SAT the Second Time Around

The first time I took the SAT I was sweaty palmed, alternately cold and hot and just all around nervous. I didn´t finish the essay, I didn´t even write a full page. I was completely unprepared for the writing part.

This time, I decided to prepare. I turned to trusty Google and asked for "SAT essay tips" and discovered a plethora (hah!) of horrible articles with terrible advice.

The most persistent one was on the use of the word "plethora". Seriously. I´m going to devide this into Good Tips and Bad Tips, and one special section dedicated to Horrible Tip, What The Hell Are You Thinking?

Good Tips

• Write neatly: whether in cursive (that´s me!) or print, it has to be legible. The graders are peoople and therefore fallible, they will be influenced by the huge amount of scratched out words and writing that looks like you took the test on a roller coaster while being mauled by a baboon.
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• Do have at least a vague idea of what you´ll be saying before you start.
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• Don´t try to make a complicated rough draft, or any rough draft at all. You only have 25 minutes, that´s hardly enough time to fill the pages even when writing non stop.
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• Read the prompt first, then the quote. Sometimes they aren´t as directly related as ou think, make sure you write what they ask, not what you think of the quote.
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• Try to use precise words. Avoid "thing", "do" and others that don´t really mean anything.
  

• Practice. There are dozens of old SAT prompts you can use. This will give you a good idea of how fast you write, what errors to look out for, and make it easier to think of good arguements quickly when given a subject.
  

Bad Tips

• "Write as much as possible. Longer essays get higher scores". True, but that´s one of those cases where correlation doesn´t mean cause and effect. Consider that students who are good writers and know what they want to say will find it easier to write a lot. That doesn´t mean you should just write when you´re not sure what comes next.
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• Make a reference to a novel you´ve read, preferably a well known one. Sounds good so far, in my most recent essay I mentioned "War Torn", not particularly well known, but I think it helped make my point. Make one up if you have to. What!? No. Don´t make up novels.
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• End with a quote said by a well-known person. I do that on essays for school. Make it up if you have to. What is wrong with this guy?! Memorize some quotes to use on the essay. Who cares if they have nothing to do with the subject, right? Even theough the graders aren´t supposed to mark you down for factual mistakes, you´ll sound like an idiot with an ending that sounds like: "...which is why technology can be both a boon and a curse. As Neil Armstrong said, "To be or not to be, that is the question".

Horrible Tip, What The Hell Are You Thinking?!

• Write the essay normally, then go back and change small words for bigger ones. For example, change "bad" and "many" for "egregious" and "plethora". What really gets me is that some student who´s never used the word "plethora" in their lives will remember this and end up with a sentence like: "The egregious boy missed plethora homework assignments". Think of the graders, please! I haven´t even mentioned that the whole thing will sound contrived and unwieldy. The huge words will be scrunched together and it´ll look like you puked up a thesaurus. There will be problems with tenses and times and a hundred other grammatical errors, not to mention the fact that you only have 25 minutes. I barely finished it, much less had time to proofread it and replace words like a demented spell checker.

Look, the simplest way to do well is practice writing fast. Try not to change a sentence once you´ve written it, you are more likely to end up with a repetition or verbs that don´t fit their subjects that you are otherwise. If you have time, go over it.

Don´t stress out. The graders know you have 25 minutes to read the prompt, choose a stance, come up with arguements and try to get them on paper. They aren´t expecting a thesis.

Here´s the link to the article. Pay close attention to the part about replacing words. The tips starts at the end of pages 3 and goes onto 4. Read it and weep.

Small Steps

Yes. 2 things solved.

Rensselaer checked its records and realized that I had, in fact, handed over 70 bucks.

My status on the USAFA page is still incomplete, but at least the whole transcript thing is solved. Despite the fact that it took them nearly 2 and a half months to do it. To be fair, there was a change of personnel in there at some time, so I kind of understand.

I should actually be further along in this whole admissions process at both schools, but now every little step counts. Although not quite fast enough. I still have a whole slew of translations to handle, which aren´t hard, but they are annoying. Some resumes and writing samples are still waiting and I´ve pretty much ignored the whole Common Apps thing.

Bright side: School´s out, in honor of which you get a link to Alice Cooper´s "School´s Out for the Summer". The muppet version.

Yay! More time to study for the SAT II! Speaking of which, I retook the SAT in November. I´ll cover that in my next post.

Rensselaer Admissions Fee

Once I filled in my Candidate's Choice Application to Rensselaer, I almost immediately paid the $70 admissions fee online. This around September. Ok, so actually my father paid it, but the point is it was paid. Rensselaer doesn't think so. My status is still listed as unpaid.

Now when it comes to $70 with a credit card statement to back it up, this sort of thing annoys me. I sent them an (exceedingly polite) e-mail telling them to check their records and update my status, offering to send them a copy of the statement with dates, amount and recipient.

I hope they reply soon. Rensselaer looks like a good school.

Hofstra and the TEC

I'm done with all the Hofstra stuff. All I have to do now is wait for their response.

To be completely honest, I'm not all that excited about it. The only major that interests me even mildly there is Russian (they don't seem to offer Aeronautical or Aerospace engineering) and I don't think I really want to make a language my prime major.

On the other hand, I want to learn Russian at some point...

I'm done with the TEC, too. (Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, no, I don't know how they managed to turn that into TEC). Before you take the admissions test you have to pick your major. There are ways to change it later, but its extremely hard and depends on whether there are any open spaces in the major to which you want to change. As it is, I'm accepted in Biotecnology, which sounds pretty cool, although I admit I didn't actually look it up at all. Since I don't seriously expect to go to the TEC (University of Costa Rica, UCR, is better), that doesn't bother me much.

Hofstra Writing Sample

Hofstra asked me for a Personal Statement, a writing sample with the prompt "A book, movie, music or piece of art that has had an influence on you, and describe that influence". Word limit: 500. I wrote the following (sans image):




The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is more of a religion than a book. Its readers are on constant lookout for the Ultimate Question (the answer, naturally, is 42), some await the coming of the Great White Handkerchief, and most of us have been caught absentmindedly scanning the sky for UFOs (preferably green). Somewhere between blowing up the Earth and witnessing the end of the universe at a fashionable restaurant, Douglas Adams managed to include some camouflaged lessons. There is practical advice, like "Take a towel" and "Never go back for your purse", but the deeper meanings aren't as spelled out.

Don't take yourself, or anyone else, too seriously. Most things don't make sense. Most people's motives will go way over your head and there's not much to do about it. Life is full of weird, unrelated coincidences that will drive you insane. Sometimes you have to ignore the little green men and their little green problems and get on with your own life.

There are no hard and fast rules. Things change and you have to change with them. You will eventually have to make a split second decision where the familiar rules don't apply. Here, you have to be flexible. A rigid outlook tries to force a situation into a known shape to apply the standard procedure. The devil in the details will have none of that. Chances are, important things will be overlooked because of the assumption that the shape fits, and everything goes wrong. I know all about this. From not bothering to read a test question and answering something completely unrelated to assuming my shoelaces are tied because they usually are, the results are less than pleasant.

I almost agree with the next lesson. According to Ix: "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" The character is talking about a mythical planet but it's used to argue against the need for gods. I have no problem with mythical planets and the second argument doesn't interest me right now, the real problem I have with it is the suggestion that there's something wrong with garden fairies. I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy. I would like to believe that Ix is out there collecting information for the Guide's next update. I don't actually believe it, and there are a 1000+ other reasons for space exploration, but I like the idea of some hapless astronaut meeting a travel-weary alien who has seen too many other species to care much about humans. What a trip.

On the other hand, there really is too much beauty in real life to disregard it in favor of fantasy. Science astounds me. An Earth-like planet has been detected. Drones are getting more accurate and actually used in war. Computer technologies are advancing at a vertiginous pace. The fairies pale in comparison.


NOTES:
*I failed to mention Marvin the Paranoid Android, one of my favorite characters, but he never taught me much. Life is useless? Whine? It's all going to go "BOOM!" anyway?

* Actually, I do have a firm stand on the "gods issue", and no intention of disclosing my position on any essay. Not their business.

*There's a hilariously out-of-date role-playing game based on the books. You read white letters on black screen, type instructions that usually aren't understood by the program, and die. Great fun!

CFA

I took the final CFA today, here are the results, (under Today) compared to the last time (Last Time) and the difference between them (Difference). Pretty self-explanatory. Actually, I only turn in the highest basketball throw and the fastest Shuttle Run. Here, I included three basketball throws and all the shuttle runs (grand total of 2).

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Event____________Today __________Last time_______ Difference

BB Throw
1 ____________30 ft, 2.2 in_______ 27ft, 6.6 in______ +3ft, 7 in
2 ____________29 ft, 6.33 in ______27 ft, 6.6 in______ + 2 ft
3 ____________28 ft, 0.61 in______ 26 ft, 2.88 in_____ + 2 ft

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Arm Hang _____32.58 s__________ 37. 89 s_________ - 4s

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Shuttle Run
1 ___________11"13 s__________ 13 s____________ + 2.8 s
2 ___________10"60 s _________14 "78 s_________ + 4 s

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Sit-ups _______72_____________ 55_____________ + 17

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Push-ups _____24_____________ 11 (collapsed at 1:21)_ + 13

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Mile ________8 min 47s 97 mill___ 9 min ____________+ 13 s

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Interestingly enough, blogger doesn't have an easy way to insert columns or tables. I tried copy/ pasting from Word, going through Paint, and copy/pasting from an e-mail, all of which resulted in illegible monstrosities.

Air Force Academy

What´s missing?

CFA: which I will do the second week of October.

Personal Data Record: because I live outside of the US and the damn form doesn´t have an option for that. Yeah, even I´m tired of hearing myself go on about that. It's being taken care of, though.

Vice-Presidential Nomination: same complaint as above, but with even less chance of contacting someone who could do something useful about it. Considering that this form is probably used by everyone outside of US territories, how can it not have the living abroad option?

Transcripts: Not missing, just not processed yet.

Preferred major: Aeronautical Engineering

Percent accepted compared to total applying:
14% (according to Collegeboard)

Pictures:

Website:
USAFA