<p>Has anyone done this Second Life SAT strategy session, that Ohio University and Princeton Review are doing? It’s an online thing. They did one on the 19th and the next one is this Thursday. Can anyone tell me about it? It’s free, right?</p>
<p>Here’s a link to it on PR’s page: <a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/testprep/testprep.asp?TPRPAGE=2818&TYPE=LOBBY[/url]”>http://www.princetonreview.com/testprep/testprep.asp?TPRPAGE=2818&TYPE=LOBBY</a></p>
<p>Second Life is for people with no lives and think that it can be a good substitute. I’m not even going to touch it with a 20-foot pole.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s <em>hilarious</em>!</p>
<p>I hope somebody tries it and can tell us all how it goes.</p>
<p>Who knows: it could work really well.</p>
<p>wow…</p>
<p>I don’t know a whole lot about Second Life, but I don’t plan to use it regularly…just wanted to check out the SAT strategy session.</p>
<p>So are you a reformed Second Life loser then? How do you know what it’s all about? ;-)</p>
<p>I think you should do it! :)</p>
<p>It could be brilliant, and it’s free.</p>
<p>I am tutoring at the time, or I would create a Second Life account just to see what it’s like. If it sucks you can leave.</p>
<p>Do it, and tell us about it. Sounds cool!</p>
<p>Ok, I registered with Second Life. Virtual World stuff is SO not me, so I’m only going to use this for the strategy session. I’ll report back on how it goes.</p>
<p>So I actually did this last night…here’s what I thought:</p>
<p>Second Life: definitely wasn’t crazy about this platform, but again, I’m not into virtual worlds. I didn’t take any time to try to really learn how to use it, and it wasn’t that intuitive. I had to ask someone how to sit down in one of the seats! I tried to fly my way out when it was over and flew into the ceiling. LOL. </p>
<p>I also didn’t know how to activate voice chat, so I missed the first few minutes when the Princeton Review reps did introductions and talked about what the company offers (I came in right at the end of that). The woman who led it was a PR tutor named Kim. Once those intros were over, there was no product plugging or anything like that, so that was good.</p>
<p>Most of the time she talked about what was on the test, by section, and then she gave tips for each section and for the test in general. The tips were pretty helpful. Here’s some of what I wrote down.</p>
<p>General:</p>
<p>~ State schools focus a lot on SAT scores, more so than private schools or small schools, because they’re so big and get sooooo many apps. It’s an easy way to weed through the apps if your SAT score blows.</p>
<p>~ No matter how hard the problems look on the SAT, they’re actually testing SIMPLE concepts. You need to know how the test writers are testing those concepts. She recommended taking at least 4 practice tests and doing at least 30-35 hours of general studying for the SAT.</p>
<p>Math:</p>
<p>~ You get a formula chart at the beginning of the math section of the SAT, but the questions don’t just test how well you can apply the math formulas. They write traps in, especially in the word problems, so you need to learn what the question is <em>really</em> asking for, so you can use the right formula.</p>
<p>~ If you get an answer to an easy question quickly, you’re probably right. But if you know the question is medium or hard and you get the answer quickly, you should second-guess yourself, because you probably fell into a trap. They call these “distractor questions” because they distract you with tricky wording and you fall into the trap. </p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<p>~ Neatness actually counts. The readers only spend 1-2 minutes skimming your essay. If they get stuck on your bad handwriting, they have less time to digest the content, and your score will be lower.</p>
<p>~ Don’t indent just five finger spaces…indent like 10-12 spaces for new paragraphs. This gives them a quick visual that you’ve started a new thought, and they can quickly see you’ve got your intro paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, and conclusion paragraphs.</p>
<p>CR:</p>
<p>~ They use a lot of distractor words to trick you in the passage…they repeat those words in the questions, so you think the answer’s right because the word’s familiar. Look for key transition words like “however” so you don’t fall into the trap.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much what I was able to jot down…overall I think it was pretty good and it kind of made me pay attention to things I wouldn’t otherwise think about. I usually focus on just doing practice questions and not so much on the tricks built in, so I’ll be paying closer attention now. So yeah, I guess it was actually really helpful.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! I don’t know if they’re doing it again, with or without Second Life, but there ya go.</p>
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<p>Haha, so this is why I got a 500 on the SAT II Writing but a 5.5/6 on the GRE Writing (GRE is taken on a computer). Maybe I should try to practice my handwriting. :(</p>