Summer Courses
SAT Prep
Students will be taught helpful strategies and develop the capacity to master the SAT test. They will be given practical experiences that train them to effectively put their knowledge to work under testing conditions. Students will amass skills and techniques from test-prep materials from College Board, Cambridge, Princeton Review, Kaplan, REA’S, Barron’s & Cliff Notes. Our course also incorporates instruction that covers the materials included in the SAT tests.
By attacking the material methodically over the course of the entire summer, students will be well- grounded in subject matter covered by each section! It is common for our students to increase their overall score by 370 – 410 points! Truthfully, two former students have seen an increase of 590 and 620 points respectively. It is important to note that students’ scores increase in proportion to their participation in the course. Students can expect 5 hrs of homework weekly.
The course is rigorous and includes a thorough writing curriculum specific for the SAT essay. We provide targeted instruction for math, critical thinking and grammar that is crucial for the SAT.
Students will also take 5 Practice SATs throughout the summer, and write 9 SAT style essays. We provide tactics and "helps" from real SAT essay "topics/prompts" from the last 4 years used in the SAT.
This class is also fun for students since we have created competitions that give students opportunities to gain speed in critical thinking, giving instant essay responses with examples from history, science and literature; additionally competitions expose students to typical grammar and math traps and build their skills in logic, reading comprehension and quick thinking!
Students will learn
The difference between the PSAT and SAT
The difference between the SAT and the ACT
Test-Taking Strategies such as "Plugging in" and "Back-solving"
Arithmetic Shortcuts for fractions, percents, exponents, averages, ratios
Algebra Strategies for word problems and functions
Sentence Strategies such as "red flag" and "mystery choice"
Critical Reading — learn what to read and what not to read
Vocabulary and Mnemonic Devices- students learn the words they will need using fun, powerful techniques
Personal Pace—students learn where to spend their energy in order to maximize their score and avoid wasting time.
Students will attend three simulated College Board SATs sessions and two practice tests sessions that will make them comfortable with the test style, pace, and questions. Weekly exercises also help them to develop other test-taking skills.
Additional Benefits from the SAT and ACT Preparatory Courses
1. Accurate measure of score and improvement
2. Students become comfortable with real testing conditions
3. Individualized reports highlighting strengths and weaknesses
4. Detailed test reviews to improve subject knowledge
5. Students will also learn how the test is structured and scored
6. College application deadlines
ACT Preparation Course
The in-depth ACT Prep course will help students to understand how the ACT is designed and how it is scored. This ACT Prep course covers all test areas: English, Math, Reading, Writing and Science. In addition to subject reviews, this course contains an overview of the ACT, 5 diagnostic tests, using full-length real ACTs. Students will practice with real questions and useful explanations. Students will have additional practice exercises in all subjects, study advice, and test-taking strategies.
Students will be taught helpful strategies and develop the capacity to master the ACT test. They will be given practical experiences that train them to effectively put their knowledge to work under test conditions. Students will amass skills and techniques from test-prep materials from Barron’s ACT, Princeton Review, Kaplan’s, the REAL ACT Prep, ACT Prep by CliffNotes. Our course also incorporates instruction that covers the materials included in the ACT tests.
By attacking the material methodically over the course of the entire summer, students will be well-grounded in subject matter covered by each section! It is important to note that students’ scores increase in proportion to their participation in the course. Students can expect 5 hrs of homework weekly.
The course is rigorous and includes a thorough writing curriculum specific for the ACT essay. We provide targeted instruction for math, English, reading writing and science that is crucial for the ACT. Students will also take 5 Practice ACTs throughout the summer, and write 9 ACT style essays. We provide tactics and "helps" from real ACT essay "topics/prompts" from the last 4 years used in the ACT. This class is also fun for students since we have created competitions that give students opportunities to gain speed in critical thinking, giving instant replies to the essay prompt with insightful support and well crafted responses; additionally competitions expose students to typical English and math traps as well as building their skills in deductive reasoning
according to the scientific method.
Students will learn
The difference between the PSAT and SAT and ACT
The difference between the SAT and the ACT
Test-Taking Strategies such as "Plugging in" and "Back-solving"
Arithmetic Shortcuts for fractions, percents, exponents, averages, ratios
Algebra Strategies for word problems and functions
Detailed practice in the ACT Science section
Sentence Strategies such as "red flag" and "mystery choice"
Vocabulary and Mnemonic Devices—students learn the words they will need using fun, powerful techniques
Personal Pace—students will learn where to spend their energy in order to maximize their score and avoid wasting time.
Students will attend three simulated ACT test sessions and two practice tests sessions that will make them comfortable with the test style, pace, and questions. Weekly exercises also help them to develop their test-taking skills.
Study Skills and Critical Thinking
Teenagers are often overwhelmed with abstract thoughts that seem to lead them nowhere but confusion itself. Although students in this age group are growing in their ability to craft abstract thoughts, they lack the experience to transform them into practical applications. With God’s grace, Standards of Excellence focuses on students in the age range of 13 – 18 in the quest to help train them to become strong students as well as take intangible concepts and create skills for useful reasoning.
Standards of Excellence has developed a new course called “Study Skills and Critical Thinking ” The focus of this course is the development of competence in the vital disciplines of study skills, critical thinking, figural logic, and informal logic.
The amalgamation of the skills developed though our course will bolster your teen’s confidence and give him or her important tools for a successful academic experience. Miss Viv will meld the course textbooks’ content with fun and games that will help your teen explore and cement important thinking, communication and study skills.
Success 4 Students ® helps students develop the strong study skills they need for success, including:
Setting goals
Managing time
Listening
Taking notes
Studying
Taking tests
Just think of how teens will grow as they learn to outline, summarize, paraphrase, and follow directions. They’ll also learn about study tools, such as mnemonic devices, assignment books, and graphic organizers.
The Study Skills curriculum includes the following chapters:
Chapter 1 – Introducing Student Success
Chapter 2 – Using Your Student Planner
Chapter 3 – The Importance of Vision
Chapter 5 – Planning Your Future
Chapter 6 – Using Your Daily Planner to Track Your Goals
Chapter 7 – Keeping Track of School Work
Chapter 8 – Learning Styles
Chapter 9 – Listening and Paraphrasing
Chapter 10 – Making and Using Symbols
Chapter 11 – Memory Skills
Chapter 12 – Note Taking
Chapter 13 – Prioritizing and Decision Making
Chapter 14 – Reading Faster
Chapter 15 – How to Study
Chapter 17 – Test Taking
Chapter 18 – Communication through Writing
Chapter 19 – Pitfalls of Procrastination
Chapter 20 – Final Summary Project
The specific unit on learning styles helps students see how they learn best. They learn to adapt, or change, their learning styles to fit the situations they are in. If they can do that in academics, they are more likely to be successful students.
Some of our advocates have suggested this course be a High School Preparatory course or part of a Middle School SAT course. We believe it will be even more significant than that! We believe strongly that the skill development, self discipline, and practical training will help all teens transform their efforts from a workbook completion mindset to one set for academic achievement! Register Online at www.txsoe.com
Building Thinking Skills® provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve students’ vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as their visual and auditory processing. This exceptional skill set provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.
The activities are sequenced developmentally. Each skill (for example, classifying) is presented first in the semi-concrete figural-spatial form and then in the abstract verbal form. Students learn to analyze relationships between objects, between words, and between objects and words as they:
Observe, recognize, and describe characteristics.
Distinguish similarities and differences.
Identify and complete sequences, classifications, and analogies.
These processes help students develop superior thinking and communication skills that lead to deeper content learning in all subjects. The “Building Thinking Skills” text helps students to grasp analysis, discernment, and fallacious reasoning prevalent within the world today.
Cranium Crackers
helps students develop strong computation and analytical skills necessary for outstanding success in math. The book contains a large variety of mathematical and verbal thinking activities unlike any collection available anywhere. Students cannot solve these activities by rote. They must think their way through each problem, developing skills that help them solve other computation and word problems they’ll encounter.
Informal Logic
What is a fallacy? A fallacy is an error in logic – a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking.
These are fallacies:
“A cloud is 90% water. A watermelon is 90% water. Therefore, since a plane can fly through a cloud, a plane can fly through a watermelon.”
“This new book, The Fallacy Detective, must do a good job teaching logic. It has been on the bestseller list for months.”
The Bluedorn brothers – both home schooled themselves- wrote this book to meet the needs of Christian parents who want a do-able text for introducing logic and critical thinking to their children.
Fun to use – not dry like a math textbook.
Easy to use – not intimidating, starts students with skills they can use right away
Each lesson has exercises to practice discerning fallacies!
Covers logical fallacies and propaganda techniques. The text is divided into thirty-six lessons – the most common fallacies and propaganda techniques. It explains how students can spot fallacies, and gives exercises to stretch student abilities for detecting fallacies.
Geared for ages thirteen and older – it is wise to use The Fallacy Detective before advancing onto more difficult logic programs.