So I hope everyone had a good holiday! I know we all loved coming back to school and work.

Over the break I completed my college supplements as well as my Common Application essay. It was a great feeling to at least get a draft done. This week, I had some teachers and friends look over my essay - just to get input on what they think may need some improvement. Let’s just say that I have a little tweaking to do.

When you finish your essays, you should definitely ask a few people such as teachers, parents, and friends, anyone who you can trust to give you honest and valuable feedback. In the end your essay will be 10 times stronger than it was in the beginning. Mine is.  Constructive criticism is good – and it makes for a better essay, and a better picture of who you are.

Next on my college prep list is SAT scores. Mine just came out from the November testing. I was kind of dreading seeing them, based on the scores I had from the first SATs I took. What a surprise! When I got my scores back, I had improved in my Writing by 60 points, Math by 10 points and Critical Reading by 40 points! I had no idea how much preparation and taking multiple tests could help me!

How did I prepare? During my junior year I took the PSATs, an SAT preparation course, as well as the actual SATs. Going into the SATs this year, I will say I was calmer. I knew what the test format was, what was worth spending time on, and how to manage my time for each section. I have always heard that taking the test more than once would help your scores, but I never believed it. Well here’s proof – it worked for me! Take the test more than once or even more than twice if you can! The night before taking the SAT for the second time, I also used my nifty “SAT in a Box” that I got from Borders. Have you seen this? In a small box are thousands of SAT questions based on the sections on the test. On the front it has the question, and on the back it not only has the answer, but how to go about figuring out the question. I found it to be a great study mechanism.

Successful in my SATs,

Lauryn