October 7, 2009 Psi Chi Minutes.
Secretary going to be in charge of direct mailings. President will be in touch. In effect by next Wednesday.
Greatly improved attendance.
Announcements
New t-shirts soon! (Orders soon.)
Apple/ cider Mill. Sunday, October 25 1:00PM? (Under discussion) (Social gathering for Psi Chi) Uncle John’s Cider Mill.
7:14 President called meeting to order and announced sign up sheet being passed around.
Volunteer Opportunities.
Relay for Life: spartanrelay.com and search for MSU Psi Chi/PSA to join/ make donation
Please see new Psi Chi/PSA FaceBook page for volunteer opportunities
Please bring donations of personal care items for Loaves and Fishes, and overnight emergency shelter for individuals who are homeless. Wish List: blankets, pillows, towels/washcloths, t-shirts, personal care items, hats, gloves, scarves. All items must be new or gently used. Please bring items to next meeting. Sarah will take to Loaves and Fishes in Psi Chi’s name.
Research Opportunity
Michigan Twins Project: contact Alisa Esser-Khan
Interested in being a school psychologist?
Fall Fest (Information about being a school psychologist)
Friday 10/9. 8:30-11:30AM
252 Erikson hall
Free
Food available
517-432-0843
Please check National Association of School Psychologist’s website
MI has 5th highest average salary for school psychologists in nation
If you are still working as a school psychologist ten years after you graduate, your remaining debt will be forgiven.
Dante from The Princeton Review to talk about the GRE
Important to go on to a graduate program.
General Record exam helps you get into a graduate program. Most require it.
Written by ETS, guys who made the SAT.
Computer test.
Very difficult and grueling. The goal is not for you to succeed, but to weed out people.
Way that the questions are asked are as important as the answers.
Unique problem: people of many backgrounds, for all grad programs take the same exam.
Hence, some will know math, some won’t. Some will be able to write, some won’t.
Must make bell curve results for all categories without high level scores.
Tricky questions. But, don’t be afraid of this test.
If no one has taken a test like this before, they will all be equally disadvantaged.
Three Aspects of the test.
1. Analytical writing
2. quantitative (data analysis, algebra, basic geometry) Easier than the SAT math.
3. verbal (draw conclusions from what you’re read, grammar)
When you get a math exam back, you look at the mistakes first. You notice what you did wrong and not all you got right. It’s important to also attend to what you get right, too.
Some people think guesses are bad. But, sometimes you get guesses right and you don’t pay attention when you got them right, you just move on.
Way test is scored is a curve. (Complicated algorithm)
There is a guessing penalty.
How the test works
A mid-range question to start.
If you get it right, you will get a higher, more point-value value question next.
If you get it wrong, you let an easier, low-point.
Can’t skip questions.
Score depends on number of questions you answer correctly and how many you answered overall.
Setting a goal?
But this fact doesn’t help us.
When we set a goal of some number, it doesn’t help you.
Better to set a goal of doing the best you can.
You already know what’s at stake.
It’s a bad idea to get excited as questions get harder because you’ll feel let down when they get easier.
Important to concentrate on the question right now. Do this question as well as you can. Don’t think about the school you’ll get into, etc.
Almost no trig. Basic geometry, coordinate geometry. Coordinates on a plane.
Someone wrote this test. There are no crazy “ugly” numbers.
Say you’re moving.
You move everything you can yourself.
You want to ask your friend to move as little as possible.
As soon as you encounter something you can’t move, you just leave it and don’t try anymore.
You can’t let yourself think “I just don’t know this” because you’ll throw in the towel and quit.
Let yourself get things wrong. Don’t assume because some stuff is hard, it’s all impossible.
When you look at a math test you got a bunch of stuff wrong on, and you look at it again after, you say “Ohhh. Yeah. I get it now. It was a stupid mistake.”
You need to remember that if you make mistakes, they’ll probably be stupid ones.
We can prevent stupid mistakes.
Why do we make stupid mistakes?
Test anxiety. We aren’t focused and we rush.
It’s important to not rush and not feel anxious. The test wants you to be anxious. Don’t fall for it.
This test is faster, longer and wider (in scope of info) than most other tests.
Slowing down is the most important thing you can do to improve your score.
Computer-Adaptive test.
The theory is that as the test adapts, eventually you will end up at mostly questions of your skill level.
Don’t rush through the early easy questions and blow them before you get to the hard ones.
Spend as much time as you need for easy, as much as you need for medium. As much as you have left for hard.
Be deliberate on the first third of the questions. This is the key.
Each question has a point value and a potential value.
If there are 60 questions-3 groups of 20.
What you get on the first question affects the entire rest of the question. You can set yourself up to be in the top. If you fall apart half through, you can’t fall all the way down. The goal of the beginning of the test is to get yourself in a particular range. The first third is essential.
Don’t get hung up on the details of how the CAT works. Just know you have to do really well on the first third of the test.
Do some of your prep timed. Do some untimed. It makes you self-aware of how the time factor affects your performance personally.
Don’t just say “I don’t know” and let yourself off the hook. Make yourself try.
It’s unique to not be able to do the math next to the problem. Your notes aren’t attached to the questions. Learning to deal with these unique issues is important. Be aware of why you do what you do in your practice so you don’t get used to doing something bad.
Write out ABCDE and cross them off as you eliminate possibilities.
What is the bottom line of the question?
Learn everything you can about right triangles. Pythagorean theorem. Try to remember what you know about triangles. Dust it off.
You’re retaking all of this. We all took geometry in high school. It’s all review. It’s always easier the second time around. Like when you fail a class and have to retake it.
Think of yourself in two modes: One mode has to do the math and the calculations. One mode has to be like a supervisor. The manager watches the overall process and keeps track of the overall goal.
Don’t blame “I had a bad English teacher and don’t have good grammar.” No, you can probably be just as good as anyone else.
Like a stereogram. You don’t look at each individual part. You have to look at the whole thing to see the picture.
Same with grammar and math.
Every sentence has a subject and a verb. (predicate) Break it down to its simplest elements.
Reading passages stay present so you can refer back to it.
Be familiar enough with the passage to know about where the answer to a particular question will be.
If you were going to have a little search engine for the passage, what word would you search. Think of what part of the passage this word is most likely to be in.
I can’t prepare 24/7. Why? Yeah you can.
What should I spend my time on?
Well, the test. how much will the homework affect your life? How much will your GRE score affect your life?
How can I efficiently study? How can I work studying into my other stuff I do?
Like, listening to vocab drills on my iPod, etc.
You need to figure that out for you.
Ways to draw practice out of everyday things.
Write down words you don’t know as you read. Instead of skipping them and guessing on context, write them down and look them up after. Keep a note card and look those words up later
Keep the card as a bookmark and as you encounter the word again, have a look at the bookmark.
Word of the day application to be Twittered/ etc. to you.
Time spent on the GRE is probably about three times as valuable as time spent on your homework.
Play Brain Age on the DS. It changes between math and memory and word things. You’ll have math ones next to reading ones. You have to be able to switch gears.
Don’t practice in one-hour spurts. Practice in long stretches.
Also, practice often.
Please contact Dante for additional information if needed.