The Best Tips for Middle School Students

The Best Tips for Middle School Students

By Grace B Sullivan

The majority of students need to make a little extra effort in middle school to make sure they start high school at the head of the class, with a solid foundation. Even if your child is in a great private or public school and already an A student, following these tips will assure that they are at the head of the class. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that any student who puts this effort over their summers into improving their vocabulary and practicing SSAT exams, will jump at least one level in school.

I've seen straight A students in middle school not score well on the SSAT exam and I've seen parents pay thousands and thousands of dollars on tutors to only see very little improvement. I've also seen parents sign their students up for rigorous summer school classes, taking away their time to enjoy sports or a camp, only to see the same result the next year in school.

Here is a method that I believe is the best method in getting your child to maximize his/her potential. It does take effort and it is aggressive. You need to make sure your child works on SSAT practice exams 5 days a week, for one hour a day. Along with the practice exams, the student needs to play a few games on quizlet.com working on SSAT vocabulary lists or SAT vocabulary lists. It takes discipline. If you are able to accomplish that goal for the entire summer, having the exams corrected and the student reviewing why they got each problem wrong, by the end of the summer, you will see a huge improvement.

This is a very aggressive method, but one that is sure to propel your child to the top of the class and prepare him to create a high school resume to impress any college.

Get several SSAT prep books. You can get practice exams from ssat.org, which will also tell you about the exam. Princeton Review usually has practice exams that are the same level difficulty as the actual test and Barron's usually has more difficult practice exams.

If you have your child complete as many practice exams as possible, during the summer is best, correcting each one and reviewing with them the problems they get wrong before taking the next one, you will be able to feel secure that their vocabulary, reading and math skills are solid.

How a child does on the SSAT is often a great prediction of how they will do on the SAT in high school. In fact, a prediction of a range of results your child might achieve on the SAT is given on the results page of the SSAT. Practicing the SSAT and studying the vocabulary lists in Princeton Review or Barron's, will certainly cement their foundation for high school and give them a jump-start on preparing for the SAT. There are several questions on the SSAT that are also used on the SAT.

Tip 1: Learn the vocabulary list in the Princeton Review SSAT book.

Most students have great difficulty on the reading comprehension section of the SAT exam due to a lack of understanding of the vocabulary in the readings. If your child learns the lists of vocabulary from the Princeton Review book, they will have a huge head start on SAT vocabulary. In fact, the list for the SSAT exam is very similar to the list in the Princeton Review book for the SAT exam. Learning either list will certainly give your child an incredible edge.

Tip 2: Many parents lament that their child doesn't really "get" math. Instead of having your child tutored during the summer, have them practice every SSAT practice exam you can find.

SSAT math problems test the understanding of the math concepts. When you child gets something wrong, going over why will strengthen his mathematical understanding. If you are unable to review mistakes with your child, that's when you would hire a tutor to go over problems he or she got wrong.

Do not pay for a tutor to monitor your child taking the practice test. Your student can take the test on his own time. Pay a tutor to review the problems your child has trouble with.

Tip 3: Have your child take Latin to help with vocabulary. Most kids want to learn Spanish or Mandarin.

Tell them they can study whatever language they want after they finish studying Latin. Get them through AP Latin in high school and it will help their reading comprehension score on the SAT, their vocabulary, and their grammar. It will also help them pick up another language more easily.

Tip 4: Try having kids use quizlet.com. There are already SSAT vocabulary lists on there and SAT vocabulary lists. They can create any kind of quiz they want to try and they can keep playing the games until they master the words. This also frees you up from getting involved!

Middle Schools