when you picture the average sat test taker, an image of a stressed-out teenager likely comes to mind. and yet, here we are, two woefully unprepared thirty-somethings who will be sitting for the official sat exam on december 7th, 2019.

update: in an unexpected curveball, the college board canceled our december sat registrations as they only allow testing for reasons other than its “intended purposes” during the march, may, and october test dates. lesson learned on our part – we should have read the fine print! we’re committed to seeing this experiment through and will be replicating test day conditions (proctor, timed sections, and all) and taking a second practice sat exam (from the college board themselves) on december 12th, 2019. stay tuned for our results!

why retake the sat?

so that we can stop talking in the third-person, the two marketers in question here are jessica wan, our vice president of marketing, and kemi bello, one of our content marketing managers. we’ve decided to retake the sat, for the first time since our initial high school attempt many moons ago (13 and 20 moons respectively, to be fully transparent), for a number of reasons.

first, we want to use our prep and test-taking experience to check any assumptions we’ve been making about our customers, our product, and the overall test prep experience, spot any blind spots in our marketing, and, ideally, be better marketers as a result of this experiment.

although we invest heavily in our marketing efforts at magoosh (for example, our marketing team forms a third of our full-time staff at magoosh), we know and are excited by the fact that there’s still so much we have to learn. in fact, we frequently hear from students who tell us that they wish we advertised to them more so that they could choose us as their study partner earlier in their prep journey.

we hope to use this experiment to listen to the feelings that come up for us as we ask ourselves the same questions our students ask of us: where do i even begin studying for the sat? what test score should i be aiming for? how do i structure my time? where do i turn to for help when i’m stuck on a problem? how do i deal with the fears that come up as i’m studying?

second, we want to build better products and improve upon what we believe to be the best affordable online test prep option by trying on our own test prep for size. although we already ask every new magoosh employee to use our products as a part of their onboarding process, we wanted to challenge ourselves a step further and prep not just on a trial or sample basis, but towards an actual test and score goal that reflects how and why our students use magoosh.

a number of the magoosh test prep experts on our content team have made it a regular practice to retake the standardized exams they help our students prepare for as a means of staying up on the latest content and ensuring our suite of magoosh prep products are the absolute best they can be.

as marketers, although we serve as the product messengers to and from our customers, we realized we can be even better advocates for the product if we actually used it ourselves. though this might seem like an obvious practice for any company, popularized in the saas world by the term “dogfooding,” it can be challenging to put into practice when your customer base is of a different demographic or at a different life stage than your team.

most importantly, we want to be better magooshers and build empathy with our customers by walking a literal mile in their shoes.

every week, when we share stoke from our students in our team meetings, we’re consistently blown away by the discipline, resilience, and courage of our students as they embark on journeys to pursue the education of their dreams. some of them share how they’ve been able to overcome crippling test anxiety and cope with rejection after rejection from their dream schools, while others tell us how they manage to juggle dedicated study while parenting a toddler and thrive academically despite tremendous socio-economic odds.

in short, studying for a standardized test can be a stressful experience, and test scores often stand as a barrier to the already uphill battle today’s students face to attain a quality education.

while our short experiment absolutely pales in comparison to the real experiences (and real stakes involved) for high schoolers, we hope to emerge from this test prep experience always carrying the perspective of our students close to mind.

three study habits of our most successful students

before we dive into our specific study plans, we wanted to remind you (and honestly, ourselves) that there is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to how to study for the sat (or arguably, anything). analyzing a sample pool of roughly 5,000 high school students who have studied with magoosh, our data scientist sam learned that the most successful of them tend to share three common characteristics:

1. good students study consistently over time. they don’t cram, nor do they study sporadically, and even the shortest 20-minute daily study block can add up to tangible score improvements over time.
2. good students balance learning with practice. they are not passive studiers, who read or watch a lot of content without trying it out themselves, and they are not solely stubborn practitioners, who march on through countless practice questions without stopping to understand the material and strategize for each study session.
3. good students focus on learning from their mistakes. they know what their strongest and weakest areas are and choose the discomfort of honing in on their areas of greatest potential.

our study plan to retake the sat and what we’ve learned so far

before we dive in, an acknowledgment of the privilege that comes with this experiment:

it’s important for us to name that, unlike high school students around the world whose hopes are pinned on getting into their dream college in the us, jessica and i have no life outcomes resting on our performance on the sat next month. we’re both college graduates and tech sector employees who have the resources and company blessing to experiment as part of our roles, and, though we’re not the content experts at magoosh, still benefit from the support and access to knowledge of our peers. we recognize that access to affordable, quality test prep is a barrier to so many students around the world, and hope that magoosh can continue to chip away at leveling the educational playing field.

to glean the most from this experiment, jessica and i will be embarking on parallel study paths that mimic the decision that many students are faced with: should i use free sat resources or splurge on a paid sat prep product? jessica will be taking the paid route, using our magoosh sat premium product to study, while i (kemi) will be embarking upon the free route, sticking with some combination of our magoosh high school blog, sat & act youtube channel, and our free sat prep and flashcard apps.

in our experience, most students only spend a month or less actually studying, so we kicked off our 1-month sat study plan with a sat practice test from the college board to set our score baselines and inform our study focus. jessica scored a 1390 (out of 1600 total) on her practice test, while i scored a 1380. to be fully transparent, our practice test was taken on company time, and our sat registrations and jessica’s magoosh premium account were paid for by magoosh.

it’s now been roughly 10 days since our sat practice test, and we have exactly three (gulp.) weeks before taking the official sat.

so far, i have…yet to study, which has already helped me empathize with students who tell us that the hardest part is finding the time while juggling a million other high schooler responsibilities, laugh/cry. jessica has found that juggling a full-time job and a family makes for a stressful study experience, and that “cramming doesn’t work.” we’ve both learned that thou shalt not be hungry whilst taking the sat, as we really struggled with this during the 3+ hour practice sat.

you’re invited! join us on our sat study experiment.

whether you’re a marketer or ux researcher interested in our product learnings and takeaways, or a student looking to learn the pros and cons of free vs. paid sat prep resources, we look forward to sharing our sat study journey with you.

we’ll be sharing updates within this blog post both before and right after our official test day on december 7th, as well as a final report back on our official scores and (hopeful) score improvements.

how did it go? our experiment results

our score improvement:

• jessica’s november 7th sat score: 1390 (750 – verbal, 640 – math)
• jessica’s december 12th sat score: 1470 (740 – verbal, 730 – math)
• jessica’s score improvement: +80 points!

• kemi’s november 7th sat score: 1380 (740 – verbal, 640 – math)
• kemi’s december 12th sat score: 1450 (760 – verbal, 690 – math)
• kemi’s score improvement: +70 points!

our study experience & takeaways:

jessica’s total study time: 1.9 hours
kemi’s total study time: 1.5 hours

jessica’s top learnings:

don’t underestimate practice tests! taking even one practice test fully helped with the feeling of timing – what pace is appropriate to get through everything. i felt this most keenly on the writing and math (no calc) sections. coincidentally, they’re the shortest sections.

remember that the sat is a marathon and it tests your ability to focus. you really can’t get distracted or you lose precious time. having a positive attitude and a feeling of confidence is helpful to get you through the marathon. once doubt slips in, it’s easy for that doubt to persist and affect your performance.

kemi’s top learnings:

confidence is key! i felt a huge difference in my mindset on my second vs first try (i felt less stressed, more sure of my answer choices, and wasted less time hemming and hawing over unsure questions), and i think that had to do with two things: 1) i reminded myself incessantly that the test wasn’t a measure of how smart i was (maybe silly but for me, huge) and 2) i felt relief because i knew what to expect – the college board resources and first practice test helped me get a handle on the question format, timing, and which questions types i struggled with most.

speed matters; it’s not enough to simply know the content. each section felt like sprinting a marathon, and i had to be really mindful of pushing myself to answer questions quickly. the challenge there is that there are purposefully placed trick answer choices and i sometimes had to sacrifice getting a question right in order to answer it quickly, or vice versa, and i feel like this directly impacted my score.

have you ever taken on an experiment like this to put yourself in the shoes of your customers? we’d love to hear what you learned in the comments!

the post two marketers retake the sat: a product experiment appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

what changes are coming to the act?

the act is introducing three major changes to the test, starting in september 2020:

• students will be allowed to retake specific sections of the act rather than the entire test, at a lower (yet undetermined) price than taking the full test at a price that is lower (yet undetermined) than that of the full test.
• students will get a new offical act “superscore,” a combination of their highest scores from each subsection derived from all times they sit for the act. it’s unclear if the act will be pulling superscores only from test dates following these changes or also from tests taken before september 2020.
• in addition to the standard paper and pencil version, students will also be given the option to take the act online at a test center on national test dates and receive their scores in 2 business days (versus the 6-8 week score wait time for the paper version).

why is the act making these changes?

according to act officials, they believe these changes will help students save both time and money, as well as offer students faster score results.

when are these changes taking effect?

starting next september, though an exact date has not been provided.

higher scores, more inequality: magoosh’s take on the 2020 act changes

here at magoosh, we’re committed to reducing barriers for students as they pursue their educational dreams. we’re hopeful that the changes announced today by the act, if rolled out with transparency and the best interests of students in mind, will give high schoolers more opportunities to get into their dream college by putting their best score forward on their college applications.

however, there’s a chance this plan could unintentionally provide even more of an advantage to those students who have the means (time and money) to take the act multiple times. in the wake of the college admissions scandals, we all need no reminders about how inherently unfair the college application process can be, particularly for low-income students and students from marginalized backgrounds.

that said, the act’s move to allow students to retake just those individual sections they need improvement on, at a reduced cost to them, could play a meaningful (though incomplete) role in helping to level the college admissions playing field. a 2018 study from the national bureau of economic research found that retaking the sat substantially improved scores and college enrollment rates, particularly for underrepresented minority students. some high schools already cover the cost to allow their students to retake the act for free, and we hope that more schools will follow suit.

section-based act retakes could also help students use their already limited study time more effectively by focusing their test prep on specific topic areas. we also hope that the introduction of official act superscores, following the established practice of many colleges that already assess students’ highest scores across sections, will help reduce the test anxiety by easing the pressure riding on a single exam sitting.

on a more logistical note, given the high stakes of scores on admissions outcomes, we wonder how the act will keep students informed and ensure that the rollout of these changes will be smooth. schools with greater resources are more likely to move on and share this news with their students first, further favoring those who already have an academic and income advantage. we also wonder how university admissions offices will receive this news, and if they plan to treat superscores the same or differently than single-sitting act scores.

advice for high school sophomores and juniors planning to take the act:

most importantly, don’t panic! remember, especially if you’re a senior planning to take the upcoming act on october 26th, that these changes are still a year out, and there are no changes being made to the current act test or score format.

also, if you’re planning on taking the act next fall, it’s important that you stay informed around when and how these changes will take effect. your best bet is to follow the act’s official newsroom. we’ll also continue sharing in-depth tips around how to prepare for these act changes on the magoosh act blog as soon as we learn more information. still have a question about these act changes? reach out to help@www.catharsisit.com at any time to chat.

how do you feel about these upcoming changes to the act? do you have any questions about the act changes or how to prepare? drop them in the comments and we’ll get back to you!

the post changes coming to the 2020 act: what students need to know appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

last week, the college board announced that they’re rolling out the addition of “adversity scores” – a proxy of socioeconomic status – to the overall score reporting for sat test takers.

we shared our magoosh perspective (and concerns) with you, and we’re back today with responses from our students who are currently or formerly studying for the sat and act. the majority of students we heard from disagree with the college board’s adversity scores, but for a number of different reasons. students also brought up important questions the college board has yet to address, such as how they plan to take into account international students and if they plan to communicate this change directly to students.

students who agree with the college board’s adversity scores:

“honestly, i think it’s a great move. this can even out the playing field and show who can rise out of poverty and want more for themselves.”
– anonymous, studying for the act

“i think it’s a great idea that everyone should support especially student athletes”
– anonymous, studying for the sat

students who disagree with the college board’s adversity scores:

students have the right to know their adversity score

“i think there are pros and cons but [the] college board has not disclosed the 15 factors. if they are not transparent with how exactly they are measuring adversity, why should the public be expected to accept it?”
– annie, nevada, studying for the sat

“not a fan. hiding scores from students and parents will cause lots of problems.”
– anonymous, studying for the sat

“i wholly agree that if the college board’s plan to assign “adversity scores” to students is implemented, then the whole process should be completely transparent to the parents and students involved.”
– jonathan mccormick, studying for the act

adversity is too subjective and nuanced to accurately measure

“our society is too focused on scores, numbers and data and not enough focus is placed on the human. it’s sad. kids are constantly measured every step of the way and not allowed to just be a human who tries their best.”
– anonymous, studying for the sat

“ultimately, i think the problem with the “adversity score” is that you can never get an accurate representation of adversity from simple things like race and income.”
– timmy, studying for the sat

“i don’t believe that letting the college board do this is a safe idea. it’s too ambiguous and doesn’t actually level the playing field for students with different backgrounds. ”
– anonymous, studying for the act

“as a student myself, i feel it is not fair to consider the crime rate of the school in the “adversity score because the crime rate of the school may or may not affect the student.”
– princy, studied for the sat

college admissions is stressful enough

“i really hope that the college board cancels this plan, because the college admissions process is stressful enough and flawed enough as it is and this will only make the situation worse. students are now going to be even more stressed about this adversity score that they don’t even know.”
– anonymous, studying for the act

adversity scores could breed more cheating and corruption

“simply the fact that only colleges can see this adversity score and students can’t opens the door to so much unfairness and possibility of even more corruption in the college admissions process.”
– anonymous, studying for the act

“bad idea. it’s up to the person, not the environment. plus, this opens up a whole [n]ew path for cheaters.”
– anonymous, studying for the sat

“i am 100% against this adversity score. also, the fact that they’ve only “tested” this (whatever that means) on only 50 colleges, one of them being yale, doesn’t make me feel better at all, especially considering that yale was one of the colleges involved in the college admissions scandal that recently occurred.”
– anonymous, studying for the act

“i don’t know all of the factors that [the college board] plan to take into consideration, but i believe that what it comes down to is whether or not the student is rich. i think this is going to be a secret signal to separate rich kids from poor kids and, obviously, colleges would prefer to admit richer kids since their parents will be able to donate more to the school and this is simply unfair.”
– anonymous, studying for the act

“lowering” standards will not level the playing field

“i think this is a bad step for the college board. by assigning an “adversity score”, the college board is assuming that economic factors have a role in the score that a student receives. however, it is in my opinion that anyone, no matter their social and economic background, can dedicate themselves to achieving their goals. by putting in the effort and hard work, a student will receive the score they deserve, and this has nothing to do with where they come from.”
– catherine, studying for the act

“now, if we have a 1600 score and we don’t get into the choice colleges, we can blame our parents that they are too rich. it is another way of water[ing] down the college standards.”
– ryan, california, studying for the sat

“the idea of assigning these “adversity scores” to students to me raises concerns about whether there will be lower academic standards for students of disadvantaged backgrounds. don’t get me wrong. i would love to see more students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieving academically–but they should get there because they reached the original standard of academic skill, not because the standard was lowered specifically for them.”
– jonathan mccormick, studying for the act

“it’s a very unfair message. how much you study and try should be what is reflected by your score. to give an unfair advantage to people who don’t try is doing the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.”
– anonymous, studying for the sat

“i think it is unfair. two students could get the same score, but because [one] has had a harder life, they can get more attention, even though they did the same on the sat.”
– anonymous, studying for the act

student questions for the college board about their adversity scores:

“i am an international student. i find myself wondering how they will be getting the required information to calculate this score for all of the places all over the world where international students write [for the sat] from.”
– adri, south africa, studying for the sat

are you planning to take the sat or act soon? if so, what’s your take on the college board’s adversity score? let us know in the comments below; we’d love to hear from you!

interested in interviewing a magoosh sat expert or student? reach out to press@www.catharsisit.com.

the post 20 sat & act student perspectives on the college board’s adversity score appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

at magoosh, we believe that students are more than a score.

following their announcement to start using “adversity scores” to measure the socioeconomic position of sat takers, we commend the college board for acknowledging how systematically unfair the college admissions landscape can be to students from marginalized backgrounds and for taking steps, as a leader in the field of standardized testing, towards greater equity.

that said, this approach of an “adversity score” raises concerns for us as a company committed to improving access to college for all students.

our concerns

the choice of the college board to hide the adversity scores from students and parents themselves, while sharing them with colleges for admissions purposes, is ethically concerning, even if well-intentioned.

this lack of transparency leaves students and parents in the dark about how – and how accurately – they are being represented to admissions committees. in the likely instance of an error in computing a given adversity score, students and parents are being refused the agency to advocate for themselves, perpetuating the same inequity that the college board is trying to alleviate.

more importantly, scoring adversity doesn’t solve the problem of alleviating adversity.

while important for colleges to take the various nuances around privilege and access into account when making admissions decisions, as education advocates, we should continue to invest in approaches that tangibly level the playing field for students – well before their senior year of high school.

proven approaches include increasing access to mentorship for students from underserved populations, providing free meals so that no student has to prioritize studying over hunger, and providing funding for complementary academic and test prep support in and out of the classroom.

our recommendations

if they choose to move forward with this program, magoosh strongly urges the college board to make adversity scores and associated data fully available to students and parents, with enforceable avenues to address concerns and correct mistakes as they arise.

we’ve been fortunate to learn from the work of some of our nonprofit partners, including oliver scholars and strive for college, who work daily to level the playing field for students. we encourage the college board to stay devoted to its advocacy for increased equity in college admissions while looking to the robust field of educators, scholars, and advocates for more effective means of ensuring that all students, no matter their background, are able to access the college of their choice.

here at magoosh, we truly believe in the transformative power of education and very much acknowledge that our current educational system falls short of making that promise of transformation available to all students.

we’re constantly thinking of ways we can better support our mission and would love to hear from you – how do you feel about the college board’s adversity score effort? let us know in the comments below!

interested in interviewing a magoosh sat expert? reach out to press@www.catharsisit.com.

the post #morethanascore: our magoosh take on the college board’s move towards “adversity scores” appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

as my senior year of high school flung one curveball after another my way, i walked away with deep appreciation for one particular teacher of mine. i learned i was an undocumented student, and thus couldn’t apply to many of my dream colleges, and i had a mysterious nerve injury in my right arm, forcing me to sit out my final season on our varsity tennis team.

through it all, mr. davis, my calculus teacher, was a source of refuge. his classroom always felt like a safe space in the midst of the chaos that was now my life, and best of all, he constantly made me and my classmates laugh. i channeled yoda during a year-long, hoodie-wearing phase, during which he took to calling me “o hooded one.” his passion for math was infectious, and he was a pivotal influence in my decision to major in math in college.

while it’s true that our education system in the united states is rife with challenges, it’s also equipped with countless teachers and educators like mr. davis who are driven by the desire to do well by their students.

in recognition of that, in 1985 the national parent teacher association established the first full week of may as teacher appreciation week, and the national education association joined them to celebrate the tuesday of that week as national teachers day.

here at magoosh, as former teachers and students ourselves, we admire educators across the world who work to create environments where their students feel safe, supported, and empowered to learn. 

though it’s important that we as students, parents, and a society at large show our appreciation for teachers on a regular basis, we believe that weeks like this provide an ample opportunity to remind ourselves to shower teachers with some well-deserved praise.

glad you asked! “thank you” is a powerful sentence, and taking a few minutes to send a note to even one teacher who made a difference in your life – no matter if they taught you in first grade or your junior year in college – can be so meaningful.  

not sure what to say? we’ve got you! copy the email template below and make it personal. think back to how this teacher made you feel and the words will flow.

teacher appreciation email template:

hi _____,

it’s teacher appreciation week, and i wanted you to know that i’m thinking of you! i was your student in [year] at [school], and these days i’m ___________.

i just wanted to say thanks for being so ___________ and for making me feel _________ in your classroom. i still remember when you _________________!

no matter what you’re up to these days, i hope you know you are appreciated and that you’ve truly made a difference in the lives of many of your students, including mine.

take care,

_____________

can you think of one educator who made a positive impact on your life? show them some appreciation in the comments below, or better yet, send them a thank you note!