well thank you all for coming welcome to Smart City tutors and smart city kids upper level IC and satsat 101 Workshop we're going to be going over everything you need to know if your child is taking the IC or the SSAT in the coming year so to get started we're going to talk a bit about who we are so my name is Lea Smiley I am the Director of Education and operations at Smart City tutors and on this webinar with me is my colleague Jackie Sergo she is the K through2 and boarding admissions consultant at Smart City kids so before we get started I do want to give it just a little bit of background about Smart City kids and Smart City tutors so smart city kids is the leading educational consulting company uh committed to helping students unlock their Highest Potential and reach their academic goals for over 20 years our Consultants have successfully guided families through the challenging admissions process and helped students gain admission to their top choice schools including K through2 Nursery College boarding and special education we take the stress out of the admissions process with concierge level support and personalized programs to fit each students goals and needs all of our our Consultants are former admissions officers at top schools across the country and they know exactly what makes a successful application and at Smart City tutors we teach students the skills strategies and confidence they need to flourish in the classroom and Beyond beond in addition to academic support in all subject areas we also provide our students with test preparation and executive functioning coaching everything we do is geared towards meeting each students unique needs and academic goals so just some background about me I have been overseeing Smart City tutors for several years now before that I was an elementary school teacher I taught kindergarten and second grade while teaching I did realize my favorite part of the job was working one-on-one and in small group so then I started I I transitioned a few years ago into tutoring I began in academics but then quickly transitioned again into a test prep so I've done a good amount of academic coaching with students I've worked with students uh with various uh learning needs and I also did a lot I've done a lot of IC and SSAT prep so I am pretty well versed in these tests as well um Jackie would you like to share a bit about yourself and your background thank you so much Ila my name is Jackie suro I have been with Smart City kids for two years now prior to that I was the Director of Missions at the Spire school um which is located in Manhattan it is school for a gifted and talented students I had was part of the Spire Community for over a decade and prior to that I was working in admissions at Barner college and then uh spent a few years there before um that I was a the placement director or a K8 school called the school at Columbia and then my work there began before that began working for a nonprofit organization on Columbia University's campus helping students gain access to both middle schools and colleges um so making sure that it was a clear representation of students from across all communities and were of low income so pretty much I focused my whole life on access and equity and Admissions and placement and I really enjoy working with families but most importantly finding the most appropriate fit for their children thank you Jackie um so before we get really jump in I also want to share that smart City tutors is pleased to offer a promotion to the attendees of today's sessions so if you purchase a package of four or more private tutoring sessions we will add an additional complimentary bonus session so that's five for the price of four um so with that being said let's get started so just an overview of what we'll be covering in today's Workshop um so we're going to go through what are the I and satsat what does each test consist of testing and test prep timelines how does the shs factor in and how can you build a road map to help your child prepare for the test they'll be taking um I'm very excited about this this is something I discuss with parents on a almost daily basis so we're about to jump B go over everything that we're asked um about the tests so we're going to start with the IC um and we're going to go through all the different sections what's on each test how you should prepare what's coming so the IC those letters stand for the independent school entrance exam it's hosted by the Erb the educational records Bureau this may sound familiar your students may have taken other tests given by the educational records Bureau the IC is about 2.5 hours long and it has five sections four multiple choice and one essay here is a breakdown of the differ sections um section one is verbal reasoning it is 40 questions and you have 20 minutes to complete we're going to go through all the sections uh Point by point a little later but just an overview uh section two is quantitative reasoning that's 37 questions in 35 minutes section three is reading comprehension 36 questions six passages in 35 minutes math achievement 47 questions 40 minutes and finally an essay uh you get one prompt and it is 30 minutes so let's start with the verbal reasoning section let's discuss um what that consists of so it starts with synonym questions you'll see on the left uh so for that students are given a series of questions where they just get given one word and have to pick uh the word that most closely matches the definition of the provided word then they have single blank questions so they get a sentence they fill it in with a single answer choice and a double blank same thing but two two blanks um this is a section where test really comes in handy because of course students can prep prepare with vocabulary list they can learn a bunch of new words but at the end of the day they're probably still going to see words they don't know so that's where we can prepare them um a by like especially in those sentence questions they can start looking for clues in the sentence to give them guidance on what kind of um what kind of answer we're looking for but as especially in those synonyms you know kids there's a lot of strategies what happens you've memorized all your vocab and you still get a question and you don't know what that word means you can look for context clues we can look for word Parts all of those things can be factored in so even if we can't narrow it down to the perfect answer even if we can eliminate some of those that definitely increases your chances of scoring highly here um so we're actually going to move on to the reading section remember that's the third section we're going to talk about the math sections together the reading comprehension is 36 questions six passages six questions each you have 35 minutes and there's three basic question types you have your main idea questions you have your detail questions where you go back in the passage and find specific details an inferencing where you have to consolidate information you've read and come up with your own answer so a note about the IC reading comprehension the passages are a bit more straightforward than the satsat we'll get there um they are typically just narrative passages or non-fiction passages um they're not very literary they're kind of they're just more direct passages one thing to note here is that this is a major area where students run out of time so if your student is a slower reader there's going to be some strategy regarding how to move through the passages quickly how to answer these questions quickly and efficiently so um another thing to note is that the question types do end up repeating themselves so this is an area where the more you practice with specific IC passages the better you're going to get at each passage or at each question type I mean moving on to the math sections so there's two math sections each is scored separately so you're going to get your own score for each one first is quantitative reasoning and second is math achievement both sections have no calculators allowed and are all multiple choice so the difference the main difference between these two sections is that the quantitative reasoning tends to be a bit more critical thinking heavy um so it's going to be more word problems more information applied in a new context the math achievement section is a bit more straightforward just do you know how to do these questions or not one major thing to note about the math sections um on the IC the math sections have a real wide breth of topics that they cover so even if your student is a math Wiz they're doing excellent at school um they're probably going to need to learn new content for this test this test also exceeds their curriculum so if students currently are in seventh they're going to be applying next fall will'll be in e8th grade we have content here that goes through ninth even sometimes early like 10th grade topics you're going to see geometry you're going to see some very simple trigonometry um you're going to see a lot of algebra these are they're not the the math here is not super difficult math but it's a lot of new maths so if you're looking at preparing for the IC I definitely recommend allowing your student a lot of time to prepare and learn new math topics now finally we're moving on to the essay so the essay is unscored um but it is sent to schools so you're not going to get your sine or percentile score but you are the schools look at it um and you got to make sure you've got this covered and so uh the essay topics on the IC are pretty direct you're going to write a narrative essay um it typically so an example might be describe a community service project you'd like to complete you know we see who is someone you admire and why kind of just they're asking an open-ended question um so Jackie from the admission side can you tell us a little bit what are you looking for when you're reading an IC essay from a student well certainly first thing we look for is whether or not the student actually answered a question quite often the student will start Meandering in their thoughts and and completely miss that and so that's the first thing the next thing they look for the organization of thought introduction body and conclusion these are just you know basic formats of an essay you know some students get caught up on whether it should be you know five or seven paragraph essay they culty have a really strong introduction you know if if your child has some challenges writing or really really coming up with more ideas having two body paragraphs are perfectly fine and then a conclusion so if the essay ends up being four paragraphs perfectly fine if they've answered the questions and given to supported reasoning to back of their opinion or how they you went about completing their service project and also how it ties up in the end always you know we encourage students to think about their grammar try to and to try their best to sound out all the words they're going to be using um punctuation all of that is key but most importantly is the content how did they describe their community service project right um if the question is think about someone who's been in a huge influence what are the reasons for answering the question is very important the right mechanics is something that students can pick up along the way in middle school and in high school so remember they're looked at differently depending different entry points but most importantly is how you know creative did the child get with the question and were they able to fully articulate the reasonings uh behind a certain topic or opinion or stance they've taken thank you I also one thing I see a lot with students um one big point on the essay is it's quality over quantity so the admissions directors know that you only have 30 minutes we're not trying to write a novel here we are really trying to write a super high quality VI paragraph so that's just something I I go over with students a lot um all right so we're going to jump into scoring on the IC because this can get a little complicated um so scoring you get your like a scaled score but then it's transformed into a percentile so how did you do uh in comparison with other students who took this test specifically then that percentile rank is converted into what's called a st9 score so stanines are 1 through n and that just reflects where you are percentile wise so here is how those stanines uh relate to the percentile it's a bell curve so you're going to notice those nines are extremely hard to get so a nine is going to be like zero to one questions wrong Eight's a little easier but still pretty hard to get are going to be more like one to two or three questions wrong sevens now you're getting to more like three or four to eight questions wrong and the gulf gets wider as we go more towards that five um and so Jackie one question I get a lot is how does scoring like you know what's a good score can you talk about that a little bit so for the most part the whole most students score within a range of four and five and six that is sort of if your child is taking the ctp5 which is also written by Erb uh ctp5 signs for the comprehensive testing program number five children are ranging between four five and six and so when you thinking about if your child takes it oh wow they've scored you know they've gotten a five they gotten a four they're never going to get into school I want you to walk away that this is kind of the area the current cohort at the school especially if it's a kid 12 and you're coming in for middle and upper that that's where kids are scoring however emissions directors want to bring in a stronger cohort that's true they want to see where they're at you know can they do a little bit more because they definitely want to sort of that perer effect is important and so with test prep and careful planning you certainly can get into you know the ranges of you know five six and seven if you're scoring at four there is no absolute perfect score there's schools use this as a piece of data and we'll talk about that a little bit later but you should know on a national level students are in that range and students are quite talented and are particularly strong in test taking and I can say that doesn't mean good test scores equate uh into academic achievement and strong grades might be ranging seven eight and N so that again I'll save that comment for later but know that that is the range where most students are are scoring and the goal of test prep is to move the needle from four five and six over to perhaps five six and seven in certain cases eight thanks Jackie um I also want to note I'm seeing a couple participants joining a bit late as a reminder we are recording this it will be up on our platforms later if you want to go back and check out what you missed in the beginning I also saw a raised hand so if you have a question uh we are going to have time for questions at the end but if you want to add it to the chat if we see it as we move along we're happy to answer um okay so we're going to keep it moving um another question I get a lot from parents about the IC is when can they take the test so this is another thing that's a bit tricky um the kids can take it only once per season and so the seasons are outlined uh on the right so the fall season is August through November winter is December through March and spring is April through July so most students on a regular testing timeline take one test in the fall season and then another in the winter realistically um a lot of schools if you I I've talked to some very early bird families who are like what can we take it in the spring season ahead of the application season some schools I think some schools allow it but some certainly do not um I think a lot of schools actually don't a lot of schools want you to wait until August and uh take it after that so it some families see a benefit in doing almost like a practice but we really recommend just waiting until that fall season taking your first test in the fall season and then another in the winter now with that winter something to be mindful of is that you can really only take it at the very latest early January in order to have it ready in time for an application as much as possible I'd really recommend taking that second test in December ahead of the holidays um it can be done for people especially people who get a bit of a later start you can take it in early January but from what I've seen it typically makes the holidays kind of a painful exper experience and I'd recommend getting it done before the holidays um so now we really overall it depends how ready your student is we tend to recommend taking your first test in October if you're ready early maybe September but more October at the latest early November that way if you have to take a second test you have plenty of time to work through anything that may have been challenging on the first one to go over any topics that you forgot um but it's not too much time where your students start getting out of the heads space and you're not forgetting topics so if you take it in August and you can't take another till December that's quite a bit of time that you're going to have to be maintaining everything you've learned so again just to summarize first test typically in about October second test in December so now we've talked a lot about the IC we're going to jump into the SSAT which stands for the secondary school admissions test as we go through this I'm going to be tell talking a bit about about the differences and similarities between the IC and satsat so the I or satsat is um a 2.5h hour test so about the same amount of time as the IC it also has five sections also four multiple choice sections and one essay there's also an experimental section at the end we're going to talk about that a little bit but that doesn't count towards your score each question so each question has five answer choices this is different the IC has four answer choices there is also a guessing penalty on this test so on the IC if you don't know an answer just take your best guess on the satsat there is some strategy because each incorrect answer is actually negative one quarter of a point so when students really don't know an answer there are times where it's best to leave it blank rather than taking their chances so um the strategy behind that is something that varies a bit from student to student based on their knowledge uh that's something I'd recommend working on with a tutor or teacher or someone who's working with a student personally so the satsat sections we're going to run through quickly it starts with the writing sample that's the essay it's unscored they choose from two prompts and they have 25 minutes so that's five minutes shorter than the IC um then there's a quantitative section that's the first math section 25 questions 30 minutes a reading section 40 questions 40 minutes verbal 60 Questions 30 minutes that's a lot more than the IC uh quantitative again 25 questions 30 minutes and finally we have this experimental section at the end so the experimental section is actually it's only 15 minutes it is 16 questions a variety of question types this is actually just the satsat testing out questions that will be used on future tests so students should not stress about this they should do their best um but it won't count their score so let's get started with the verbal section this uh section has 30 synonym questions and 30 analogies so the synonyms you'll remember from the IC uh gives you a word pick the one that is closest in definition the analogies are very different so as a reminder the IC had that sentence completion uh on the satsat you're seeing analogies so this is to this as that is to that this in my opinion is one of the most test prep strategy focused areas of the test um these are pretty challenging I I talked to a lot of parents who are like I couldn't figure it out either um so this is one where it's not super intuitive there are a lot of strategies there's a lot of one thing to note is there's a lot of like trick answers that that work but you have to work with the test to figure out which is the right answer that works best um so just as you're preparing for the satsat be mindful there is a lot more strategy involved and a lot of students report it feeling a lot harder on the verbal section on the satsat than the IC the reading comp section also quite different so you have 40 minutes 40 multiple choice questions and seven passages now uh as a reminder the IC had more direct we talked about just kind of straightforward passages either narrative or non-fiction but just passages as students kind of expect to see them the SSAT has passages that are more literary fiction they have poetry they have all sorts of different topics um these are going to be a little bit more difficult to access sometimes so that is just something to be mindful of um as you're deciding between the two tests if your student has trouble with that kind of um work they might consider the IC as opposed to the SSAT uh another thing to keep in mind it has a lot more questions about figurative language and language use so just just some different types of questions here um and then the quantitative sections so there's two sections um their scores are actually average to find an overall math score again no calculators all multiple choice um so the quantitative sections on the satsat are different than the IC and that there is not quite as wide a breadth of topics covered however um it tends to be a little bit we almost say trickier it's a little bit more critical thinking Focus uh where students are asked to apply what they knew and know in new formats um so the math again it kind of depends what kind of thinker your child's is if they're really good with applying content and new new formats this might be a good choice for them if they'd rather just study and kind of use use what they know in formats that they've seen I see might be better we're going to get a bit more into IC versus SSAT um but now we're going on to the writing sample also quite a bit different um so still unscored but sent to schools uh they have 25 minutes so again five minutes shorter than the IC and they can choose from two prompts typically the prompts are a persuasive essay or a creative story so as you'll remember the IC was a bit more just straightforward describe something and this can be like describe what you believe is the world's most important invention and why they have to take a stance and make an argument or they're given this uh you know creative story prompt if only I could reach the wat's edge um so Jackie can you tell me from a admissions perspective are you looking for anything different on the satsat than you would be on the IC the satsat is really fun for directors of missions because students who um choose to the creative one it's just you know it could be a lot of fun to read and sometimes students will leave you on a cliffhanger what do you think could have happened and so there is a lot of it's a lot more engaging for directors of missions to read it but it doesn't necessarily mean the director prefers one or the other it's just a different it's a different cup of tea right I would say here's the advantage of taking the satsat in terms of the writing component um when your child takes the IC you do receive the scores but you don't receive a copy of the essay for the SSAT you receive a copy of the scores along with a copy of the essay and you're arguing well you know Jackie you're not going to get scored I said no but you can have a wonderful score and your child completely misses uh answering the question and only had three or four sentences and so you're sitting there like oh you know you wouldn't child would may have known and you're kind of feeling comfortable like well we got a good score let's move on with the icy s sat allows you to make that decision okay we're going to take the step over not so much because you've gotten you know poor scores but you failed to answer the question you lost track of time you only put three sentences um so we can hyperfocus on that a little bit more so that would be the advantage you can kind of see the sample of writing and making that decision uh I'm not encouraging families to go to the satsat because it's the essay component only um but I just want to say that's one of the perks between both of them the differences and you can make a decision of whether or not you want to move forward with the test based on it do not be the judge of the writing sample parents you're not the judge as schools again we're looking for very different things you know mostly following directions and answering the question and so if you feel like oh they could have done better step away because we want to make sure that is a representation of who your child really is as a thinker and writer again we know it's only 20 25 minutes and many times we'll ask for a sample a great sample from their school from their teacher and we're going to try to see comparisons to make sure this is the child's most authentic voice and so again just one little tidbit about the satsat in terms of getting the the essay back over the I great thanks Jackie so we're going to jump a little bit into satsat scoring and go over how that plays in um so the satsat is scored by section and then total so you get your verbal quantitative reading in total score then again they're transferred into percentiles we don't take the jump into stanines with the SSAT we just stick with percentiles um and as we said the essay is unscored and will be sent to schools the experimental section just used by the makers of the SSAT don't worry too much about it so your score report will come back looking like this so this is an example of a student who did quite well 99th percentile but as you can see you get a breakdown of your verbal quantitative and reading scores they tell you how well or how many questions you got right or wrong actually on the SSA or on the IC you also get a similar um breakdown of how many questions you get correct or incorrect um and it just so this is just what you'll be seeing once you um once you get your scores back so moving forward when can your trial take the satsat so there's a lot of before we go jump into it it's a little complicated the short answer is you can take it several times you can take it students can take it three to four times if they'd like realistically um so you can take in-person tests up to six times a year which is the max or almost the maximum they'll take um app you can only take computer-based tests uh so that's at a Prometric Center in home two times per year uh just something to note um and so the future dates are currently unavailable to the public but uh our my colleague Jackie went to a EMA workshop and they gave us the dates so they will be on October 12th November 9th December 7th January 4th and then if there's the February and March tests again if you're on a regular admissions timeline January 4th is going to be the latest that you're going to be taking it so just something to note here um you know taking it more times is not always better however something to keep in mind if you're child is a bit more anxious about these tests sometimes that I see where you can only take it twice puts a lot of pressure on kids so if they don't do as well as they want the first time they go into the second one being like well this is my last chance and they can really you know some some students get a bit stressed about that so one benefit to even if you don't take it that many more times just knowing you have more opportunities sometimes can help students feel a bit more relaxed going into the test all right so just to summarize the key differences um IC has four answer choices satsat ts5 IC has no guessing penalty SS has a guessing penalty IC has non-fiction one non-fiction descriptive essay satsat has one non-fiction usually persuasive and a fiction essay uh IC can only be taken once per season satsat you can take almost as many times as you'd like again there's that limitation with the computer based test but pretty much um anytime you any as many times as you'd like so Jackie um I would love to know how are these tests used in admissions absolutely absolutely uh and and I just wanted to go back to the other slide if we we could Lea I wanted to stress a point um families who decide to do the computer test space um uh we found that sometimes the SSAT can be a little bit more challenging the the bot the mo the person who monitores and Proctors a test it's usually um Ai and so if you have a child who really needs a lot of body movement and break uh this may not be the best format because the bot is really going to look at your child so if your child's literally riding and does this for a minute they'll a prompt will go please take your hand away from your face oh okay and if they do this your eyes are on the screen and if they look one more time you have been kicked out from the exam so if you get kicked out from the exam there's really no way to take it again so think about who your child is and if they need body you know breaks and self-regulation they might benefit just being in person or taking at a promatrix center where the bot is not doing the proctoring uh as opposed to doing it at home so the satsat the IC I feel like the Proctors uh the way they've designed their platform is a little bit has offer a little bit more grace for children who just need to you know for example like me who just need to move on the chair for one second that was that's what I wanted to add to that uh so you know how do admissions directors use this really you know we're kind of looking at we need a benchmark right there you know when I'm thinking about boarding schools along the way when you're at a boarding school you know have kids applying from all you know the region even the country and internationally and so it's helpful to have a benchmark like you know how are they coming in and compared to the other applicants in the pool having an understanding that okay they seem to be part of the competitive pool that they can do well and if they're at a k 12 they seem to be scoring within range of our current cohort because they're looking they can translate the percentage even though the current cohort might be just taking a map or a ctp5 they said this child will succeed so it's helpful to have that Benchmark is not only deciding factor but it allows us to understand how they're performing wherever they're hailing from right especially since so many students if you're applying to boarding school are coming from across the country and internationally and in day schools there are so many schools in New York City from public even to privat over 70 private independent schools in New York City it kind of they understand how they fair in their own little particular spere and world so that really kind of helps us na navigate that piece it is an additional piece of data for admissions committee as I mentioned before students might be scoring you know in the nin St n 99 percentile 98 percentile and that's wonderful but they're sort of getting B's and C's in school what's happening right you know are they putting in the work are they having challenges cooperating you know working in collaborative teams and grouping school so it just provides one piece of data it's not going to be the ticket for admissions certainly supports it and so if there's a child coming from a school I don't really really know too much about that school right and it only has like seven or eight graduates a year the curriculum doesn't really you don't speak out to me I I don't understand you know kind of the the pedagogy behind it but having that piece of data says well at the very least we know the child can succeed right they're coming in above the middle medium 50 percentile right we know that they're they're within the current cohort of our group right it is not the sole deciding factor I want to make sure you understand that and so some schools will say we test optional um and they'll say okay and then some other schools will say well we require but we only look at the essay and so it will not be the decision that will decide whether your child's admitted to a school or not some schools as I mentioned are test optional policies well are they really test optional do they really mean that they do they truly mean that we are completely test optional if you want to give us that extra piece of data so that we understand your child's profile a little bit better since we don't understand uh the current school too well we're not familiar thank you we welcome it um some families will say my child scored really well and we're really proud of it you want to submit it you can't it is a test optional school right there will be schools that says please do not submit we will not look at them or accept them this is where I urge you not to submit them if a school has clearly told you we don't want them even if you've gotten perfect scores do not submit that is basically as a parent you failing to follow directions and so as parents if we can't follow directions what what kind of support are you going to have in terms of your child following directions so make sure you read the testing policy carefully are they required by the test optional or do not submit next thing I like to talk a little bit more um and I'll let Lea move over to the slide next slide um Jackie can I ask you a question really quickly um so I know we've had a lot of families asking this lately so I want to see if you have any information just you know a lot of colleges we're seeing are moving towards requiring tests um you know do you have any sense about what the k through2 schools are doing about that and if not you know when will we have more information about that for the coming application season so as a veteran of working at higher ed and certainly pursuing um you know further education in the world what happens in higher head trickles all the way down to kindergarten and so where if there is a movement uh to returning to standardized testing one can expect that the movement will have an impact on high school admissions Middle School all it'll just keep as far as it can go down the pipeline and so I do expect schools that were test optional um might return to requiring tests um schools that had a policy of no testing might say we're going to be tests optional and transition back to requiring and so I would watch carefully what's happening in highed because it always has an impact and so what a website might be saying this is what we require this year for admissions make sure you return in July and August because those policies they have the right to change those policies immediately especially if the admissions portal does not open until the day after Labor Day so I think the best rule of thumb as we're moving into the new admission season prepare prepare to take for the test to to prepare for the test in the event schools change their policy you're welcome to call especially those if you're thinking about boarding schools to call and like do you foresee changing the policy some schools will say we do not we are committing to this policy that is helpful but if you don't have the benefit of uh you know working with you know having an admissions director can speak in such confidence then I certainly say prepare which test should you take and now you've heard Leila talk about them to some ex you know great length right now and so think about your child's strength are they a mathematical thinker are they an Abid reader if they're writer so if your child is you know an incredible mathematician right that is doing you know math circles you Russian school math math Olympians M math competitions sounds like they've really been exposed to quite a bit of math and so the I might be a good choice right because there's probably theyve probably seen all that content already and so there's very little um you know teaching required right or exposure they've gotten that and and if they tend to lean and that tends to be their strength they might prefer straight answer you know uh questions like read this paragraph This is the question answer this question uh in written format so they might prefer kind of more direct questioning both in reading comprehension and verbal reasoning and their essay and so a child who's that leaning in that direction the IC might be the better choice but if you have a child who's an Avid Reader who's a fantastic creative writer poet and really has a fantastic vernacular I would say think about the satsat they might feel feel better there especially perhaps math is not their their strength right or they just really they just need to be asked questions that are not uh they've covered it right because the exposure in the IC is very different to what the satsat is asking in terms of question remember satsat is more of a national test I think a lot of schools take the satsat IC is has a small applicant pool of students who take this exam and you'll find a high concentration of students taking icy really in the Northeast um so they kind of look at the curriculum for math on a national level for the SATs so they try to find what are fair questions to ask um now if you have a child who is an exceptional test taker it doesn't matter what you put in there decide what they feel better you know what they like the what they like best to kind of you know do they want the freedom to take it a few times not just be locked into one season or do the kind of student like listen I'm going to do great let me take it once do it in September that's great to have a student that way but otherwise think about who they are so more leaning to mathematical not so much the humanities perhaps the IC super duper writer super super reader creative but not so strong in math then perhaps you want to look at the satsat because it'll speak to their strength at the very least right day in boarding schools historically boarding schools have always preferred satsat because that's kind of the niche that they got into years ago when they're looking at students day schools I prefer the IC we won't go into the history how that happened right now both schools will take both exams if you are in New York City and you're considering applying to you know boarding schools and your child is that child who is really strong writer a great reader then but you also want to apply to a few day schools in New York then I would say tag the satsat boarding schools usually kind of look to that and they understand that test a little bit better and that way it'll also be accepted in New York City School schs and so you have to think about where your child's applying to but both schools right both day and boarding schools will accept both there is I can't think of any school who says no you have to give me this that doesn't exist anymore it used to be the case about 10 years ago merit scholarship opportunities now isagi schools and there a lot of New York City Independent Schools are part of the is sagy you are not allowed to give out merit scholarship that was one of the things that we agreed on when we all came together and say you know how to what are the rules of engagement for admissions to make this more Equitable and even playing field for All Families in New York City no matter scholarship there are a couple that have been grandfathered in especially the butler scholarships with the Catholic schools Mary Mount and um Mary Mount and uh Sacred Heart and Regis isn't its own thing but for the most part it's all based on need boarding schools on the other hand are looking will offer merit scholarship so in this instance taking the satsat and scoring really well might inform the merit scholarship committee and you'll be could be offer an incredible award that might make the decision for you whether or not you want to go to a boarding school stay in New York so that is where mayor scholarship comes in when you're looking at boarding schools and then again going back to admissions requirements um do you have to take the test which one well you I told you you have the freedom but if the school says you have to take it then you take it if it's test optional then again I would go to the one that speaks to the strength right because if they do really well and even the other side might just almost be of equal measure you may want to submit it because you're proud of those scores okay then we'll move on to the next slide so I'm gonna I'm gonna let Leila if you want to introduce them a little bit and then we'll kind of jump in a little bit the distinguishing factors of each School sure um and Jackie I just want to be mindful of time so I don't want to spend too much time here because I want to make sure we have time for questions at the end um so specialized high schools um if you're preparing for the IC and satsat if you're we're going to touch on this because a lot of students also are thinking about maybe applying to specialized high schools while they're applying to Independent Schools uh so just to go through that's Bronx Science cyon Brooklyn Tech um The High School for Math Science and Engineering at City College High School of American studies at lman College Brooklyn Latin Queens high school for science at York College and satin Island TCH so those are all the specialized high schools in New York to get into those schools your child will need to take the specialized high school admissions test the shsat it has one Ela section and one math section and it's offered once per year usually early November um it has some overlap with the IC and satsat but you will definitely need a separate test prep plan there are a handful of topics that are a little bit different um Jackie you talk a little about C off scores for the shsat absolutely I think it's really important if you can take a snapshot uh families of this is that the the sing factor to being admitted to one of New York City specialized high schools is all based on this test not attendance not grades just your test so you can see historically um for the last um five years sty has been ranked number one the only time ston was not ranked was during 9/11 where families didn't want their children in the area area um but careful if you notice High School Math Science and Engineering has now surpassed Bron science uh it used to be the case that Bron science as was used sty in Bron science but the Allure of City College is that you can have the math science and engineering in a very small community on City College campus and there was interaction with the faculty and families really found that incredibly appealing and having 350 4 children in the school as opposed to 2500 students is just something that families feel more comfortable with and children feel more comfortable if they get the onetoone relationship um there um so again pay close attention to the rankings because that is really going to inform you later on um on how you're going to rank the schools when the time comes with the Department of Education but most importantly you know it'll give you a real gauge in as you prepare and take marks as to where your child is you know scoring and ranging and this is the one test that I absolutely believe that you need test print there is no way around this this is the one test where you need some real thoughtful and work into this exam not that you don't need it for the icct but it's a very unique one um great I just also want to mention there is one more specialized high school at LaGuardia I believe that you it doesn't take the shsat it's a portfolio because it's Art Space right I just wanted to abut throw that out there um so just quickly a recommended timeline if you're taking the shsat um our timeline's going to shift just slightly that we recommend um I would recommend taking your first IC or satsat in September October that way as Jackie said the shsat needs a lot of test prep that gives you a full month or so to prep solely for the shsat ahead of that test usually early November then you have another month to prep for your second IC or SSAT in December so again this is just our recommended timeline to help you um to help you get a sense of like how how to move forward um okay so now let's talk last topic we're going to cover is how should my child prepare for the IC or satsat so once you make a decision on how to do that um you know what what's next so the first thing we really strongly recommend is to take a diagnostic test um we offer mock test in our office or virtually also we um you can take a test in even a workbook or on test innovators um or it's an online platform we'll talk about in a moment but just having a sense of your students's starting point is incredibly helpful if your student is starting at a really high level you're not going to need that much prep we don't you know we can start now but we don't have to a lot too much time if your student is not scoring very well and you know you want to get those scores really far up you're going to have to make a prep timeline that includes a lot more time allocated um so that diagnostic test we recommend taking now so that you can decide how best to use these summer months uh as you move forward um so once you take a diagnostic test um you can make a map of your test timeline uh one and I do really recommend thinking hard about how you're going to use the summer so a lot of students go to camp or travel I'm going to tell you if you're planning for your child to do a lot of prep at Camp I don't really it's not super realistic I've had many kids go off to Camp with their materials kind of stresses them out and I very very rarely see kids really getting a lot out of it um so if your child is going to Camp or is traveling this summer I recommend starting soon doing a lot before that and then when you get back having a plan of action moving forward in August if your child's not going to Camp or they're going to be around this summer then I'd really take advantage of these summer months um to prepare um step three study slowly it's a lot of information it's a lot of new content this is not a test that you do well cramming for especially during the school year come fall especially when they're doing essays and interviews and all sorts of other things for the application process so a couple options for preparation of course there's private tutoring the benefit to that is you move at a pace that works for your child you work around your schedule and you're getting high impact feedback on your uh work at all times second option is small group tutoring so this is um you know often a bit more affordable than private tutoring but you still get a high level of personalized attention from a tutor you have space to discuss ask questions you still get pretty personalized assignments and it also provides that social collaborative aspect so kids don't feel like they're going at it alone some kids really benefit from that so we offer both private tutoring and small group tutoring um our small group options will be live on our website in the next couple weeks we also do um if your child has a couple friends and you know you're all going to want tutoring even just to Kickstart uh tutoring or to Kickstart preparation we can arrange that for you you just need to reach out to us and we can arrange it specially for you there's also larger class options we don't offer that but you can find those around the city so these are really good for like a self-motivated student um because it does give you a good overview of the topics it walks them through some of the trickier topics they can still ask their questions and get some feedback um and one really great thing about classes is it does provide that structure so they're doing things in a methodical way it helps them with the timeline so we do recommend classes for students like that who are self-motivated and just need a little bit of structure then of course there's independent study I just want to say you know most of these students are going to be seventh eighth graders this is for the very self-motivated student um it is possible but there's some strategy that's just hard to know without someone telling you um and some of these math topics are really hard to work through without guidance so if you're a student really if you're thinking about independent study um we would recommend maybe even like two to three sessions with a tutor just to get started get those preliminary strategies um we also are going to offer a Kickstart uh tutoring program so it's going to be for sessions one and a half hours per uh session in the fall so a great Kickstart before continuing to prep by yourself we can also offer that now if again your child has a couple friends um so for materials uh there are plenty of workbooks um I personally when I'm tutoring really like the tutor verse book I find it's really organized um it's easy to use we also recommend test innovators it's an online platform it has seven fulling tests and thousands of practice questions so a lot of most of our families find this uh sufficient for an entire course of preparation if you'd like uh to sign up for test innovators if you sign up with us we can offer a 15% discount so let me know you don't have to sign up for tutoring or anything we're happy to just get you set up H okay so that's a lot of last things I do want to have some time so again next steps are diagnostic tests if you do a diagnostic with us I will also follow up with a phone call uh to make a road map with you otherwise you can just schedule a call with me I'm available um you know we can do an introduction call where I get a sense of you and can give my recommendations for your child and your specific situation keep an eye out for a group tutoring um and now we have a little time for frequently asked questions um so Jackie we have about five minutes I want to make sure I know we have a couple questions so if we can run through these pretty briefly should oh go ahead yeah I I think we kind of talked about that if your child should you take it on paper in home or at Prometric Center I think depending um you know if your child might need accommodations or certain things you know you may benefit from taking it uh at a school that will acknowledge accommodations or a Prometric Center depending what needs they might have you know the advantage of a home is that they have space you can arrange it according to your schedule you're not restricted to the date uh the national dates which are listed um you'll find out for um icy later on in in August you already know SATs and so it really depends on the child and what makes sense for them as a learner um can I also add though one one also thing to keep in mind some students really prefer doing the essay virtually uh so one perk of Prometric or in home is that virtual aspect so just just something to keep in mind if your child really likes typing versus handwriting that could be great can I super score my test well the decision is not up to you the decision is up to admiss school uh directors and it varies from school to school there is no blanket policy on this approach and so I think uh it's definitely something that will happen at a virtual meeting you can ask you know do school school super score um and what will say yes while another says no we just we really don't do that is there an advantage to sending in two sets of scores uh you know the advantage is that there's a story right if the child came up with a headache in the middle of the test and just did not perform well on the you know the tail end of the the subsections and they took it again and say look this is more balanced and me give you a story yeah there is some advantage of that um but if your child scored well the second time there's no need to score send in the first one even if well you know they got a eight on the second one but they got a nine in you know really comprehension the first one I don't think it's one st9 is worth sending both scores if the last scores were pretty strong eight and sevens in the range one nine to an eight is not going to make a difference all right this is when we get a lot if my child scores very high in one section and kind of low in another and then on the next test they kind of have an average what do we do there which scores do I send in again if there's a story or a narrative If the child you know was just feeling better this day than the other and you can support it in an email you certainly can send both uh but if the average is coming in again it varies from student to student if your average is coming in in the 78 range 789 range you know send the average don't send both of them you know uh so again it varies from from student to student how the best approach this question all right my school asked me to send all my scores should I the school is asking you to send the scores and the decision is yours I think I'll leave it at then um all right we have a question in the chat so if anyone else would like to submit their questions in the chat we have a few minutes where we can answer yours so Jackie one says how do you help the child who works hard and does not do well on tests such as the nwea okay again you might be one to looking at at schools that uh are test optional uh you may want to look at schools that uh do not require them um I think you know this is hard and this is where I invite families uh you should know if you reach out to us um we'll try to reach out by email if we have um we can have a 15 30 minute conversation it's part of the the workshop for attending where I can go into very specifics about learning who your child in terms of your learning style and just say well this is the kind of approach the kind of school that you may be wanted looking at again it's just broad Progressive or more traditional so you know it's difficult to say um there are the more competitive schools um and competitive I mean schools that uh get the highest number of applications which makes them more competitive are probably going to be looking at test scores right and so even though they work really hard um there's so many children in the pool they have 2 200 children who work really hard and get the scores that they it's going to be more a little bit more tough sell right and so it varies the next question is I think that was just a little more context so it's a child who does well in school but not like the top of the class um again you know sometimes those students actually do quite well on some of these tests but then also if your child's I think as Jackie was saying um you know if your child is a bright student and they're not a test taker you know keep in mind these are one aspect of an overall application um they are still looking at teacher recommendations they're still looking at grades they're so looking at the student interviews there's a lot of factors yeah and I absolutely encourage you to please make an appointment with us we'll just talk to and get through some of those questions and sometimes the question can be answered in 15 minutes save you a whole lot of time um one last question um if your child scores high in one area like reading uh but they're low in another like map how do schools view that how does schools view if they scored high in one area and low and the other um you know I think there will be questions you know they w't understand the profile of the school is the school's curriculum not designed to Expos a child in this one area then they'll understand that profile and so again it varies from what school you're considering and the school the sending school so the receiving school will have their approach on how they look at this test and the sending school will inform the receiving school well you know by the time we get to math um we're teaching we begin to do um pre-algebra in eth grade so that's a lot of information for this receiving school to know and be like okay can we accommodate a child who's coming in with these skill sets into ninth grade so it varies uh Jackie I think one last question and then we're going to just wrap up um how good a benchmark are the nweas you know what I don't have that information right now in front of me um I would have to look at it uh and WEA we don't have too many applicants who come in with that score so but I'm pretty good at just looking and understanding and I can compare them later so again welcome you to just give us a call and we'll get that answer for you so here just as we close out uh here is our contact information you can contact Jackie at her email there you can contact me at my email there as well I want to thank everyone so much for coming and so as a reminder we do have a promotion for participants who came to this Workshop if if you purchase a package of four or more sessions with our tutors we will include a bonus complimentary session so that's five sessions for the price of four also you can email me I'm happy to hop on a complimentary phone call um and discuss your child discuss a path moving forward I can also help get you set up with group tutoring uh one-on-one tutoring or a diagnostic test or even just a test innovator's account we're happy to help set that up and then for guidance on anything with admission in particular Jackie will help you out again Jackie can um hop on the phone for a quick uh 15 to 30 minute on call to talk you through a little bit about your uh specific situation your specific child and give advice on how to move forward so just as a reminder we are always here to support you in your test prep journey in your admission journey and thank you again for all coming and have a great rest of your day and one last thing the F who was asking sorry for the N WEA you know it has multiple tests right and so I need to know exactly the map the region the school and the national so that'll help me that's what I mean and that will inform me in terms of what's a good Benchmark great um all right so just being mindful of everyone's time we're going to wrap up but thank you all again thank you Jackie for joining us um and hopefully we hear from you