It’s that time of year for both current students and prospective students. FAFSA forms need to be filled out and sent to all the schools you applied to before their respective deadlines. I’m talking about this because I started to fill out my 2010-2011 FAFSA today and I’m amazed at how easy it is this time around.

This time around I am on the last real page of the FAFSA form and it only took me 15 minutes. Now to put this into perspective last year when I first applied to college it took my fathers experienced accountant two hours to fill out the 30 something page form.

It’s only about 8 pages compared to the 30+ pages it used to be. The questions are down to the basics which are supposedly the ones asked by the IRS (Internal Revenue Services).

So if you haven’t already begun doing to it’s FAFSA time, go fill out yours and get some financial aid.

There is no more stressful time for a high school teenager than when they are getting ready for the SAT. This is the one test that can make or break their futures or so they are told their entire scholastic careers. Colleges weight these scores heavily when they are deciding on admittance. And we all know how important it can be to get into the right college.

The SAT or Scholastic Assessment Test is, for most colleges, the best way to weed their way through the potential pool of students as fairly as they know how. The SAT separates this group quickly and easily since each school has its own standards. If a score on the SAT does not meet their standards the student can be rejected quickly and easily with no further discussion. It is then just a matter of deciding which of students that do meet the requirements of the particular institution will be granted admission and which will not. The SAT streamlines the process and makes it less cumbersome for admissions officers.

Because of the importance of this test many high school juniors and seniors find themselves in SAT preparation classes. In these classes they are taught exactly how to take this one test. The ins and outs of how to do your best on this test will be gone over multiple times until you are extremely comfortable with exactly what you will see and how to deal with it when the time comes.

Another way that students can prepare for the SAT is by getting a practice SAT exam. These practice tests are set up exactly like the one they will be taking and give them a taste of how the test will be administered. The test booklet will give them a full copy of a sample exam as well as invaluable test taking advice. A free copy of the test booklet can be gotten either by going online at CollegeBoard.com or by calling The College Board directly at (609) 771-7070.

When you either take the SAT preparation classes or obtain a copy of the practice exam, you will see that the test is broken down into 2 parts. SAT I is specifically designed to judge the students reasoning abilities in the math and verbal skills arena. SAT II is set up to show the knowledge the students have developed in a particular subject and how well they can put that knowledge to use.

It is to the students advantage to utilize one of these two options when getting ready to take this all important test. The SAT’s are sometimes your one chance to let college admissions officers know exactly what you are made of and how important getting into their institution is to you.

When I applied to college I had to write multiple admission essays. The most popular question on the applications was “Why is this school the right one for you?” Honestly I had a lot of trouble writing this essay even though you’d think it would be the easiest. It’s not that I wasn’t sure why the school is right for me, I just didn’t know what they wanted to hear.

After talking to two English teachers and a guidance counselor for ideas on what the school wanted to hear I learned I was over thinking it. They want to hear a creative twist on the basic ways their school is a perfect fit. Like the fact they have your major.

My school was right for me because they were one of the few good schools with my major, web development. I wrote the essay in the form of a story. I used a time line setup and wrote about how I became interested in my major throughout the years. How when I got my first computer and used the internet I instantly became interested in how web sites worked. Then how I went on to learn about it on my own and turn it into a hobby.

The teachers and guidance counselors I had read my essay before I sent it in loved it, plus I got into the colleges I sent it to. So when you go to write your “why this college is right for you” essay make sure you write a creative, honest essay on the basic reasons the school is right for you.

If your an aspiring architect and you’ve built complex homes with Legos as a kid talk about it and tell the school that their architecture program is perfect for you.

So it’s said that the essay portion, or the entire writing section of the SAT isn’t usually looked at by colleges but it is a good idea to score well anyway. Back in my junior year of high school my English teacher did a very helpful activity, that I believe could help you out too.

So your going to get a small piece of paper, and I want you to draw a girl walking home from a birthday party using basic shapes and stick figures. Sounds simple enough right? We’ll I’m not going to lie, I drew a perfect looking stick figure with long hair, and a part hat walking from one house to another. Turns out I would’ve scored poorly on the SAT essay. A good scorer would have drawn a stick figure with a dress, party balloons and hat walking from a house with balloons coming out of it to a home with a ‘home’ door mat.

You see the key to scoring well on the SAT essay is to be descriptive. Your not going to be graded on spelling but rather on how well written your essay is.The more depth you go into, and the more you can relate to the topic the better you’ll do, promise.

The toughest thing for me to do other than waking up for my first SAT test was finding my college. Yup, finding that one college or university that was the perfect fit for me was like finding a long needle in a stack of short needles. Maybe it was because of my not so popular major, Web development, or the fact that I needed something with that major with in a short distance of my house. Or it could have been that I was looking for something my parents could afford. What ever it was that stretched out my search, it ended when I stumbled across the University Of Hartford.

So here are some things you should look for when searching for a college that fits you and your needs.

Majors and Minors

Before you even look at distance or prices of colleges or universities you should look to see which ones actually have the majors and minors your looking for. In my search only three or four schools through out the country actually had a web development major, one being Full Sail University in Miami Florida and the next being University of Hartford in Hartford Connecticut. Which brings me to narrowing the schools down.

Narrowing Down From Topical Stuff

This may not be an issue for all of you, as it really wasn’t for me, but narrowing down your list of 20 schools with the majors and minors your interested in is a very important process. You need to do a little research at this point and make decisions on things like location, size, campus life, and maybe cost. Some good research tools are would be the College Board tools or better yet The Spark Notes College Search Tool. They would both help you narrow down your college choices to an at least reasonable amount.

Get Them Down To 5 or 6

The rule of thumb when applying to college is to apply to five of them. The first two being “reach schools,” the schools you want to get into but aren’t exactly sure you can make it in. The second two schools would be “best fit schools,” or schools that your pretty sure you can get into. then the last school, is your “fallback school.” Fall back schools are supposed to be the places you are pretty much guaranteed to get into. Most people like to do one of these schools, but some would recommend 2 just in-case.

The best way to narrow down your schools to five would be to again do research, figure out exactly what the requirements for colleges or universities are. What types of things they look at most like extra curricular activities, GPA (Grade point average),  the admission essay, SAT scores, or maybe your transcript. The best tool for doing this would have to be the Spark Notes College Search Tool. It shows you everything about a college from academics to financial aid.

That’s it you should now have a list of five or so schools that fit you perfectly for you to apply to. But just remember it’s always a good idea to visit schools and get a feel for the campus. This you you’ll absolutely know why this school is the one you need to be at.

So we all know that the SAT is a much hated standardized test taken by almost all college bound high school students. Taking it may be one of the more stressful aspects of college admission, right next to opening the letter sent back to you from colleges, with reason too. Most high school counselors will tell you that it’s one of the most important thing sent to colleges right next to your GPA and application essay which most teachers and college admissions employees would agree with.

Now although it’s debatable that the SAT test is decreasing in importance and will soon count towards your college admission a lot less. Right now it’s important that you get a score worthy of college. Seeing as this score will then be requested by almost all degree awarding schools, as an admission standard. One of the more important parts to standardized test prep is knowing what the test it’s self covers or goes over. On this standardized test your knowledge in math, critical reading or reasoning and writing will be put to work and essentially graded. In this post I’m gonna explain what each of these sections on the SAT consist of so that you know what to study for.

The SAT Mathematics Section

The math section on the SAT consists of mostly algebra and geometry questions but their is in fact a lot of simple math. Like finding percentages, means, medians, modes or completing logical number series. Keep in mind their are some parts of the math section which you are not allowed to use a calculator, and really some parts may even take less time without one anyway. It may be a good idea to review some notes from your algebra and geometry classes or even ask a math teacher in your high school to review with you.

The math section of the SAT accounts for 70 minutes of the total test time. It’s split into two 25 minute sections and one 20 minute section, and the possible score on the math section ranges from 200-800.

The SAT Critical Reading Section

Also known as the SAT reasoning test, the critical reading section of the SAT tests your reading and English skills. It consists of both sentence completion questions and passage-based reading questions. The sentence completion questions ask you to look at sentences with missing words and choose from a list of words to fill it in.

Like the math section the critical reading section of the SAT consists of two 25 minute sections, and one 20 minute section accounting for 70 minutes of the total test. The possible score again ranges from a 200 to an 800.

The SAT Writing Section

Most people have a misconception of the writing section of the SAT, thinking that it’s only an essay. Well it’s in fact more than that. It consists of four different parts. The first being ‘improving sentences’, which requires you to identify and fix sentence structures, the key being that they ask for both. The second of these three parts is ‘identifying sentence errors’ which asks you to find where errors are in sentences testing your knowledge on conventions in English writing. The third part of the writing section is the ‘improving paragraphs’ section which asks you to edit and revise sentences in their context, making them coherent. The fourth part of the section is the actual essay. Here your asked to write a ‘rough draft’ of an essay in 25 minutes.

With all four sections, the writing portion of the SAT is the shortest. It only lasts for 60 minutes, two 25 minute sections and one 10 minute section. Just as a side note most colleges/universities do not look at your scores in the writing section of the SAT, but some rare schools may do so so it is important to try your best either way.

I hope this helps you college bound students out their. Knowing exactly what a test consists of usually helps you know what to study for, and what exactly your going to be facing. All in all it may be the most important step in standardized test prep.

We all need some help in studying for test and like always books are the best option. Personally I used the official study guide to help me get the score I got, and so did the great majority of my class. So i’ve compiled a quick list of the best SAT test books I could find.