Just when you thought test-optional was here to stay… colleges are FLIPPING THE SCRIPT.

Top universities are REINSTATING SAT & ACT requirements.
Merit scholarships? You'll NEED high test scores to get your hands on that lettuce!
Numerous state programs are demanding scores for merit aid.

Bottom line? You can't blow off the SAT or ACT.

If your teen doesn’t take these tests seriously, they’re falling behind. And let’s be real—college admissions is only getting MORE competitive.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 20 at 8PM EST, we’re hosting a LIVE, no-cost, peel-back-the-curtain and tell-all webinar on the latest SAT & ACT changes and how to "weaponize" high scores for college acceptances and BIG TIME scholarship money.

It's called The Future of the SAT and ACT - What You Need to Know Now.

Spots are limited – don’t let your kid be left in the dust.

 Reserve your spot NOW before it’s too late!

ENROLL

- Andy "Don''t Test Me" Lockwood

P.S.  Please pass this along to anybody who cou...

Admissions "Cheat Code" Webinar

Whoopsies.

I meant to tell you about the webinar I'm running tomorrow (Wednesday 2/5), not the one in November (also scheduled but too early for registrations).

The sign up page is correct, but this morning's email mentioned the future, November event instead of tomorrow's.

My mistake!

But you can sign up for tomorrow's webinar here:

Admissions "Cheat Code"

- Andy "2nd Time's The Charm" Lockwood

P.S.   Topics for tomorrow's presentation include:

 The shocking percentage of families who pay full price for college—and how to avoid becoming one of them
 Why students with weaker GPAs and lower SAT scores STILL get into elite schools
 The hidden factors that REALLY matter in admissions (it’s not what they tell you and they’re not all politically correct)
 How financial aid is designed to punish families who saved—and how to fight back and beat the colleges at their own game
 How to negotiate for MORE money after your so-called “Final Offer” (yes, it...

Hi, I'll be quicker than a squirrel after a double espresso.

Tonight, our head tutor Marissa and I are doing a short, live, "Town Hall" on the recent changes to the SAT and ACT, and what they mean for you and your kiddos.

The SAT and ACT matter much, much more than last year or the year before, so if you have an 11th or 10th grader, definitely do whatever it takes to tune in.  Here's the information you need:

SAT/ACT Town Hall

See you later!

- Andy "Townie" Lockwood

P.S. Feel free to pass this around to your friends like the latest flu (Influenza A or B),  norovirus or whatever. 

P.P.S. On the signup page, you can pre-submit your "burning question," in order to get it answered, live, tonight!

Two quickie college admissions and financial aid announcements for you:

We still have seats left at the Bryant Library (Roslyn) tonight, 6pm, for my presentation, How to Get The Edge in Admission to an Ivy League or Other Elite College...and win boatloads of scholarships.

As of yesterday, they told me 16 were signed up, and I believe the room holds 25.

More details are here (if the link doesn't work that means the room is full and registration closed out):

Bryant Library 1/16/25

Proclamation Two:

Our head tutor Marissa and I just agreed to do a short, live, "Town Hall" on the recent changes to the SAT and ACT, and what they mean for you and your kiddos.

It's Sunday at 7pm, online.   

The SAT and ACT matter waaaay more than last year or the year before, so if you have an 11th or 10th grader, definitely do whatever it takes to tune in.  Here's the information you need:

Sunday 1/19/25 SAT/ACT Town Hall

That's it - over and out!

- Andy "Back to Your Regular Programming" Lockw...

Tutoring | Student/Parent Loan Relief

There are a few reasons why a child can achieve a high GPA but you-know-what the bed on the SAT or ACT.

It could be test anxiety.

It could be lack of preparation.

It could be lack of PROPER preparation (we see this with high school teachers who tutor on the side. Frequently these teachers cover the semester's worth of content, instead of focusing on the material that's actually tested on the SAT and ACT).

Or, it could be the widespread phenomenon of grade inflation.  More than 92% of students in high school have A averages today.  Where are the C students of yesteryear?

(Answer: they have 84 averages now.)

Regardless of the answer, there is a small, growing movement away from test-optional college applications that started two years ago, initially by Ivy League and comparable colleges (like MIT), but slowly spreading to other competitive colleges.  

To be clee-ah, as we say up in Beantown, test-optional is not dead.  But given the choice, a...

Tutoring | Student/Parent Loan Relief

Good morning!  We're delighted to start off 2025 with a banger of an offer for you, a big discount off our SAT and ACT Crusher small group tutoring classes:

125 bucks off, coupon code NEWYEAR.

Almost every one of our clients who got into Ivy and near-Ivy colleges submitted their scores, proffering evidence that "test-optional" is not everything that it was cracked up to be.

Ditto for merit scholarships: as these offers roll in, it's becoming clear as glass that colleges strongly prefer to see an SAT or ACT in order to be considered for merit-based aid.

That's why I've been beating the drum with this tri-part message for the last four years:

*Figure out Which Test Is Best

*Get that test score as high as humanly possible

*Decide on a school-by-school, case-by-case basis, in the context of the TOTALITY of the application, whether or not to submit that SAT or ACT score

Our ACT prep small group class starts tomorrow and we have four spots avail...

In a few hours, our head tutor Marissa is conducting a live test prep strategies presentation, 5 Score-Killing SAT and ACT Prep Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. 

The next ACT registration deadline is in four days (for the exam on 11/22), and the one for the SAT is later this month (see below).

Our next (guaranteed) ACT prep course starts tomorrow. Marissa will be offering a special discount coupon code on tonight's free workshop!  

Here's where to sign up for tonight's class

Drop whatever you're doing if you have a young-un taking the SAT or ACT in the near future.  Don't miss this class, who cares about the polling data, anyway! 

I'm Andy Lockwood and i approve of this message, mostly.

There's an "Invisible Question"  on the Common Application.   At least that's what I call it.

It's not written anywhere.  You can search high and low, but you'll never find it.

But if you FAIL to answer it, you might as well kiss dreams of acceptance to your Dream College goodbye.

Although it's not spelled out in black and white on the Common Application, this question is in the hearts and minds of every admissions officer pouring over your and the other 999 applications they're tasked to review.

See, when you submit your application - which contains your transcripts, SAT or ACT scores, letters of recommendation, list of extracurricular activities, etc. -- the plain fact is that you will look substantially THE SAME as 20,000, 50,000, 90,000 or more competitor-applicants vying for the same spot you're trying to win for yourself.

That's why you must do some hard THINKING about how you'll answer the Invisible Question...

Why should we take YOU, instead of tens of thousands of other ...

Tutoring | Local Workshop

**No College Coffee Talk this morning:  I'm on the road, depositing my daughter back in college after her break (public transportation is beneath her, apparently**

Well, it's that time of year when most colleges are issuing estimated financial aid awards. Many parents are staring at these offers and wondering, "Where's the beef?"

Here are the top three categories of appeal (I call it "negotiating", but that's definitely NOT the term used by financial aid officers).  Note:  no matter what your argument is, you must present new information that the college didn't have, previously. 

1. Drop in income.   Financial aid eligibility is heavily dependent on income. But that income is from two years ago.  Example:  if you have a Class of 2024 student, your 2022 Adjusted Gross Income is the most heavily weighted factor.  But if your income dropped in 2023, maybe because of a layoff, or your business income dropped for any number of reasons, the financial aid office ...

Tutoring and Small Group Classes

Most of the comments I've heard and read about the new digital SAT given March 9 are critical of how difficult it was. 

But I'm not sure it matters.  The College Board is pretty good at assessing the difficulty of its SAT questions ahead of time.  They engage in "score equating," which is similar to a curve, but done in advance.

My hunch is that the actual scores, when released later today (!) will not be super-low, generally speaking.  I believe that they'll be pretty similar to historical scores.

- - -

Sidebar from Cynical Andy:  the College Board (and the ACT) have been under the gun in the past two-three years, as opponents to standardized testing -- namely, FairTest.org -- have pressured colleges to not require the tests because of their inherent bias, lack of correlation with a student's future performance in college and a likely reduction in underrepresented minorities on college campuses as a result.

On the other hand, a recent trickle of ...