Smooth Sailing Through Challenging Times |
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COVID - 19 has brought a lot of change, its impacted many goods and services that we take for granted, and for better or for worse its changing the way we take standardized tests. Many know already that the ACT Test is canceled for April. MIT has recently announced that it will not accept SAT Subject Tests. Take some time to stay up to date on the changing expectations for your college exams. |
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ADVANCED PLACEMENT (AP) PROGRAM - AP Updates from the College Board, March 20. - Traditional face-to-face exam administrations will not take place. Students will take a 45-minute online free-response exam at home.
- Some students may want to take the exam sooner rather than later, while the content is still fresh. Other students may want more time to practice. For each AP subject, there will be two different testing dates. College Board timeline for next steps:
- March 23 – an update will be sent to students directly from the College Board.
- March 25 – students will have access to College Board’s free, live AP review lessons, delivered by AP teachers from across the country. These optional, mobile-friendly classes are designed to be used alongside work that may be given by schools. Students can find classes online
- April 3 – the full exam schedule including the specific free-response question types that will comprise each AP exam will be published by the College Board.
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB) PROGRAM - IB Updates from the International Baccalaureate Organization, March 23 - The May 2020 IB examinations for Diploma Programme and Career-related Programme students will no longer be held.
- Depending on what they registered for, the student will be awarded a Diploma or a Course Certificate which reflects their standard of work.
- IB families/students understand that IB exam scores will be awarded based on coursework, including internal and external assessments, but will be calculated without May exams.
- International Baccalaureate Organization will provide full details and answers to frequently asked questions to all stakeholders no later than Friday, March 27. Principals and coordinators will work directly with their teachers and students to identify the required coursework for submission and deadlines for submission of these components to comply with IBO’s extended deadlines.
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A special announcement about SAT Subject Tests | MIT AdmissionsMIT has made the decision to no longer consider the SAT Subject Tests as part of the admissions process. You can read about our revised testing requirements here. I'm happy to announce our decision to discontinue the use of subject tests starting with the 2020-21 admissions cycle for first-year and transfer admissions (for students entering MIT in 2021 and beyond). |
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Your High school may just be finding out the powers of online learning, but we have been doing it for years! Check out our online curriculum. |
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2020 Summer Research This year students will have the chance to take part in the research surrounding the development of Corona Virus with UC Berkley faculty. Students will learn about chemical engineering, public heath and how the environment impacts the spread of infectious diseases such as the Corona virus. | | |
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Python for Data Science In this course students will begin to learn python, a coding software. By the end students will be able to manipulate data for python calculations. | | |
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IGNITE Scholars Course: Caption This! In this course students will learn how to create a marketing campaign and an influential instargram presence. | | |
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Simulation, Modeling and Artificial Intelligence this course will begin by understanding the brain and the nervous system, then students will begin to learn about Artificial Intelligence | | |
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More classes are soon to come! Check back for new online courses. |
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Through these challenging times it's still crucial to focus on important matters like your college applications. The Common App's open ended structure may be daunting or exciting but nevertheless it poses strategic difficulties designed to force students to ask themselves the same question: How do you see the world? This question, or rather its answer, will be the guiding principal for the rest of your life as it will inform most of the major decisions you make. The Common App does not expect students to have all the solutions, but it does expect a logical discourse of how and why you choose to judge situations the way you do. Asking how you see the world is akin to asking, how do you choose to judge and value certain situations. 2020-2021 Admission prompt is the same as 2019 application |
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Keep posted for our summer writing intensive workshop! |
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Your personal essay should be... personal. More or less, it should be a description/narration of situation(s) which impacted you to make a judgement. If you think about this - it's very broad! But imagining your essay along these lines can steer it in the right direction and provide you with the necessary structures for success. |
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Where does the personal come from? Don't worry - it's not from your diary. Personal doesn't mean it has to be a secret! What it does mean, is that this essay is so uniquely you, no one else can copy it. We all drink coffee, go on dates and fall down the stairs but what about these events makes it true to your life and values? |
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Your writing style says as much, if not more than the content. If your mom asks you to clean your room versus yells at you to clean your room - these are two very different encounters. Take time thinking about how you want your essay to be received. It might be easier think about how music impacts you - there's a crescendo, a key change, a beat drop and so much more, and you can (and should) do the same with your writing. |
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Often, short stories have some of the best examples for personal essay writing. They are jam-packed with awesome metaphors and move quickly from emotion to emotion. Reading will make you a better writer, and reading short stories can teach you a lot about transitioning your audience through different emotional spaces. |
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*Check out the poems too! |
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The essay although broad, has to be specific. And there are two general ways to do this |
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Go Big or Go Home When it comes to your honing in on your theme and topic one might start general and then circle in on their personal point of view. |
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Stay Low and Fly High Another approach is to detail a particular event, the more specific the better, and then draw overarching themes and conclusions. |
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Whatever you do just remember: Show don't tell Describe with detail, metaphor, implications and intense emotions but don't finish your essay with simply stating events. |
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More meaningful friendships |
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