|
Dr. Martha Gagnon
|
|
|
|
|
|
The ABC's of the New SATs Scintillating is to dullness as boisterous is to. . . You can stop struggling now. The College Board has overhauled the SAT and there are no more analogies, some slightly different math questions, and a brand new 800 point writing section. The test is now scored out of 2400 instead of 1600 points and includes an essay that colleges can download and read in the students’ own handwriting. The new SAT officially kicks in during March of 2005 and prepcoaches all over the country have been doing some studying of their own, as they get ready to prepare students for the revamped test. “A lot of people are taking the test between now and then because they don’t want to miss the old version- and I don’t blame them,” said Martha Gagnon of Woodbine, who has been teaching SAT prep for 18 years. Gagnon holds a doctoral degree in Higher Education Policy and Planning and was formerly the Director of Admissions at Loyola College in Maryland. She was also a Staff Consultant for the College Board, the organization that writes the SAT, and she’s conducted hundreds of teacher workshops on the test. For the past two decades she has focused her efforts in Howard County, where she specializes in college placement, career counseling, and - of course - SAT prep. For Gagnon, a major task in the coming months will be helping kids to understand how the new essay is scored, as well as calming all their jitters about writing on command. The SAT now consists of three parts- math, critical reading, and writing. Each is worth 800 points. “If you take a look at the proportion of the total score, two thirds has to do with the verbal and writing area. . .and it’s harder for a student to improve the verbal side than the quantitative side. I have more students coming to me who struggle with the verbal,” Gagnon said. The new SAT was designed to be a better indicator of who will do well in a higher education setting. After all, the average college student spends the majority of their time reading and writing. Gagnon described the addition of the essay as “a very good move” in her opinion. She believes that eventually the SAT essay could replace admissions essays. As a former director of admissions, Gagnon knows that many college essays are heavily edited by adults and some are surely not even written by the students who submit them. If colleges choose to download their applicants’ essay from the SAT instead, those issues could be eliminated. “I think it’s a win-win situation for the students and the colleges. The colleges get the real essay, the real writing and students could save themselves hours of writing and rewriting essays,” she said. The essay only counts toward 30 percent of the writing section; the rest is multiple choice. The essay will be scored on a scale of one to six by trained high school and college teachers.They will evaluate the writing through a holistic approach, which means they will judge the essay on overall quality. Essays with some errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar can still receive the highest score. “I teach them the rubric, show them what constitutes a score of six. . . There’s no better way to learn what’s expected than if you have to score yourself and evaluate your own writing,” Gagnon explained. She added that the vast majority of her students seem very concerned about the essay and one of her major tasks as a teacher is boosting their confidence. By the end of SAT prep, students should be able to take the test with no unexpected surprises. “They know what scores to anticipate and they have a plan, tailored to them, on how to take the test,” she said. The new test also has some minor changes to the math section. Quantitative comparisons have been eliminated and topics from Algebra II have been added. A more serious hurdle on this year’s SAT- and what Gagnon said has many students worried - is the increased length of the test. The SAT now lasts for three hours and forty-five minutes instead of three hours. With students already struggling toward the end of the old SAT, lasting though the new one is going to take a serious amount of focus. There’s no denying that the newer, longer test can be intimidating, Gagnon said, but that’s why it’s good to take a prep class or pick up the official SAT guide. Finally, Gagnon said that for any juniors who are stressed about taking the new test, they should go ahead and sign up for the old one in January. All they have to lose is a few hours and $41.50. If they don’t do as well as they hoped, there’s plenty of time to take the new version. But for anyone in tenth grade or below, it’s time to start getting familiar with the brand new SAT. “Know about it. Find out what it’s about,” Gagnon said. “Take some samples and score them and find out where your problem areas are and deal with them. Don’t hide your head in the sand. . . we’re all in the same boat.” For more information on Martha Gagnon’s classes, please visit www.marthagagnon.com. Original article here |
“For the last four years, Dr. Martha Gagnon has facilitated our SAT review for a group of high achieving students in their sophomore year. Her vast knowledge as an educator, administrator, counselor and consultant came together to focus all her expertise and talents on developing the skills of our students. Her desire, dedication, and nurturing presence contributed to our students’ phenomenal gains on their PSAT and SAT. In addition, her test interpretation skills have been a great benefit to our staff and aided them in the revision of our curriculum. Dr. Gagnon genuinely cares about the impact of her program, as evidenced by her dependable follow up.” -Ms. Susan MacPherson, Guidance Director, St. Elizabeth H.S., Wilmington, DE |