The Workbook for Test Success: How to Be Calm, Confident and Focused on Any Test, is the newest and most needed addition to the test prep market. Written by Dr. Ben Bernstein, a teacher for 40 years and a performance psychologist for 30 years, it gives the test-taker the necessary tools to improve his or her test performance.

This book is not about test content (like every book by Kaplan, Princeton Review, and the College Board).  This book is about the test taker. It speaks directly to the issue that causes millions of people to under-perform:  test stress.

In a carefully constructed and researched model, Dr. Bernstein provides the nine effective tools for being calm, confident and focused on any test.

This book is for:

* test takers (high school; college; graduate school; professional licensing exams, etc.)
* teachers
* parents
* administrators and policy makers

Chapters include:

1  Getting Started
2  Disconnection
3   The Three-Legged Stool
4   How to Calm Down
5   How to Be Confident
6   How to Stay Focused
7   Dealing With Every Test
8   Working the Model
9   Help for Parents
10  For Teachers

To hear what Dr. Bernstein told Ian about the book, click on the podcast icon below.

Help Wanted: One Million College Graduates, California residency required

While you might not see this headline soon, news is that by 2025 the Golden State will be starved for college-educated workers to fill available jobs.

A recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California predicts 41% of all jobs will need a college degree, but only 35% of working adults will have the necessary degree. Baby Boomers (educated in the 1960’s and 1970’s) will be retired. Younger workers are less educated.

Why is this?

California ranks 18th among the 20 largest states for high school graduates who enroll in college. Also, only half of incoming freshmen graduate within six years. California colleges need to graduate 60,000 more students annually.

The report suggests some necessary steps to achieve this goal:

• Make it easier for students to transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges. More than 70% of community college students don’t transfer.
• Design programs at CSU and UC campuses to help students stay in school.
• Ensure more high school graduates are eligible to enroll in UC and CSU systems.

How realistic these goals are in a time of economic turmoil remains to be seen.

College applicants need to have the right mix of grades, standardized text scores, teacher recommendations and extracurricula actvities to make it into the college of their choice. An extra ingredient? How about Love?
That’s right. According the the Boston Globe, a new success factor in a college applications is showing the college that you love it:

In its annual survey of admissions trends, the National Association for College Admission Counseling found that 22 percent of colleges gave interest “considerable importance” in admissions, up from 7 percent in 2003. Another 30 percent of schools rated it as moderately important.

In terms of influence, it outranked such admissions standbys as counselor and teacher recommendations, interviews, and extracurriculars, and was narrowly behind class rank and personal essays.

This works for the college becuase:

Giving preference to students whose interest seems genuine also helps colleges boost their image. By targeting students who are more likely to attend, they can admit a smaller percentage and still fill out their freshman class, making them appear more selective and more desirable.

Ways to show the college that you love them:

• Be aware that many colleges track every contact they have with applicants.
• Always make sure the admissions office knows you are there when you visit campus. Look for a sign-up sheet and fill it out legibly.
• Avoid going overboard. Learn to practice the fine art of ‘admissions office flirting’ without being overbearing - a tip which applies to parents as much as students.

Given that President Obama’s proposed reforms for college tuition aid won’t take effect until 2010, The New York Times suggests that delaying college for a year could have benefits. There might be more federal aid available this time next year. Students will be wiser and more mature for having a “gap year” between high school and college.

The problem: this is not part of the “cultural norm” in the USA. People are unfamiliar with it. It’s much more common in Europe, where even Royalty take a gap year. Perhaps, like a partially-nationalized banking system and more affordable health-care, this is one of the changes in cultural norms that American’s are about to become more familiar with.

The current economic crisis is worrying to parents of college students. Where will the money come from to pay 2009 tuition bills? Will cash-strapped colleges with shrinking endowments implement tuition hikes to cover budget shortfalls? How will the economy affect college admissions?

Not necessarily.

According to the Sunday New York Times, colleges are actually expanding aid to draw in students in a downturn.

With only tiny endowments, they need full enrollment to survive, and they are anxious to prevent top students from going elsewhere. Falling even a few students short of expectations can mean laying off faculty, eliminating courses or shelving planned expansions.

The competition for students can play to the benefit of prospective parents:

California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks is advertising a public school price tag to any student accepted at the University of California, Santa Barbara, or at the University of California, Los Angeles — an average annual saving of $16,000 off the normal cost of $41,767.

One silver lining to the current economic crisis as you look at the college admissions process.

News that Harvard’s lost $8bn of its $37bn endowment in four months shows how the financial crisis has hit colleges. The report notes:

Many colleges have adopted economy measures such as halting faculty raises, freezing all new hires and delaying capital investments to compensate for their shrinking endowments.

You have to wonder what this will do to scholarships and tuition for next years college applicants.

It’s been the few institutions with multi-billion dollar endowments who have been giving sizeable tuition breaks across the board. It probably won’t continue.  And don’t look for less well off colleges to have the funds to help with tuition that they have had in the past.

Tip #106 in my booklet ‘110 Tips for Getting into the College of Your Choice’ was written for parents:

Stay calm. There are over 3,000 colleges in the USA and most accept 75% or more of applicants. Most students love the college they eventually attend.

Which begs the question - why the annual frenzy and stress around college applications? If you believe stories in the press you’d think there’s an acute shortage of college places. This is not the case.

There’s a frenzy among college applicants of all academic levels fixated on their ‘Dream Schools’. Students choose from a limited number of presigeous brand-name schools.

It’s the same in the consumer world. Brand name goods command a premium. Why do some pay hundreds of dollars for a cologne? Or a designer dress? Buyers assume they will be among the ‘exclusive’ few who wear the scent or dress. High prices ensure selectivity.

So with college applications.

The fact is that there are hundreds of schools with excellent undergraduate programs. This is a benefit both academically and financially. Smart kids are more likely to get merit aid or places in an honors program. Good grades will be easier to achieve. This will impress graduate schools - where working under a top professor does matter.

In my booklet ‘110 Tips for Getting into the College of your choice’ I write:

#63: Be genuine when filling out a college application. You are marketing yourself. Be authentic and refreshing when writing about your interests and passions.

This means that a college wants your application to reflect the ‘real you’ – warts and all.  At the least, this means telling the truth about your EC’s. Beyond that, you should avoid being stilted or putting yourself forward as something you are not.

High school students will find it difficult to do this. That’s not surprising. Look at the role models kids have today.
The girl who was the model for the Dove billboard was artificially transformed with professional make-up artists and computer software from a real person into a plastic replica of a woman.

(Take a look at the amazing video of this artificial transformation on YouTube)

Colleges don’t want plastic people in their freshman class. They want authentic, refreshing students. Who is authentic? How about Olympic Gold medalist Michael Phelps? He exhibited superhuman capabilities at the Beijing Olympics but his story is a genuine and authentic one - the guy had a hard time in grade school where he was diagnosed with ADHD and teased by classmates because of his long arms.

Who else could be an authentic role model for teens today? What does it mean to be genuine and authentic in your college application? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment.

A rave review in the Sep 20, 2008 New York Times says this new website offers offers “an unfiltered, detailed, often somewhat eccentric view of campuses all over the country.”

Unigo.com is a free, gigantic, student-generated guide to North American colleges for prospective applicants and their families.

The Times article contrasts the dynamism of the site with the staid publications such as the US News rankings, The Princeton Review and Fiske.

We tried to login today and found the site was slow, probably becuase of the interest the Times coverage caused. It’ll be fascinating to see how useful families find this unfiltered reporting of life at the college of their choice.

Good luck unigo!

Step Into College is pleased to announce the inaugural edition of our new quarterly magazine. We feature articles by recognized experts in the field, as well as checklists and practical tips (extracted from our best-selling booklets) to help you prepare for college.

In this edition you will find:

What High Schools And Colleges Don’t Tell You

An Interview with controversial author Elizabeth Wissner-Gross who shares her thoughts on today’s competitive college admissions and what parents can do to help.

Why Your Kids Shouldn’t Go To Harvard

San Francisco Bay Area columnist Marty Nemko urges families to look beyond the Ivies for a stellar education at an affordable price.

The Truth About Student-Faculty Ratios And Class Size

Blogger and college admissions counselor Mark Montgomery highlights the motivation for colleges to report favorable student-teacher ratios and lists the questions you need to ask before applying

Rejection Letters

Psychologist and expert on criticism and rejection Elayne Savage shares tips on how parents and teens letters can best deal with college application.

Choose A College By Fit — Not Rank

Marty O’Connell - the executive director of Loren Pope’s organization explains why smaller colleges change lives.

Order your copy here. Printed copies are delivered via First Class mail for just $4.99 + postage.