Tugas Mulok 27 November 2008

Prahara Seksi Konsumsi

Sungguh luar biasa persiapan panitia untuk acara Jambore 2008! Dengan persiapan panitia yang – menurut saya – terkesan ala kadarnya, ternyata acara jambore ini juga dapat berakhir dengan cukup sukses! Saya ingin mencoba memberikan evaluasi acara Jambore 2008 melalui sudut pandang saya sebagai panitia seksi konsumsi.

Ketika hari pertama tiba, kami (panitia dan peserta dan para guru) semua dipersiapkan di lapangan, lalu kita segera menuju bus dan meluncur ke Gunung Puntang. Setelah 2 jam perjalanan yang melelahkan, kami sampai di Gunung Puntang. Sie konsumsi segera membereskan barang-barang di tenda panitia, lalu bergegas memulai acara memasak. Menu pertama sore hari itu adalah mie, bakso, dan nasi. Dimulailah kekacauan beberapa saat kemudian.

Walaupun menjabat sebagai sie konsumsi, tidak ada satu pun orang yang benar-benar bisa memasak. Maka kami memulai dari nol menjadi harus bisa memasak nasi dengan dandang, merebus mie dan bakso untuk 80 orang panitia. Mungkin seluruh sie konsumsi bisa memasak mie untuk 1 orang, tetapi untuk 80 orang? Itu benar-benar sebuah pengalaman yang baru, menarik, dan penuh kekacauan.

Ketika memasak nasi, kami menggunakan dandang berkapasitas 10 liter. Sesuai perintah Bu Ani, kami mengisi beras di panci, kemudian memberi air dan memasak sampai nasi itu menjadi setengah matang. Sialnya, kami tidak tahu seperti apa tampaknya nasi yang disebut setengah matang. Jadi ketika nasi belum matang, kami memindahkannya ke dandang. Lebih sialnya lagi, seseorang-yang-namanya-tidak-ingin-saya-sebut tiba-tiba datang dan memberitahu kita bahwa dandang harus diisi air setinggi batas saringan nasinya dan kami terpaksa menuruti.

Setelah menunggu cukup lama (masa sampai 1 jam??), nasi di dandang itu tak kunjung matang. Kami bingung, dan waktu kami bingung, datanglah seseorang-yang-namanya-tidak-ingin-saya-sebut-yang-lain dan ia menyadari ada yang salah dengan cara kami memasak nasi. Ternyata memang air di dandang tidak boleh setinggi batas, hanya perlu setengah tinggi batasnya saja. Ia lalu membuat dua bolongan pada nasi, dengan teori bahwa dengan membuat 2 bolongan, nasi tidak menghambat uap yang naik sehingga bisa matang. Kami hanya bisa mengangguk-angguk saja.

Alhasil, air di bawah saringan itu meluap sampai menutupi seluruh nasi sehingga nasi itu pun kacau balau setelah ditunggu selama ½ jam berikutnya. Ketika Bu Ani datang, sudah tentu terdengar “Ya ampun! Ini siapa yang giniin?” dengan nada khas Bu Ani. Duh Bu, seandainya Ibu datang lebih cepat. Tetapi dengan segera Bu Ani menyuruh kami menyiapkan panci baru dan memindahkan nasi di dandang itu ke panci lain sementara air di dandang dikurangi. Lalu nasi itu kembali dimasak. Luar biasa! Nasi yang begitu hancur dan setengah matang tadinya bisa setelah dimasak menjadi terhitung bagus. Maka dengan segala keberuntungan sie konsumsi, terbuatlah nasi sebanyak 15 liter untuk makan malam panitia.

Hari-hari berikutnya pun dijalani dengan penuh kekacauan yang serupa, namun kami pun mengakhiri acara jambore itu dengan selamat sampai di CC. Memang luar biasa acara jambore 2008 ini! Walaupun terjadi banyak kekacauan karena hujan, dengan segala persiapan
dadakan panitia bisa mengatur agar acara tetap berjalan. Saya juga sangat terkesan karena dengan segala ke-soktahu-an dan kekacauan yang terjadi, sie konsumsi bisa menyelesaikan tugasnya dengan cukup baik. Selamat! Lain kali siapkan dengan lebih baik segala tugas-tugasnya ya, koordinator!

Pengalaman yang saya dapat dari menjabat sebagai sie konsumsi ini pun tidak tanggung-tanggung. Saya belajar cara memasak nasi dengan dandang, menggoreng kornet dan telur, dan pengalaman masak-memasak lainnya yang seandainya saya tidak menjadi sie konsumsi mungkin saya tidak akan pernah lakukan di rumah.

Akhir kata saya hanya ingin mengucapkan “Bravo Jambore 2008! Bravo Seksi Konsumsi!” Pengalaman saya kali ini benar-benar luar biasa!

———————ooooooo———————

Quick Score Gains in SAT I: The Essay Section

I can’t post much because I’m currently preparing for SAT II Chemistry. I still hope that this post may help you readers regardless.

The SAT Essay section, for some people, is the most fearful part of the SAT. Since it comes at the first part of the test, you tend to freak out if you can’t get any ideas and can’t start writing immediately. Plus, if you mess up this part, you tend to mess up the other parts because you will start to think that you can’t do the test.

Fortunately and unfortunately, the SAT essay graders also don’t have much time to read your essay (only about 45 seconds to read). Why good and bad? If the SAT essay graders have less time to read, that means they will skim through your essay most of the time. The bad thing is if you put too many details in your essay, the graders will almost always overlook them, and you will waste time by writing something that the graders don’t even want to read. Even worse, your essay won’t make a good first impression if you start to digress by putting too many details in your essay. The good thing is you can be sure that they will almost always focus on the 2 most important parts of your essay. These are the introductory and conclusion paragraphs, and they are the doors to an excellent SAT essay.

What’s my point of saying this? The key to an excellent SAT essay score is the essay graders’ “FIRST IMPRESSION.”

By the time the SAT essay graders finish reading your introductory paragraph, they will have made their first impressions on your essay. Simply said, there are 2 kinds of first impressions. We call them the “lower than 3” impression and the “higher than 4” impression.

If your introductory paragraph doesn’t state your thesis statement clearly, and it just goes nowhere, and it doesn’t contain smart words, and it’s boring, and whatever, it will almost always guarantee you a “lower than 3” impression. When an SAT essay grader has made a “lower than 3” first impression, it doesn’t matter whatever you write in the following paragraphs, it will still be extremely hard, if not impossible, to obtain a score of more than 3.

SO, I’ve compiled some ways to guarantee you a “higher than 4” first impression for your SAT essay. These ways will make the good things in your essay shine so that the SAT graders may immediately see them and immediately give you a good first impression. Here they are:

Plan Before You Write
Use your 25 minutes wisely. It would be better to use some time for planning your essay rather than immediately writing and stopping in the middle because you don’t have anything to say anymore. In not more than 1 minute, immediately agree or disagree with the statement, and supply 2 examples from history or literature or science or whatever, as long as the examples don’t come from your own experience.

Prepare Your Examples Beforehand
Read historical books. Read biographies of famous people. Read literatures. The prompts in the SAT essay are so general that any kind of example can fit in your essay later on.

You might also want to try this. Look for heroes in your nation’s history, or look for famous people in your country who aren’t really known internationally. This way, although the examples you prepared are not exactly suitable for the prompt, you can still “modify” (read:bend the truth) your example so that they may fit the prompt better. In addition, it creates an impression that you are an educated person who uses examples from what you’ve learned at school. But don’t bend the truth too much, or otherwise they might notice .

Write a Lot and Write Quickly
Write a LOT and write FAST. In this section, you are not expected to make a perfect essay in 25 minutes. Your essay is graded as a FIRST DRAFT, so just write anything you want. Be careful since what you write still has to be relevant to the topic. By the way, your target is 400 words in the real test.

Use Smart Words Smartly
Use smart words, especially in the first and last paragraphs. Keep this in mind, though, when trying to use smart words. Use only smart words that immediately come to your mind and don’t force yourself to come up with a smart word. Not only it will waste time, the word you are trying to come with might be a word that you aren’t familiar with and you’ll eventually end up making fun of yourself.

These words I’ve provided are useful because you will often use them in the first and paragraphs (main words are underlined, the others are synonyms of the underlined word)

• bolster, foster, underscore, support (v)
• exemplify, depict, delineate, illustrate (v)
• explicate, explain (v)
• represent, embody (v)
• elicit, evoke, cause (v)
• a prodigious amount of, a lot of (adj)
• assiduous, hard-working (adj)
• prominent, paramount, important (adj)
• new, novel, unprecedented (adj)
• prevalent, common, conventional, orthodox (adj)
• creative, inventive, innovative (adj)
• exceptionally, very (adv)
• example, epitome, quintessence (n)
• adage, notion, proposition, idea (n)
• aspect, feature, value (n)
• anecdote, story, account

Do NOT Use Personal Qualifiers
This isn’t TOEFL anymore. Avoid, and I really mean AVOID, personal qualifiers (I, I’m, I’d, mine, myself, I think, in my opinion and all those thingies). First, it shows that you’re immature and not brave enough to say what you really want to say. Second, the SAT graders do not want to know about what you think. They want you to support your reasoning with valid examples from literature/history/etc. They want to see you as an educated person who has learned something from school.

Emergency Phrases
Use emergency phrases to prevent your hand from stopping to write and force your brain to think. What does this mean? I haven’t tried this for myself, but these emergency phrases will force your brain to think so that you can continue to write if you ever get stuck when writing your essay

• for example
• on the other hand
• in other words

Template Sentences Technique
Oh wow, this is really my favorite part. The sentences below can be used in all kinds of essay prompts because they are general. In addition, by planning these sentences beforehand, you can put all kinds of smart words in it, and it will definitely help your essay score.

How do you use the template sentence technique?

Suppose that your topic on the real test is

“What are your thoughts on the idea that failure is necessary for education to take place? Support your reasoning with examples from blah blah blah…”

Then you can always put a sentence like this at the end of your introductory paragraph:

The notion (idea) that failure is necessary in order to achieve education is bolstered (supported) by various anecdotes of history/literature/historical figures.

Similarly, you can still use other emergency sentences to embellish your essay. You can use another template for a sentence in the beginning of your body paragraphs where your examples start to show up, just like this:

A paramount example that shows how failure is needed to educate comes from a historical figure, Soichiro Honda.

These are the template sentences:

PUT THIS IN THE END OF YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

• The notion that <restate topic here> is bolstered by various anecdotes of <insert your example types>.

PUT THESE IN THE BEGINNING OF YOUR BODY PARAGRAPHS

• A paramount example that embodies <reiterate/restate topic here> comes from/is <insert your example here>
• Another amusing example which implies that < reiterate/restate topic here> comes from/originates from <insert your example here>
• The quintessence of < reiterate/restate topic here> can be found from <insert your example here>

PUT THESE IN THE BEGINNING OF YOUR CONCLUSION PARAGRAPHS

• These examples/anecdotes of people/literature/etc vividly/clearly/undoubtedly embody that < reiterate/restate topic here>. (location : beginning of paragraph V)
• From these prominent examples, we can conclude/appreciate that indeed < reiterate/restate topic here>. (location : beginning of paragraph V)
• Subsequently/consequently, these examples show… (location : sentence 2 of paragraph V)

Notice that I always tell you to restate your topic in each template sentence. This is because your essay’s coherence is also graded, and the easiest way to ensure that your essay is coherent is to point to the topic you’re talking about every time you start talking about your examples. 

Another thing, if you don’t feel comfortable with my template sentences (it makes your essay dull or whatever), you could always make some for yourself. Just make sure that your template sentence has some “smart words” in it so that you could always use them in emergencies.

The TOEFL iBT Format

 

Today I’m going to talk about the format of TOEFL iBT. I know it’s quite a jump from the previous topic. I don’t know why, I just feel like writing about iBT.

So, getting to the point, the iBT consists of 4 big sections. They are the Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing section. Note that in the iBT, you won’t have either specific questions on grammatical errors or questions that specifically test your ability in grammar. Your level of grammar will be evaluated based on your performance in the Speaking and Writing section.

This is an overview of the TOEFL iBT format:

No.	Section Name	# of Questions	Allotted Time
1	Reading	3 – 5 reading passages, 39 – 65 Qs	60 – 100 minutes
2	Listening	2 – 3 conversations, 4 – 6 lectures, 34 – 51 Qs	60 – 90 minutes
	10-minute break
3	Speaking	2 independent tasks, 4 integrated tasks	20 minutes
4	Writing	1 independent task, 1 integrated task	50 minutes

You might be wondering why the Reading section could have 3-5 passages, or the Listening section could have different numbers of lectures and conversations. Well, the test makers decided to include some experimental problems in the real test. These experimental problems will not be counted towards your final score, and they are usually more difficult than the ones that will be counted towards your final score. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if students do not have significant problems in doing the experimental questions, the test makers will most likely increase the difficulty of the test. That’s why the test will become harder and harder as time goes by.

That being said, your real test later on will always look like one of these:

First Type
1. Long Reading Section: 5 passages, 100 minutes (2 passages not counted towards the final score, experimental purposes)
2. Standard Listening Section: 2 conversations, 4 lectures, ~60 minutes (?)
3. 10-minute break
4. Speaking Section: 2 independent tasks, 4 integrated tasks, 20 minutes
5. Writing Section: 1 independent task, 1 integrated task, 50 minutes

OR

Second Type
1. Standard Reading Section : 3 passages, 60 minutes
2. Long Listening Section : 3 conversations, 6 lectures, ~90 minutes (?) (1 conversation and 2 lectures not counted towards the final score, experimental purposes)
3. 10-minute break
4. Speaking Section : 2 independent tasks, 4 integrated tasks, 20 minutes
5. Writing Section : 1 independent task, 1 integrated task, 50 minutes

Also note that you will not finish at the same time with other students. Some students do the Reading section quite quickly (they only use about 40-60 minutes to complete the Reading section) and they will finish the rest of the test faster than you will.

Be warned that you will be tempted to do your own test faster when the other students start to pick up their headphones and do the Listening section. I discourage you doing this because of several good reasons. First, you’d rather use all of your precious time and get a good score immediately than doing it quickly and messing up big time and repeating the whole test all over again on some other time.

If that doesn’t sound good enough, you can find my second reason in my later posts =P.

Here’s an even more detailed explanation about each sections.

1. Reading Section
There are 2 types of Reading section, depending on which type of test you get.

The Long Reading section is divided into 3 parts. The first part consists of 1 passage on an academic subject and 12-14 reading comprehension questions. You are given 20 minutes to read the passage and answer all the questions. Each of the second and third part consists of 2 passages on an academic subject and 24-28 reading comprehension questions. You are given 40 minutes to complete each part. Two passages will not be counted towards your score; they’re in the test for experimental purposes.

The Standard Reading section is divided into two parts. The main difference between the Standard with the Long is that you only have to read 3 passages divided into 2 parts rather than 5. The first part has 1 passage, 12-14 reading comprehension questions, and 20 minutes to complete, while the second part has 2 passages, 24-28 reading comprehension questions, and 40 minutes to complete. All passages will be counted towards your final score.

The number of questions in each part may differ from one test to another, but the total number of questions will always be the same. The total number of questions in the Long type will always be 65, while the total number of questions in the Standard part will always be 39. For example, in a Standard Reading section, if the first part has 14 questions, the second part will always have 25 questions.

If you have proceeded to the second part or the third part, you CANNOT return to your first part or your second part of the Reading section to review your answers. Watch out for this fact and plan accordingly. 

2. Listening Section
There are 2 types of Listening section, depending on which type of test you get.

The Long Listening section is divided into 3 parts. Each part will have 1 conversation on a campus situation, 2 lectures on academic subjects, 17 questions and 10 minutes to complete all the questions. The conversations last for 3 – 4 minutes, while the lectures last for 9 – 10 minutes. The time will not count down while you are listening to the lectures or the conversations. That makes a total of 3 conversations, 9 lectures, 51 questions and around 90 minutes to complete the whole section. One conversation and 2 lectures will not be counted towards your final score.

The Standard Listening section is divided into 2 parts, with each part being the same as the parts in the Long Listening section. In total, there are 2 conversations, 4 lectures, 34 questions and around 60 minutes to complete the whole section. All questions will be counted towards your final score.

You cannot pause at any time, so the Listening section will just go on like that. Still, 17 questions in 10 minutes is not really a problem, since you will have known all the answers by the time you start to answer the questions.

If you get a Long Reading section in the test, then you will get the Standard one for your Listening section. Likewise, if you get a Standard Reading section in the test, then you will always get the Long one for your Listening section. It depends on your luck.

3. Speaking Section
The Speaking section consists of 6 parts, called tasks.

Two of the tasks are called Independent Tasks, which means you have to rely on your personal experience and knowledge. You have to provide your opinions in the independent tasks. You will be given a prompt, 15 seconds to prepare, and 45 seconds to respond.

Four of the tasks are called Integrated Tasks, which means the task integrates two or three language skills: Reading, Listening and Speaking. In these tasks, you are generally not asked about your opinion on the issue. Before you respond to each task, you will hear to a lecture or read an announcement/passage. Then you only have to report what the passage/announcement/lecture is about. There is, however, one part in the integrated task that requires you to decide which of two solutions to a problem is best. After you are provided with a lecture/passage/announcement, you have 20-30 seconds to prepare, and 60 seconds to respond.

This section takes only 20 minutes to complete, but it probably poses the biggest challenge for all iBT takers.

4. Writing Section
The Writing section consists of 2 parts, independent and integrated. These parts are more or less similar to the Speaking section (in which you have to provide your opinion in the independent task, or listen to a lecture or read a passage in the integrated task and then respond). The only difference is, as you may have guessed, you have to provide your response in an essay for each part (two in total).
It takes 50 minutes to complete the section, 30 minutes for the independent task and 20 minutes for the integrated task. You have to write 150-225 words in the integrated task, and 300 words in minimum for the independent task.

Essential Facts on the SAT

This post will contain some important facts related directly or indirectly to the test. Most of you would have already known much of the things below, but it doesn’t hurt to read anyway. =P

How to Register for the SAT?
In order to register for the SAT, you have to make an account at College Board. First, click the link I provided. Then click the “Sign Up” button on the left part of the website (in the My Organizer box). Afterwards, just fill in your information. Some schools outside the United States won’t have a high school code, so just ignore it if your school doesn’t have one.

The Official SAT Question of the Day may aid you in preparing for the test. It sends you an email containing a typical problem of an SAT in Writing, CR, or Math.

After successfully signing up for your account, you have to fill in your mailing address later on. Just sign in and click “Update My Account”, and fill in your address. It is important that you fill in your mailing address because the scores will be sent via mail to the mailing address you specified, although you can also see your scores online.

To register for the test, just click on the “My Tests” tab, and then click “Start a new registration”, and then “Register for a Test”. Anyway, you get the idea. Just follow the links and they will lead you to a new test registration form. Then you can choose which test (Reasoning/Subject) you want to take, your preferred test center, and your test date.

How to Understand Your Score?
The maximum score attainable for the SAT is 2400. Each section of the SAT (W, CR, and M) has maximum score of 800.

Critical Reading and Math Section
Each MCQ that you answer correctly on the SAT will award you 1 point. Each MCQ that you answer incorrectly will lose you ¼ of a point. Each MCQ that you leave blank won’t award or lose you points. The maximum raw points for the CR section will be around 67, and 54 for the Math section.

Each grid-in question that you answer correctly on the SAT will grant you 1 point. You don’t get penalized for not answering or answering incorrectly the grid-in questions.

The score you get from adding all the scores from the question is called the raw score. The test makers will then convert the score into a 200-800 scale.

Writing Section
Each MCQ that you answer correctly on the SAT will award you 1 point. Each MCQ that you answer incorrectly will lose you ¼ of a point. Each MCQ that you leave blank won’t award or lose you points. The maximum points from the Writing MCQs will be around 49. This score will be converted to a 35-80 scale.

The essay will be graded by 2 graders in which each grader will give a score from 0-6. This score will be combined with your scores from the MCQs to form your raw score. Then it will be converted again into a 200-800 scale.

The scores you will see in your report is the sum of all the scaled scores from each section.

Essential Techniques on the SAT
Process of Elimination
The process of elimination is perhaps the most important technique you need to master. In some of the questions, you may not be sure of the correct answer, and in worse cases, you might not understand all of the answer choices. The process of elimination, as its name suggests, eliminates answers that you know are incorrect. Thus, by repetitive use of PoE, you will slowly direct yourself to the right answer.

Order of Difficulty
The questions in some parts of the SAT tend to get harder as the section progresses. I’ll explain this part in detail later on in the advanced techniques. The main idea is by knowing that the test is getting more difficult as it progresses, you have better chances of eliminating answers that are incorrect.

Guessing in the SAT (The Fearsome Guessing Penalty)
Is it okay to guess? Most people would tell you not to guess due to the penalties. But, if you’re able to eliminate even one of the answer choices, then it would improve your chances of improving your score (I know it sounds repetitious, but bear with me).

It’s better to think of it this way. You start your test with a full score. Answering a question correctly means you don’t lose points. However, leaving a question blank WILL REDUCE your points by 1, and answering a question incorrectly will reduce your points by 1¼ of a point. The difference between not answering and answering incorrectly is only ¼ of a point, so guessing won’t hurt your score very much. Besides, you have a chance of answering correctly, rather than throwing the chance of getting the point at the cost of ¼ of a point.

Remember, though, that you cannot guess like crazy. It’s always better to do the questions you can do first before attempting to guess at the other hard questions. And you probably WOULDN’T want to guess if you cannot eliminate even one of the answer choices.

“I Think This Is Correct, But I’m Not Sure…” (The Hunches in SAT)
You must have had this kind of feeling that this particular answer is correct, though you’re not sure of it? How can you be sure, then, that your hunches are correct? By considering the order of difficulty, you can be sure that the first parts of the section won’t have hard answers and the last parts of the section won’t have easy answers. This simple guideline helps you in trusting your own hunches during the test.

The SAT Format

In this post I will describe and explain the format of the SAT. I could never emphasize enough the importance of being familiar with the test format for test takers.

The SAT Format
The SAT takes 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete, and is divided into 10 sections. Each section will correspond to one of the part types in SAT (Critical Reading, or CR; Writing, or W, and Math, or M). These sections are:

#	Section Name	# of Sections	# of Questions	Duration
1	Essay (Writing)	1	1 essay prompt	25 minutes
2	Long Critical Reading	2	24 MCQs*	25 minutes
3	Short Critical Reading	1	19 MCQs	20 minutes
4	Long Writing	1	35 MCQs	25 minutes
5	Short Writing	1	14 MCQs	10 minutes
6	Long Math	1	20 MCQs	25 minutes
7	Long Math w/ Grid-ins**	1	8 MCQs/10 Grid-ins	25 minutes
8	Short Math	1	16 MCQs	20 minutes
9	Experimental	1	?? MCQs	25 minutes

*MCQs = multiple-choice questions
**Grid-ins = Grid-in questions or student-produced response questions, will be explained later on.
***The “Long” and “Short” are terms that I made. You probably won’t find them in books.

The Essay section has only 1 question in the form of a prompt. Your task is to present your viewpoint about the prompt. The prompts are general, and do not require specific academic knowledge to respond. The 25 minutes you have is to prepare, write and proofread your essay, so you have to plan accordingly. This section falls under the Writing category.

The Long Critical Reading has 24 MCQs for 25 minutes. The MCQs includes sentence completion and reading comprehension questions. The Short Critical Reading includes the same type of questions, but it has 19 MCQs and a time limit of 20 minutes.

The Long Writing section has 35 MCQs for 25 minutes, and the MCQs contain error identification, improving sentences and improving paragraphs questions. The Short Writing section contains 14 MCQs for 10 minutes, but the MCQs only contain improving sentences questions.

The Long Math section has 20 MCQs for 25 minutes. It includes questions in arithmetic (statistics, probability, mathematical operations, etc.), algebra, and geometry. The Long Math with Grid-In section consists of 8 MCQs and 10 grid-in questions for 25 minutes. The Short Math section consists of 16 MCQs for 20 minutes.

The Experimental section can be a Long Critical Reading, Long Writing or a Long Math section, and it will always last for 25 minutes. This section will not be counted towards your final score as it is only used for experimental purposes. However, you cannot tell whether the section you’re working at is one or not, so you will have to do every section as if it will be scored.

The Essay section will always appears first, while the Short Writing section will always appear last in the test. The other sections can be in any order, but the order will still follow a guideline. Your SAT may look like this in the test day:

1. Essay section
2. Long CR section
3. Long Math section
4. Long Writing section
5. Long CR section
6. Experimental section
7. Long Math w/ Grid-In section
8. Short CR section
9. Short Math section
10. Short Writing Section

OR

1. Essay section
2. Long Writing section
3. Long Math section
4. Long CR section
5. Long Math w/ Grid-In section
6. Long CR section
7. Experimental section
8. Short Math section
9. Short CR section
10. Short Writing Section

OR just make one for yourself.

If you look at the formats above, you can easily tell that the short sections will always be in the last 3 parts of the test. Furthermore, there will ALWAYS be 3 sections in each category (M, W, and CR). And another fun thing to consider. The section that comes next after another will always be different in category (except Long Writing sections that come after the Essay section).

This means, even though you CANNOT tell WHICH ONE the experimental section is, you CAN tell what your experimental section is, even during the test. Here’s how:
1. The experimental section will most probably NOT appear after the Essay section.
2. The experimental section will always be a Long section, and NOT a Short section.
3. There will always be 3 sections in each category (the Essay section is a Writing section), so if you find 4 sections in a category, the experimental section will be of that category. For example, if you find 4 sections of CR in the test, it means your experimental section is a CR section. The last test I did had 4 Writing sections, so I could safely guess that the experimental section was a Writing section.

Watch out for the last 3 parts of the test as they are very dangerous for several reasons. First, you will be very tired from doing the previous sections. Second, it has a different time limit (not 25 minutes), so if you still think that the time for the section is 25 minutes, you will end up doing things too slowly. Third, by the time you do the last 3 sections, you won’t feel very comfortable because all the previous sections have a longer time limit.

Why do I really stress the importance of students knowing the format? I personally find it very useful to be familiar with the formats of standardized tests. You can expect what kind of questions will come next, because subsequent sections will not have the same category. It makes you calm in the test (which is very important), because you feel that you are in full control of the test. Furthermore, it’s fun to watch the surprised faces of your friends when you tell them what the experimental section is during the test.

Next post: Some important facts about the SAT. Stay tuned!

A Not-So-Brief Introduction to SAT

First, I assume that the readers of this post have already known about and are interested in taking the SAT. I’m going to start by elaborating about the test.

The SAT is a standardized test administered by College Board, used by many universities in the United States as a measure of a student’s proficiency in academic skills.

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,400 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations.

Originally, only universities in the United States require it as part of your application. Nowadays, universities outside the United States also require you to take the SAT (Singapore, for instance). It was originally an abbreviation to the term Scholastic Aptitude Test, but now that term isn’t used anymore. SAT is already a word by itself and it specifically refers to the first form explained below (but if you insist that the “SAT” is an abbreviated version of something, I prefer Superfluous Abstruse Test myself =P).

There are 2 forms of SAT. The first form is known as the SAT Reasoning Test (or just SAT), and as its name suggests, it tests your ability to think logically. It does so by testing your general verbal and math skills. The second form, known as the SAT Subject Test, covers a specific academic subject area. Some of the subjects include Physics, Biology E/M, Chemistry, etc. My post will focus on the first type, since students more often take the first one rather than the second one.

The SAT is basically a test of English and Math. It is divided into 3 big parts, the Critical Reading section (formerly known as the Verbal section), the Writing Section, and the Math section. The Critical Reading section consists of problems in reading comprehension and vocabulary. The Writing section consists of problems in correcting sentences, improving sentences and paragraphs. The Math section consists of problems in secondary school syllabus (algebra, probability, statistics, etc.). You may want to look for the complete list in the College Board website.

Why did I say the SAT measures academic skills? The SAT does not purely test your ability in either English or Math. As I have said, it tests how well you reason. In fact, some problems in SAT can be solved just by logical thinking. Even problems in Math could be solved even though you don’t know the exact formula for a problem. We’ll see about this later.

That’s about all for now. My next post will be about the test format, so stay tuned!

Finally, A Virtuous Politician

My salutations to Agus Condro! I can’t understand what that person is thinking (well, I wouldn’t understand what somebody is thinking if he/she received a bribe of 500 million rupiah and he/she voluntarily reported his/her actions to an official institute), at least he helped fight corruption in our rotten nation. Whatever the reason (he said his conscience led him to do it), he’s one of a few people who’s brave enough to admit his mistakes, though he very well knew it will cost him his position in Indonesian politics.

There has been too much corruption happening in Indonesia since Soeharto’s era.Nevertheless I find the President’s attempt to reduce corruption through the Corruption Eradication Commission (usu. known as Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, abbreviated KPK) as something we should be proud of. The KPK is doing their job quite nicely and it’s showing progress. Though some people are still condemning that the KPK is not doing their job, I’d say it’s pretty nice that the President is seeing corruption as an enemy to fight, and he’s showing effort to fight it.

Bad Day

It’s been a long time since I wrote my last post, yet this post is not very cheerful also. Ididn’t know why, and I don’t want to know about it anyway. My Chemistry exam and Physics quiz was a total chaos this morning and they’re already enough to make me desperate until the afternoon. I forgot to change the ionization degree unit into percentage and I failed to notice that the mass of the metal was what’s actually asked, not the mass of the %^&* base needed. What’s even worse, I wrote the wrong question unintentionally on the Physics quiz, and that blew up 1 whole number from a total of 4 numbers. Whatever.. Now both my Chemistry exam and Physics quiz are on the verge of remedial.. I’ve been doing these mistakes many times, and they really annoy me. Hope they won’t happen more frequently in the future..

Canisius College 80th Anniversary

It wasn’t a blast, yet it wasn’t a failure. The event was supposed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Canisius College… There were band parades, basket ball competitions, and the alumni gathering. The band Maliq n’ the Essentials also showed up to heighten the mood that Saturday, November 24th 2007. That day was the liveliest, with all people expecting the band to perform on stage. Ten bands, from Santa Ursula and CC also performed that day.

However the next day was a joke… The football field ,which was full of people the day before, was naught of people. Furthermore, on that day also, 7 bands were to perform on stage. It was a pity for them to find out that nobody was going to watch them after they had trained a lot… Fortunately, it didn’t make them (the bands) upset, and I think they still enjoyed that day pretty much.. They still performed, one at a time, whilst the other bands watched the performing band…

People were also expecting the Wayang event on Friday. It was like a puppet house, but a traditional one from Indonesia. It lasted from 10pm to 5am in the morning, and people had to stay the night on Canisius to watch the show.
For this event, I would give a 6 out of 10. The coordination among the committees was bad, and it made the event less better. Saturday was the most exciting day, but the other 2 days seemed useless.

Finally, my last words would be HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY CANISIUS COLLEGE!

GetRaw Virus!

GetRaw are viruses that changes mp3 extensions to .scr, and they hide the option to show file extensions and the option to show hidden folders. Fortunately, they could be cleaned pretty easily using PCMAV RC21 with the latest updates.

PCMAV is an antivirus developed in Indonesia, and it is pretty good. It can work in parallel with other antiviruses, and it doesn’t require installation. The latest downloads for the antiviruses are in this link.