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The SAT tests you on your math and English language skills, which almost all students have learned by the end of the 10th grade. At Ivy Aspire, we understand that students come from different schools and tracks. We are aware of what each board, ICSE, CBSE, IGCSE, IB, and various other state boards, are strong at and what they omit. Allowing us to understand the best ways to improve your scores and success in the test.
First, we ensure you will get comprehensive learning of all the core concepts of the SAT. Second, we will work on your exam-taking skills – teaching you tips and tricks that will help you score better, finish the exam faster, and also conserve your energy for the 4-hour test. Third, we ensure you get enough to practice each and every type of question you can expect so that you are prepared for all types of questions. Fourth, we give you enough practice tests, as a large part of the SAT is the fatigue that sets in after your second or third hour of testing. This helps in ensuring you build your stamina for the exam.
This is why the SAT is far more involved than a simple IQ test. IQ tests are generally a measure of ability rather than acquired skills, whereas the SAT helps to measure acquired skills. The SAT also tests your exam skills, fast-reading skills, summarization skills, critical thinking skills, and other important skills and attributes. Studies have shown that test preparation dramatically increases scores materially. This is also a criticism of the SAT to some extent, but that’s the reality. If you prepare well, with Ivy Aspire, you will boost your scores.
I know we are battling uncertainty and are looking for clear answers.
I wanted to share what I knew so far
All consulates are closed currently and are expected to only open after lockdown – I assume mid June. Thus there are no student visa dates typically available online. I hope this will change soon. Often they will make special exceptions for students and open more dates or even rush visas for students
Please check with your specific university on their policy. Some are willing to accept local vaccines administered in your home country and need the certificate by a certain date to allow you to enter student housing. Some others have said they will help you vaccinate on campus and will need you to quarantine until then. You will have to follow the exact protocol laid out by your specific university – please do not go by hearsay.
I know this is particularly worrisome and I wish that I had an absolute answer. I do know from last year the universities were kind and helpful and didn’t penalize students for this delay. They understood the extenuating circumstance and made accommodations. I do hope they will do the same this year. I suggest corresponding with your University so you can understand their policy and accordingly make decisions.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program, you can visit our page. For more information on this or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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For any general information about the Ivy Aspire, you can visit our page. For more information on Important US Visa Update or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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For any general information about the Ivy Aspire, you can visit our page. To get more information on SAT Test Centres Updates. For any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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The SAT centers are taking every precaution to ensure a safe environment to take the test. All the students taking the test need to confirm that they are following the COVID-19 safety measures too!
Below is the list of measures the test centers require the students to take
Note, all safety measures have been taken
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire, you can visit our page. To get more information on SAT Test Centres Updates. For any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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As the pandemic struck, education transformed and evolved into a new way of learning. A lot of debate has been going on over online teaching vs. classroom teaching. We at Ivy Aspire believe that learning is the most important aspect of it all.
Online learning helped teachers in continuing with their education when classrooms weren’t accessible. This has further helped an entire generation from missing out on valuable educational years. (Would need to add a + for offline here to add balance to the fact that you’re saying both are good)
Traditional learning helps in building a social life and interacting with new people whereas online learning provides us with a more flexible learning schedule. Technology is the way forward and online learning is a way to keep up with our times, with lectures accessible to students even after the live classes are over. In terms of discussions and doubt clearing, classrooms and online discussion forums can be held on equal levels, a student can ask questions in a traditional classroom just as well as in an online discussion forum.
Online learning and traditional learning both have their pros and cons, what traditional learning lacks in convenience, online learning makes up for with recorded lectures accessible throughout the week. Online learning may not provide the same amount of social interaction as traditional learning but it gives the students freedom of time. It saves them the hassle of traveling thus giving them more opportunities for hobbies and other co-curricular activities.
The best part of having both methods available is that now the learner gets to choose and maybe even alternate between the two learning options. Online learning has played a huge role in making sure no one misses out on any important aspect.
At Ivy aspire we provide our material online and also have centers all across India. We provide each student with personalized tutoring and one on one interaction with teachers and counselors.
The post-pandemic hybrid system of education is an extraordinarily impressive method that includes both traditional and online methods of teaching and gives us a wholesome experience.
The SAT is an integral part of your college application. It helps standardize your scores and demonstrate your academic ability. However, it is only one part of your application. You can overcome a subpar score, with an excellent application. Keep in mind that a high score, with poor extracurriculars and essays, will let you down though. That is why it’s important to focus on all parts of your application. Even a high SAT score isn’t a guarantee for great college admission.
That being said, you can look at some target colleges and their average score. Although the bar for international students is much higher. You would find that the score averages that are provided are understated for international students. Ivy Aspire tracks this admissions data for international students. This allows us to understand what is the true SAT score needed for admission into a particular college. We use this data as a key input into our college selection process. A good score to aim for is the highest one that you can get! Put your best foot forward, take the Ivy Aspire SAT coaching classes. After getting your score we will work with you to get into the college that is the best fit for you.
Our coaching classes have dramatically helped students improve their scores. We do this by focusing on identifying and improving specific traits you need to perform well in the test. We begin the course with a diagnostic test. Based on the test we give you a detailed report mapping your strengths and weaknesses. This personalised system helps each student practice and learn with the help of our experienced counsellors. On average students get 200 points more on the SAT after our program.
Schoolwork, SAT prep and extracurriculars can be difficult to manage. Ivy Aspire helps draw focus to the proper allocation and effective use of time.
To know more about the SAT program at IVY Aspire you can click here. For more information do contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or writing an email to [email protected]
Our counselors would be happier to answer your queries.
Yes, you can study abroad without taking the SAT or ACT. For international students though, it is highly suggested that you take one of the SAT and ACT. Colleges will definitely prefer students with a score over a student without a score. The score will help the college assess the student, and set them apart from the rest of the candidates.
The SAT and ACT are primarily used in the admissions processes in the US. For undergraduate admissions in the US, several universities are now becoming test-optional. Meaning that these colleges will still accept submissions with your score, but will no longer be a prerequisite. They don’t require submission of either of the two standardized tests. These test-optional colleges are NYU, Trinity College, University of California, UChicago, Parsons, etc. However, it still remains a requirement at certain colleges. These colleges being the Ivy Leagues, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford.
Most countries in the rest of the world, in Europe, Australia, and Asia do not require them. It is important to note that colleges in other countries could require different standardized tests. These tests are often specific to the course. Taking the SAT will also help to serve as an indicator of your abilities to colleges in these countries as well.
Even though in order to study in the US the SAT and ACT are not always required, a good score can open doors to a myriad of colleges. A good score will always uphold your application in test-optional colleges and set you apart from your peers. In addition, these test scores provide the colleges with a common data-point to compare the academic abilities of all their applicants. So even though you can study abroad without taking the SAT, a standardized test like the SAT or ACT is incredibly beneficial and ensures you have the most options available.
Colleges abroad use grades and standardized test scores (SAT/ACT) as benchmarks of a student’s academic capability. The best way to stand out amongst the other applicants who achieve similar academic benchmarks is through extracurricular activities. Extracurriculars are a way to reveal to colleges what you are passionate about, that you take initiative and want to create an impact on the world. It also highlights valuable qualities like leadership, commitment, and self-discipline. They are tools to display your future success and impact on the world about topics and causes that you are passionate about.
This is why it is crucial to go in-depth with a few extracurriculars that show a spike in your application. Which is much more ideal than doing dozens of activities that are not personal and deeply impactful to you. Instead of doing several generic extracurriculars that are thought to look good on your application, find something that truly interests and resonates with you. Once you identify those topics/causes, take initiative, get recognition, and dive deep into them. The objective is to build on your existing personality and characteristics. It isn’t just to engage in activities to put onto your college application. The things you are passionate about could be anything. It can range from DJing to cooking, to wildlife conservation, to traveling. As long as it is having a positive impact on you and others it will help your college application.
To know more about the SAT program at IVY Aspire you can click here. For more information do contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or writing an email to [email protected]
Our counselors would be happier to answer your queries.
As the world comes to terms with the idea of long shutdowns (shelter in place, or curfews), being imposed across India, and now possibly even in the USA, the UK, and other countries. These are popular countries for Indians to pursue higher education. So the natural question is – what will happen to your child’s education? What will be the impact of COVID-19 on students planning to study abroad?
For students already studying in colleges, we’ve found that almost all of them are now safely back home. Colleges have shut their campuses and moved to an online curriculum. These students are already in the rhythm of studying. They will have been given a fair amount of online reading, a schedule of video classes, and ways to submit assignments and tests online. Your job as a parent is to just enjoy their company at this unexpected time, support them through this period, and hope everything goes back to normal soon. We anticipate that Summer Schools may be affected as well. Things may return to normalcy by the Fall, or in the worse case, by January semester.
For students who are applying to college now, you have nothing to worry about. Your admissions will be next year, and everything should be normalized by then!
For students who are planning to attend college this fall the impact of COVID-19 may be weighing on you. Things to consider are – will embassies be able to process Visas in this situation? Will college be adequately staffed to work out your student housing? Will airlines be operating? And will you be able to attend college safely? To them, I say the following – colleges are incredibly well managed, and quite risk-averse. They will never put your kids at risk, and therefore you have nothing to worry about. In the event that the COVID-19 situation is not fully managed by the time fall comes around, Colleges may choose to postpone the Fall Semester start (and thereby remove breaks in between for Thanksgiving, Winter, etc). Alternatively;y they may just go ahead with online sessions to keep the schedule intact.
I understand this is not ideal. But for students, here’s something to think about — nothing ever is! When we were entering college, September 11, 2001 (the twin towers terror attacks) happened, and we had college graduates all lose their jobs due to that and the stock market bubble bursting. In 2008, people were impacted when the housing market crashed, taking down a number of large financial institutions. I could go on. I think the main thing is to be positive, be thankful for the internet, the wide variety of online teaching and collaboration tools that exist. You can also be thankful for a few extra weeks (or months) of home-cooked food, and free services at home like laundry (thanks Mom!). This too shall pass. But not before it becomes a story to tell. Stay in, stay safe, and live to tell the tale!
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For a debutante debater or for that matter, a couple of appearances old debater, the experience can be very daunting. It can sometimes make you feel frustrated and like it simply “isn’t my thing”. The key is, just to stay in the game and believe in yourself. Here are 5 Readiness tips for Debaters.
It really isn’t too demanding and the experience that you walk away with is incomparable. Irrespective of the outcome, it’s a fantastic learning that enables you to be open to a wider perspective. To help with this enriching process here are five things that will make it hopefully a little less challenging.
As obvious as this may seem, it’s very often overlooked. It’s not considered very significant, but having this feather in your hat will make you more confident. Of course, a challenge associated with this is the fact that your speech can appear scripted. However, it’s nothing a little bit of confidence and passion can’t handle. There’s nothing wrong with taking a piece of paper up to the podium with you. If you know your speech you won’t be looking at it too much. Instead, you will be making more eye contact with the audience. This will make your speech more effective and leave a lasting impact on the audience and judges. In order to take the trophy home, it’s not about whether you get every line out in your four minutes. It’s more about whether you made an impact in the lines that you do remember.
A debate can very often be intimidating. There could be hundreds of people watching, the trophy staring you in the eye, and every participant’s desperation to win. This has a way of charging the atmosphere. In all of this, the first few seconds of your speech may be hard to get out because of nervousness.
Despite feeling like your heart is in your mouth you can get the first twenty seconds out confidently and effectively you’ve set a fantastic pattern for the rest of your speech. It’s in the first twenty seconds of listening to your speech that the judges and the audience decide whether they want to listen to the remaining 200 or not. Not to mention the incentive it gives you to maintain the passion for the remainder of the speech. “Content is always king” so don’t let the content get lost in the fear of delivering it. Even if that means giving yourself cliched pep talks, so be it.
Nervous jitters and fear of judgment can prevent you from making an effort with the rebuttal. If you begin the debate, you may be tempted to stay seated after your speech. However, you run the risk of being forgotten. Alternatively, if your speech is in the end, you might be tempted to keep practicing your speech. This comes with the risk of being regarded as uninterested due to lack of involvement. Active participation in the rebuttal will introduce you to the judges before your speech. It will add to your credibility as a speaker.
Sometimes, rebuttal helps provide you opportunities to talk on the mic a couple of times before your actual speech. With every question you ask, your fear of speaking in front of the crowd will diminish. You will also be regarded as stiff competition from your opponents. The judges will appreciate your willingness to listen to every speech and call out inaccuracies. It portrays your passion for the subject and this will only add to your points as a debater.
Being nice and politically correct will only take you so far because in a debate. You only have four minutes to prove that you deserve to win. If you spend that time making diplomatic statements that need to be thought out to infer the conclusion, your speech probably won’t have as much of an impact as it would if you simply hit the nail on the head and aggressively put across exactly what you’re thinking.
I say aggressively only because it demonstrates conviction for the viewpoint to the judges. It shows your opponents that you’re not willing to back down as cliched as that may sound. In a debate, the last thing you can afford is to appear vulnerable. To this end, some aggression will help manage this requirement. In a debate more often than not, game-face on is a game changer. It might not win you the debate but it definitely implies that you mean business and are here to win!
If you genuinely enjoy debating it will be very obvious in the speech that you deliver. As you keep debating, make sure to keep the process interesting by experimenting with your style. Find one that works for you and provides you with optimum results in minimum time and effort. Find out what speech structure works for you. Tweak it every now and then so that you evolve your “go-to speech structure” as you deliver some of the best speeches.
Test the boundaries of causes, effects, solutions and take the plunge, it may be a decision you’ll be forever grateful for.
Riddhi Gopinath is a student at Bishop Cotton Girls’ School, Bangalore.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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Dealing with setbacks, big or small, in our school days is something we have all been through. By the title of this post, you would have already guessed where the “inspiration” for this blog has come from. These setbacks can be REALLY annoying when you would’ve put a lot of hard work into them. Here are some of the tips that I’ve found to be useful in dealing with these situations-
Getting over these setbacks or failures can be one of the most effective and the most difficult things to do. You may try to distract your mind by thinking of something else or try to keep yourself occupied with other activities, but eventually, you have to face the fact that you indeed “failed”. Instead of wasting time avoiding the truth, you should move on as fast as possible and get back to work. One of the rules, if you can implement it, can be really useful is called the “24 Hour Rule”. This rule was invented by the most successful NFL coach Don Shula. Shula let his team celebrate a victory or brood over a loss for only 24 hours and the next day they had to get back to training.
If you know what you have to do to turn this failure into a success, then you don’t have to care about what others think. Parents and teachers can get really annoying when it comes to your academic performance, but sometimes listening and taking advice won’t harm. Also, if anyone talks down to you or suggests that you cannot come back from this failure, remember that success is the best revenge.
Now that you’ve come up with a plan, start working on it. Don’t spend time thinking about refining the plan too much, do that as you go. Also, don’t spend time thinking about what you could have done and rather take the setback as a lesson and focus on what you can do.
I hope that these tips helped and don’t worry, you’ll figure it out. 🙂
About the author
Aaryan Raina is a student at Ivy Aspire.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program, you can visit our page. For more information about the subject tests or any other assistance that you may need, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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Curriculum boards can often be extreme opposites and moving from an Indian to an International curriculum does pose its obstacles. While it can be argued that there are similarities; for example, the addition of 2 plus 2 is 4 in every board of education, the way of learning has stark differences. In the 7th grade, I made the big move from a school that follows the SSC curriculum to an international school that offered the IGCSE curriculum by CIE. To say that the change was gigantic was an understatement. My entire way of learning, thinking, and studying was broken down and molded to fit the board.
After studying in both systems, I have realised the stark difference doesn’t lie in what we learn but how we learn it. In traditional Indian schools, it is expected that students follow the teacher’s directions blindly. Posing questions, doubting becomes an offensive tactic that often remarks you as unruly and mischievous. In the international system, the inquiry is a quintessential aspect. It is necessary to question knowledge itself to understand it. If you were simply told that apples fall downwards because of gravity, ask what other aspects could influence this? Was it only Newton that noticed this? Asking doesn’t make you a bad student but a better one.
Your prior knowledge and understanding aren’t useless because you changed systems. In fact, it could be used to your advantage. Moving from the Indian system can be hard, additionally, you change schools and find yourself in an unfamiliar environment. Don’t let this overwhelm you. Be bold and ask questions, participate in events; debates, decathlons, MUNs. These are all an integral part of the international curriculum.
In my opinion, the biggest change would be the difference in the student’s studying patterns. The international system thoroughly values the concept of the application of knowledge. We learn concepts not to know them but use them. It is important that you learn to not read and memorize the concepts. Instead, really understand them to manipulate their use in the future.
Lastly, the journey of moving from an Indian curriculum to an international one may be difficult and even impossible at times. Learn to enjoy it as it could very much be the best decision you make!
For general information about Ivy Aspire Education Counselling, you can visit our page. Also for more information about how the Ivy Aspire advantage, or for other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors are happy to answer your queries.
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The GRE Analytical Writing Section or AWA, informally known as the “Essay section”. It assesses your ability to understand complex ideas, analyze arguments, and construct meaningful, coherent responses. In essence, this section tests the different aspects of writing – spelling, grammar, punctuation, and content!
The AWA section is the first section on the GRE. It comprises two essays: the Issue and the Argument (More on this a little later). You are provided 30 minutes for each essay.
Each essay is graded on a 0.0 – 6.0 scale, with 0.5 increments. Further, your AWA score is the arithmetic mean of your Issue and Argument essay scores, rounded up to the nearest 0.5.
Some popular essay topics are from the domains of Technology, Society, Economy, and Education.
The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test provides an insight into the GRE’s Advanced Writing section. Another ETS resource, the Official GRE VERBAL REASONING Practice Questions Volume 1 contains a few practice topics. Both these resources also contain sample responses for different scores –giving you an idea of what a high-scoring essay looks like.
The ETS website contains the entire pool of topics from which both essay tasks are asked. With over 200 topics for each essay type, it is highly recommended that you practice your responses for at least some of these topics.
The AWA section has two essay types:
The issue task tests your ability to understand a complex idea and pen your thoughts on the same. You are expected to make a compelling case, complete with examples, on your position regarding the issue.
The argument task tests your ability to analyze a complex argument. The given argument usually contains a brief passage explaining the problem statement and need for a particular action. Your task is to frame a response with regard to the coherence of the given argument. You DO NOT need to offer your own opinion or agree/disagree on the topic provided.
So that brings us to the big question:
When it comes to writing, there is no “one strategy fits all” approach – different people have different writing styles. In general, a good vocabulary, coupled with clarity of thought and excellent grammar helps.
One of the things that helped me do well as the “KISS” principle – Keep It Simple, Silly!
In the next article, I elaborate on some of the tips, tricks, and hacks which helped me ace the Advanced Writing Assessment section. Stay tuned for more!
About the Author:
Aditya Natarajan is the Ivy Aspire GRE expert and will share a series of articles to help you crack the GRE!
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire GMAT program, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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In the previous article (Part 1 of the GRE Verbal series), I spoke about the types of questions that appear in the GRE Verbal Reasoning section. As the name suggests, this section requires a combination of skills – the ability to read and analyse (often long) passages of text, a solid vocabulary, the knack of differentiating between the important and less important themes and many more. Fear not, with a balanced strategy and (quite some) practice, it is more than possible to achieve your target score.
Unlike the Quantitative Reasoning section, which generally requires focused and specific practice, the Verbal Reasoning section requires efforts distributed over a broader range of resources.
Unfortunately, one does not develop good vocabulary overnight – it is the result of cumulative reading over a long period of time. Fortunately though, in the context of the GRE, there exist several resources to help tackle the vocabulary problem. Many test prep companies such Kaplan, Barron’s, Magoosh and others provide word lists and flash cards – containing “frequently occurring/high frequency words”. Familiarizing yourself with these words is a pretty good start. Publications such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic contain many high-quality, engaging articles which help improve vocabulary. These are also useful for tackling the Writing section! If you’ve got the time, another must-read book is Word Power Made Easy. Although the book does not contain a lot of “GRE words”, it serves as great primer in improving your vocabulary.
As always, the ETS Official Guide to the GRE is your best friend. It contains practice questions of each type, sorted by order of difficulty. The Official GRE VERBAL REASONING Practice Questions Volume 1 contains 150 real test questions with explanations. There is also a plethora of additional resources offered by other test prep companies. The explanations of the answers found in the ETS resources are unmatched- they’re clear, concise and don’t contain spurious leaps in logic.
Not all questions in this section are of the same difficulty – some take longer to solve than others. In general, Reading Comprehensions (RCs) usually take longer to complete. Avoid spending too much time on a single question. Move on and see if you can try a different approach later.
Some tips to solve the different types of questions are:
Apart from the above tips, there are a couple of other points to keep in mind.
These may be sentences in a passage, or certain keywords in a Text Completion/Sentence Equivalence question – these may help you save time.
while attempting questions in the Verbal Reasoning section – for any question, eliminate any options that is definitely incorrect, and progressively reduce the number of available options until you land up with a single answer choice.
Working on only very difficult questions or acing the easy questions alone aren’t enough!
A level head is the most important thing needed to conquer this section.
The GRE Verbal Reasoning section, just like the Quantitative Reasoning section, is all about practice. Take several timed, full-length practice tests under similar test conditions and track your progress at regular intervals.
About the Author
Aditya Natarajan is the Ivy Aspire GRE expert and will share a series of articles to help you crack the GRE!
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire GMAT program, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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What is the GRE Verbal Section about?
The GRE Verbal Reasoning (VR) section, informally known as just the “verbal section”, tests your ability to understand, analyse and evaluate textual content. This section isn’t all fancy vocabulary – although it helps if you possess a strong vocabulary. Some questions require you to identify relationships between words or phrases, while others require you to analyse a block of text to arrive at a conclusion. These are just a few of the types of questions that occur in this section – read on to find out more about the Verbal Reasoning section!
There are two (or three, depending on the experimental section) 30 minute sections, each containing 20 questions. Not all questions are of the same difficulty – some are harder and require more time to answer than others! You’re likely to lose more points if you incorrectly answer an easier question than a more difficult one.
Unlike the Quantitative Reasoning section, which contains a broad set of topics from which questions are asked, the Verbal Reasoning section contains no such set. The content found on the verbal Reasoning section is derived from a variety of sources.
The content on the GRE Verbal Reasoning sections spans various disciplines –science, philosophy, history, literature and so on. If you come across unfamiliar content, don’t worry. It’s probably the same for most other people!
The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test provides an insight into the GRE’s Verbal Reasoning Section. Another ETS resource, the Official GRE VERBAL REASONING Practice Questions Volume 1 contains 150 real test questions with explanations. Going through this resources are very highly recommended.
According to the ETS’ official website, the GRE Verbal Reasoning section comprises of the following question types:
RC based questions account for almost half the questions in the VR section. RCs require more than just passive understanding of the words and sentences- they require an understanding of the overall theme of the text as well as the ability to evaluate hypotheses and extrapolate conclusions.
RC based questions are usually of the following types:
As the name suggests, every question contains five answer choices – one of which is the right one.
Such questions require you to select one or more answer choices from the list of choices provided. The choices are represented by square boxes rather than the regular ovals. The right answer is either a single option or a combination of options. Note that in order to score full points in such a question, all correct options must be chosen and all incorrect options must not be selected. There are no part points for such questions.
As the name suggests, these questions require you to fill in the missing blank(s) with the appropriate word or phrase. These questions test your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar rules. Once again, these question can be either single choice or multiple choice – depending on the number of blanks to be filled.
These questions are similar to the Text Completion questions, in the sense that you’ll need to fill in the blanks. The difference is that the blanks need to be filled based on the overall form and meaning of the sentence, rather than on vocabulary or grammatical rules.
So that brings us to the big question:
Vocabulary plays a key role in doing well in this section – being proficient in antonyms and synonyms is a good start to acing this section. It’s not all about the individual words though- in the end, being able to understand and analyse pieces of text is just as important in order to score well in this section.
Improving vocabulary is a long term process. This calls for inculcating a reading habit – multiple authors on multiple topics. Going through vocabulary supplements can help only incrementally!
In the next article, I elaborate on some of the tips, tricks and hacks which helped me ace the Verbal Reasoning section. Stay tuned for more!
About the Author
Aditya Natarajan is the Ivy Aspire GRE expert and will share a series of articles to help you crack the GRE!
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire GMAT program, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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If you’re reading this, you probably already have an idea of the structure and the types of questions that appear on the GRE Quantitative Reasoning (QR) section. If not, head over to Part 1 before reading ahead. At first glance, the QR section can be intimidating. There are questions from a wide range of topics. Many of which require the knowledge of several formulae. Fear not, with a little practice and patience, you can achieve your target score!
The “Math Review” section of the ETS Official Guide to the GRE contains definitions, properties, and examples of the concepts tested in the Quantitative Reasoning section. Similarly, Khan Academy contains videos that provide additional explanations for many of these concepts. This is a great place to start by familiarizing yourself with the quality and type of content typically found on the test.
Many test prep companies such Kaplan, Barron’s, Magoosh and so on also offer their own resources. While these resources are certainly useful, in my opinion, nothing beats the official ETS Guide mentioned above.
An important thing to keep in mind is that the questions appearing on the GRE QR section aren’t usually calculation-intensive! More often than not, there are simpler approaches to solving a problem. Make sure you aren’t bogged down by a problem – avoid spending too much time on a single sum. Move on and see if you can try a different approach later.
Some tips to solve the different types of problems are:
Apart from the above tips, there are a couple of other points to keep in mind.
The famous Russian writer Anton Chekov once said “Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” The GRE QR section is all about practice – practicing how to manage time, practicing how to read and understand the question, and most importantly, practicing how to solve the question.
So remember; practice, practice, practice. Take several timed, full-length practice tests under similar test conditions and track your progress at regular intervals.
About the Author
Aditya Natarajan is the Ivy Aspire GRE expert and will share a series of articles to help you crack the GRE!
For general information about Math QR, you can visit our page. Also for more information about how the Ivy Aspire advantage, or for other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors are happy to answer your queries.
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A healthy balance of academics and extracurricular activities is of utmost importance in every student’s life. Even more so, when the student is in grade 11 or 12 where the pressure of studies is constantly mounting. While academics are the top priority, it is very essential to equally indulge in extracurriculars. They not only help students switch off from the hectic schedule but also develop an all-around personality.
Planning a strict schedule, and more importantly, sticking to it, will help you clearly demarcate between your study time and recreation time. Develop your schedule in such a manner that you complete the tasks and lessons for the day. Make sure you also have sufficient time left for your hobbies.
In the unrealistic quest to become multi-talented, students often tend to get into many activities which ultimately takes them nowhere. Indulging in far too many activities will not only disrupt your academic schedule but also not help you zero in on a single extracurricular activity that you can pursue to perfection. Just have one or at the most two extracurricular activities and solely focus on them while balancing your studies alongside.
Pick such an extracurricular activity that is completely different from your coursework or anything related. Remember that extracurricular activities are “extra” which are meant for your recreation and relaxation. Pick such an activity that doesn’t demand the same kind of cognitive operations as your academics. This will help you take a break from your coursework and also enhance your overall personality as an individual.
It is good to have a healthy balance between academics and extracurricular activities but at the end of the day, just one of them should be your top priority. Ideally, academics are given the most importance by most students as that is what shapes their careers and future but if you feel your hobby matters more then give it more importance. Whatever your priority may be, devote more time to that. Prioritizing early on in life will help you strike a healthy balance between academics and extracurriculars.
About the Author
Rohini Narayanan is an Ivy Aspire student and is excited about pursuing a career in law
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program and extracurriculars, you can visit our page. For more information about the subject tests or any other assistance that you may need, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is increasingly becoming popular among students. With a rise in number of applications each year, the competitiveness of the exam is elevating every year.
If you want to crack the CLAT and crack it convincingly, here are things you should NOT do.
The one mistake all CLAT aspirants tend to make is reading interviews of toppers and replicating their study methods. That is the most awful thing you can do! It’s good to take inspiration and guidelines but blindly copying will just frustrate you. Study according to your pace, your comfort level, and your preferred time.
There is absolutely no use in ordering unnecessary books and cluttering your desk. Stick to one book, grasp all the concepts thoroughly and once you are done with that book, think about the next one. Buying a dozen books will just confuse you more!
Many students tend to completely ignore their school coursework and just study for CLAT. This is not required! Pay attention to your academics. CLAT is not an entrance exam like JEE or AIPMT which requires your undivided attention. Let the concepts be at your fingertips and you will be in an advantageous position.
Cramming should be the last thing you do if you want a shot at CLAT. Randomly mugging up the static GK portions is not going to work in your favour. Start reading a bit of GK every day from the very beginning itself to avoid cramming and all-nighters. Nothing can beat a consistent and staggered preparation.
While these tips may work for some people, they are avoidable at best. Good luck!
About the Author
Rohini Narayanan is an Ivy Aspire student and is excited about pursuing a career in law
One of the first important decisions that we have to make in our lives is that of choosing a stream after class 10. The few months that follow the culmination of the board exams are filled with confusion, permutations, and combinations. A tough call has to be made among the streams of Science, Humanities, and Commerce. Here are some things you should keep in mind while selecting a stream as this one decision can affect your entire life and career.
This is the most important thing to be considered while selecting a stream. Remember that classes 11 and 12 are very different from class 10. A good student can consistently score in all the subjects. In the higher classes, your aptitude and skill are really put to the test. This is why it’s essential that you choose a stream where you can do well. Not merely a stream because your friends are or your parents are pressurizing you to.
While identifying your aptitude and interest is very important. It is equally, if not more important to understand the merits and demerits of choosing a particular stream. It is essential that you thoroughly research the three streams inside out. Then chalk out the pros and cons of taking them. This will enable you to come to a decision, quickly and accurately.
Talking and seeking guidance from an educational counselor can really help you make a decision. The counselor will help you understand the benefits and scope that a particular stream provides. Apart from that, counselors can identify a certain underlying skill and aptitude which you may not know. Counselors bring out the reticent interests within you.
Skills and aptitude undoubtedly very important but a stream should also be selected, taking future prospects into consideration. If you think saving lives or coming up with new cures will really interest you then the Science stream with biology would be a good avenue for you. If you are more inclined towards public policies or economic policies, Commerce or Humanities with economics may be your stop.
The one common mistake all the students make while selecting a stream commit is basing their decision on class 10 marks. While the class 10 marks may give you a marginal indication of your potential in a particular subject, it is by no means a measuring rod of your actual capabilities. The coursework in class 10 is mostly based on rote learning and memorizing, class 11 and 12 are more application and understanding oriented. If you didn’t get a very good grade in class 10 in Social Science, don’t rule out Humanities as an option.
Rohini Narayanan is an Ivy Aspire student and is excited about pursuing a career in law.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire right for you, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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Hello, if you just started IBDP and want to achieve the diploma most efficiently, here is the secret to success. When, I started my first week I was bombarded with assignments, papers, journals all to be completed in a matter of days. Frustrated, I asked myself how can I keep up with this workload for two whole years? No doubt that this course is difficult and fast-paced but done well, it can be extremely rewarding. Here are the three tips fit for all students to crack the IBDP.
IB is an extremely quick course. With six subjects and TOK, CAS, and the extended essay finishing all tasks can be tricky. Submitting the assignments can get tricky, but timing and prioritizing can really be the easiest but most efficient way to keep up with the pace of the studies
Yes, this sounds very naïve, as it may not always be possible to complete each task diligently and exactly on time. This however, can be solved as one can start this attitude from the first few days of the semester. Many students complete year one tardily, to find out that year two isn’t any easier. Being in constant awareness of your work and be diligent to avoid keeping a backlog.
For most deadlines and tests, there is a general scheduling rule: Complete by the due date. While this rule is the most obvious choice, it isn’t efficient. To make sure you follow through on each assignment, plan your schedule well. On normal school days studying after class is tiring, thus use your weekends and holidays to your advantage to complete the most time-consuming tasks. This helps to complete your work while focusing on it with undivided attention.
Often it is taken for granted that when a student selects the IB program they have an intricate goal they strive to achieve. While some may find this useless and disregard it, following it is a safer option. It is not necessary to plan for every detail you want to achieve in the duration of the course but to plan and pace yourself accordingly. Always keep a target score (or score range) that you WANT TO, CAN, and WILL BE ABLE TO achieve. This makes the process of “Preparing” far easier as you know what outcome you prefer. Set goals for yourself to be focused and consistent, not demotivated.
Often students set goals that are out of their capability at a certain point in time. Set your goals to fit your capabilities and strengths and follow through to achieve just that. This will avoid any demotivation to occur. These tips will definitely help to crack the IB as well as all academic endeavors ahead.
Tanisha Desai is from Poddar International School, Mumbai, and is equally right and left-brained. She is looking to study law and loves to paint and draw.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT & ACT program, you can visit our page. For more information about the SAT & ACT or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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GMAT Study plan – If we talk about an exam, the first question that pops into our head is what the prep time should be. So with an assumption that a person is working, the GMAT study plan ideally takes 60 – 90 days. It is usually helpful to chalk down a plan. While making a plan, keep the following tips in mind.
Start by writing a full-length test from GMAT prep. This test is available on www.mba.com and is helpful later. This gives you an insight on the test and the areas that need to be worked on thoroughly.
Make a point to focus on both the sections (quantitative and verbal). Either one of them can be your strong point but keeping in touch with the pattern and the type of questions asked in GMAT is of utmost importance.
The GMAT Official Guide should be your go-to book for the preparations. It has all the types of questions that are asked in the exam, with solutions. It is better to use the latest edition as it will have the newest types of questions added by the GMAT.
The study plan should include verbal and quantitative practice every day. Divide the official guide over a period of 15 days. Make sure that the concept behind every question is clear. Review the questions to find out the reason for choosing that particular answer. This practice will help you in enhancing your knowledge and clearing the concepts. Also, if you face difficulty with a few questions seek help. Ivy Aspire provides the best help for your GMAT preparations. They provide different types of study material and tests that are very important for practicing before taking the main test.
After solving the Official guide over a period of 15 days, take a test to gauge your progress. This test will help you understand your weak and strong areas.
Make another 15-day plan for the weak areas. For instance, if your reading comprehension is a weak area in the verbal section, then make this plan with more practice questions on reading comprehension.
Write a test again after this 15 day period and review the test with micro detailing. By this stage in your preparation, in most cases, people face a lot of problems with time management. So to practice the time management part, follow the next tip.
Time your speed in doing questions from the official guide now. For example, assign 1 hour for 40 problem-solving questions and check how you fair. You can do the same with verbal as well. For more material for practice questions, you can get in touch with Ivy Aspire to help you with the same. Although a lot of material is available online, a lot of them are not aligned with the original pattern of GMAT, Ivy Aspire can help you in finding these materials.
After you are thorough with the questions with the official guide, you can now write full-length tests available.
GMAT prep tests are available on mba.com with 2 free of cost and 4 with some fee. Plan GMAT prep tests 10 days prior to your test day, writing one test every alternate day till your test day. This will help you to get in the mode of writing a full-length test. More than writing the test itself, it is very important to review them properly. This review will help you understand that what kind of mistakes you tend to do under time pressure and how you can avoid them on test day.
About the Author
Ayushi Mishra is a student at Ivy Aspire.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire GMAT program, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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The GRE Quantitative section, also known as the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) section, essentially tests your ability to deal with facts and figures. Don’t worry, it’s not all complex number crunching – your ability to arrive at a solution in a logical and stepwise manner is just as important. Many questions are “word problems” which must be logically modelled mathematically.
There are two (or three, depending on the experimental section) 35 minute sections, each containing 20 questions. Enough said.
Some important topics covered include:
Just kidding. (I’m sorry!)
The GRE QR section contains topics you probably studied in high school – stuff like properties of numbers, basic geometric shapes, algebra, word problems, data interpretation and so on.
You can safely assume the following about numbers and figures in the Quantitative Reasoning section:
The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test provides an insight into the topics likely to appear on the GRE’s Quantitative Section. Going through this is very highly recommended.
According to the ETS’ official website, the GRE Quantitative Reasoning section comprises of 4 types of questions:
Usually seven or eight in number, these questions appear at the beginning of each section. Every question contains 2 columns – each of which evaluates to a value. The two values then need to be compared and the option which correctly represents the relationship between the two values is the right answer.
As the name suggests, every question contains five answer choices – one of which is the right one.
Such questions require you to select one or more answer choices from the list of choices provided. The choices are represented by square boxes rather than the regular ovals. The right answer is either a single option or a combination of options. Note that in order to score full points in such a question, all correct options must be chosen and all incorrect options must not be selected. There are no part points for such questions.
These type of questions do not provide any answer choices – the test taker is expected to solve the question and write the answer, in integer or decimal format, in the box provided. In case of fractional answers, enter the answer in two separate boxes – one each for the numerator and the denominator.
All questions are not of the same difficulty – some are harder than the others. You’re likely to lose more points if you incorrectly answer an easier question than a more difficult one!
So that brings us to the big question:
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a “math” person to do well in this section. This section tests your ability to grasp basic (I mean very basic) mathematical concepts and apply these to arrive at the right answer. With some practice (and maybe a teeny weeny bit of luck), you too can master the math section!
In the next article, I elaborate on some of the tips, tricks and hacks which helped me ace the Quantitative Reasoning section. Stay tuned for more!
About the Author:
Aditya Natarajan is the Ivy Aspire GRE expert and will share a series of articles to help you crack the GRE!
When students come to 10th, their attention is only on exams and the fact that they are now in 10th. They rarely think beyond 10th and what to do after they finish their board exams. When the final exams get over, most students don’t believe it’s over. They still feel like they’ll have to go home and start studying for the next exam. Most students also waste their summer vacation, simply sleeping or doing nothing of value.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with relaxing after the trials and tribulations you must have faced while studying for the board exams and 10th in general, but turning the entire duration of your holiday into an endless cycle of eating and sleeping is quite unproductive and wasteful. Most people aren’t willing to jump back into the grind as soon as they’ve finished 10th, best compromise is to take a week or two and relax, then jump into more productive things to do.
After your week of relaxation, it’s time to get to work. One possibility for the summer is involving yourself in community work. This work can be anything from something small like collecting newspapers and plastic from around the neighborhood to something big like going out to schools and teaching underprivileged children. Community and charitable work is an excellent addition to a college application. It also just feels morally right to help those who haven’t been given the same opportunities as us.
Picking up a new hobby is another great way to spend time during the summer. A hobby can include anything from painting, learning a musical instrument to writing short stories or essays. Learning something new is often very fun and a change of pace. It is also a good time killer. For example, but learning a programming language, one can keep themselves occupied for hours and pick up a useful skill that can help them in their future.
When many students enter 11th, they are immediately overwhelmed by the amount of work and pressure put on their shoulders. They are unable to cope with the increased portion. This leads to complications further down the line. So another activity to do during the summer is to flip your books a bit and try to start some basics. 11th is a difficult year, so some preparation would not be amiss. Going the extra mile here will have a major difference in your experience in 11th.
A summer well spent should ideally include an internship. There are many summer internship programs. Internships have a wide array of benefits. An internship is something that colleges and universities like to see on applications. Students gain exposure to real-world problems and learn problems solving skills. They gain exposure to the real world. They get a boost in their teamwork skills. Students will also get a taste of the trade they wish to partake in the future.
Since there is plenty of free time during summer it is an excellent time to think about the future. Attending a good university or college is a good way to beef up a resume while applying for a job. You can use the summer to think about, do research on and maybe decide what colleges to attend in the future. Once you have a goal in mind, it is easier to work towards it.
By doing these activities you can guarantee yourself a summer vacation well spent. You are making optimal use of your summer vacation and building up a future college application or profile. The most important thing is to take pleasure in these activities because it is of no use if you’re forcing yourself to do it; that being said, enjoy your summer vacations.
Keval Anekar is a 16-year-old student. He aspires to study abroad. He writes to share what he has learned with confused students to be of some help. He is a student at Ivy Aspire
PSAT or the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test is as the name suggests is a preparatory or pre-version of the SAT. To be taken in the junior years of 10th and 11th, this examination does not only help prepare for the SAT and the ACT, but it also opens your doors to the National Merit Scholarship Program and many more scholarship programs. If not for the highly rewarding scholarship dollars, this examination can also be taken as a practice for your SATs that will count on your resume or college application.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation since 1995. Every year, it awards scholarships to high scorers of the PSAT test of approx $180 million dollars. The conditions for qualifying for the scholarship are:
* If you’re not an American citizen, you are not qualified for this scholarship but there are many more scholarships that the PSAT test offers. This test can simply also be a great learning experience and practice for your SAT and ACT.
Evidence-based Reading – 48 Questions (60 minutes)
Writing and language – 44 Questions (35 minutes)
Math – 47 Questions (25 mins–no calculator, 45mins-calculator)
5. WHEN IS THE PSAT AND HOW DO I REGISTER?
6. HOW SHOULD I PREPARE?
Register for all of them beginning in grade 8 because only practice makes a man perfect
About the Author
Ashna Agarwal is a student at Ivy Aspire.
With the CBSE’s removal of the CCE pattern of examinations, students have a lot to ‘stress’ about. An exam with the full textbook as portions and controlling 70% of the total grade is enough to scare any CBSE student. One thing always comes with exams and that is stress. However, exam stress is common and can be easily managed.
There are many causes of stress in students. In fact, recent statistics have shown that 66% of students are under some form of stress. One of the major reasons for this is the advent of exams. Exams are the chief bug bearers of a student’s life. Students get stressed out and it has an adverse effect on their performance in their exams.
One of the many reasons students suffer from exam stress is because of parental and societal pressure. Almost everyone you’ll meet will tell you to study hard and do well because it’s 10th grade. This puts unnecessary pressure on students. Students get stressed by studying continuously trying to live up to the expectations of their family and society. The best way to deal with this is to take it in your stride and do your best not to let it affect you. Create your own goals and try to hit them the best you can.
Another way to deal with stress is by taking regular breaks. The brain is not a machine. It needs rest. Continuous study helps no one. Taking a break does more help than harm. 15 minutes of relaxation can do wonders. When you study continuously, the brain becomes incapable of comprehending what you are trying to study. This leads to frustration and a rise in stress levels. Taking a break helps reset the mind allowing you to reduce stress and study for longer
Playing a sport is another way of alleviating stress. Sports keeps you fit and helps keep the mind sharp, once you get in the flow, all worries are forgotten. A good one hour of any physical activity is a great help and can leave the mind refreshed for another round of studying.
In case sports isn’t your thing, reading is another great way to bust stress. During a long break or after studies, reading a book of your choice is an excellent idea. Books often lead you to another world where you get engrossed in the lives of the characters, leaving all worldly thoughts behind, including thoughts about exams and studies. While reading your stress slowly dissipates. Reading also has the double benefit of improving your vocabulary.
Indulging in a hobby of your choice also works. Painting, drawing, playing an instrument etc. All of these take your attention away from studies and upcoming exams. Drawing and painting is very soothing and refreshes the brain.
A bad habit many students have is pulling an ‘all-nighter’ to complete portions. This is a terrible idea. All-nighters do more harm than good. Most people forget they learn during an all-nighter. In fact, it is during sleep that short-term memory gets converted to long-term memory, i.e. sleep helps you retain what knowledge you acquired during studies. However, when students begin to pull ‘all-nighters’ they begin to forget what they’ve learned, which again leads to stress, which has a terrible effect on exam performance.
While taking a short break in between studies is encouraged. Using electronics and social media during these breaks is a bad idea. With electronics, a 15-minute break can become an hour.
Exam stress affects all students but it’s nothing to worry about. There may be other ways of reducing the stress that is more comfortable for you, do what you feel is right for your situation. Following these tips will help you alleviate stress. Be sure to balance your stress-busting activities with your studies and not let one grow greater than the other.
Keval Anekar is a 16-year-old student. He aspires to study abroad. He writes to share what he has learned with confused students to be of some help and is also a student at Ivy Aspire
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT or ACT program, you can visit our page. For more information on this or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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For those coming from ninth grade, tenth must be a daunting task, a challenge, something that seems insurmountable, but the truth is, the tenth is actually quite easy. It’s just another ordinary school year, but this time you have an important exam at the end. Even the exam is similar to the ones you write in school. Just a different venue and some nice paper to write it on. You’ll be surrounded by friends and classmates, making the environment friendlier. With the removal of the CCE pattern of examinations, that final exam carries 70% of your final grade, not 30%. So without any further ado, let me give you some tips on how to crack class 10.
The first one is a fairly simple one – pay attention during class. Most of you must think that this is fairly obvious but most people take teaching periods easy, from sleeping to talking in between classes. Here lies your first mistake. Paying attention really does help. If you pay attention your workload for studying reduces drastically, no need to go for tuition to redo everything done in school because you weren’t paying attention in school.
Another tip is to study a little every day. Studying for exams is like tackling a large project, you can’t do it in one go, you need to do a little every day and go about it methodically. If you study every day, you understand where you are lacking and what you have to work on to improve yourself. Once you understand where you are weak, you can clear it up and not leave anything for the last moment. Trying to do everything a week or two before the exams will almost always fail. This may sound difficult at first, but over time this becomes easy and becomes a habit. Studying every day is important for subjects like Mathematics and Social Science.
The best way to study for an exam is by solving question papers, be it last year’s paper, sample papers, practice papers, they all help. Papers get you used to the board’s way of questioning. Many-a-times questions are repeated across question papers if you’ve already learned or attempted the question before while studying. Papers also allow help with time management during an exam. There are many reference books with questions papers and solutions available in the market. There also many websites providing papers for download, such as – www.jsuniltutorial.com , www.mycbseguide.com.
However, all studies and no relaxation helps nobody. The mind needs time to relax and de-stress. One of the ways of doing this is by developing a voracious appetite for books. Books also help in developing an excellent vocabulary. This helps not just in exams but also in the future as well. Another way of relaxing is by playing sports. As the saying goes ‘a healthy mind rests in a healthy body’, sports keep you fit and the mind sharp. However, in the rush of playing sports one cannot neglect studies. A balance is necessary.
Many people often buy reference books like guides and question banks etc. while these do have their uses, but the textbook is the final authority. Nothing will come from outside the textbook, if one knows the textbook well, they are all set. Questions can come from any obscure corner of the textbook. The Board will only reference their prescribed textbook while creating questions. This doesn’t mean to completely ignore the reference book. Some books are very useful, as the RD Sharma textbook for math is a very well-known textbook and has helped many a student over the years, but always give preference to the school textbook.
Following these steps is not the only way to achieve success in grade 10 and it is definitely not a surefire method of success, but following these steps will help you do better. Good luck and all the best for your 10th.
Keval Anekar is a 16-year-old student. He aspires to study abroad. He writes to share what he has learned with confused students to be of some help and is a student at Ivy Aspire
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program or the ACT program. For more information about the SAT photo or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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The ACT and the SAT are both exams required for college admission. Many students wonder which is better or which one college’s prefer more. Colleges actually don’t prefer one over the other. Neither of the two is fundamentally better than the other; however one of the two might be more suited to certain students than the other.
The SAT takes place in the months of October, November, December, January, March, May, and June. The ACT takes place in the months of September, October, December, February, April, June and from 2018 in July also. Both the SAT and ACT are long exams, who’s length crosses hours each. The SAT is 3 hours 50 minutes long with the optional essay, without the essay it is 3 hours long. The ACT is 3 hours 40 minutes long with the optional essay, without the essay it is 3 hours long. The ACT also has an additional Science section that the SAT does not have. They both have different registration fees. The SAT is $54.50 with the essay and $43 without. The ACT ranges from $34-$49.50.
The Math section of the two exams is slightly different. The way that the ACT math section is broken up is simple. There are 60 multiple choice questions to be answered in 60 minutes. The portion for the ACT Math section is as follows, algebra, which includes 14 pre-algebra questions, 10 elementary algebra questions, and 9 intermediate algebra questions. The portions also include geometry, which has 14 plane geometry questions and 9 coordinate geometry questions, lastly, there are also 4 questions based on trigonometry in this section. The use of a calculator is allowed throughout the section.
The ACT does not give basic Mathematic formulae at the beginning of the section. The SAT Math section has 58 multiple choice questions to be answered in 80 minutes. The portion includes algebra I/II, arithmetic, probability, coordinate geometry, data analysis, and trigonometry. The SAT Math section consists of 2 sub-sections, the calculator and no-calculator sections. The no-calculator section is 25 minutes long with 20 multiple choice questions, the calculator section is 55 minutes with 38 questions. Both sections contain grid-in questions. The SAT however does give basic Mathematical formulae at the beginning of the Math section.
The ACT English section generally focuses on testing the students editing skills. The student has to fix grammatical and punctuation errors. There are a total of 5 passages to edit. In total there are 75 questions that have to be answered in 45 minutes. The SAT English consists of an evidence-based reading section and a writing and language section. The reading section consists of 5 passages with a total of 52 multiple choice questions with a time limit of 65 minutes. The passages cover a variety of topics from History, Art, Literature, Science, etc. The writing and editing section has a total of 4 passages, with 44 multiple choice questions and 45 minutes to answer them. The questions are grammar, vocabulary, and editing based.
Both the SAT and the ACT offer an optional essay. Since most colleges require the essay, students are encouraged to take it. The ACT essay has a 40-minute time limit. Students are given 1 prompt and 3 perspectives based around the prompt. The student’s goal is to analyse the given perspectives and develop their own also. They have to explain the relation between their perspective and the given ones. The SAT essay is different. The student has 50 minutes to write. They will be given 1 prompt text to read, they then have to describe how the author of the text builds a persuasive argument.
The Science section of the ACT is unique. This section has 7 Science-based passages, 40 multiple choice questions, and a total of 35 minutes to answer them. This section tests the student’s ability to glean info from the passage. The passages may also have tables, graphs and illustrations added to them.
Each section of the ACT is scored separately, but is brought together for a composite score, which is basically the average of each individual score. The composite score is from 1-36. The SAT is scored out of 1600 points, where each section is of 200-800 points.
Those are the major differences between the SAT and the ACT. Again, colleges don’t prefer one over the other, so pick one that suits you best. Good luck with whatever you choose.
Keval Anekar is a 16-year-old student. He aspires to study abroad. He writes to share what he has learned with confused students to be of some help and is also a student at Ivy Aspire
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program or the ACT program. For more information about the SAT photo or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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Here are 5 Steps to Cracking the 10th Grade!
You will probably have more than one set of exams in the year, so setting goals for every set will help you keep track of your progress, so that you can make sure that you’re showing consistent improvement.
Writing down your goals for every subject and putting it up by your desk, or somewhere you can see it everyday can help keep you focused. You could also write down how you plan to reward yourself once you achieve your goals like a day at the mall, or movie you want to watch once your exams are over, etc.
You can find a lot of cute printables online, on Tumblr and Pinterest
You can use a whiteboard, a calendar, or printables to plan your month.
Though you may only plan to reply to one message, you might find yourself checking all your other apps once you pick up your phone while studying. Your phone can prove a major distraction if it keeps ringing during your study time. Try turning it off or leaving it in another room so you can completely focus on the task at hand.
If you still find yourself distracted by certain apps or websites, disable them for a few weeks. You may think that this is unnecessary, but if you only planned to spend 10 minutes on your phone while taking a break, but ended up spending an hour, it’s a sign that you need to get rid of the distractions.
Different people find different ways to focus, but if you still haven’t figured out what works for you, try:
If you have trouble remembering what you read/study then:
While some people find colorful notes helpful, many find them distracting. If that the case then just use 2 or 3 highlighters to color-code your notes. For example, use yellow for definitions, blue for important points, and green for key examples.
E) Plan your breaks
If you don’t have anything planned for yourself beforehand, then you might end up picking something that you can’t finish in your limited break time. Try to pick a pass time that can be limited to a short period of time, like:
Exercise, music, and a full stomach can help you be more focused when you come back to your books. If you decide to watch Tv during your breaks, avoid binge-watching.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT or ACT program, you can visit our page. For more information on this or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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Cracking the IB – International Baccalaureate or also known as IB Diploma is one of the most rigorous curricula in the world. It poses a lot of difficulties for students. From numerous assignments, tests to Extended Essays and Internal Assessments. There is never a time when IB students are not preparing for an exam or working on a project/assignment.
I shifted from CBSE to IB in 11th grade and this was extremely challenging. Balancing CAS along with academics, managing time between my HL and SL subjects while preparing for upcoming exams was extremely arduous at the beginning with so many deadlines to meet.
Do not establish a perception that IB is tough, too difficult, unmanageable, etc. Rather perceive it as an opportunity to grow holistically. Personally, I would say that it is because of IB I discovered my critical thinking skills. I realized that I love research work and that I could write a research paper. Moreover, I went on to start my initiative ‘Help a Child Now’. We all know that each of us has a special talent within us. It is IB that provides you the platform identity, nurture, and bring out this talent within you. Remember to start early!
Priyanka Mishra -from TISB, Bangalore, is taking a gap year to explore her interests and herself. She has published 3 research papers and is excited to start college in the Fall. She already has many colleges offers to choose from and is an Ivy Aspire student
Nowadays, almost every time we take an examination as IB students we need to write long essays and commentaries with 10 to 20 marks allotted to each. When taking an exam, time goes by extremely fast. So, it is beneficial or rather ‘necessary’ to have a plan of action to write a well-framed answer as efficiently as possible. Here are three key tips to help write quality answers in the shortest time.
#1 Planning
Whilst it is important to not waste any time in situations such as tests; where time is short-lived, this technique is the most helpful. A plan is essentially a format to keep all your ideas, thoughts, key terms and definitions in place. When planning, it is not necessary to make perfect tables and columns with straight lines, but, to sketch out an outline of all the thoughts that you would like to present in your answer.
This method not only helps you to organise your thoughts efficiently, but also reduces the possibility of every student’s worst nightmare: BLANKING OUT. It is a technique that sounds very easy and unproductive but can take you miles further in terms of progress. This leads to the next tip…
#2 Structure
When writing a long answer, make sure to always structure the answer with proper paragraphs, diagrams and quotations. This not only helps to connect your ideas well but also gives you a guide to do the final re-check. Yes, this seems like a very long and time consuming process, but, is in-fact more efficient from a student’s perspective.
Moreover, it gives an examiner an idea of the student’s thought, which often acquires those additional points that boost your score.
#3 Identifying key terms
After the previous tips, I’m sure you must be thinking ‘How is this any different?’ Well, when you read the question always make sure to look for:
This method solves the little problems that may occur during the planning stage, wherein you make take too long to know what concepts to include and what to not.
At first incorporating all these techniques may be a challenge itself and could be intimidating. Don’t worry. These tips can be perfected in your practice papers and revision time as even doing one, can help you progress and help write higher graded papers!!!
About the Author
Tanisha Desai from Poddar International School, Mumbai and is equally right and left brained. She is looking to study law and loves to paint and draw. She is an Ivy Aspire student.
If you are planning to join a boarding school next year, you may be either excited or very apprehensive about your new independent life at the school dorm.
You are maybe excited to make new friends, live among your new school friends, study as well as achieve your target at the school, etc. On the other hand, you would be worried about taking so much responsibility while staying far away from your close ones.
You may be one of those who is very introverted and is consumed by the thought of staying away from parents. How will you live among a new set of people? How should one behave in a dorm? Will I be able to study along with other responsibilities? Should I participate in sports or extracurricular activities? Or Should I only concentrate on my studies? What to do before going to a boarding school? Many such questions will trouble you but do not worry, if you are prepared well before boarding will become an unforgettable experience. With tips from my personal experience, I am sure you can make it an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
From a different perspective, boarding will also present opportunities to explore your potential. When you graduate, you will to look back at yourself and be amazed at how much you have developed holistically.
You must very well know that you will be staying away from home, parents, siblings, and close friends. It is important to be mentally ready to accept this reality and think of ways to deal with homesickness. Talking to your parents once or twice a day would help you. Talk with your roommate or friends because you won’t be the only one feeling homesick.
Remember do not take a lot of things along with you. Select things which are essential for you. Since you will be given a single cupboard, carrying an apt amount of necessities will make it easy for you to manage your items without losing or misplacing them.
Make sure that you take only a few books you would like to read because usually, the school curriculum will consume most of your time. Nevertheless, the school library would provide you with the required books.
In the beginning, boarding school may look like the worst decision of your life. Do not get affected by such thoughts. You won’t be the only one in this position.
Speak with your roommate. Go and play basketball, soccer, or any of your favorite sports. Grab a snack for yourself and chat with your new friends. Do not depend on talking with parents every day, this may make you homesick very often. Go for a walk outside your dorm. Engage yourself in multiple activities and make enough time to study every day. This will prevent you from feeling homesick as well as help you balance between academics and extra-curricular activities. Most importantly get to know and understand your roommates. If you are disturbed by their activities, then speak with them to solve the issue. If you want to listen to music, use your headphone/earphones.
Always listen to your houseparents because whatever they would be asking you to do is for your betterment. It may be tempting for you to disobey them but with time you will realize they were very correct.
Following are some of the most important points to bear in mind:
After a month or so when you will be familiar with the timings of school and activities, make a timetable for yourself to follow every day. Sometimes staying up until midnight may disturb your roommate’s sleep. Hence making a schedule would solve such problems.
Make lot of friends. Be friendly with everyone. You may not find everyone’s behavior good. Some may be mean to you too. However still be nice with them. If someone troubles you talk it out with them or speak regarding this matter to your house parents.
For example, community service trips, movies, outdoor trips, model united nations abroad etc.
Start you projects early and complete it on time. If assignments get carried over, you will not be able to complete it qualitatively.
If you have projects or exams coming up complete it during the weekends.
Never disobey the school or dorm rules/regulations. It may put you in big trouble. Disobeying can get you suspended or expelled.
Boarding school is the first step to prepare for life. Make it a memorable, fruitful and learning experience. Just like I transformed after two years in boarding, I hope you have an amazing time at your boarding school too.
About the Author
Priyanka Mishra -from TISB, Bangalore, is taking a gap year to explore her interests and herself. She has published 3 research papers and is excited to start college in the Fall. She already has many college offers to choose from and is an Ivy Aspire student
The most crucial part of doing well on the SAT is thorough preparation. After all, you don’t want to suddenly realize the week before the test that you haven’t started studying. To avoid this, it is useful to create a study schedule, so that you can be sure you’re doing the right amount of preparation and you’re ready for each part of the SAT.
When you’re making your study plan (whether on a laptop, on a whiteboard, or on paper), keep these tips in mind.
The SAT requires some dedication over a period of time, in order to build up your skills. So, it’s important to start preparation early. Once you figure out when your test date is, try to begin studying at least 3 months before. This will give you enough time to work on everything you need to. Do your preparation bit by bit over the 3 months, rather than cramming all of it into a few weeks. This will also reduce your stress much more in the long run.
If you’re starting your SAT prep early, then there’s no need to do it every single day – this will only bore you. However, it is helpful to stick to a regular pattern of doing SAT practice, for at least 1.5 hours per week. Around 3-4 practice sessions, each week would probably be ideal. However, feel free to make a schedule that suits your time commitments.
I cannot stress the importance of doing full-length tests enough. Spending 3 hours (and 50 minutes, with essay) on one practice SAT may seem like a lot, but it is worthwhile. When you’re designing your study schedule, make sure you block out enough time to do these practice tests. The aim to finish as many as you can over a period of time.
Once you’ve finished making your schedule, you should have certain days of the week that you’ve allotted for SAT prep, as well as full-length tests. Now go one step further: specify which component you are going to focus on for each practice session. It can be Reading, Writing, Math (Calculator), Math (Non-Calculator), or the essay. By doing this, you ensure that you are spending enough time on each part of the SAT. Schedule a little more time for the components that you find more difficult so that you can work on improving your weaker areas.
About the Author
The author Rithana Srikanth, scored 1560/1600 on the SAT. She is an Ivy Aspire student.
My gap year was not only a break after school. It was an important opportunity to come across numerous important experiences for a lifetime. Not only was I able to build my very own android app, but I also ended up learning some very important life lessons. As I travelled to different parts of the world, I had the chance to meet diverse individuals. Many of whom ended up influencing me significantly. Moreover, after researching universities and looking up their alumni I have understood one thing. Our passion is greater than any professional or undergraduate degree in the world. If we have the zeal no target is impossible to achieve. Following are some of the most important lessons I learned during my gap year which perhaps approximately 14 years of schooling could not teach me.
On one of my flights to Abu Dhabi, I was astonished when one of my co-passengers with a smile said that she was going for bypass surgery. I was amazed at how confident my grand-ma like co-passenger was! She also seemed very excited to meet her daughter after a long time. This short meeting left a huge impact and taught me the importance of being confident and looking at life positively, thus inspiring me to face my challenges fearlessly.
There are times when I think about my mistakes. What went wrong? Was I not focused enough? While building my android app- iDocare, I faced several challenges. I used to sit 9 hours at a stretch in a day decoding and one small typo would create a huge bug in the program. Similarly, in life, regardless of the magnitude of our mistakes, it is pertinent to understand and detect them properly and on time.
Time Management
There are various articles on time management to balance academics as well as co-curricular activities. During my year off, I have become accustomed to managing my time between multiple tasks. From revising my research paper and traveling abroad to writing my college essays. Balancing sports with academics is nothing in front of managing real-life tasks along with college/academic work. Be scrupulous about your mistakes.
Getting involved in classroom teachings, completing assignments on time, planning out my projects, etc. I never had the time to explore my potential to its utmost extent. While pursuing IB Diploma, there were quite a few opportunities but I still felt I could do something more. Amazingly in the last four months with three of my research papers published in International Journals, I have unraveled the researcher in me. On the other hand, as I learned more about apps it cultivated in me a desire to build my own android app, an app that would help a large section of society. With the help of online courses, videos on ‘building an android app’, I built iDocare, an app that provides instant medical consultation services 24/7 by connecting doctors with patients in countries with poor or no healthcare services.
Being Positive
All of us are faced with problems and as usual most of us have a tendency to fixate on our problems. Try noticing each and every happy moment in your life, I am sure you will lead a better life. When we dwell too much on our problems, we forget to enjoy and cherish the positive aspects of our life.
Regardless of it being your college application, homework, assignment, project, etc. Everything has a time and it is this timeline that should not be ignored.
In conclusion, I would say that this year was a chance to realize the importance of my school years, what it has taught me, and to look forward excitedly to the academic and professional years that lie ahead of me. While many consider a ‘gap year’ a waste of time, or perhaps an unnecessary break after high school, for me it has been a much-needed eye-opener.
Priyanka Mishra -from TISB, Bangalore, is taking a gap year to explore her interests and herself. She has published 3 research papers and is excited to start college in the Fall. She already has many colleges offers to choose from and is an Ivy Aspire student
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program, you can visit our page. For more information about the SAT photo or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
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A research paper is an in-depth study of a particular topic in a subject. While many think that research is knowledge, hard work, but it is much more than that. The passion to pursue your topic of interest. Before you begin, be confident and believe in yourself, because this will help you in your research work – a positive belief to conclude your topic. What matters is your perseverance and passion.
Following is a step by step plan to write an effective research paper:
Example Math, English, Physics- Focus on limit aspect. Avoid topics which are too specialized or too difficult for you to understand. Select something that you can manage to do.
Choose a Problem to solve through research – look through the internet, read existing research papers, speak with your teacher concerned with that particular subject, gather a lot of information regarding the problem before embarking on your research. If it is common man problem, then perhaps talk to your parents, relatives or friends about it. Understand the problem deeply and then start looking for ways to solve the issue using your subject of research.
In your Introduction begin with discussing your problems and how you are going to go about solving. It is a summary of your paper. Explain the points you will be covering. However, do not the reveal the solution or conclusion.
Here describe your research work elaborately. Present your workings, references, notes that you have taken from various sources.
Conclusion: Restate your thesis statement /research topic. Explain your conclusion to it.
To ensure accuracy, read through for any small mistakes. Make sure you finish the paper 3-4 days before the deadline. It will allow to revise and edit any other minute mistakes in the paper.
And your paper is ready for submission or publication!
The most important part is…what did you learn from writing this research paper?
Hard work definitely pays off. I have written three research papers and they have published in International journals. With proper planning and dedication, writing a research paper becomes a successful and joyous experience.
Priyanka Mishra -from TISB, Bangalore, is taking a gap year to explore her interests and herself. She has published 3 research papers and is excited to start college in the Fall. She already has many colleges offers to choose from and an Ivy Aspire Student
Dark circles; a cup of coffee in one hand and a laptop in the other; an expression of extreme stress.
These seem to be the qualities of an IB student archetype. It’s funny…but is it true?
Does the IB diploma come free with sleep deprivation and a caffeine addiction?
As an IB student in my first year, there’s a lot I have to say about this.
First of all, this stereotype has a lot of truth to it. IB is a great course. It pushes you to think critically, gives you a vast array of knowledge and prepares you for the real world. That being said, it’s not easy. It is no secret that IB is an extremely rigorous course with new assignments coming your way every day. When you agree to do the IB, you’re entering a long-term relationship with deadlines, word limits, MLA citations and much more.
As a proclaimed expert at procrastination myself, I have seen many sleepless nights of staring at a screen and typing for hours and hours until my eyelids slowly win and I fall asleep. But is this always the case? No, not at all. Even though the work load is high, there is nothing that you cannot overcome with good time management skills. So then, the real question becomes- How Does One Manage Their Time Well While Juggling Between Cas, Ia’s, Ee’s And Much More?
It definitely isn’t easy, but there are simple ways to start.
For me, it was understanding that I too, am human, and have a limit. How many times have you had a test the next day and said to yourself, “I am going to study from 4 to 10 today”? Well, truth is, in most cases, that doesn’t end up happening. You feel tired and worn out by the third (or even second) hour and end up becoming saturated.
Why does this happen? Because we have a tendency to overestimate our own capacity. A big step to planning effectively is acknowledging your own limit. If you can study for only half an hour at a stretch, there is no point making a timetable with a four hour study period with no breaks because you will never end up following it. Instead, set breaks of about 10-30 minutes between each study session.
If you feel like you are unable to focus on one thing for more than an hour or so, don’t be scared, it is normal to have a short attention span. I’d suggest using IB’s most hated trait, of having too much to do, to your advantage. If you want to work for 2 hours, divide into 4 half hour periods and alternate between doing work for your subjects and CAS work. This way you get a lot more done and don’t have to focus on one thing for too long. That being said, hard work does not have to correlate with time. If you are trying to study, quality matters the most. Make sure you are using effective study methods and optimising the time spent.
More than anything, try your best to have a good sleeping pattern. I know this is hard, trust me, but by managing your time and getting things done, it is possible.
About the Author
Shania Sharma, is a vivacious 17 year old at Oberoi International School, Mumbai. Her interests range from Drama to MUN’s. She is an Ivy Aspire student.
College applications have been submitted and just as the frenzy of the submissions dissipates the college interview requests come pouring in. There is a never a dull moment during the college application process. I am sharing my college interview tips and college interview questions after having served on the interview committee of an Ivy League college as well as advice from other college interviewers.
Interviews for New York University
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire SAT program, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
For all the latest news and updates, tips, and tricks you can check out our Facebook page!
College applications have been submitted and just as the frenzy of the submissions dissipates the college interview requests come pouring in. There is never a dull moment during the college application process. I am sharing my college interview tips and college interview questions after having served on the interview committee of an Ivy League college as well as advice from other college interviewers.
Interviews for Dartmouth College
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire, you can visit our page. Also for more information about the test scores or any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
For all the latest news and updates, tips, and tricks you can check out our Facebook page!
Understanding the GRE Age Limit. GRE stands for Graduate Record Examinations. There is no age limit specified by ETS to apply for GRE.
The GRE is needed to pursue your Masters in the USA. Furthermore, many schools are now accepting the GRE in place of the GMAT. Additionally, the GRE is the most widely accepted graduate admission test across the world.
The GRE brings you one step closer to achieving your career goal. And now, with the new ScoreSelectSM option, you can approach the GRE test with even more confidence knowing that you can send institutions the scores you feel shows your personal best. The GRE revised General test, features a new test-taker friendly design and new question types. The GRE more closely reflects the kind of thinking you’ll do in business school. Therefore, it demonstrates that you are ready for graduate-level work.
For any general information about the Ivy Aspire GRE program, you can visit our page. For more information about the GRE program or for any other assistance, you can contact us either by calling us at 8880001177 or you can mail us at [email protected]. Our counselors would be happy to answer your queries.
For all the latest news and updates, tips, and tricks you can check out our Facebook page!