Category Archives: Coach Tips

The writing section of an exam can be daunting: an expanse of blank lines, after several hours grappling with dense text, tricky math problems, and linguistic trivia. The emptiness of the writing section, save for a brief prompt, can be terrifying, especially to tired test-takers.   In-class writing assignments, term and research papers can also… Continue reading →

The air is getting cooler and we are losing more and more daylight each day.  Apples are becoming more plentiful and doctor’s offices are ready to give everyone the flu shot.  The season that we talking about is autumn.  Even though autumn is a transitional phase physically, it can be an emotional phase for children… Continue reading →

Use a highlighter: Let a highlighter be your friend! When a teacher first assigns material to read, go through it with a highlighter and mark important information to remember later. When it eventually is time to study for the test, your previous highlights will help save you time by acting as markers of vital concepts… Continue reading →

Study before bed: Studying before bed has actually been proven to help your brain better retain the information. If you study right before bed, the extended deep sleep essentially more effectively roots the information in your brain as opposed to if you studied hours before bed. That being said, don’t try to cram every bit… Continue reading →

Break down the information: Determining where to start studying can be an overwhelming task in and of itself, not to mention reviewing all of the necessary notes, readings, assignments, etc. before the big test day. Breaking down all of this information into smaller, more manageable chunks can help make the task less daunting. To do… Continue reading →

I’ve taken a lot of tests—not as many as some, thanks to my liberal arts undergraduate education, but nonetheless, standardized testing has been a feature for over half of my life. I’ve done the PSAT, SAT, several SAT subject tests, GRE, GRE subject tests, the LSAT, and public school tests whose acronyms I no longer… Continue reading →

Unfortunately most middle and high school students don’t understand the importance of knowing their audience when giving a speech.  Students on speech and debate teams across the country fall into the bad habit of speaking the same way about the same topics to virtually all audiences.  Sure, in a perfect world we could all speak the same… Continue reading →

Special education is a very special area of education that not only takes the teacher to help the student, but a whole team of educational professionals.   Within a collaborative effort, the whole educational team can come together and focus on certain aspects that will help the student thrive not only in the classroom, but in… Continue reading →

Building confidence is something that starts at a young age. Now that I have had the opportunity to “live a little,” I wanted to write a letter to myself in elementary school.  I was a shy and quiet kid, but I always had supportive parents, extended family and teachers along the way to guide me. … Continue reading →

Our confidence rises when we achieve success in something.  However, success is not always easy to measure.  An effective approach for building confidence is by developing challenging goals that are easier to measure.  For example, a goal could be to learn a particular skill.  This can further be broken into segments with measurable outcomes, i.e.… Continue reading →