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Post by CoachWeitz on Jan 31, 2017 11:34:00 GMT -6
Do any of you guys offer SAT/ACT Prep courses or materials for your kids?
Our kids struggle with these tests and I feel like a lot of it has to do with a lack of experience with taking tests like this. My thought was it'd be nice to make some sort of program to help prepare them for the test. My issue is that I don't have the first clue on where to start. I know there are apps and websites that let them practice but it would be nice to have some sort of curriculum to go through.
Has anyone done anything like this or know of anyplace to get some resources for something like this?
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Post by realdawg on Jan 31, 2017 11:39:20 GMT -6
Our state requires juniors to take the ACT and it is part of our state accountability model. Currently we take a 40 min block of time out of the school day to do ACT prep with every kid taking the test this year.
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Post by CoachWeitz on Jan 31, 2017 13:17:35 GMT -6
That would be perfect.
Did you guys develop your own curriculum or did you get it from somewhere?
Also, do you like it/think it does a good job?
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Post by lions23 on Jan 31, 2017 13:50:54 GMT -6
We have an academic coach. We broke up a stipend and apply it to a part time coach and an "academic coach." She handles ACT prep. I think she has some sort of teacher's edition ACT and uses materials online. She takes juniors and seniors who need extra help right after school. We lift after school so they essentially take another class and then come to weights in off season at 3:15. She does practice exams with them and teaches testing techniques.
She keeps track of their grades and helps students and parents with FAFSA and applications. She is a trained special education teacher. As it became more and more successful we have even convinced our principal that she needs more time to work on these things. Our past 2 principals have agreed and have given her a class load where she doesn't have an assigned class for all of her periods. During the unassigned time she calls kids in to her office and goes over things as needed. If you have seen last chance U it looks a lot like that with their academic coach. We have placed about 40 percent of our players in college football, so that was our selling point with our principal. There are a few teachers who complain that she doesn't have a full class load, but those teachers all suck and complain about everything. I'm sure someone could make it a union issue if they really pushed but the success of those student athletes has been a big source of pride for our school and community where there is sometimes plenty of bad news.
She loves being called coach, too. It really takes a lot of pressure off the coaching staff. She keeps us informed but we don't have to be the bad guys all of the time. She will help them solve academic issues and deal with their teacher and call home before things get to us. She is about to retire and she is also training another younger teacher to do the things she does.
We got the idea from a really successful coach in our state. It is one of the better things our program does.
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Post by cecphillipsiii on Jan 31, 2017 15:31:28 GMT -6
Khan Academy...once they take the test Khan Academy is actually tied to the College Board in some fashion and the kids can send their test results from the College Board to Khan Academy and they will evaluate their test for them and design a practice guide focusing on their weaknesses. It's honestly not a bad little deal and it's free. Kids just have to want to get online and FOCUS.
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Post by coachcb on Jan 31, 2017 15:53:47 GMT -6
Our juniors are required to take it and we get hammered pretty hard on whether or not the kids pass it.
I have had administrators that want me to take a day each week and do ACT prep but I generally fight it. We have a ton of material to cover in the space of the year and I don't care to spend a fifth of it reviewing material from previous classes with the kids. It's pretty simple: those kids that have dialed in and done well in math over the years score highly on the ACTs without the extra help. Those that have screwed off don't do well, regardless of whether or not we're reviewing the material.
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Post by realdawg on Jan 31, 2017 16:07:41 GMT -6
We have the ACT Prep workbook published by the ACT. I think it works pretty good. Two years ago we had the highest ACT scores in the county. I think a big part of it is just teaching them and going over test taking skills.
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Post by fantom on Jan 31, 2017 17:06:56 GMT -6
I guess that this falls under the heading of what's normal in one area is unheard of in others. All of the schools where I've been have formal SAT prep classes and take time in classes for prep for kids who don't take the class. It's amazing to me that schools mandate the kids to take a test but depend on the football team to provide the training for the players.
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Post by coachbdud on Jan 31, 2017 23:12:10 GMT -6
Found a prep course that is hosted at the other HS in our district
It is run through a company but as a service for the district
there is a fee but it is way less than taking them a private company
I have even had luck getting PTSA to sponsor a few kids and pay their fee
helped our kids who went to it (it was like 5 consecutive saturdays in a row, leading up to the actual test)
My other advice is have your kids take the SAT once, and the ACT once
see which one they do better in (different scales of course so i look where they line up on the sliding scale and which one is comparatively higher) and then focus on THAT TEST
go with their strength #2 did better at SAT so we focused his prep on SAT ... worked well our corner did better on the ACT... we are focusing on that right now
and then have them take their best test over and over, as many times as they can, especially if they get free/reduced lunch and can get the fee waiver, 2 free times a year and then ill kick in and pay for one for a kid i like if necessary
every player i have worked with has scored higher every time they have taken it
you want them to do better each time but not too much better a score jump over 200 often results in NCAA red flagging the test score and they look into their test, they see it as a little too much of an improvement
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Post by goldenbull70 on Feb 1, 2017 8:25:56 GMT -6
During first semester we have what is called Academic Jumpstart built into the day. On Tuesday-Thursday we had every junior in the school doing ACT prep. We have done this for a few years and our ACT scores as a school are slowly rising up.
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Post by rhorer75 on Dec 3, 2017 4:23:32 GMT -6
Happy to know about these prep courses. Will read them carefully to plan my son's career. He is already taking online classes and quite satisfied with MBE Practice Questions provided there. Their notes and strategies are undoubtedly prepared by experienced teams.
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Post by freezeoption on Dec 3, 2017 7:59:55 GMT -6
There is ACT prep online, free and for a charge. There are ACT books. We have an ACT prep class if there is a group of students that want to take it. Your state education department should have something on ACT prep. Other wise, find a school close to you that offers it and go there and observe and get their curriculum. Your going to have put in a little shoe leather on it.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Dec 4, 2017 0:17:06 GMT -6
Khan Academy...once they take the test Khan Academy is actually tied to the College Board in some fashion and the kids can send their test results from the College Board to Khan Academy and they will evaluate their test for them and design a practice guide focusing on their weaknesses. It's honestly not a bad little deal and it's free. Kids just have to want to get online and FOCUS. +1 to this. Khan will make your kid better but just like football (and anything else in life) they have to want to get better.
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Post by larrymoe on Dec 4, 2017 8:40:34 GMT -6
If this is completely out of line, I’ll delete or mods can- but why is this a coach’s responsibility?
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Post by freezeoption on Dec 4, 2017 19:39:29 GMT -6
maybe the coach can say, but I'm guessing it looks good to get kids into college
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Post by CoachWeitz on Dec 7, 2017 8:16:27 GMT -6
Yes, it's really to get more kids into college. It's probably not in the specific outlined role of a coach but I always want to find a way to give kids the tools to be successful.
Kids at our school struggle with standardized testing and many times will sign up for it and then not show up. I believe a lot of this is due to the fact they are intimidated by the test (family has never taken it, never done well with tests, etc.).
My goal was to give them some sort of confidence taking the test so they didn't step into the room defeated before they even picked up the pencil. What we did was very basic and we didn't really follow through for a variety of different reasons. Even still we had more kids going into their Senior year having taken at least one of the tests than we ever have which in my eyes is progress.
Maybe it's not in the written description of the coach but I don't think 90% of what we do is.
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Post by larrymoe on Dec 7, 2017 10:47:02 GMT -6
If a kid is intimidated by a test, what is their usual success rate in college in your past experience?
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Post by fantom on Dec 7, 2017 11:12:57 GMT -6
If a kid is intimidated by a test, what is their usual success rate in college in your past experience? I've seen it happen a lot. In college, very seldom does success depend on one all-or-nothing test.
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Post by CoachWeitz on Dec 11, 2017 8:07:43 GMT -6
A lot of the intimidation comes from unfamiliarity with the test, not intelligence or ability to be successful in college. To be honest, I think success in college is more about time management than intelligence but, that opens up a whole new can of worms that is bigger than this message board.
To get back to testing, in my opinion, it's just like anything, you've got to make them familiar with it and provide them with help to navigate the landscape.
In college a lot of times these same kids are very successful because they're normally very internally motivated. I think this success can again be amplified by providing them with a mentor to help guide them through the college world.
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