The college application essay provides an opportunity for college applicants to stand out from the crowd and present themselves in a dynamic and authentic way. Essays tell colleges who you are and what makes you unique, aspects that may not be reflected by your grades, test scores, or lists of activities.

This FREE workshop offers students the support and tools necessary to craft a unique and effective personal essay. Students will identify what makes them special, and then, draft essays that reflect on these qualities with more complexity and depth. They will explore ideas, values, and life experiences and translate them into powerful personal statements. Students will also learn strategies for revising and polishing their writing.

If attending, please remember to bring one or more of the following: an essay topic, the first or second draft of a college application essay, a partially completed essay, or an essay outline.

Please keep in mind that we do NOT write essays, we help students write THEIR essays.

The college application essay provides an opportunity for college applicants to stand out from the crowd and present themselves in a dynamic and authentic way. Essays tell colleges who you are and what makes you unique, aspects that may not be reflected by your grades, test scores, or lists of activities.

This FREE workshop offers students the support and tools necessary to craft a unique and effective personal essay. Students will identify what makes them special, and then, draft essays that reflect on these qualities with more complexity and depth. They will explore ideas, values, and life experiences and translate them into powerful personal statements. Students will also learn strategies for revising and polishing their writing.

If attending, please remember to bring one or more of the following: an essay topic, the first or second draft of a college application essay, a partially completed essay, or an essay outline.

Please keep in mind that we do NOT write essays, we help students write THEIR essays.

The IB curriculum is centered on two predominant principles. TOK, or theory of knowledge, is a set of required curriculum in the Natural Sciences, Human Sciences, Arts, Mathematics, History, and Ethics. Students are required to take courses in all of these fields in order to graduate. Furthermore, students must complete projects and courses to fulfill the IB’s core principle of CAS. (Creativity, Action and Service). CAS focuses on the skills students need to apply their knowledge and to enact change. Both TOK and CAS are unique to high school curriculum in that they require teamwork, creativity, and community leadership: three areas that may be lacking in the uniformity and independent work promoted in public schooling.

As with other Specialized High Schools, IB focused schools like Brooklyn Latin are highly selective and difficult to get into. In New York City, the SHSAT is an achievement test that measures a student’s ability to think critically, and is the principle factor for admissions into a Specialized High School. Here at Five Points Learning, we offer an intensive SHSAT test prep course that focuses on achieving the result needed to gain admissions into one of these competitive schools. Our SHSAT tutors hail from Ivy League institutions, Specialized High Schools, and other esteemed schools and universities. Their insider knowledge is a key to helping our students achieve success.

So if the IB philosophy interests you, or if you desire the challenges and reputation of a Specialized High School, why not try to prepare early? Five Points Learning has summer SHSAT prep classes still available. Sign up early for discounted class rates today!

One of the top grammar issues present in American student’s writing is a run-on sentence. Run-ons are two or more sentences that are improperly punctuated. They can be very long or very short, but they have a tendency toward being quite long. Students often create run-on problems while attempting to add more words to their sentences without knowing the proper rules of grammar. If they are not very careful, one extra verb can throw their writing off and create this error.

Similarly, the passive voice is an increasing issue in American schools. In an effort to extend verb phrases and sentence lengths, students will change the order of a sentence to conform to the passive voice. For example, if I were to write a sentence like: George Washington sailed across the Delaware. This is in the active voice because George Washington, the subject, occurs first while sailed, the verb, comes immediately after. A student who wants to add more words will likely change the sentence to say The Delaware was sailed across by George Washington. Although subtle, this slight variation opens the door to a vast number of grammatical and syntactical errors.

At Five Points Learning, our writing tutors focus on teaching students core writing skills rather than mere assignment based learning. While schools are not entirely to blame, the process of shortcutting through assignments can cause major learning gaps at an early age. If we can focus in on such areas, students will build the confidence necessary to tackle difficult tasks and think critically. The summer is a great time to work on these skills. Check out our Summer Writing Programs here for more information.

In all of these areas, students performed significantly higher after receiving instruction in Chess strategy.
Ferguson suggests gaming allows for a unique method of critical thinking that goes beyond our regular math or verbal curriculum. Unlike staid material, each game presents a new problem, one that requires creativity and adaptive techniques to succeed. Additionally, the added impulse for competition challenges students to achieve personal and relative goals. These goal sets are founded on previous gaming experiences that require the use of cognitive memory for adapting to one’s opponent.

Although Ferguson’s study is founded through the lens of professional chess instruction, private schools around the world are now considering chess as a part of their daily curriculum. According to a CNN article, a parochial school in Birmingham is using chess to teach critical thinking in order for students to fulfill a math requirement. This unique program involves testing based upon past and present methods for adapting chess strategies in correlation to mathematical data analysis.

While instructive, chess is not the sole game catching the attention of schools and teachers. Other games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Boggle are known for their use of critical thinking, writing, vocabulary, and mathematical uses. Through its summer programs in brooklyn and summer math programs, students at tutoring centers such as Five Points Learning in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, are given the opportunity to challenge their minds in fun and creative ways. Five Points even provides an organized analysis of educational games and offers a rewards-driven program for achieving personal goals. Beyond the staid curricula of math and English lies the opportunity to enjoy learning. We hope to traverse this realm as we find new and exciting ways to help students succeed.

While the thought of more schooling may not seem like a fun idea, think of the possibilities. No grades. No pressure. Just think of all those things you were too embarrassed to ask your teacher about in class. How about that math concept everyone seemed to think was so easy, but caused you to bomb the algebra midterm? What about that book you had to read in English class and never finished?

What makes school “boring” may not have anything to do with classes. More likely, it’s the pressure, the homework, and the workload that weighs you down. If learning could be fostered in a fun environment: one that focuses on what you need rather than what you’re already good at, maybe… just maybe summer classes could be useful. Not to mention, you’d get to hang out with kids who actually want to learn. Why else would they be there?

At Five Points Learning we’re providing summer programs that focus on education in a fun and collaborative environment. That’s because we believe in catering to your needs above all else. In our small-classes, we can help every student by creating an exciting pathway to learning. We know that summer is a time to relax, but it’s also a time to catch up; it’s the perfect time to study for the SAT, or review Math before it gets way harder next year. Check out our brooklyn summer programs or our summer sat prep and give us a try. After all, there’s still plenty of time for relaxation. This way, you won’t have to dread going back to school. You’ll be way ahead of the game.

The study goes on to reveal this set of peer influences is a reciprocal event. One child can poorly influence another, while the other child can add a positive influence. Some might think this is obvious, but we should garner a lot of hope this finding. After all, if we can reach just one child, they have the power to pass on their education and motivation to a whole classroom of fellow students.

Parents may then ask, “But what if my kid doesn’t have good friends? What if they’re peers don’t care about school?” When both the school and the student performances are lacking, outside influences become increasingly important. This is why positive mentors are key to student success. If, for example, our tutors can act more like peers than teachers, our sphere of influence is far greater than the sum of our educational system’s parts. We must believe in encouraging forward thinking, analytical exercise, and positive reinforcement. All of these factors lead to better education. In small ways, this supplementary encouragement can offset negative biases and influences each day.

Here, at Five Points Learning, our energetic team of instructors not only care about student progress; we seek to improve students’ outlook on education. Quite simply, learning is cool. We firmly believe this because all of us have benefited from our own paths to education. If we can instill this same perspective in our students, we can better entire classes one student at a time. For assistance with homework help and how to motivate students, contact Five Points Learning today!

Let’s start by getting to know this test.  The SAT is scored on a 200-800 point scale. Combined Math, Writing, and Reading scores equal a perfect 2400. These scores are tabulated using a raw score conversion chart. Check it out below:

Now that we’ve sifted through the obvious, let’s talk about a more important detail: you get 1 point for every question you get right and a ¼ point deduction for every question you get wrong. Here’s the weird part; you will get NO points off for questions you skip.

So now you may be wondering, “Well how do I take advantage of this?”

Here’s how. Sentence Completions, Math, and Grammar are ordered according to difficulty. For example: in a ten question Sentence Completion section the first 2-3 questions will be easy, the middle 4 questions will be medium difficulty, and the last few will be hard. If you know that on average you do not answer difficult level questions correctly, where should you focus your energies? That’s right. Economize on your strengths. Students who spend more time on questions they are likely to answer correctly do better on the test.

Here’s even better news. Focusing on one’s strengths can also shorten the testing experience. If you skipped the last two questions of a section because of their difficulty, you are bettering your pace, and using time appropriately. Statistics show that difficult questions are answered roughly 10% of the time, with students spending nearly double the amount of time allotted to answer these questions.

The application of this method should vary according to a student’s strengths. If, for example, a student is better in math than verbal, they should answer more questions in the math sections and skip more in verbal sections.  This requires diagnostic and sample testing to truly ascertain these strengths. Testing Centers such as Five Points Learning in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn offer diagnostic and sample testing through SAT Test Prep courses. By starting with this simple procedure, our SAT tutors can then help students focus on their weaknesses and make the most of their intellectual strengths. Throughout all standardized test taking, one truth remains constant: we must think like test takers and test makers in order to excel.

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Here is another video on G-Star from a local news story in Florida where the school is located.

G-Star is a progressive charter school that allows students to pursue areas of study they are ACTUALLY interested in, providing students an opportunity to learn real-world skills and to gain real-world experiences. For example, students interested in film are able to actively participate in the production of commercials and other film related projects.

Allowing students to learn real skills in areas they are interested in serves to not only improve overall motivation, but also to increase focus in school leading to improved academic performance and graduation results.

We should consider how our system of education can be improved to compete with increasingly competitive nations worldwide. Student motivation and passionate learning require  specific skills that are fundamental for achieving higher academic performance. However, trying to apply a one-size fits all approach to education with increased testing separates students farther from their curriculum. Should we not stop to ask, “Is this really the best way?”

At Five Points Learning, our writing tutors and math tutors do an exceptional job of not only teaching students the critical skills necessary to achieve success, but also working hard to improve each student’s motivation and interest in both math and writing. They do this by making the subjects relevant and by providing real world examples and applications of the skills they are learning. Our tutors are enthusiastic and passionate about their subject areas, and our students feed off of this energy and passion. In some cases, helping students to “connect the dots” in an enthusiastic manner has inspired students to pursue more in-depth studies in a particular subject area. This is what we strive to do each and every day.

The following video raises some interesting questions about the impact and effectiveness of our current system of education. Please comment and share your thoughts and ideas. Cheers!

Kilhamn suggests a change in the way we explain mathematical theories. By focusing on numbers at an early age, students can better grasp the key concepts necessary to later approach word problems. The study further suggests that students recognition of symbology such as decimals or fractions develops faster than their perception of, say, a pizza pie cut in half to represent 1/2.  Use of metaphors can further cause issues with the diversification of student experience and cultural distinctions. This is not to say that students should avoid understanding the implications of numbers on real life. Yet Kilhamn’s study recognizes that as kids develop their basic math skills, they should begin with standard symbology and later gravitate toward correlative experiences; only then can they fully translate these concepts into their day to day life.

This presents a unique challenge for teachers. How can we focus on this set of basic symbology and still make math fun? Repetition and game driven math equations can continue to build conceptual skills without distracting students from the problems at hand. Outside education and math tutoring can further reaffirm these concrete principles outside of the classroom. When students find certain problems challenging, math tutors can cater to a student’s set of experiences and change their approach accordingly. Here at Five Points Learning, we believe in the opportunity to create an adaptive learning environment and overcome the confusions that arise in the classroom. Perhaps vague words and metaphors are not the sole reason for confusion. Instead,  how we use these tools to explain problems can make a huge difference in the way students retain information. After all, each child has their own method of comprehending material, and it is up to us to harness and foster this potential for learning.