Equip Your Child to Succeed During an Economic Downturn

March 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

There are times as parents when we seem to be almost obsessed with the well being of our children.  We struggle with granting them increased independence as they grow and mature.  Our love for them compels us to want the best, and we’ll do what we can to help.  One of the most significant things you can do to ensure your child’s future success is to pave a strong path for them to college.  The benefits of a college education are significant.

A recent New York Times article took a look at a Pew study showing how different groups have fared during our current recession.  The findings are not surprising.  The recession’s impact is felt across all education levels, but the significant detail is exactly how much different groups were affected.  Who is best equipped to weather the storm?  College graduates.  And not by an insignificant amount, either.  Take a look at the graphic from the article.

The numbers show that workers with a bachelors degree not only maintained the best employment level, but also suffered the least impact in their actual earning.  From the article:

Those with a bachelor’s degree started off in the strongest position and weathered the downturn best, with employment slipping from 69 percent to 65 percent. … People with four-year college degrees saw a 5 percent drop in wages, compared with a 12 percent decrease for their peers with associate’s degrees, and a 10 percent decline for high school graduates.

Few of us need to be persuaded about the importance of a college education, but it’s helpful to keep in mind the long-term benefit it provides.  In addition to weathering economic downturns, those with college degrees can expect a significantly greater earning potential.  The Hamilton Project evaluated the lifetime earning differences expected for individuals with a college degree compared to those with a high school diploma.  It’s clear that the return on investing in a college education is dramatic.  College graduates can expect to earn nearly a half million dollars more in their lifetimes than their high-school-educated peers. Here’s a graph from the report:

Academic Learning Labs is Orange County’s premier tutoring service specializing in helping students reach their academic goals through math tutoring, science tutoring, and SAT/ACT Prep programs.  Located in Rancho Santa Margarita, we’re dedicated to helping your child fulfill their potential and partnering with you to propel them to success.  We have proven tutoring programs that will equip your child to excel in high school and succeed in college as well.  Call us at 949-546-0800 for details on our college preparation tutoring.

 

 

Filed Under: College, Preparing for College, Rancho Santa Margarita SAT ACT Tutoring, SAT Prep Tagged With: , , ,

Acting On Your Child’s Progress Report

February 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Many schools issue their progress reports near the end of February.  It’s an important time for you and your child to pause and take a close look at their progress.  It’s also a time when you can form a plan to move forward and capitalize on your child’s strengths as well as help them overcome any areas of weakness.

Handling Areas That Need Improvement

For many families, the progress report is the first alert they will receive that their child is struggling.  It’s an opportunity to help your child overcome whatever obstacles they may be facing.  It’s vital to step in and take immediate action.  This is especially important for core skills like reading and writing.  These skills are fundamental to virtually every other endeavor your child may undertake.  A child struggling with reading or writing will invariably face greater challenges in in other subjects too.

It’s important to recognize that even if you were unaware of your child’s struggles prior to receiving the progress report, they will certainly not be surprised.  Many children do not share these difficulties with their families, choosing to push their way through the challenges alone.  We encourage you to take an active approach and resolve to help your child improve.  Your child will be relieved if you step in with help rather than criticism over their struggle.  This is where we can step in and play a vital role in helping steer your child back to a successful course in their academics.

Maximizing Your Child’s Strengths

As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, many top tier colleges today evaluate potential new students based upon a wide spectrum of qualifications.  The better the school, the more stringent the requirements will be for acceptance.  If your child’s progress report consistently shows extraordinary skills in a specific subject, it’s likely that a public school will be limited in helping them develop this skill to its fullest.  We can team with your child to propel them to a level of accomplishment that will help establish your child as a true expert.  And the ability to demonstrate an unusual talent can be a deciding factor for entrance into some of the country’s finest colleges.

Call us at 949-546-0800 and we’ll be happy to discuss with you programs and individualized tutoring available to help your child grow in their academic pursuits.

 

Filed Under: Academic Success, College, Progress Report, Report Card, Studying Tagged With: , ,

SAT Scores Are Important. We Can Help

February 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In our last couple of blogs we’ve highlighted some of the important elements to preparing your child for college.  College will ultimately become one of the most influential factors in your child’s life.  It will impact their lives both professionally and personally, so it’s worthy of much planning and preparation.  
As our previous blogs have discussed, it’s important to help your child become a well-rounded individual as part of their college preparation.  This may involve participating in athletics and getting involved with volunteer opportunities through your church or in the community.  But there is one very important accomplishment that is required as well:  Taking the SAT test.  

The role of the SAT/ACT scores

All colleges factor SAT scores into their admission process, but the scores become more important at schools where applications exceed the number of open spots available for incoming students.  During this selection process, SAT scores will help admissions officers grasp the academic success and likely trajectory of your child’s education.  This selection process will also factor in your child’s overall life skills and accomplishments.  This is why it’s important to help your child develop their personal interests in sports or community involvement as well.  But without excellent SAT scores, it’s very difficult for a student to gain admission to the more selective colleges and universities.

The value of specialized tutoring

We’ve developed a 30 hour course to walk your child through every subject and improve their proficiency across all covered disciplines.  In addition to our standard coursework, your child will be given sample tests to better gauge their exact skills.  If needed, our tutors are able to expand the coursework to highlight any areas where your child may benefit from additional attention.

Targeted test preparation

One of the most valuable elements to our tutoring is the preparation we’ll give your child for the actual test day.  For many students this is a day filled with anxiety, but our students have the benefit of sample testing and extensive strategies to help them face that day with much greater confidence.  Once freed from much of the stress, they are better able to complete the test with an accurate display of their knowledge.

Give us a call at 949-546-0800, and we’ll give you the details of our SAT/ACT tutoring.  This is one of the most valuable investments you can make in your child’s future.

 

 

Filed Under: Academic Success, College, Community Involvement, Tutoring

Don’t Leave Your Child’s College Future to Chance

January 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

For most families,there is little discussion about the importance of college in their child’s future.  It’s a given. A college degree will better equip your child for a more promising and lucrative career.  The ability to pursue their life’s passions may well be unlocked by some hard work and study.  A college education will serve to mature your child and help them better understand the world around them.  And it will equip them to make a difference in a very real way as they pursue their goals and ambitions fueled by the accomplishments they’ve achieved.

In a very real way, college is less of a destination than a launching pad.  Preparing your child for that journey can be some of the most important work that your family will do.  As we discussed in last week’s blog, it’s vital that you prepare your child on a number of different levels.  The top colleges in the nation are looking for students that represent a well-rounded lifestyle with interests and talents developed in sports, the arts, and community involvement as well as academics.  But without excellent academic marks, many doors will be closed to your child.  With that in mind, we have a number of suggestions to help ensure your child is well prepared.

1.  Don’t wait for a problem to arise.

Many people view tutoring as a mostly remedial option, but that can put your child at a real disadvantage.  We encourage an entirely different point of view.  Just as the top athletes in every sport will seek out the best coaches, we encourage you to approach your child’s academic endeavors similarly.  We have tutors who are experts in every academic subject, and can come alongside your child to help them excel.

2.  Start early and develop a plan for growth

Public schools are well equipped for teaching large numbers of children with the best possible results.  But public schools are not designed to provide the type of specialized attention that some students require.  Just as a middle-school gym coach would likely not be capable of training an athlete for an Olympic competition, many children exhibit talent and abilities that require specialized tutoring.  We han help you hone your child’s special abilities and develop a plan to maximize their success.

3.  Unleash your child’s potential

One of the most exciting aspects of tutoring is watching your child blossom with newfound abilities.  We’ve had the joy of watching our students blossom into gifted writers, mathematicians, and budding scientists.   Helping your child find and develop their own special skills unlocks many doors, including the possibility of entrance into some of the nations finest colleges.

4.  Targeted SAT Testing

The SAT tests are a form of gatekeeper for many colleges.  It’s vital that your child do their best.  We have a number of tutoring options available to best meet your child’s needs.  We will test your child to get an accurate gauge of their strengths to create a course of tutoring to maximize their test scores.

We’ll be happy to work with you to develop your child’s potential. Give us a call at 949-546-0800, and we’ll work with you to develop a plan to best enhance your child’s future.

Filed Under: Academic Success, Classroom Size, College Tagged With: , ,

College Prep Checklist

January 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The conversations often start among newlyweds long before they are expecting their first child.  The dreams of the future include new homes, new jobs, giggling kids, and eventually, college for those kids.  It’s become such a part of our personal dreams and the American Dream, that many families cannot imagine a future for their children that does not include a college education.  Many of these conversations revolve around the financial requirements involved.

But in the push to create a savings program to meet your child’s financial needs, it’s more important to be certain your child is excelling in both their academic pursuits and outside activities.  And the loftier your aspirations for a top-notch college, the greater the emphasis on academic excellence coupled with a passionate involvement in outside endeavors.

The website, http://mycollegeguide.org cites the following information about Duke University admissions:

Duke University receives approximately 23,800 undergraduate applications each year. Only about 1,720 of the applicants receive an acceptance letter. This is an astonishingly low percentage. As one of the top ranked universities in the country, Duke has to be choosey. One of its deans says the university denies more high school class valedictorians than it accepts. This illustrates that grades are not the end all and be all to getting into college.

Admission officers encourage students to find something they are passionate about—whether it’s sports, community service or working at a part-time job—and pursue it. This type of passion combined with good grades creates more of a well-rounded student, which is the type of student most of the top universities are seeking and accepting.

Second, it’s important that you maintain a balanced academic and extracurricular schedule throughout your schooling years. Many college applicants make the mistake of waiting until their junior and senior year to cram activities, clubs and other involvement into their student records for college. By then, it’s too late.

So to better prepare your child for a successful college career, be sure to help them discover their passion.  For some it may be found in volunteer activities, and for many it may be sports.

And be sure to equip your child for their best academic achievement with Academic Learning Labs.  We can help you round out your child’s college preparations.  We offer tutoring in every subject and personalized SAT preparation.  Call us at 949-546-0800 to learn more about how we can help your child prepare for their college career.

 

Filed Under: Academic Success, College, Community Involvement, SAT Prep Tagged With: ,

Starting the New Year Off Right

December 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As the beginning of a new year approaches, it is a chance for all of us to embrace a new start and develop new goals. The new year is also an opportunity to move past the challenges of the prior year and plan out a path toward improvement. Around this time students will likely be entering a new semester and phase in their education, and with this comes a new set of challenges to conquer. Maybe your child spent the last year struggling in school, or perhaps your high schooler would like to achieve a better score on the SAT. At Academic Learning Labs, we take the new year as an opportunity to face academic challenges head-on and change the course of your child’s education for the better.

In spring, many high school juniors will be taking the SAT for the first time. Most students do this with the intention of taking it again before graduating and improving their score. Even if this is your student’s plan, it is important to study and do well on the test the first time. It will be difficult to improve a score later if the original score is not an accurate representation of your student’s knowledge. The tutors at Academic Learning Labs can help students translate their knowledge into a good score on the SAT.

Moving into springtime brings graduating high schoolers closer to application deadlines for Fall admission to college. Many graduating seniors have already taken the SAT at least once, but will take it again before applying to colleges. Improving SAT scores is one of the final steps before embarking on a college career. In these upcoming months, many responsibilities can pile up and overwhelm students. SAT scores can determine which colleges your student is accepted to, what scholarships they are awarded, and what classes they will be required to take. Needless to say, it is important that high schoolers achieve their best possible score, and the new year is the perfect time to map out a plan for doing so.

 At Academic Learning Labs, we work with students individually to determine a plan of study that will maximize their abilities and allow them to achieve their best score on the SAT. We will work with your child to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, we will help your child learn the information necessary to succeed on the SAT and their upcoming college career. Call us at 949-546-0800 to discuss plans for your child’s education in the upcoming year.

Filed Under: Academic Success, College, SAT Prep, Studying Tagged With: , , ,

The Importance of Developing Good Study Skills

December 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It happens to most families at one time or another.  Your child is getting good grades — not great, not terrible — and you get a teacher’s note included with his report card telling you that he is not really living up to his potential.  There may not be any specific criticism offered, and the vagueness of the comment can be almost maddening.  This comment in not uncommon with bright children who pick up things quickly.  They’re bright and usually bring home grades with a mix between “A’s” and “B’s.”  There’s really not much to complain about, but there may a problem lurking that is best resolved during their early school years.  Exactly how can you help your child better fulfill his potential?

Or perhaps your child is bringing home grades that you’re convinced just don’t match his or her abilities. They’re not skipping school, and most of their work is completed on time, but their grades just don’t seem to be what they should.  What options do you have?

This is something we see quite frequently, and the problem may well be poor study habits.

One of the disadvantages faced by bright students comes from their ability to quickly comprehend most subjects.  The problem arises when they progress to a point in their education where the sophistication of the subject cannot be comprehended immediately and needs much more disciplined study.  This time most often comes during high school when students face the rigors of trigonometry, calculus or statistics.  For virtually every student, these subjects require significant amounts of study and memorization.  And these disciplines may have never been necessary for the bright student.  For perhaps the first time, they will be faced with obstacles that simply cannot be easily grasped.

A student who is producing marginal grades may need little more than some guidance on how to maximize study time to achieve the best results. Of course, all students will struggle from time to time with new topics.  This is one reason its so vital for them to develop good study skills.

At Academic Learning Labs we have a program of tutoring designed to help your child develop the study habits that will help improve their schoolwork and better equip them for the rigors of college work.  We break down study skills into several areas that we help your child improve:

  • Organization – covers assignment tracking, binder organization and study planning.
  • Time Management – includes scheduling study time and avoiding distractions.
  • Note Taking – covers effective listening strategies, practical note taking and following directions.
  • Studying – includes how to use notes to review material, extracting the most important information from textbooks, research strategies and subject-specific study tips.
  • Test Taking Strategies – includes ways to minimize test anxiety and effective tips for a variety of test formats including multiple choice, open answer and essay.

We also break down study skills for your child’s grade level offering targeted tutoring for elementary, middle, and high school.  Please call us at 949-546-0800 for more details on our study skills tutoring.

 

Filed Under: College, Homework, Studying Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Why SAT Scores May Matter More Than GPA

October 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As you prepare your child for college, you may face some competition for placement.  Good colleges naturally attract more applicants and must turn away many students.  It can be a real heartbreak for your child to work hard, get excellent grades, but still find themselves unable to attend the college of their choice. This is where the importance of SAT scores must be properly understood.

Consider the job of an admissions counselor at one of the country’s prestigious schools.  The counselor may have a dozen applications on their desk, and ultimately have slots available for only a few of these.  What will make the difference?  How will the choice be made?  This is where an excellent SAT score can trump a student with a higher GPA.  Here’s how:

Wider Horizons With Better SAT Scores

It’s no secret that local school districts are under tremendous pressure to produce higher test scores across all grade levels.  In some areas, a teacher’s tenure and salary are impacted by the grades produced by their classes.  And even in our personal experience, we’ve all likely seen examples from our school years where a teacher seemed to grade some students a bit more harshly than others despite a better academic performance.  The grades handed out by Mr. Brown in his English class will not be exactly equivalent to those handed out by Mrs. Green.  When you factor in regional differences in curriculum, you can see that it’s no easy task for an admissions counselor to differentiate between an A- handed out in Nashville, and a B+ awarded in Sacramento.  Are they almost the same?  Maybe, maybe not.

This is why SAT scores weigh so heavily in college admissions.  With SAT scores there are no personalities at work.  There are no regional differences in content or scoring.  No amount of fresh-baked cookies will sway an SAT score.  It’s a standardized test and perhaps the one objective measurement available among a huge amount of subjective data that becomes part of your child’s college application.  As such, it is becoming an ever-increasing benchmark that may have more impact than any other piece of your child’s academic history.  It may not be fair, and it is certainly nowhere near a global measurement of your child’s abilities, but it must be taken seriously.

At Academic Learning Labs, we understand the tremendous impact of the SAT scores, and we’re here to work with your child to equip them for their best possible performance.  We have tutoring available to do a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s proficiency in every SAT subject.  Based upon our initial testing, we create a customize tutoring plan to hone in on the subjects that need improvement, and augment your child’s strengths.  We have access to test versions of the SAT to acquaint your child with the process, and our sample tests are run in virtually the identical format and timing of the actual SAT.  By the time we complete our SAT tutoring, your child will be familiar with the process involved, the topics covered, and the tools they’ll need.

We have a number of options for our SAT tutoring from group classes, to more intensive one-on-one tutoring.  Students usually start taking the SAT tests during their sophomore and junior years in high school, but we have tutoring available to help prepare much earlier than that.  Please call us at 949-546-0800 for more details on upcoming classes.

 

Filed Under: College, SAT Prep, Tutoring Tagged With: , , ,

Can You See An Ivy League College In Your Child’s Future?

September 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’re reading this blog, we’re fairly certain you’re already plotting a course for your child’s college education.  More than ever, a college degree helps serve as the vehicle for greater earning and your child’s overall life satisfaction.  But how about considering a reach to an even higher shelf?  Exactly what would it take to get your child on a path toward one of the country’s most prestigious universities, like Harvard, Yale or Princeton?  There are a number of things you can do to help your child work toward this opportunity.

Start Laying the Groundwork Early

Dream Big -- Start Early

There are many requirements to get into the nation’s top colleges, and there’s tremendous competition. Your child will have the best chance with preparation that starts years in advance.  You need to start early recognizing your child’s special abilities and encouraging them to grow in these areas.  Also, many of these colleges watch for students who demonstrate a balanced lifestyle with activities ranging from competitive sports to volunteering in the community.   This can be one of the most rewarding aspects of your child’s preparation.  By guiding your child to actively participate in community programs and athletics, you’ll enrich them tremendously even if they never attend an Ivy League school.

Recognize That Ivy League Colleges Are A Viable Option For A Select Few

Increasingly, Ivy League recruiters are attempting to discern the true standouts academically.  They’re looking for students who operate at an intellectual level that will be challenged, but not overwhelmed by the rigor of their coursework.  Here’s some advice from the website, TheIvyCoach.com:

Highly selective colleges like the universities that comprise the Ivy League seek overachieving students with great intellectual curiosity. They want students for whom learning and intellect come naturally. They’re not after the student who has to work really hard to earn that A. They’re not after the grade grubber. They’re after the student who goes home, reads a book for pleasure, and aces his history exam because he loves history…not because he pulled an all-nighter studying. And this kind of information is often conveyed in the letters of recommendation from teachers.

There’s No Avoiding Hard Work

Entrance to top notch colleges is not easy, and it will require academic performance well beyond what comes naturally to many children.  Excellent grades are expected, and a record of consistent achievement in Advanced Placement Courses is certainly part of this.   For a truly gifted child, the biggest challenge may come in the area of discipline, not learning.  They may well have a gift that is best unleashed through a more disciplined lifestyle, rather than hard hours of rote studying.   Unlike most of their peers, their biggest challenge may be developing a consistent use of their skills, rather than struggling to achieve basic performance.

Make Sure It’s Truly Their Dream

Helping Your Child Dream Big

As parents we always have high aspirations for our children.  This is natural, and certainly a normal part of the parent-child relationship.  But we need to watch our children to learn the things that they become passionate about.  We do our best parenting by making sure we expose our children to the widest variety of options, and then encourage them to pursue those things that interest them.  As your child starts to evaluate their path toward college, the choice of which college to attend will come to the forefront.  And it’s perfectly appropriate to encourage your child to strive for the absolute best available.   But we create a recipe for disaster when we push our children into options that are the product of our aspirations and not theirs.

Capitalize On Your Child’s Abilities

One of the most gratifying elements of our tutoring at Academic Learning Labs is when we can help a child to develop their natural abilities.  We consistently see that many children with tremendous abilities have their talents burdened by a world of boredom and poor study habits.  It’s remarkable to see the freedom that comes to these children when we can teach them simple methods of organization and discipline that serve to unleash their innate abilities.  Sometimes we serve more as facilitators than actual instructors.  With some students our best work is simply to help them develop the ability to harness their potential.  And with some, this will lead them to positions of great leadership as they progress to the nation’s finest colleges.

Call us at 949-546-0800, and we’ll be happy to discuss with your family the many ways we can help your student realize the dream of a college education — perhaps even at an Ivy League college.

Filed Under: College, Preparing for College Tagged With: , , , , , ,

When and How To Start Planning For College

September 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Most of us are aware of studies that show the lifelong earning of college graduates far outdistances workers with a high school diploma, but there’s much more to the story than just the money involved.  People with college degrees usually have a better understanding of their world, are more well-rounded, and more engaged as citizens.  There are plenty of good reasons to encourage our children to follow a path that leads to college.  There are also good reasons to start them on this path early.

The College Board is a great resource for students of all ages.  They are known to most students as the not-for-profit organization that conducts the SAT test nationally. They also provide significant resources to energize students and equip families to prepare for college both academically and financially.  Here are a few great tips we found on their website:

1.  Have your student let everybody know their plans for college

The College Board has a great tool for college-bound students to create a personalized web page to tell the world about their personal pledge to attend college.  Have your student visit http://youcango.collegeboard.org/your-pledge and fill out the form.  They’ll receive a unique website address that they can post on their Facebook page or email to all the relatives.  There’s a real advantage to having your extended family involved in the college conversation with your child.  There are lots of decisions to be made and lots of great advice to be had from your family.

2.  Start early working on financial aid and scholarships

Plan for college

Send them to college with great study skills and a firm financial footing

College is expensive, but there are significant resources available.  It’s wise to start planning for your child’s college expenses when they are very young.  While it’s a bit premature to start touring college campuses with your 6-year-old, it’s definitely a great time to start a savings account.  Every parent hopes to see the day when their child walks forward to receive their college diploma, and the excitement of that day is maximized for a parent who helped their child achieve this goal without incurring any student debt.

There are a number of ways you can start preparing for the financial needs of your child’s college education, and the IRS has several methods of savings that offer tax benefits.  We encourage you to spend some time reviewing your options, and get started right away.  529 Savings Plans are especially popular and can be created by both parents and grand parents. SavingForCollege.com has lots of great advice and is currently offering a free downloadable book full of information on how best to chart the financial path for your child’s college education.  The State of California has also established the ScholarShare College Savings Plan.  Visit their website at  http://www.scholarshare.com for more details.

3.  Prepare your child academically

 There’s nothing like a good scholarship to warm the heart of parents and students alike.  There are many resources for college grants based upon a wide variety of factors, but students with the best grades always have more scholarship options available to them.  This is where Academic Learning Labs can join you in preparing your child for their college career.  We have a number of proven programs that will assess your child’s academic level and provide improvement needed to perform well both in SAT testing and in their school work.  Great high school grades combined with a great SAT score open up a much wider range of opportunities for your child in their choice of colleges and in the financial aid available.  Call us today at (949) 546-0800 for more details on how we can help your college plans.

Filed Under: College, Preparing for College, SAT Prep, Tutoring Tagged With: , , , ,
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