Is the SAT Essay Required

Is the SAT Essay Required Typically, a portion of SAT prep time is dedicated to success on the essay section. As of late, however, a large number of schools are making the SAT essay optional to applicants. Ivy League schools including Brown, Harvard, and Yale are no longer requiring students to sit for the essay section of the exam. This begs the question, what does this mean for you? Is the SAT essay really required? When examining the requirement behind the SAT essay, its important to understand the SAT essay basics, the benefits and drawbacks of taking the essay, and how recent changes apply to you. Looking to gain a deeper understanding of the SAT essay requirement? Keep reading to learn more about whether the SAT essay is truly required. SAT essay basics The SATs essay is a 50-minute assessment in which youre asked to read a passage and to then write an essay that explains how the author forms his or her persuasive argument. A successful SAT essay will point to evidence from the passage as support for its explanation. The essay is scored on the following criteria: Readinghow well you understood the passage and its central ideas. Analysisyour ability to give insightful analysis of the passage and to evaluate the authors use of evidence and reasoning. Writingyour essay is well organized and shows a good command of standard writing conventions and style. [RELATED: What is an Average SAT Score?] Changes to the SAT essay In 2016, the SAT changed its essay portion from required to optional. This began raising the question for students and colleges alike as to whether to continue using the essay for admissions. Now that the essay is optional for test-takers, many schools are changing their application requirements, as well. In the first eight months of 2018, a slew of prominent schools, including Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale, announced that they would no longer require the SAT essay. The end result is that only a handful of schools nationwide require the essay, although others still recommend that students take it. There are several reasons schools give for dropping the essay requirement. One primary reason is that many public school students are now able to take the SAT for free during the school day, and those tests dont always include the optional essay, which costs an additional amount. Also, colleges and universities generally already require applicants to show their writing ability in other ways, making the essay test less essential to some admissions processes. [RELATED: ACT and SAT Test Dates for 2018-2019] Who should take the SAT essay? Although the essay is now optional for test-takers and most colleges are no longer requiring it, that doesnt mean you shouldnt consider taking it. First, find out whether any of the schools youre interested in require or recommend the essay. You can find this information here. If your schools of interest require you to submit an essay score, be sure to sit for it on test day. Additionally, if the schools youre interested in dont require the SAT essay, it could still be a good way to showcase your writing skills to these schools. If you choose not to take the essay, inquire about other ways you can show your writing skills to these potential schools. Regardless of whether a school requires or recommends the SAT essay, they still view writing as an important skill for college success. Typically, schools will require their own essays as part of the overall application process, and some are asking students to submit a graded high school essay as an example of their writing skills. Use those opportunities, as well as the SAT essay if you so choose, to showcase your style and analytical abilities, and make the case that youre a worthy applicant. [RELATED: What I Wish I Knew About Taking the ACT/SAT] Any topics you want to know more about? Let us know! The Varsity Tutors Blog editors love hearing your feedback and opinions. Feel free to email us at blog@varsitytutors.com.

17 Tips For Recording Acoustic Guitar At Your Home Studio

17 Tips For Recording Acoustic Guitar At Your Home Studio Suzy S. Curious about recording acoustic guitar tracks at your home studio? Check out these helpful tips for before and during the session from Perth Amboy, NJ teacher  Jeff S... If youve tried recording acoustic guitar before, theres a good chance you know how demoralizing it can be to think youve captured a wonderful performance, only to learn later that its sonically flawed. Id like to offer some tips, with hopes they will assist you in rendering consistently clean and clear acoustic guitar tracks. Before you even begin, here are some tips for setting up: Find the place in the room that you feel your acoustic guitar or voice sounds best, make a mark on the floor, and also take detailed notes. Include the height of the mic off the ground, the distance between you and the mic, and the angle of yourself and the guitar in relation to the mic. Better yet, have someone take a picture of you recording in your “sweet spot.” Spend some time choosing and verifying the tempo at which you’re going to record the song. Experiment with a few different tempos until you find just the right one. Determine the mood of the song  you are recording and base all your decisions around that. Is the guitar meant to be gentle? Aggressive? Graceful? Attacky? Both the guitar part and the vocal approach will fly or die by your accurate assessment of the mood! Record acoustic guitar and vocals in mono, as these are monophonic sources. Once you get a beginning-to-end performance of the main guitar part, you can think about recording it again and either using the second part to beef up the sound or run one guitar track on the left channel and one on the right. Some engineers like to record with two different mics simultaneously, pointing one at one part of the guitar and one at another part of the guitar. Experiment and see what floats your boat. Record both guitar and vocal without any reverb, effects, or EQ adjustments. Add what you wish after it, but cut the tracks dry. This gives you much more flexibility when you mix. Set your volume levels so that you don’t end up pushing the meter into the red more than once or twice per track (even that might cause distortion enough to ruin an otherwise good track) and then focus on maintaining that level and waveform size as you replay or re-sing the part. Count in one or two measures before you start recording the guitar part. Don’t have the volume of the click track up so high that it bleeds through the headphones into the microphone. Its prudent to record with a click track, but you need to make sure its not so loud that the clicks get picked up in your vocal or instrument mic. Consider extra purchases. If your recording room isnt soundproofed and you dont have the time or the budget to make it so, dont worry. There are several effective and reasonably priced options that will quell the bleed-throughs. Three you might consider are sE Electronics Reflexion Filter X Portable Vocal Booth (just under $125), sE Electronics Reflexion Filter Pro model (just under $250), or the Auralex Pro Max (just under $350).  You might also want to consider getting a wind screen. Next, heres a list of some of the most important tips to keep in mind during your session: Be cognizant of noises, including your own breathing, arm, and hand noises as you move them on the guitar, and other noises that could come from the chair you’re sitting on, the floor, and so on. These will all contaminate your tracks. Nothing is more agonizing than thinking that your performance and recording were pristine, only to later discover that your stomach rumbled or the chair creaked. After you record a track or two, listen to the guitar track for squeaks. Some guitarists hands and styles lend themselves to more squeaking than others. Squeaks are hard to avoid altogether, but aside from being aware of them, you can get coated strings that help reduce squeaking. If youre generally pleased with a performance you record, but it has a few squeaks, write down the times where they occur and then decide whether you’re going to punch in replacement sections or look for a squeakless performance of the section in another part of the song (that you can cut and paste into the squeaky area). Remember to re-tune your guitar (and all other instruments) often during the recording process. As soon as you think you have recorded an acceptable main acoustic guitar part, throw down a quick reference (scratch) vocal (one or two takesâ€"don’t finesse the performance) to see if the vocals work well with the guitar part. In evaluating their synergy, make sure the guitar is not “stepping” on the vocal (i.e. interfering or drawing attention away from) and that there arent any glaring rhythmic or chordal anomalies. Sometimes when you separate the guitar and vocal parts and record them independently, you might alter how you play the guitar part, which makes for a stilted performance. Also, listen to make sure you are not holding out chords or notes too long (or not long enough). If your digital audio workstation (DAW) doesnt automatically save your recordings as they evolve, then you need to remember to click the save button early and often. If applicable, let the final chord of the song ring out until you can’t hear it anymore. And be ever so quiet as it does. Be sure not to breathe loud or move your hands or body. If the song has a fade-out ending, play the fade at least 15 seconds longer than you think you need. Before you decide to end your recording session, listen to the track all the way through. Its easy to lose perspective when you are doing both the engineering and recording. Take notes as to possible EQ modifications you need to make, possible spots you need to punch in, and times and specifics about any performance or recording anomalies that you hear. This way you have a game plan of things to tackle when you return to the project. As you can see, there are a lot of important details to keep in mind when recording acoustic guitar on your own.  But along with those concerns and oversight measures comes an enpowering experience with lots of advantages.  Those include the freedom of recording any day and time youd like without a reservation, deposit, or committing to a minimum block of hours; the ability to leisurely listen and evaluate the quality of various takes;  experimenting as much as youd like with  altering the position of equipment and recording environment without oversight or added expense; using and comparing different types of mics and guitars, etc. So take your time, enjoy the experience, remember to have fun, and pat yourself on the back every once in a while. Jeff S. teaches guitar, ukulele, speaking voice, songwriting, and more in Perth Amboy, NJ, as well as online.  Jeff has created and taught songwriting and music business classes at colleges, universities, and music schools throughout the country for many years. Learn more  about Jeff here!   Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo  by erik  forsberg

GCSE poem analysis Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland

GCSE poem analysis Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland What is it about? The poem tells the story of a Japanese kamikaze pilot who failed to carry out his suicide mission and instead returned home in dishonour. The poem includes the perspective of his daughter, imagining how she told the story in turn to her own children. Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword in the cockpit, a shaven head full of powerful incantations and enough fuel for a one-way journey into history but half way there, she thought, recounting it later to her children, he must have looked far down at the little fishing boats strung out like bunting on a green-blue translucent sea and beneath them, arcing in swathes like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight, the dark shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards the sun and remembered how he and his brothers waiting on the shore built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles to see whose withstood longest the turbulent inrush of breakers bringing their father’s boat safe â€" yes, grandfather’s boat â€" safe to the shore, salt-sodden, awash with cloud-marked mackerel, black crabs, feathery prawns, the loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous. And though he came back my mother never spoke again in his presence, nor did she meet his eyes and the neighbours too, they treated him as though he no longer existed, only we children still chattered and laughed till gradually we too learned to be silent, to live as though he had never returned, that this was no longer the father we loved. And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die. Form The poem has seven stanzas of six lines each, with an irregular, unrhymed rhythm. This freedom of form suits the poem as a drifting reminiscene that shifts its focus from one character to another and moves through time. The shape of the poem is then simply created by the writer's choice to tell or to stop telling details of the events and feelings. The second and third sentences both begin with 'And', helping this sense of a story verbally retold. Choice and consequence The pilot's choice not to spend his life by attacking his enemy may have saved lives, but he seems to have made new and more personal enemies out of his wife and family: 'they treated him | as though he no longer existed'. In fact if the poem didn't include the shift of perspective and time at the second sentence, we might not know that the pilot returned from his 'one-way' mission. This means that there is an air of mystery about his reasons: his daughter imagines why he may have turned around, but in truth his family simply do not know. On top of this, the fact that they never spoke about it means that she did not even know whether he regretted his choice to return. In fact, the daughter is sure that 'he must have wondered | which had been the better way to die.' Structure Kamikaze is made of only three sentences: notice the full stops after the description of the tuna ('the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.') and the two in the final lines. This gives the first part of the poem - the first five stanzas - a flowing unstoppability, like the train of thought that takes the character of the pilot from the fishing boats to the sea, to the fish and on to his memories. There is something inevitable and unstoppable about his choice for life instead of death. The poem begins as told about a woman ('her') and her family, but the poet uses italic font to mark when the poetry becomes the woman's own words. We can tell because of the shift of pronouns to include 'my mother' and 'we children'. As we saw earlier, this shift of perspective is effective in putting his behaviour in context and actually explaining his return. Imagery Beatrice Garland describes the fishes beneath the boats as 'a huge flag waved first one way | then the other in a figure of eight'. She turns the individual fish into a collective - a shoal - just as the individual can become lost in society, particularly in a society with very rigid codes or in wartime. The 'flag' that the pilot imagines in the water mocks the flags of nations at war: the fish are simply waving their flag for the joy of movement. In fact, this massive flag is much more significant, viewed from the air, than the tiny flags of the 'bunting' of the fishing boats. The poet also uses the senses to give a sense of immediacy and reality to her writing. She references the colours of the 'green-blue translucent sea', the 'pearl-grey pebbles', the 'silver fish' and so on, as well as describing the shapes of the shoals, the cairns and the boats. She references the 'salt-sodden' texture- or perhaps taste or smell - of the grandfather's boat. Memory The poem is written in a set of nested tenses. The first stanza takes place in the past, but then time moves forward when 'she thought, | recounting it later to her children' is placed in a continuing past tense. Then in turn, the pilot remembers his own father. When the daughter speaks her own mind, remembering what happened on her father's return, she explains how she also changed: 'till gradually we too learned | to be silent…' There is a palpable sadness about this memory, but also love and respect for the father, just as he sadly chose to value his family and peace over his own duty. For extra support with poetry analysis, why not book a lesson with one of our experienced  GCSE English tutor?  With Tutorfair you can browse through a selection of great tutors to find the right one for you. For More GCSE poem analyses similar to Love's Philosophy:  The Farmer's Bride, Love's Philosophy,  Neutral Tones,  The Yellow Palm,  Medusa, and Bayonet Charge.

Why is English Pronunciation so Difficult

Why is English Pronunciation so Difficult Why is English pronunciation so difficult? One of the most confusing things about English is pronunciation. English has a total of 17tk spoken vowel sounds. This makes English  unusual, as most languages have 5-6. Spanish, for instance, has 5 vowel sounds, Mandarin 6, and Portuguese 9.English Pronunciation GuideAnother odd thing is that we  only use 5 letters  a,e,i,o and u to write all 17 sounds. Other languages, like Spanish or French, have 5 written vowels and 5 sounds.But what really makes English pronunciation difficult  is when your native language does not contain one of our vowel sounds. If youre language is like most, you have fewer vowel sounds than English has, which means there are going to be several sounds that youre going to have to learn how to make, but hear as well.A few years ago I did a language exchange with an Argentine friend. Wed speak for 45 minutes in English, then 45 in Spanish. At one point we started talking about pronunciation, and I explained that boo t and foot should have completely different sounds. My friend could not hear the difference between these two sounds, even when I said them one after the other. To an English speaker, there is a very clear difference.How do you learn how to produce a sound that you cant hear? Practice. Youll want to listen to how the sounds are made repeatedly, and get help making them. One of the most important parts of practicing English pronunciation is  learning  what you need to do  emphysically/em to make the sound. Learning exactly where your tongue and lips should be, and how wide open your mouth should be, can help produce that moment in which you suddenly find yourself making a sound you never knew existed. Its an exciting moment in learning!

The best things about teaching in Qatar (With job postings)

The best things about teaching in Qatar (With job postings) While we’ve helped place thousands of incredible teachers all across the Middle East over the last decade, we thought we’d give a special shout-out to Qatar on the blog today. In the past, Qatar has been somewhat overlooked by teachers keen to teach in other countries in the Middle East, such as the UAE and Kuwait. However, in recent years, Qatar has been busy playing catch up with its neighboring countries as a hugely popular teaching destination for qualified, experienced teachers the world over. Given the fact that Qatar has less strict visa eligibility restrictions than the UAE, it’s hardly a surprise that over 500 expats now choose to move to Qatar on a daily basis. So what’s life really like for teachers working in Qatar, the world’s richest country? Well, we regularly get feedback from teachers we’ve placed in the region. The consensus is that teaching in Qatar is an unmissable chance to work abroad, earn a lot of money, travel, develop their teaching skills, gain life experience and meet new people. Sign up to Teach Away today for access to the latest teaching jobs around the world. Sound good to you? Check out our latest teaching job openings in Qatar with the Qatar Foundation and American International School. Be sure to get your application in quickly, though, as interviews are happening right now! If you’re not sold on Qatar as the right teaching destination for you just yet, keep reading to find out more about why you might want to reconsider: 1. You’ll make bank There are plenty of opportunities to make and save a ton of money when teaching in Qatar. Most teachers are drawn to the lucrative pay packages offered by Qatar schools and programs, like the Qatar Foundation. Although the cost of living, especially imported foods, has been driven up over the last number of years, it’s still more than possible to live a comfortable lifestyle in Qatar, especially if you have the benefits and tax-free salary afforded to international teachers. The perks are pretty stellar. There’s often no utility bills to pay and accommodation is provided free for successful teaching candidates. Combined with the round-trip airfare, teaching in Qatar is a golden opportunity to save money for the future. Want to find out your earning potential teaching anywhere in the world? Get a decent idea of what you can expect with the help of our free teach abroad salary calculator! 2. You’ll gain valuable life experience As a hub for global business, Qatar has a diverse expat community. Teaching in Qatar is a great chance to get to know people from different backgrounds and from all walks of life. You’ll also be dealing with colleagues and children from all around the world on a daily basis - people that you will learn from and that will, in turn, learn from you. Not only will teaching in Qatar help you widen your perspective on how different cultures see the world, you’ll also learn how to build better relationships and (hopefully!) turn strangers into lifelong friends. 3. You’ll grow as a teacher Qatar has heavily invested in building a world-class education system that rivals top-ranking countries worldwide. To that end, the Qatar Foundation places a big emphasis on teachers’ continuing professional development, making Qatar a great place to truly hone your skills, knowledge and expertise as an educator, no matter your current experience level. What’s more, you’ll be working with students and parents whose first language isn’t English. This is a great way to improve your communication and cultural competence and grow as an educator. The skills you’ll gain teaching in Qatar will be an asset to you as you progress in your teaching career, whether internationally or back home. 4. The travel potential is huge And last - but by no means least - the travel opportunities in Qatar are pretty much endless. Travel around the region is easily done - The Middle East is a vast and fascinating region composed of so many rich cultures. Weekend trips to Dubai, for example, are only a short flight away. And even if you prefer to stay put and explore your new home country, you’ll get to enjoy year-round warm climate, blue skies and sunshine. Tax-free shopping, lots of restaurants, museums and outdoor activities in the desert and beaches of Qatar means you’ll never be short of entertainment options. If you’re a culture buff, you might already know that Qatar is home to a thriving art scene. Qatar’s attitude towards alcohol is also pretty relaxed, especially when compared to its neighbors in the region. Because gas also happens to be cheap in the region, running a car will likely be more affordable than in your home country. This means you have the freedom to get out to the desert for some dune bashing and camping whenever you want! Have more questions? Click this link to find out everything you need to know about living and teaching in Qatar. When you’re finished, don’t forget to head on over to the job board and explore our latest teaching jobs in Qatar!

5 Reasons High School Students Struggle Spring Semester

5 Reasons High School Students Struggle Spring Semester Irvine Private Tutor Tips: 5 Reasons High School Students Struggle Spring Semester Spring semester is upon us, and there are lots of important things in store including college applications, advanced placement exams, college entrance exams, and finals. Many students are already pretty tired at this point in the year and start to struggle just when they need a ton of extra concentration. There is a delicate balance between success and failure, and so its important for students to look out for the five common reasons they would begin to have difficulty completing assignments and studying for exams at this point in the year have a successful spring semester with the help of private Irvine tutoring from TutorNerds. 1.   Fatigue Fatigue is probably the number one reason why high school students start to struggle during the spring term. They are exhausted from all the work theyve done since last August and are pretty much ready to be done with school for the year. However, students at this age have a ton of responsibility in front of them and, if they are in the college prep years, some of these things will make a big difference in their future education. One of the best ways to combat fatigue is simply to get an adequate amount of sleep. Its tempting to stay up late to study and then try and catch up on sleep during the weekend but, students at this age need a full night’s sleep every night. 2.   Lack of balance Another thing that can make it difficult to be successful spring semester is a lack of balance. Some students work too hard and dont get enough rest while other students have too much fun and dont complete enough work. Its hard to find that ideal balance between work and life, but its an important thing to strive towards for a person of any age, especially a high school student. When a routine is to balance students, tend to be able to complete things in less time and be able to study more efficiently. 3.   Exams There are a ton of exams during the spring semester and the amount of time required to study can cause a lot of stress for a high school student. Many kids take two AP classes and are taking their college entrance exams all in the same month. Although these exams cant be avoided altogether, students can spread out their exams, so theyre not overwhelmed. For instance, they could take the SAT one month and AP exams the next (Waiting For College Acceptance Letters: 5 Things to Research). 4.   Senioritis Senioritis is another major cause of difficulties for students at this age. Senioritis doesnt just apply to graduating seniors, but rather we start to see symptoms in students as young as freshman year. Students get tired and want to do things that are more fun and require less responsibility. This is a pretty normal reaction to school at this point in the year, but its important that students hang in there and complete assignments promptly through the end of the term. 5.   Concentration issues Many students start to have trouble concentrating at this point in the year for any number of reasons. It might be due to fatigue or because they’re overwhelmed, or it might be because theyre starting to get bored of repetitive material. One way students can combat this lack of concentration is to reevaluate their study space and make sure they have as few distractions as possible so they can focus in on what they need to get done. If students are studying with friends, they might need to start studying solo for a while, or they may need the help of an at-home tutor to help them get re-organized so they can be successful for the rest of the term. Its never too late or too early to book your private Irvine academic tutor for the spring semester. Call us today for more information!

End of Grading Period Crunch Time - by TutorNerds

End of Grading Period Crunch Time - by TutorNerds End of Grading Period Crunch Time The end of term is not that far away. Final grades are coming up and if you happen to be on the trimester system each grading period is relatively short. Many students find that they can maintain an A right up until the end and then they get a little too stressed out and their final grade becomes a B. This is not the end of the world because a B is still a good grade. However, if you want to get straight As there are a few things that you can do to stay on task that last week of the grading period (READ: College Application Crunch Time). 1. Talk with your Orange County private tutor ahead of time Let your tutor know that the end of the grading period is coming up. It is likely that your tutor has several students who may be on different grading systems as some schools have a semester system and others have a trimester system. It is important to be upfront with your tutor about what grade you want to receive. Ask him or her if you can schedule an extra session or two to stay on task. If you have a large research paper due for an AP class make sure that you have it written well in advance and keep in mind that most longer research papers require at least three drafts and a minimum of one proofread by a third-party (a tutor or someone in your study group). If you wait until the last minute its harder to arrange for proofreading or the writing of a final draft. The most important thing is to get your content down and take care of basic grammar errors later on (READ: Ask a Nerd! Taking the AP Exam). You can also ask your tutor to help you stay organized. For example, if you know youre getting a little bit tired at the end of the term, see if your tutor can help you work more efficiently so that youre not just adding more hours and becoming more fatigued. 2. Check in with your study group Many students are very involved in their study groups at the beginning of the semester and then drop out as their grades stay high. Its very important to meet with your study group at least once a week if not more. You can help your fellow students stay on task and they can do the same for you (READ: The Students Guide to Study Breaks). 3. Ask if you can temporarily cut back on your extracurricular activities If youre in a volunteer club it seems reasonable to cut back on your hours the week before the end of the grading period. Perhaps someone else in the group can take some of your hours and you can pay them back later on. If you have a part-time job, ask your boss if you can take that one week off, there might be another person that would love to pick up some extra shifts and earn some extra cash. 4. Create a timeline for success If you know ahead of time what you need to do and when you need to do it, things will become a lot easier as you get towards the end. For instance, you can write something in a Google calendar or similar to ensure that you meet all of your deadlines. If you need a reminder, you can set an alarm on your phone or arrange to have an email sent to you from your calendar. 5. Talk to your teacher Ask your teacher at school how close you are to maintaining an A (or whatever grade you want to receive) and ask him or her what you can do to stay on track. Some teachers offer extra credit, which might be a good idea to stay on the safe side. Alternatively, you may need to participate a little bit more in class discussions or if your teacher gives you an assignment with a minimum of three paragraphs, try writing four or five. Do extra proofing on all your papers to make sure that they’re high-quality and double check all of your Internet sources and citations (READ: 10 Study Tips from an Irvine History Tutor). Maintaining straight As or any GPA above 3.5 can be very difficult but if you worked really hard to do well for two or three months, dont let it slip at the very end. However, if things dont go as planned this semester just think about what didnt work and you can use this information as a learning experience for the next term. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by TutorNerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us post about.