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Chyten Announces Spring ACT Class

October 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Chyten has announced a new ACT test preparation class, which will get students ready for the April ACT. Students will learn how to master the ACT material in this six-session class, which features unique strategies, content mastery and more!

Chyten’s classes are unique and effective from start to finish. Because we value the experience and expertise of teachers, all Chyten’s instructors are real teachers with Master’s degree or higher. Because we design amazing strategies, the strategic lessons learned will last a lifetime. Because we value relationships, all classes are kept small, so that teachers can get to know their students.

For practice and skill-building, Chyten has extensive banks of ACT questions of all types, actual and original. For strategy development, Chyten’s manual provides insights into the ACT you cannot get anywhere else. Classes take place on Saturdays from 12:00 – 4:00, and include two full length Magnostic ACT Diagnostic exams and all books and materials.

ACT Test Preparation Class

DAY DATE TIME
Saturday February 23, 2013 12:00 – 4:00
Saturday March 2, 2013 12:00 – 4:00
Saturday March 9, 2013 12:00 – 4:00
Saturday March 16, 2013 12:00 – 4:00
Saturday March 23, 2013 12:00 – 4:00
Saturday April 6, 2013 12:00 – 4:00

Six Saturdays, Beginning February 23, 2013
Each Saturday from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM | 24 hours of expert instruction

Course tuition is $985, and this includes all books, materials, and two free practice tests! To sign up, please call Chyten at (828) 505-2495 or click here to request more information.

Call to schedule! Classes fill up quickly!

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Spring SAT Prep Class Being Offered!

October 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

Chyten Tutors and Test Preparation of Asheville has announced a Comprehensive SAT Prep course which will run across six Sundays, beginning March 10, 2013. This course is timed specifically so that students will be ready and warmed up for the May 4, 2013 test!

Chyten’s SAT classes offer a comprehensive overview of the SAT, and include a combination of skill-building exercises and test-taking strategies for tackling the test’s hardest questions. Students will learn:

Chyten’s Zig Zag MethodSM for Critical Reading breaks down traditional reading barriers and dramatically increases reading speed and comprehension. It makes rereading unnecessary, preserving valuable minutes. In addition, Chyten students are taught how to recognize and resist trap answers.

Chyten’s Grammar Simplification StrategySM turns even grammar-phobic students into excellent performers on the SAT. By breaking SAT grammar into its five major components and drilling with more than 600 original, categorized questions, Chyten students gain a sense of grammar mastery. Then, by practicing on up to 20 full-length tests, Chyten students earn a sense of test mastery.

Chyten’s Adaptable Essay Strategy allows students to craft a top-scoring essay that contains all the essential components necessary to earn top scores. Chyten’s essay methods have been so successful that Chyten students earn perfect essay scores at 50 times the national rate. According to the Boston Globe, “Prepping high-scoring essays using Chyten’s method can be enough to boost scores to heart-thumping numbers.”

Chyten’s SAT Math Strategies, complete with a topic breakdown and relative weighting of each question type. It then teaches students a series of subject-specific strategies along with general SAT Math strategies that include numeric and visual approximation, backward solving and strategic guessing. Chyten’s original Math Question Banks help student achieve mastery of all SAT Math topics.

SAT Test Preparation Class

Six Sundays, Beginning March 10, 2013 • Preparation for May 4th SAT

Each Sunday from 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM | 24 hours of expert instruction

DAY DATE TIME
Sunday March 10, 2013 1:00 – 5:00
Sunday March 17, 2013 1:00 – 5:00
Sunday April 7, 2013 1:00 – 5:00
Sunday April 14, 2013 1:00 – 5:00
Sunday April 21, 2013 1:00 – 5:00
Sunday April 28, 2013 1:00 – 5:00
Course tuition is $985 per student, and includes all books and materials! For more information, please call Chyten at (828) 505-2495 or email us!
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The Three Biggest College Admissions Lies

September 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Steve Cohen, The Daily Beast

Do SAT scores matter anymore? Will asking for financial aid hurt your chances? And does everyone get a fair shot? As application season kicks into high gear, some hard truths about getting in this year.

“The check is in the mail. I gave at the office. And …”

There are too many bad jokes that begin “The three biggest lies are …” What’s happening in college admissions, however, is no joke. Three big lies are gaining traction with families as they embark on this year’s tougher-than-ever college-admissions sweepstakes. Believing some of these lies will cost families money. Others can make the difference between an acceptance and a rejection.

Lie No. 1: Standardized Tests Are Less Important

Colleges today are relying on standardized test scores when making admissions decisions to a far larger degree than they have in years. One reason is that the number of applications at most top colleges is soaring. That’s not because there are more 18-year-olds graduating from high school. It is because more kids are applying to more colleges. And with little increase in the size of their admissions staffs, schools are using SAT and ACT scores to make a fast, easy cut of the applicant pool.

Of course, no college is going to admit this. Colleges love a big applicant pool, not just to craft a more attractive class but to show the ranking services just how selective they are. (In the perverse rankings world, more rejections equal a higher ranking.) Instead, colleges are using several forms of numbers subterfuge to obfuscate what is really going on.

The SAT Range: Almost every college publishes the range of SAT scores that kids in the last entering class achieved. The schools call this the 25th to 75th percentile range. In other words, 50 percent of last year’s entering class had scores within this range.

So if a kid sees a school’s 25th–75th range as 1280 to 1430, the student might reasonably think that their 1300 SAT score gives them a fair shot at admission. Wrong. In reality, the bottom 25 percent, below 1280, is reserved for the school’s “special interests”: athletes, students of color, development (big donors). For example, Vanderbilt reports its 25th–75th SAT range as 1380 to 1550. In reality, most of its admittees had SAT scores above 1500.

Test Optional Doesn’t Always Mean Test Optional: A number of very good colleges have a “test optional” policy. For kids who have good grades but test-anxiety, that can be a real blessing. Are test-optional colleges adopting a kindler, gentler approach to admissions? No, they’re chasing rankings. Think about it. When a school declares SAT scores optional, which students report their scores? Only students with high test scores. This boosts the average SAT scores at the college, and the school moves up a rung on the rankings ladder.

The Magic 700: At the very selective colleges and universities, if you don’t have a 700/700 score, you’re just not getting in—unless you have a very special hook. The 680/690 kid is a dime a dozen.

Cheating Goes Both Ways: In the past year, headlines have screamed about cheating scandals not just at Long Island high schools and at New York City’s Stuyvesant High School but at colleges. Both Claremont-McKenna and Emory admitted to playing with test scores in order to make them look better in the rankings.

Standardized test scores are just as important on the money side.

“It’s pretty simple,” says Ian Welham, a college-funding specialist with Complete College Planning Solutions in Springfield, N.J. “If you want more money, increase your test scores. Regardless of what the college tour guide or the glitzy brochure says, the kid with the 800 in math will get the money over the kid with straight A’s.”

Lie No. 2: Asking for Financial Aid Won’t Affect the Admissions Decision

Ah, for the good old days—the days before the Great Recession. Back then, when a college said it was “need blind,” it probably was need blind. That meant admissions decisions were made without the admissions staff knowing whether the kid was applying for financial aid.

Today, more and more college admissions officers want, and need, to know whether the kid can pay full freight. And if there is a choice between two virtually identical applicants, one who needs financial aid and one who doesn’t, the fat envelope is going to go to the kid who can pay full tuition.

Some very good schools, such as Wesleyan, are coming forward and acknowledging that they can’t afford to be 100 percent need-blind. Similarly, some of the most selective colleges are quietly moving away from their “no loans” financial aid policy. Pre-2007 many of the nation’s wealthiest and most selective colleges said they would eliminate loans from the financial-aid packages they gave students. Today there is a family-income level that must be met before a no-loan financial aid package is offered.

Cornell University recently announced that no-loan financial aid would be available only to families earning less than $60,000 a year. Similarly, Dartmouth and Williams announced that their no-loan policy would be limited to students at the lowest end of the income-distribution scale.

There is good news, however, for families who can afford to pay full tuition, and especially out-of-state tuitions. Acceptance rates at top state universities for out-of-state applicants reached an all-time high last year. And the number of foreign students accepted at many colleges has doubled or tripled in the last four years.

But not all well-heeled parents are willing to write the big checks. Welham, the college-funding adviser, reports a trend he’s seeing among his clients. “There used to be a certain percentage of parents who told us, ‘I want my kid to get into the best name school, I don’t care what it costs.’ Now, take a family with three to four kids. Even upper-income families are balking at paying $750,000 to $1 million for college. Instead, they’re telling us, ‘Show us some options where we don’t pay sticker price.’”

Lie No. 3: It’s a Level Playing Field

Let’s go back to the foreign-student situation. It should be no surprise that many foreign students applying to American colleges have very high SAT scores. Colleges love that. Unfortunately, a shockingly large number of Chinese applicants also lie about their English abilities and academic transcripts. And colleges are pretending they don’t know this. That combination of high scores and full tuition is simply too enticing to ignore.

The worst-kept secret of college admissions is that colleges are looking for the well-rounded class, not the well-rounded kid. They want some real scholars for every department, some superb athletes, some great musicians and actors, a few rich kids whose parents can build a library wing, and some legacies to keep the alumni happy. The applicant who is attractive but not really special in any one category is going to have a much tougher time getting in.

And while early decision really does improve one’s chances, there are caveats. Many of the early-decision slots are reserved for kids the school wants for athletic or other recruiting purposes. Second, the early-decision applicant pool typically has higher grades and SAT scores than the regular pool. There is a self-limiting element to who is applying early. So if a school is a “reach” for a student, the student should not apply early. His odds of getting rejected are greater. The early decision-applicant pool is simply better credentialed.

A last truism: it is often said that there is a college for everyone. That is certainly true. What is more elusive, but equally true, is there is a right-fit college for everyone. But most kids and their parents never find that school because they are too caught up in trying to get into the “best” school rather than the right school.

Instead of relying on magazine rankings, which reflect the subjectivity of the editors couched in often-meaningless statistical inputs or is based a single visit to a college that can be colored by a backward-walking student tour guide, students really should do smarter research. It takes a bit more effort, but kids should sit in on a college class. They should spend a night on campus. Sure, it’s tough and expensive to arrange such trips. But it is a hell of a lot cheaper than a poor fit.

To read the full article at the Daily Beast, please click here.

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How to Find College Scholarships

August 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last year, graduates who took out loans left college with an average of $24,000 in debt. (New York Times, 4/2011)

If you have a high school Senior, you are probably consumed with college applications and college visits. Now is the best time to start thinking about scholarships. Knowing where to look is half the battle.

Never pay for scholarship information!

Websites like College Board or Fastweb.com are great places to start. Fastweb actually matches your to relevant scholarships that meet your requirements either based on your major, your interests, your extra-curricular activities or how much money you might be looking for.

Look locally!

There are some scholarships available in your own community. Check out local Kiwanis or Rotary Clubs, churches and synagogues. Ask your school counselor, too, as they might have been informed of scholarships available in the business community. Don’t forget to get those SAT and ACT scores up! Many state schools offer scholarships to students with strong college admissions tests and GPAs.

Talk to the college of your choice.

Colleges will usually provide a list of scholarships they offer. Don’t get hung up on the amount of money being offered. Even small amounts add up!

Meet with a college counselor at Chyten.

At Chyten, in addition to helping with all of your application and essay needs, we also offer services to help meet all of your financial concerns about attending college.

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ACT Official Describes ‘Next Generation’ Tests

July 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

By Eric Hoover

After the ACT announced plans this month for a new assessment system, an array of provocative headlines followed. The Associated Press proclaimed: “Kindergarten Career Test in the Works by ACT.”

Is that an accurate description?

Not really. On Thursday morning, Jon Erickson, president of the ACT’s education division, stopped by The Chronicle’s office to discuss the organization’s plans for its new “college and career readiness” testing system, a digital assessment scheduled to make its debut in 2014. Initially, the system will span grades 3 through 12; later it will expand to cover kindergarten through the second grade.

In short, the purpose of the new series of tests isn’t to identify the 5-year-olds who will go on to become doctors, engineers, and asbestos-removal technicians, as deliciously terrifying as that might sound. There will not be a question designed to weed out those who aren’t cut out to be astronauts.

As described by Mr. Erickson, the system will assess skills and knowledge associated with success in college and careers, starting with basic reading and mathematical ability, and then progressing to higher-level skills. It will track students’ academic progress and professional goals. And it will include measurements of “academic beh3.avioral skills,” such as teamwork and motivation.

The assessments, Mr. Erickson said, will help teachers understand which students need help with what as they go along (within courses, at the end of courses, and at the end of the academic year). “This will provide a running movie of students,” he said, “rather than a single snapshot in time.”

I asked Mr. Erickson what admissions and enrollment officers should know about the tests, which would culminate with the ACT examination. “First, they should know that, hopefully, the pool of students will be larger and more prepared, and that they will hopefully see a reduction in the need for remediation,” he said. “Second, there will be opportunities for them to get a feel for what the coming groups of students look like, what their interests are.”

Many details—such as the content of the tests, and the costs to states that adopt the assessments—have yet to be revealed. In the coming months, some educators will probably hail the ACT’s new system as a breakthrough even as others, wary of too much testing, will condemn it.

Mr. Erickson described the system as a way of unlocking the power of data in real time—and of confronting challenges students encounter well before they’re old enough to apply to college. “We know that if you’re off-track even by middle school,” Mr. Erickson said, “it can be too late.”

Read the full article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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College Timeline for Fall 2012

May 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

Is your student just beginning to look at college options, or are they already knee-deep in the process? Something that each student will learn is that there is a very specific timeline that they should follow, and which will allow them to tackle each item on their list in a way that makes sense and reduces stress. College-bound students will want to consider the following this fall:

Sophomores

  • Set a long-term academic plan. Be sure you are selecting academic courses that challenge you without overwhelming you. Identify opportunities to enroll in Honors or AP courses.
  • Begin to identify extracurricular activities. Identify areas you are passionate about and increase your participation in those areas, rather than spreading yourself too thin with activities in which you have only a moderate or superficial interest.
  • Continually work to develop better study habits, study skills and time management skills.
  • If your school offers them, take the PLAN (preliminary ACT) and PSAT (preliminary SAT) exams.
  • Consider registering for the spring SAT Subject Tests in areas that you have already completed coursework for: Biology, World History, Literature and Chemistry are common examples.
  • Begin to organize EVERYTHING that you have done or are doing. This can be in a resume, a “brag” sheet, or even just in a folder, but keep everything and add to it throughout your high school years. This small step in the early stages of high school will save you much time and stress later on!

Juniors

August and September
  • Register for PSAT. It will be offered through your school.
  • Begin preparation for the ACT or SAT. Take the “ACT vs. SAT Comparison Test” Chyten offers to determine which test is best for you. Preparation for standardized tests is offered at Chyten centers in many forms including small-group classes, team tutoring and private tutoring.
  • Register for two SAT or ACT tests in the winter and/or spring.
  • If you want to attend a competitive university, identify three SAT Subject Tests that you can take (typically Math I or II, and two others) and register for them.

Seniors

August
  • Register for ACT by August 17th!
  • In the first few weeks of school, identify teachers that you would like to write a recommendation for you and submit a written request to them. Give addressed and stamped envelopes, as well as any required forms for each college, to any teachers who are writing your recommendations. Be sure to indicate on each the application deadline AND the date you would like the paperwork to be mailed by.
  • If you need recommendation request forms, see your college counselor at Chyten.
  • Set up an account for your Common Application:
  • Begin looking at short essay questions or supplemental essays specific applications might require. Begin working on rough drafts of these.
September
  • Identify all application and financial aid requirements and deadlines for all schools to which you will be applying. Make a calendar of all of your important dates.
  • Complete the resume that will be mailed with your applications.
  • Take the ACT if scheduled on September 8th.

 

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SAT & ACT to require photo ID after cheating scandals

March 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In the wake of an embarrassing cheating scandal that saw high-scoring students using fake IDs to take college entrance exams on behalf of other students, the SAT and ACT tests are stepping up security. Both exams will now require students submit a photograph when they sign up for the test, and officials will check those images against the IDs presented on test day to ensure the two match up.

At first glance it looked as though the new measures lacked teeth. After all, what’s to stop a student from uploading or mailing in a fake photo that matches the fake ID? But the test providers worked in a few more safeguards, including making it mandatory for test scores be mailed to the students’ high schools with the corresponding photos so school administrators can easily verify the identities of their students. The photos will also remain in a database that can be accessed by colleges.

The measures are designed to stop future incidents like the scandal unearthed last year in Nassau County, N.Y., in which 20 teens were charged with either impersonating someone else and taking the ACT or SAT for that person, or paying another student between $500 and $3,600 to take the test for them.

By Kayla Webley, Time Magazine

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Should a student take the ACT or the SAT?

January 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The SAT and ACT are different tests, with different goals and metrics. But did you know that, depending on strengths and weaknesses, the majority of students are likely to score higher on one exam versus the other?

In a highly competitive college admissions environment, every advantage counts – and that can include a higher standardized test score. Knowing clearly which exam could give your student an edge is a key first step in the test prep process.

Chyten’s revolutionary ‘ACT vs SAT Comparison Test’ and Magnostic diagnostic will tell provide: a student’s raw score, scaled scores, percentile ranks, score summaries by section, essay scores, and  performance by question type and question difficulty. Most importantly, the test will indicate accurately which test a student is stronger on, or if it’s a wash…in which case they might want to take both, or focus on the test that they’re most comfortable with.

Here are three advantages that Chyten’s ACT vs SAT diagnostic test can provide to your student:

Parents and students save time and money.

It’s a lot easier and cheaper to prep for one exam than two – especially when a student knows exactly where they should focus their energy to improve, and perhaps most importantly, they know what areas don’t need work! Chyten’s strategy for test preparation is not one-size-fits-all. We will concentrate on the topics and core concepts in areas of weakness, which makes tutoring and test prep that much more effective.

Not to mention, since most students want to take advantage of superscoring, knowing which test a student is best at will cut down on the amount of studying that is necessary, and it will reduce the expense that comes along with taking both tests multiple times.

It can improve a students’ chances of admission to your top-choice school.

It’s not uncommon for a student to score 20 percentile points higher on either the SAT or ACT. The higher the standardized test score, the better it is for a college application. Many schools report that they’re decreasing their emphasis on standardized test scores. But when admissions officers at top colleges are making choices about who to accept and who to wait list or reject — even when the official policy at the school is ‘test optional’ — any potential advantage could make the difference.

It could increase a students’ chances of receiving scholarship money.

One way that a high standardized test score can benefit a student is the opportunity to be awarded “meritorious money” – the money that schools offer students whose stellar SAT or ACT scores will serve to increase the school’s average test score – and hence it’s national ranking.  If a school wants a student, it is common for them to offer scholarship money to help seal the deal (for example, Chyten students have recently been offered $5,000 and $10,000 scholarships just to sign on the dotted line at Clemson and Auburn).

The best part is that Chyten’s ACT vs SAT Comparison Test is offered, absolutely free, to Asheville area students. Just call us to schedule at (828) 505-2495.

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What your high school might not be telling you about the ACT

January 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In 2011, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction implemented a plan to begin administering three new assessments (the ACT, PLAN, and WorkKeys) in preparation for the state’s new accountability model. They also intend for these new assessments to provide additional diagnostic information for public school students and their teachers.

 

Many Asheville area students took the PLAN without a calculator, due to a misunderstanding of what was allowed under the testing rules.

 

What does this mean in plain English? These tests are going to be used to predict a student’s academic readiness for college, and eventually, schools will be held accountable for the results (or lack of results) that derive from these tests. The state has decided that many students who are graduating from North Carolina high schools are not ready for college. By moving to this new educational model and (eventually) structuring their curriculum around it, they hope to begin turning out graduates who are more competitive with those who come from private schools in North Carolina and from school systems in other states. Unfortunately, this alignment in curriculum will not begin until next year, leaving this year’s junior class quite unprepared.

Using the ACT as a measure of accountability is a long-term plan for North Carolina, but it’s being implemented very quickly. The first test to be administered as part of the new initiative, the PLAN, did not go smoothly in all instances. In one area school, students were told that they could not use calculators, and as a result, many students took the PLAN without having access to a calculator (just for the record, calculators are absolutely permitted for the math component of the PLAN and ACT).

For students who are currently high school juniors, this information should be a bit frightening, because the ACT Plus Writing is coming up in March. The curriculum has not prepared them for the test, because there simply hasn’t been time. The test results will be used to show whether students are ready for college, community college and work, and how well their schools are preparing them. It has not been made clear how the information will show up on school transcripts, but clearly the best approach for students is to prepare for the test and to do well on it.

 

The ACT is known as 'the test that nobody finishes' because it is extremely dense, in terms of material. There is more reading material than what students are used to seeing on the PSAT and the SAT, and the questions can be much more difficult.

 

Unfortunately, while some of the high schools in the Asheville area have been very good about getting information to students and parents about the ACT, some schools have not communicated this information effectively. This means that students may be unprepared for the ACT, a test that is extremely difficult to perform well on without an understanding of what is on the test. The State Board of Education had envisioned offering a summer academic boot camp for rising seniors who did not perform well on the ACT, but that idea has been pushed aside because there’s no money for it.

The ACT requires a specific approach. In order to obtain a good score, a student must understand the amount of material that they will be required to process, as well as the time constraints involved. Students must familiarize themselves with the material and practice taking the test under timed conditions.

For more information about the ACT, see our ACT FAQ or give Chyten a call at (828) 505-2495.

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Chyten’s ACT and SAT Class schedule, Winter/Spring 2012

January 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Chyten Tutors and Test Prep of Asheville has set their ACT and SAT Class schedule for the Winter and Spring of 2012. Classes are a fun and effective way to get started on the road to a student’s dream college.

The classes listed below will prepare students for the March 10, May 5, and June 2 SAT exams, as well as the March 6 (NC Only), April 14, and June 9 ACT exams. Each course includes two practice tests (these are delivered outside of class time) and our revolutionary Magnostic diagnostic report.

ACT Mini-Course

A four session class for sophomores and juniors, the ACT Mini Course provides an overview of the test format, timing and questions types with strategies for all sections of the test. Classes will meet on February 11, 18, 25 and March 3 from 2:00-5:00. Tuition cost is $495, which includes all books and materials.

SAT Comprehensive Preparation Course

Master the SAT in this six session class featuring unique strategies, content mastery and more. Classes will meet on January 22, 29, February 5, 12, 19, and 26, from 1:00 – 5:00 PM. Tuition cost is $985, which includes all books and materials.

ACT Comprehensive Preparation Course

Master the ACT in this eight session class featuring overviews of all test sections, along with Chyten’s unique strategies for content mastery and more. Classes will meet on March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, April 7, 14, and 21 from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Tuition cost is $985, which includes all books and materials.

SAT Comprehensive Preparation Course

Master the SAT in this eight session class featuring unique strategies, content mastery and more. Classes will meet on March 4, 11, 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15, and 22 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM. Tuition cost is $985, which includes all books and materials.

It’s easy to get started with Chyten! Many students begin with a free SAT practice test, ACT practice test, or ACT vs SAT Comparison Test, and then review the diagnostic with us. This allows us to show them exactly where they can focus to most efficiently improve their scores.

Give us a call and let us know how we can help, at (828) 505-2495.

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