Homework Tips

Dyslexia and Memory

Dyslexia is the most common form of a learning disability. Memory problems are a common problem for people with Dyslexia. The main areas of concern for people with Dyslexia are as follows:

-Trouble sequencing things, putting a story in the proper order or putting sentences in the correct order.

-Poor auditory discrimination and memory. People with Dyslexia often times can't put letter sounds to words.

-Poor visual discrimination and memory. The person has trouble remember things shown them or things they have seen. Dyslexic people often can recognize a word, but when used in context, the word is unrecognizable to them.

-Poor short-term memory. People can't remember something they learned in the not too distant past.

-People with Dyslexia often have a good long-term memory for dates, faces, names and places.

Tips for Getting Kids to do Homework

Many children come home from school with homework the last thing on their minds. However, it is essential for a parent to make sure that homework gets completed. What can parents do to make sure homework is completed?

Setting a time for your children to complete homework is a must. Designate a daily time, let's say from 4:00p.m-5:00p.m. Do not sway from this time, and make sure someone is there to help with any questions.

Once you have set a time and discussed the time with your children, make sure they know that they will not be allowed to do anything else until his or her homework is completed. Children should not be allowed to watch television, play outside or play games until homework is completed.

Monitoring homework completion is important. Often times a child will rush through the homework assignment in order to go outside. Parents or caregivers should go over the work with the child and make sure it is done correctly, neatly and completely. A child should not be allowed to say he is done with homework until it is done completely and appropriately.

Make sure your child is doing his or her homework in a quiet spot with no distractions. Such distractions may be: a radio, a television, or a ringing phone. This can interfere with homework completion. Find a spot where your child can work without interruptions or distractions.

Sometimes it may take some good old-fashioned rewards to get your child to do homework. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as parents remember to wean the children from the rewards once it has shown to successful in getting the child to complete homework. Perhaps set a homework goal, and once a month if the goal is reached, the child gets to pick something special to do.

Avoid Random Guessing in the Multiple Choice Sections

The SAT's scoring formula has been "tweaked" to penalize you for incorrect answers. As a result, you will not be aided by random guessing. If you have no idea what the correct answer is to a question, we suggest that you simply skip it and move on. The only exception to this is the problem solving without multiple choice. There is no clue for guesses in this section, so it will behoove you to write down a number for each question.

It will be advantageous for you to guess, however, when you can eliminate at least one incorrect answer. Usually you will be able to identify at least one choice that is clearly wrong. Eliminating even one incorrect choice will improve your odds.

Practice Taking SAT

The main way to master your SAT time management skills is through practice and simulations. We believe it is very hard to over emphasize this important point. Therefore you are strongly encouraged to take at least a few mock SAT exams and try to simulate the actual testing environment.

MATH Section - QUANTITATIVE COMPARISONS:

Don't ever guess at Choice E. There are only four choices!
Always consider values that are fractional (between 0 and 1), zero, negative, or non-integer.
Factor out, then cancel, any common expressions or quantities in both Columns A and B. Remember that you are just trying to make relative comparisons.
Questions are simpler and should take less time than the Standard Multiple Choice. Look closely. The answer is often apparent without any calculations.
Write on any diagrams to help clarify any values, angles, sides, etc.
Compare; don't solve!
Simplify one or both sides whenever possible before comparing.