Education Articles from College Matching Service

If you are thinking about your college admission, you must start planning right away. Never submit application to only one college. Make sure to apply to more than two or three colleges, so that if you fail to get admission into one college, you may get admission into the other. More than 75% applicants get acceptance into their first chosen college. Let us discuss a few steps that you must follow for getting accepted into a college easily.

Getting Accepted Into a College Easily

• Try to get high grades throughout your educational career. If you are willing to get acceptance into your dream college, you must get good position and grades. If you get better marks compared to others, your chance of getting accepted into a college becomes much easy. Students having high GPAs receive more financial aid from aid offices and more attention from admission departments.

• Take up advanced placement (AP) courses. You must take AP courses if your high school offers them. AP courses will help you to acquire college courses even without paying any college tuition fees. They will also make your admission officers realize how serious you are about your education.

• Try to achieve high score in your SAT exam. With a high SAT and a high GPA score, you will get acceptance into a college of your choice easily, and you will also get free scholarship. You may increase your GPA and SAT score by taking a SAT prep course or by selecting a good SAT guide.

• Try to involve yourself in activities outside school time table. Participate in charities, events, functions, seminars and other extra-curricular activities – this will enhance your college application and your life. While choosing the extra-curricular activities, pick up something that you will really enjoy or have a special preference for. As a result, the time spend on such activities will become even more fulfilling.

Changing admission deadlines and electronic applications have not prevented learners from asking a simple question: How to get accepted into a good college? Planning to start a college can become the most exhilarating time in the life of a student who has just passed his/her higher secondary school. If you improve the chances of getting college acceptance, you will find abundance of opportunities that are related to your career, and which will also help you to become successful in life. Here are few tips that will help you to improve the chances for getting accepted into a good college.

Tips for Improving the Chances of Getting College Acceptance

• During your high school years, although you spent a lot of time in shopping and dating, you must also attend your classes regularly and study hard. Most colleges and institutions prefer to accept students who have proved that they are careful about their coursework and study, and have achieved high grades.

• If you get the chance of becoming a volunteer, grab it. A lot of colleges prefer to see the spirit of leadership and compassion in their students.

• Involve yourself in few activities that are outside school timetable. Being a member of sports team or some club will improve your chance of getting acceptance into a good college of your choice. Your involvement in additional activities will make the admission committee realize that you are able to manage time efficiently and handle stress competently.

• It is always advisable to apply early to a college of your choice, since all colleges have fixed quota for different categories of students. If you delay applying into a college of your choice, you may not get seat into that college anymore.

• Today, most colleges need recommendation letter to admit students. The best individual who can provide this letter of recommendation for you is your teacher. If you have to write an essay during your admission process, your teacher can also help you by reviewing it. This will improve your chance of getting acceptance into the college of your choice.

If you keep these points in mind, you will find that getting accepted into a college becomes much easier. Also, this will improve your chance of getting admitted to a college preferred by you.

College applications, at a first glance, may seem quite easy. You provide basic and essential facts about your achievements, education and background. However, one portion that puzzles many is the portion for extra curricular activities. Your extra curricular activities are important and crucial on your college application. This is the segment where an applicant can set himself apart from others by using a little strategy. You can make your extra-curricular activities notable within the small space of application form by focusing on leadership.

Make the List

First, make a listing of your extra-curricular activities, jobs and summer activities. Note down each and every events; big or small. Always remember that extra curricular activities include different experiences such as teaching kids in schools, playing triangle in band, volunteering at any organization, etc. To make your extra-curricular activities noticeable in your college application, you must list down the following:

• Dates you worked or participated in any extra curricular activities.

• Responsibilities and leadership positions held by you in any particular event.

• Number of hours you spent on a job or activity each week.

• Name of the business, program or organization

• Special projects which you oversaw or initiated.

• The description of the business, program or group.

If you face trouble in remembering everything, you can use the memories of other people. Show the listing to your advisors, friends, siblings, teachers and parents who might recollect something you did.

How to Proceed

After you have made the listing, you must prioritize since you will not get enough space to write down everything on your application form. While prioritizing, you must give more importance to those activities where you have demonstrated leadership. Your extra curricular activities play an important role during application process. Hence, while you describe your roles, never hesitate to boast a little. You must highlight the significance of your responsibilities and contributions. Admission officers prefer to admit students who are leaders as well as members. Students, who show leadership both outside and inside the classroom, are basically preferred during college admission. If you organize your extra-curricular activities properly, you will create good impression on admission officers that will help you to get admission into a college easily.

SAT examination is essential for most of the colleges and Universities in United States. After taking the SAT, you also need to obtain particular scores in order to achieve a college acceptance. There are several factors that you need to do for obtaining your SAT scores. These include:

• Create an online College Broad account and sign up for the SAT. Once you are through it, you will find a link on their site that says ‘View and Send Scores’. Simply sign in and you can check your entire SAT score history. You will also find the data’s of the school where you have send your scores.

• You can even change the score recipients very conveniently at the My SAT page. Upon registering, you will be given four free score reports and you can change these score recipients anytime within a week after taking the test.

• Apart from receiving the My SAT Online Score Report for free, you will also receive a printed score report through mail. However, the online score report gives you more information about your performance on each section. This helps you to get a brief idea about the type of questions you attempted and their level of difficulty as well as the number of questions you omitted, or answered correctly or incorrectly.

• The online SAT score report also compares your score with the others in your school, state and nation and also provides a printable copy of your actual essay response. Thereby, you can easily work on improving your scores while retaking the exam. Based on your scores, it will also help you to search for colleges and careers.

• You also have the option to send your scores to some more colleges, if you pay an additional fee. Moreover, you can send your SAT scores for various scholarship programs.

SAT is longest and the most comprehensive test that a high school student will ever take. Its scores have a huge impact on your college options. Most of the colleges in United States take SAT score into consideration and do not accept students scoring below a certain level. Following certain guidelines while preparing for SAT will help you to reduce the burden. These are:

• Opt for practice SAT exams: Practicing SAT exams will help you to be familiar with its methods and procedures as well as to review your mistakes. Practice tests can be found at book stores and online. Improve your test scores by several points, every time you take a practice test.

• Improve your vocabulary: The majority of the verbal section of the SAT is based on vocabulary. It frequently presents odd words that sound like other simple words with a different meaning.

• Refresh the high school math: Most of the math on SAT is set from the earlier level of high school course materials. Thereby, practice the old algebra and geometry books to score high in this particular section.

• Read magazines, newspapers and books regularly: Develop your reading habit in order to broaden, challenge and improve yourself. Be well informed about the latest developments.

• Stop guessing: If you have no idea of the answer of any multiple choice question on the SAT, do not try to guess and get it right. It will be better to skip such an answer as getting wrong answers will have a more negative impact to your score.

• Practice writing: Your writing skill gets better only with practicing. You can try writing some SAT style essays everyday to be able to write them quickly.

Some helpful tips:

• Get a lot of sleep the night before the test.
• Have a good breakfast on day of your exam.
• Get to the test location well before the scheduled time.
• Retake your test if you are not happy with your SAT scores.

Writing SAT essays need practice and a special treatment. Think your essay in three parts such as, the opening, the body and the conclusion. The conclusion needs to be strong enough to leave an impact on the readers mind. The opening or the introduction of a standard SAT essay consists of one paragraph of about four to five sentences. State your view on the topic clearly in the opening paragraph, along with the points that will support your view. It is better to use maximum three points and try to avoid clichés. Include information and data that supports your points in the body and explain each point in separate paragraphs. While concluding bring you message together. Since it is the most important part of your essay, give your best effort to your conclusion. The following are some standard guidelines that will help you to write a strong SAT essay.

• Outlining your essay: This is one of the most important factors. Your reader is also going to mark you on the basis of the structure of your essay. The typical outline includes stating your position, followed by the first, second and third points. Explain each point as briefly as possible. Give a strong closing that will force your reader to accept your point of view.

• Decide your position: The first thing you need to do while beginning your SAT essay, is deciding your position. Never change your mind in between. Take your time to decide your pros and cons and stick to the one in which you strongly believe. This will help you to stay focused on the task.

Some essential points to check up:

• Be straightforward and to the point.
• Explain clearly and give simple examples.
• Do not generalize any of your points.
• Avoid using unnecessary words.
• Try a variety in structuring your sentences.
• Maintain a constant tone throughout your essay.

In United States, ACT is the standardized achievement examination for college acceptance. The format of the ACT examination is divided into four multiple choice sections. The subjects included are mathematic, science reasoning, English and reading along with an option writing section. The average of all the four tests is calculated as the composite score. However, the ACT exam often includes an experimental section, which is generally a short version of any of the four major sections.

English: The first section of the ACT exam is a 45 minute English test. There are seventy five questions in this section and includes a few passages, some of which are underlined. You will have options to correct those underlined portions on the other side of the page. It also includes some questions about the order of sentences in the paragraph, author’s tone in a particular section and order of the paragraphs.

Mathematics: This is the second section that includes 60 questions and you have 60 minutes to complete them. Out of them ten questions are set from your elementary algebra, fourteen from pre-algebra, nine intermediate algebra, four from elementary trigonometry, fourteen from geometry and nine from coordinate geometry. You can even use your calculator.

Reading: There are forty questions in this section and need to complete them within 35 minutes. This includes four passages that help to measure your reading comprehension. The passages are usually taken from books and magazines and are based on prose fiction, social science, humanities and natural science.

Science reasoning: It includes forty questions and you will have to answer them within 35 minutes. You will have seven passages; among them three are Research Summary passage with six questions each, three Data Representation passages with 5 questions each and one Conflicting Viewpoints passage with 7 questions.

Tips for preparing in ACT:

• For the science sections of ACT, give stress on Latin language.
• Repeat your middle school math courses with a special emphasis on geometry.

• Opt for Prep courses and take practice ACT exams.

The ACT is an achievement exam for getting acceptance into a college in the U.S. This test measures the understanding and knowledge a student has acquired during his educational career. Many college students realize that they need to prepare themselves for ACT test in order to gain acceptance into a good college. Let us now discuss few basics about ACT score which will make college admittance easy.

Few Basics About ACT Test Score

• ACT is an aptitude test which analyses how far a student has learnt. It tests the verbal and reasoning abilities of an individual. It has five components: Mathematics, Science, Reading, English and Optional Writing test.

• Students must test 2 months ahead of application deadlines of those scholarship agencies and colleges where they want to apply. It generally takes a minimum of 4 to 8 weeks after the test date to get score reports. Early testing has few advantages. This may enable retesting in case your result is lower than required. This will also provide extra time for preparation and study in order to increase your scores.

• Few college applicants question whether it is to their benefit to retake ACT test. The answer depends upon individuals and circumstances. If personal problems or any type of illness created distraction on the day of ACT test, retesting can prove beneficial. If additional practice or study is expected to increase the scores, retesting can be a better idea. However, you must remember that retesting is just a bit of gambling.

• After the actual ACT test is over, students wait eagerly to see their scores. They can see the scores online within 2 weeks; however, a small charge of $8 will be applicable.

• The highest possible score in the ACT test is 36. The ACT score, necessary for college admittance, will differ from one college to another. If you have doubt regarding which college you must apply, it may be helpful to look at the national ranking for your score.

If you use your ACT test score properly, you will be able to achieve your future dreams and goals successfully. Understanding the basics of ACT score will make your admittance easier into the college of your choice.

The ACT is basically an achievement test which determines how far a student has learned during his/her school days. It measures the skills, understanding and knowledge a student has achieved throughout his/her education. It is basically a skill test that analysis the verbal and reasoning abilities of the students. The ACT has five components that include optional writing, science, reading, mathematics and English test. If you improve your ACT scores, getting acceptance into a college becomes quite easy.

How to Improve Your ACT Scores to Get Acceptance into a College

• Speed up Yourself: The test is quite tough, and there are many competitors. Almost every competitor will be capable of completing the questions within the allotted time. Hence, you must try to solve all the questions within time so as to improve your ACT scores to get college acceptance easily. The test protectors will make announcement when you have five minutes left after each test.

• Read the Instructions Carefully: The science, reading and English test prefer best answers. Read the instructions carefully and consider all the answers before writing down any particular answer. The math test prefers correct answer rather than best answer. Solve out the given problems, re-check your answer and select the right answer from the given choices.

• Read the Questions Carefully: Before solving any answer, ensure that you have a full understanding of each questions thoroughly.

• Attempt Simple Questions First: As soon as you get the question paper, solve out the easy questions first. Only after solving the easy questions, go back to the difficult ones. The easy questions will take less time, and you will be left with enough time to answer the difficult questions.

• Use Your Logic While Answering: Compare the given answers, and note down how they differ from each other. Do away with as many inappropriate answers as you can; make a guess from the remaining options.

• Answer All Questions: Your test score depends on number of questions that you get right. Guessing is always welcome and you are not penalized for it.

• Re-Check Your Answers: After you have completed answering all questions, go back and review your answers.

• Mark Your Answer Sheet Correctly: Make sure that you fill up the ovals in the answer sheet correctly. Mark just one answer against each question. Erase the answer properly if you have made any changes.

Preparing yourself for college may seem exhausting at times since you have to pass through several entrance examinations. This may create extra pressure on you and you may feel tired both physically and mentally. A methodical approach to prepare for ACT exams can become helpful, and students will get easy acceptance into a college of their choice. Four year universities and colleges use the ACT exams in order to determine the potential and academic achievements of applicants. The scores of ACT exam also serve major criteria for several financial awards.

How to Prepare for ACT to Get College Acceptance

The ACT exam includes the following:

• English: You are given 45 minutes to solve the English paper. It has 75 questions that are related to five prose piece passages (sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation). Hence you must have good background in English in order to prepare yourself for ACT exam.

• Science: You have to solve 40 science questions within 30 minutes. You must have good capability to analyze scientific information on biology, physical science, and earth science.

• Math: You must have strong skills and good knowledge in trigonometry, geometry and algebra to sit for ACT exams. You must prepare these fields thoroughly to pass ACT exam with good scores.

• Optional Writing: You must have good flair for writing essays, since you have to explain your point of view on a given issue.

• Reading: During this part, you will be provided 40 questions where you will have to draw some conclusions from given prose passages. You must show good ability in reading so as to pass the ACT test.

Other Useful Information

Students who achieve success in advanced science, social science, math, and English do well in ACT examination. If you have taken ACT exam before, you can review your score reports and learn from your mistake so that you can prepare yourself well for the next ACT exam.