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Welcome to our blog - a resource of top tips and strategies for ambitious students and families!
With hundreds and thousands of students applying with stellar standardized testing grades and perfect GPAs, writing remains one of the major factors that college admissions officers use to set their top applicants apart. They’re looking for the eloquent rhetorician, the lyrical empathizer, and the passionate advocate, among others. Simply put, they’re looking for students with a distinctive voice and unique perspective, individuals who can outshine the correct but expected, hackneyed answers offered by A.I.
With boarding school admissions results arriving on March 10th, many families eagerly anticipate good news. However, once acceptance letters are in hand, the next challenge is choosing the right school. Beyond rankings and prestige, the best school is where your child will thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Are you counting down to decision day for your US boarding school applications? The wait can be tough, but there are proactive steps you can take to stay productive and maintain a positive mindset. Here's how to make the most of this waiting period.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it's the perfect time to discuss why character and practicing gratitude are important for US boarding school students and applicants. US Boarding Schools emphasize community-mindedness, making them great places to cultivate gratitude and personal growth. If you are considering boarding school, we encourage you to use this article to evaluate your alignment with the US boarding school pathway. For current students, this article can serve as guidance or even a reminder.
Are you a driven and passionate student ready to embark on an extraordinary journey in the field of healthcare? While the allure of medicine may be strong, we invite you to explore an alternative avenue that can set you on an exhilarating path to success: Biomedical Sciences.
You have a strong interest in human biology, which led you to consider pursuing a career as a doctor. However, have you explored alternative paths that could also align with your passion for understanding the biological basis of human behaviours and health sciences? Psychology might be an option for you, as it is sometimes seen as a more accessible and flexible alternative to medicine. Read the article below to debunk the myths of Psychology and determine whether this is the right university subject choice for you.
Student self-advocacy refers to the ability of students to actively seek out help and communicate their needs to their teachers and other educational resources when they encounter difficulties. This means that students recognize when they are struggling to understand instructions or concepts in class and take the initiative to ask for additional support. Effective self-advocacy involves knowing when to reach out for help and doing so promptly, ensuring that they can address their challenges before they become overwhelming.
At ARCH, we understand as well as anyone that applying to US boarding schools is extremely competitive, especially for international applicants and even more so for applicants from Asia. In this article, we will outline the common causes of failed applications to give you a better understanding of where applications sometimes go wrong.
How to Ace Pre-Tests When You're Ten
What are the boarding school Pre-Tests? These tests were first introduced by Eton College almost ten years ago. Where Eton leads, other schools tend to follow. A reaction to the growing number of candidates applying for each place, they are designed to help schools screen prospective applicants one to three years in advance of their actual entrance examinations. The purpose of the tests is to understand potential, rather than just pure academic ability.
Although some schools still set paper-based pre-tests, most schools have moved their tests to computerised versions to ease the administration of setting and marking them. Most of these computerized pre-tests are designed by the Centre for Evaluating and Monitoring (CEM) at the University of Durham. GL Assessment is also popular.
As far as we are aware, the CEM and other organisations adapt their suite of tests for each school. Schools can either buy an “off-the-shelf” package or design tests that are more bespoke to their needs. All of the tests of which we are aware have a mixture of Reading, Maths (or Numerical / Quantitative Reasoning), Verbal Reasoning, Non Verbal Reasoning, Spatial Reasoning and Logic. Most of the tests offer multiple choice questions, answered by clicking a mouse rather than typing an answer.
How can you prepare?
It is important to say that preparing for pre-tests is not like preparing for other exams such as Common Entrance. There is no syllabus of content, and we would never encourage “direct preparation” for the test. The tests are, after all, designed to test for potential. The tests themselves, we believe, can also be adaptive; it’s unlikely that two students will receive the same test. As a result, Bridgepoint’s recommended programme is, at best, only a close approximation to the tests. Our tutors should prepare students to be supple and adaptable test-takers so that they can hopefully cope with whatever the tests throw at them. We place our chief emphasis on the areas that can be taught and learnt, in other words the core, foundational areas of English and Maths appropriate to the age-group.
For students who are sitting computerized pre-tests at 11+, ARCH's Online Tutoring platform offers students (aged 8-11) a mock computerized assessment covering Developed Ability, Maths, Reading and Spelling. Included in the assessment is detailed feedback of the student’s level in each area. Please note, this computerized assessment is only available in Hong Kong and the UK.
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