT or ACT that will better your performance on the test, so don’t overwhelm yourself the day/night before the big test by taking another full exam or going through your whole deck of vocab flashcards. It’s not going to help, and you don’t want to be falling asleep during the test with your number 2 pencil in hand. Instead get a good night’s rest. You’re armed with A-List’s strategies—a good night’s sleep will pay off far more than any sort of cramming.  
  
• Eat a Healthy Breakfast: Your parents were right—breakfast is the most important meal of the day, particularly before the SAT. Get your blood sugar up and your brain functioning most efficiently with a well-balanced breakfast. Plus, you’ll be taking your exam for quite a few hours and you won’t want to be hungry or for your stomach to be grumbling too much in that quiet testing atmosphere!
  
• Think Positively: While it may sound corny, believe in yourself and go into the test with a positive attitude. Negative, “I’m going to fail” thoughts will only destroy the confidence you’ve been building throughout your preparation. At this point you’ve done all you can, and now it’s just a matter of applying everything you’ve learned and practiced. Take a deep breath, have an optimistic outlook, and know that you’re to be just fine. And, the worst possible scenario? You take it again.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer, American motivational speaker and author

When applying to college, SAT preparation is important, but there is more to the college admissions process than standardized test preparation and SAT scores. The college essay gives you the opportunity to share a part of yourself that an SAT score or high school transcript cannot convey. Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Harvard College, William R. Fitzsimmons, recently wrote in a piece for The New York Times, “One of the great clichés of college admissions is the exhortation that students find their own voices in the essay (and interviews)—and ‘be themselves.’ It’s a cliché because it’s good advice.”

At this point, you’re probably well on your way to having an impeccable college essay that will blow admissions officers away, but you also probably feel like you have been working on it forever! Remember the difference between a good college essay and a great college essay is that extra time you put into the writing process, so don’t skip out on the crucial final stages!

• EDIT: “Perhaps this point would fit in better at this part of my essay,” or “Maybe this really doesn’t support my topic” might be a few of the considerations that come to mind while editing your college essay. Do my ideas flow logically? Am I getting my point across? Review every element of your essay with a critical eye. Good editing skills and attention to detail will help you transform your rough draft into a perfectly polished essay.

• PROOF: There’s no room for spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in your essay, so get rid of them! Consider making appropriate changes for improving writing style and consistency. During this stage it might pay off to have someone else take a look at your writing. You’ve probably been working on this for some time, and a new set of eyes could very well pick up on something that you’ve missed.

• POLISH: You’ve finished proofreading and correcting all of the errors you came across. Now, it’s time for finishing touches. Does everything read well and flow smoothly? If you effectively worked your way through each stage of the college essay writing process, polishing should simply be matter of crossing your “t”s and dotting your “i”s.

English author, Samuel Johnson once said, “What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” The college admissions essay could be one of the most important essays you ever write. Taking the time to write it well and to really find your voice in your subject matter could pay off—big time.

In the fall of 2007, A-List partnered with Graham Windham (GW) to launch a six-year Scholars Program, the objective of which is to enable foster youth to succeed in high school and in college.

The Graham Windham students, who began the program as high school juniors, have set individualized academic goals with the assistance of a staff member and attend weekly tutoring sessions. Seeing GW students on such a consistent basis has been a pleasure for A-List, and has allowed us to monitor their progress in working toward their academic objectives.

Our Graham Windham students are currently actively engaged in the college admissions process—preparing to take their SATs again, and getting their college applications ready for submission. A-List is extremely proud of our Graham Windham students’ commitment, and we look forward to offering them our continued support and helping them to realize their educational goals.

Meet Graham Windham Scholar, Emily Dominguez

At A-List, we take pride in the good relationships that we develop with our clients. While our objective is to raise test scores, we also aim to create an overall positive learning experience.

A-List would like to thank satisfied client, Jill Holland, for her kind words about one of our wonderful tutors, Gary Surman. We’d like to share her thoughts with you below:

Hi.  I hope the right person gets this email.  I just want to commend one of your instructors for being so great, so professional, so respectful and so attentive.  Gary Surman has been tutoring my daughter for the SAT test since August.  In that time, he has never missed a class and has never even been late.  In fact, on many occasions, he stays well past the hour because they’re still working.  My daughter thinks he’s a great teacher and she has an easy time listening to him instruct and understanding him.  I can’t tell you how much of a difference this will make in her score, but I can tell you that my husband and I believe he has helped a lot and, while the fee was a sacrifice for us, we don’t regret a cent of it.

Thanks for sending such a nice, young man to our home to help prepare our daughter for the SAT.

Sincerely,

Jill Holland 

Vocab Videos is a revolutionary new system bringing vocabulary to life and getting students engaged in the learning process. Educators, we encourage you to get in on the action!

As you know, the college admissions process—that time of year where students are busy prepping for the SAT, preparing their college applications, and trying to manage their school workload—can be overwhelming for students (along with teachers and guidance counsellors!). Incorporating Vocab Videos into your classrooms will benefit your students by improving their vocabulary, and in turn their academic performance, and by giving them in-school time to learn the words that they will need to know for the SAT and ACT.

Here are a few reasons why Vocab Videos is right for the classroom:

•Engages Students
Keeping students engaged in the classroom can undoubtedly be a struggle. Vocab Videos gets students excited about learning! Hilarious short videos illustrate the meanings of 500 of the most frequently tested SAT words making them easy for students to learn and remember. With humorous plotlines and engaging characters, integrating Vocab Videos into English classes is a fun and effective way to change up a monotonous vocabulary lesson, and teach students the vocabulary they’ll need to know for standardized tests and high-school English exams. Whether using Vocab Videos as a starter exercise to get students motivated to learn, watching an episode on your SmartBoard as a class, or assigning a chapter as a homework assignment for students to make use of their personal accounts, there is no wrong way to bring Vocab Videos into your classroom.

•Gets Results
Vocab Videos is extremely valuable for students. About 1/3 of the SAT reading section is made up of questions that are explicitly vocabulary-dependent—questions that are potentially worth 150 points in all. Students will likely be involved in varying degrees of SAT prep outside of the classroom, but Vocab Videos offers you a way to work test preparation into your everyday vocabulary lessons. And standardized tests aside, an increased vocabulary thoroughly improves literacy, making students better readers, writers and interpreters of information. So getting your students familiar with these words will not only help them write better papers, but could very well help them get into the colleges of their choice.

•Extensive Study Material
Watching a video once isn’t enough to remember it forever, so our extensive review material is an essential part of the Vocab Videos study program. After students have watched the videos, the quizzes at the end of each unit allow them to reinforce what they’ve seen, and SAT style questions prepare students for what they’ll encounter on standardized tests. An alphabetical glossary for organizational purposes helps teachers and students keep track of words they’ve mastered, and gives students the option to review definitions without re-watching the videos. Category lists group words by common themes to give students a fuller grasp of the words’ meanings. Additional worksheets list words and provide space for students to write their own sentences. Getting students involved in the learning process will give them a more complete understanding of the vocabulary. They will be better able to recognize and comprehend the words even within an unfamiliar context as they might appear on the SAT, ACT or in a reading assignment.

•Leverages Technology
Vocab Videos provides educators an opportunity to incorporate technology into the classroom. Living in a new-media world, you have the potential to enhance age-old teaching techniques with innovative tools that will enrich lessons and benefit students. Students love watching and sharing videos; the YouTube phenomenon is proof positive that online video is a powerful communication medium. Implementing video in the classroom will get students engaged and excited about learning. Students in today’s technology-driven world learn from a variety of mediums beyond the printed word. Vocab Videos not only improves literacy in a real sense by teaching students vocabulary, but also helps them become familiar with “reading” video and gathering information from different sources of media.

The college admissions process is stressful not only for students and guidance counselors, but for parents as well. We feel for you! You certainly want your children to get into the colleges of their dreams as much as they hope to attend the colleges of their dreams. Now, part of the test preparation process can be fun—at least for students (sorry, parents!). Vocab Videos is a revolutionary new system bringing vocabulary to life. Hilarious short videos illustrate the meanings of the most frequently tested SAT words making them easy for students to learn and remember.

Here are a few reasons why Vocab Videos is right for your child:

·         Perfect for preparing for the SAT, ACT, and high school English tests

VOCABULARY MATTERS: When vocabulary increases, so do your child’s SAT scores! About 1/3 of the SAT Reading section is made up of questions that are explicitly vocabulary-dependent—questions that are potentially worth 150 points in all! So, a better knowledge of vocabulary is a concrete way to improve test scores. And standardized tests aside, an increased vocabulary thoroughly improves literacy, making your child a better reader, writer and interpreter of information. A good vocabulary is important both inside and outside the classroom.  

·         THEY’LL ENJOY IT!

There’s not much about studying that could be considered “fun” for students, but that doesn’t make it any less important—it’s those good grades and SAT scores that are going to help your child get into his or her top-choice colleges. Vocab Videos makes studying this essential vocabulary more fun. Hilarious short videos illustrate the meanings of 500 of the most frequently tested SAT words making them easy to learn and remember. Parodies of some of your child’s favorite television shows like Lost, The Office, 24 and Gossip Girl make content more relevant, memorable and compelling for students.Vocab Videos’ humorous plotlines and engaging characters make it an effective and entertaining vocabulary system.

·         Useful study materials

Watching a video once isn’t enough to remember it forever, so our extensive review material is an essential part of the Vocab Videos study program. After students have watched the videos, the quizzes at the end of each unit allow them to reinforce what they’ve seen, and SAT style questions prepare students for what they’ll encounter on standardized tests. An alphabetical glossary helps students keep track of words they’ve mastered, and gives them the option to review definitions without re-watching the videos. Category lists group words by common themes, and additional worksheets list words and provide space for students to write their own sentences using the vocabulary.  If students have a true understanding of the vocabulary, they will be better able to recognize and comprehend the words—even within an unfamiliar context as they could appear on the SAT, ACT or in a homework assignment.  

·         Suits your child’s lifestyle

Between sports practices, extracurricular activities and school projects, we understand your child’s schedule can be jam-packed. Vocab Videos allows students to craft individual study programs, so that they can learn this crucial vocabulary on their own time. They can watch an episode before bed or study five words per day depending on their schedules and when they’re taking their standardized tests. Even if you decide to designate Vocab Videos as “homework” for your child, it won’t feel like their typical study time—Vocab Videos are funny and captivating. Students will be learning and having fun in the process!

The Vocab Videos program in Paramus High School was featured on a special segment on News 12 NJ. Check it out!

See how educators are helping with SAT preparation and incorporating technology into the classroom. Students are learning essential SAT vocabulary, and having fun in the process!

• Students, Vocab Videos is a fun and effective way to learn SAT and ACT vocabulary that can increase your SAT score up to 150 points!
• Parents, your kids will enjoy Vocab Videos and it will help them get into their top-choice colleges!
• Teachers, Vocab Videos can enhance vocabulary lessons and it gets results!

Check it out in action at Paramus High School, and consider giving Vocab Videos a try!