Aptitude:
www.collegeboard.com
This is the perfect site to do a question each day to develop your ‘aptitude.’ Aptitude, supposedly, is not something to study to increase. The fact is, however, you can greatly increase your aptitude for specific standardized tests—including the one that helps you the most in more ways than getting into college, the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
A great thing to do for your personal program of multi-sensory instruction to get a wonderful education without paying so much money is to understand the screening devices of places you may want to go some day. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a major screening device.
Why is this test so much a standard, and how can you use this sophisticated measurement of standards to your advantage?
Look at the question for December 26th first.
I almost missed this one because I was tempted to skip a strategy I know I need to use due to my personal strengths. My personal strengths are visualizing with a more familiar pattern when asked a question with percentages, fractions, or decimals. I especially do better when I use easier names in my pattern question—or letters for the unfamiliar names in the question itself.
Notice that the question for December 26th (which, by the way, was missed by almost seventy percent—70%!—of the thousands of people who responded) has some unusual geographical names. Drop those in your mind when you look at the problem. They do not have anything to do with the problem.
When you attempt to answer the question, be sure to look at the way the SAT shows you to visualize the way to do the problem by assigning letters to the different ‘unknowns.’
Now, let me tell you what I did. I filled in imaginary numbers and city names. I used numbers I could establish percentages easily to see the relationships easily.
A major strategy for aptitude tests is to write your own scenario with your own numbers into the scenario—to see relationships of the numbers. Throw out distractions like unfamiliar place names, too.
www.collegeboard.com Question for December 26th:
I grew up in Atlanta. Atlanta has many more than 200,000 people. However, to do the math easily, I visualized the question this way: Atlanta has 200,000 people (pretend!) and that number of people is one-half the total of the rest of Georgia. That would be 400,000 in the rest of Georgia, right (2 x 200,000)? So, if the rest of GA has twice the number of people in Atlanta, then Atlanta has 1/3 (or 33 and 1/3 % ) of the population of the state. (The rest of the state has 2 times that figure or 66 and 2/3. MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER THE CORRECT QUESTION!!!
Major strategies for aptitude development is to make the pattern of the question look familiar, and be sure to answer the correct question.
I chose 33 and 1/3%--which is the correct answer.
The next day’s question was so easy for me, due to my particular strengths, that I had to be careful to check it to make sure that I did not overlook something. If this type of question or problem is easier for you, too, use the caution I use to make sure I get the points I know! I rarely miss one of these.
The answering strategy is to read the sentence with fill-ins of the simplest word coming to mind that would fit in each of the two blanks. Then, I look below and find the words, in first and second order, that have the same tone and meaning as the words I chose to fill in the blanks.
I call this the RACECAR strategy because I use it on the questions I want to answer very quickly. I check them quickly, too.
This is a great strategy for noticing your aptitude because you force yourself to come up with a way not to go so fast on what you know that you miss something just because you did not pay attention in a test situation. This is the strategy I call the ‘RACECAR’ strategy because you go forward quickly, stop and mark the answer, then roll back just as quickly to eliminate two answers . ‘RACECAR’ is a palindrome—fast forward quickly—but roll back over it so you don’t miss the fast ones.
RACECAR is the same word forward and backward, a palindrome.
This strategy works for these questions every time. Again, this can get so smooth for those of us who enjoy this type of question that we can miss a hint of something else going on. The way to check is quick, however. Eliminate at least two of the other answers AFTER you have marked your answer.
To develop your aptitude, notice which questions your brain wants you to gloss over and answer quickly. Use your abilities and mark the answer. Then, make it a habit to make sure you are right by eliminating at least one or two of the other answers—according to how time consuming it is. If this is not fast, just eliminate one of the wrong answers as your check.
