The Last Page
Felton, Andrew
I T's AN AXIOM that writing doesn't pay the rent, so after graduating from college with a degree in English, I took a part-time job with a company called The Princeton Review, preparing high...
...Our course costs almost a thousand dollars, well worth the price if it helps a middling student get more financial aid or into a better college...
...Rather, they are the processes involved in problem solving and logic broken down step-by-step and made concrete...
...Street smarts can get you a lot of places book smarts can't, even on the SAT...
...It's a shame when kids go into the test with no preparation, totally stressed out, perform below their expectations, and consign themselves to eternal secondclass status—which is what placing such importance on one number encourages...
...However, every student, without exception, displays at least a glimmer of intellectual curiosity and ability at some time...
...On the verbal section, one of our most popular and fun techniques involves answering questions about narrative passages without actually reading the passages...
...How could I go against my egalitarian principles and perpetuate the influence of money in ensuring high test scores and therefore a better chance at a good education...
...Most of the kids are intelligent and polite, although some of them are shockingly lacking in basic skills...
...The Princeton Review and Kaplan are the two largest such companies in the country, and I earn more than $20 per hour—good money, even in New York City...
...My favorite practice passage is about the British painter J.M.W...
...Apathy is a much greater enemy than stupidity...
...I hope that I both helped them get into better colleges and showed them that a superficial measurement like the SAT isn't what is really important in life...
...Get enough exposure to the way the test works, and you can pick out the most reasonable answer at least half the time without having the slightest idea what the article is about...
...The skills I teach aren't rocket science...
...A student will invariably ask about him, and I hope that my lyrical, quasi-desperate descriptions of his awe-inspiring paintings inspire a museum visit or two, because that will last a lot longer than any test score...
...Concepts like process of elimination, working backward, and isolating relevant clues are useful in all walks of life...
...Presumably many of the 50 percent of Americans who don't vote didn't care about school either...
...For once impoverished minority students aren't the main losers—though they certainly face other challenges— as colleges desperate for "well-balanced" classes heavily recruit students of underrepresented socioeconomic status...
...Part of a culture that belittles intellectual achievement in favor of fifteen minutes of fame, they have yet another opportunity to fail...
...Turner...
...Ask tutors and they'll unanimously tell you that they would rather have a student eagerly working to maximize his or her potential than a smart kid who doesn't care...
...My landlord made the choice for me, and I have gained many things from my experience: a healthy respect for teenagers, concern for America's school system, and an awareness of the vast inadequacies involved in attempting to quantify "aptitude...
...When I lose my keys, need to fix a drip, or have to install a computer program, I unconsciously use many of these same strategies...
...Taking a few sample 160 n DISSENT / Fall 2001 tests usually raises scores considerably, even without teacher involvement...
...Should I take a principled stand and not work there...
...My job is to coax that along as much as possible...
...This new job caused me no small amount of consternation...
...More needs to he done to get all children involved...
...It still rankles me that upper-middle-class kids have one more advantage over others in the fierce competition for limited slots at top schools, in addition to better teachers, facilities, and community support...
...I T's AN AXIOM that writing doesn't pay the rent, so after graduating from college with a degree in English, I took a part-time job with a company called The Princeton Review, preparing high school students to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test...
...A name-brand school brings many advantages...
...Rather, they are the lower-middle-class students, stuck in dreary suburbs, who struggle to acquire Dickensian vocabulary in an MTV world...
Vol. 48 • September 2001 • No. 4
