Private schools open so many doors and there is so much at stake during the admissions process, it’s necessary to prepare children for the highly competitive admissions tests to help them perform at their best. As the number of children in private schools and gifted programs in New York City increase each year, more and more parents rely on the Brain Academy, the Tutoring, Testing and Coaching Center of New York, to prepare their children for OLSAT, BSRA, ERB and other admissions tests.
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 28, 2010 -- This summer, parents of young children are not only searching for summer camps and fun activities, but also for fun ways to prepare their kids for the increasingly competitive private school and the gifted program 2011 enrollment, according to the Brain Academy.
Many parents of preschool children have already learned that the gifted and private school admissions tests, such as OLSAT, BSRA, and ERB (which is an IQ test such as SB5 or WPPSI-III) require the utmost attention to details, rapid and accurate visual scanning, critical thinking, sharp memory retention and retrieval. Preschool children don’t always have evenly developed cognitive abilities, and some of these skills may not be superior, which is required to score high on the admissions tests.
How can a very bright child, who is clearly learning and acquiring knowledge at much faster pace than his peers, but may get frazzled or distracted easily, score better than 97 percent to 99 percent of his peers on these admissions tests?
“We have been getting an increasing number of calls from the parents who, first of all, want to accurately assess their children’s attention, memory, organization, processing, thinking and other cognitive skills, and then start preparing them for the OLSAT, BSRA, ERB and other admissions tests,” says Dr. Danov, a neuropsychologist and founder of the Brain Academy, a New York-based hub for cognitive testing, brain training, test preparation, and academic tutoring.
“These parents are taking an educated approach to the private school and the gifted program admissions process. They want to find out in which areas their kids do not do better than the majority of peers and then practice those skills to improve them,” explains Dr. Danov.
“This summer we have a record high number of preschool children who are undergoing cognitive and academic testing and a follow-up preparation for the OLSAT, ERB/IQ or BSRA. I see nearly a 110 percent increase since last summer and over 300 percent increase compared to prior years in all of our 5 locations in NY-metro area,” shares Dr. Danov.
What drives the frenzy behind GATE and private school admissions testing? While most parents know their child must score very high on OLSAT, BSRA or ERB/IQ, many of them do not know what those tests consist of, yet want to prepare their child to perform at his best. Good test preparation is not just about “seeing the test before” and “knowing what’s in there.” Coaching the child on tasks similar to OLSAT or BSRA is not enough to help him score at 99th percentile.
“If you simply train your kid to complete OLSAT-like tasks, it does not necessarily help strengthen his critical thinking, sharpen his focus, or expand his memory capacity,” explains the pediatric and adult neuropsychologist.
“The new development in the field of education is that academic performance is no longer the turf of teachers, but also neuro-cognitive specialists,” shares Dr. Danov.
Neuropsychologists routinely administer various standardized cognitive and academic tests to young children. These specialists know how your child’s brain works, what each test measures and which cognitive skills are required to successfully complete each test. Neuropsychologists analyze test performance to determine cognitive strengths and weaknesses in order to understand a child’s learning style and improve weak cognitive skills to maximize academic performance.
“You don’t want to stress children over their academic and test performance. You want to determine your child’s learning style and gently guide her in a direction of maximized performance -- whether you have a gifted child, bright kid, or a child with learning problems.”
Pediatric specialists, who have several years of doctoral- level education and experience assessing and training children of all ages, are convinced it’s most important and necessary to strengthen attention, memory, critical thinking, organization and other cognitive skills so that it becomes part of daily thinking and task approach. Thus, the child approaches challenging academic and intellectual tasks empowered with the best cognitive tools, regardless whether it is GATE/TAG admissions test, independent private school entrance exam, or advanced academic material in class. You will help him prepare for more than just the admissions test. You will help him prepare for the future.
What are the helpful tips for preparing your child to score at her best on the admissions exams? Yes, reviewing a good test prep book with your child, a good night’s sleep, healthy breakfast, relaxed yet focused attitude, and other types of healthy advice is great, but not nearly sufficient to improve attention to details from the average to the superior level, where your child must perform in order to score at 99th percentile on GATE and TAG tests. NYC Department of Education offers OLSAT and BSRA preparation manuals to help parents prepare their children (download them free here). NYC Department of Education also offers OLSAT and BSRA sample questions (download them free here).
However, consistent with the growing knowledge of neuroscience of learning, it is unrealistic to expect that a child can be prepared for the OLSAT or BSRA tests in a few short tutoring sessions. Just like it would be unrealistic to promise that a few short coaching and tutoring sessions can dramatically improve memory retention and attention to detail, it is unreasonable to promise that a young child would dramatically improve his attention span in a few “magical” tutoring sessions. The human brain just does not work that way.
What works is a methodical tutoring and coaching approach that first detects cognitive strengths and weaknesses and then targets precisely the weak cognitive skills to boost child’s performance to the superior range, the coveted top percentile on OLSAT, ERB, BSRA, and other admissions tests.
For more information about Brain Academy and its new approach to preparation for the private school and gifted program admissions testing, or for a free consultation, contact Dr. Danov at the Brain Academy- Tutoring, Testing and Coaching Center of New York at intake(at)55mytutor(dot)com or call 877-55-MyTutor (877-556-9888). Or visit http://www.55mytutor.com/gifted_olsat_bsra_iq_test.html.
Free consultations are limited due to a high volume of calls. Offices are located in New York City, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Staten Island.
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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/admissionsERB/giftedOLSAT/prweb4306254.htm.