How could a person get college ready?

[Pamela H in Texas]

Could a bright, motivated student become college ready in just a year? The person has had plenty of exposure, but not enough systematic learning. The person took the college entrance/placement exam and shows needing all the remedial classwork. What materials could the person use at home, especially for the writing and reading, to get ready?

[creekland]

Where did they place for math? Do they need Alg or Pre-Calc, etc?

[Jane in NC]

In my opinion, students who create a habit of reading over their lifetime are in a better position to succeed in college as well as display via standardized testing that they can succeed. Is this student a reader who is unable to demonstrate abilities in a placement exam? You write that the student had "exposure"--does that mean he/she read wheelbarrows of books but did not analyze them in the traditional sense or that he/she has had more of a Reader's Digest education, i.e. abridged bits and pieces of this and that?

 

I guess what I am trying to ascertain is if the problem is simply that the student is unfamiliar with the nature/procedure of entrance exams or if deeper remediation is required.

 

If the latter, than I would suggest plenty of reading, writing and discussion. I fear there is no magic bullet.

[regentrude]

I would expect that the hardest subject to catch up may be math because of the sequential nature. A literate person should be able to catch up on English in a year, but for math a lot depends on where the student currently is placing.

Can you tell us a bit more?

[Pamela H in Texas]

I fear there is no magic bullet.

 

Yes, that was my fear for this person also. He really wants to do better now, but it looks like he may be so far behind that it may take a couple years to catch up enough to be ready to move on.

 

As for levels: I don't really know how all that works. I think the first remedial math is a basic math course. He'll probably be able to pass that easily enough. I'm sure he could test out of that if he just went over the topics to make sure he has them all down (I would guess that he had a major gap or two as he seems capable of doing math in real life). Writing and reading were also the lowest levels. According to the college, it would take four semesters to catch up if you did a class per semester (I know on the math, there is a way to do self-paced; but I'm not sure you can do that for the others).

 

Anyway, he hates reading and writing, has always found it difficult. He just wasn't a particularly interested student. For what he wants to do, he'll only have a handful of liberal arts (non-training specific) courses: Speech, Composition I, Psych...I think there were four or five such courses. It wasn't bad. But all of those will require having passed the entrance/placement test or taking the remedial courses.

 

I had wondered if maybe a GED prep (maybe SOS?) would work.

I had hoped y'all would have a great idea :)

 

(PS - this information may help my hubby also who just has found focusing on this difficult since it seems like SO much...I would guess that is the issue for many working/family men).

[Teachin'Mine]

I would think that GED prep should work nicely for getting up to speed in reading, writing and math - he won't need the history and shouldn't need science, unless some background would be helpful for his courses. I'm not familiar with Lial's, but I know it's often recommended for basic math and algebra. I'm guessing he's stronger in math than English, and he might be able to work through the texts at a faster pace than he could in their classes. You can ask the college which placement test they use, if you aren't sure, and then go to the College Boards website and see what's on the test and do some practice. It may give you a better idea of how to prepare. He might do well to do a mixture of preparing on his own and taking some of their pre-college courses. Tell him to keep the goal in mind - good for him!!!

[Mommyfaithe]

GED prep and a prep class may work....at least he could find his gaps and work on those. I think the specialized prep books, rather than one big one is better....more practice. He should take lots of practice tests....see where he needs work, and then work on those areas.

 

It can seem terribly overwhelming.....

 

Faithe

[Shellers]

He should take a few online classes at a junior college.

[Nan in Mass]

I would encourage him to read, as well as do specific prep work. A vocabulary program can help with reading ability. So can some sort of grammar (helps one to decypher sentences with more unusual structures or ones with many phrases). Spending a few hours every day reading something easy and appealing can help with reading ability because it helps one to speed up. Louis L'Amour cowboy books, Reader's Digest magazine, Popular Science, the Artemis Fowle series (might have spelled that wrong) are all things that might be appealing enough that spending a few hours a day on them wouldn't be too much of a chore. As his reading speeds up and becomes easier, he won't dread it as much. The same with writing - when it goes faster, he won't dread it as much. With both reading and writing there is a hump that one has to get over: it is hard to do them because one can't do them fast and easily and one can't do them fast and easily until one has done lots of it. I would try to find out whether he tends towards whole to parts or parts to whole learning, also. If he tends towards whole to parts, then when he does specific excerisizes in grammar and vocabulary, he will need extra practice with the whole process or applications (like dictation or reading passages that use the vocabulary) in order to make the information he just explicitly learned in isolation useful. He will need to see where he is going before he can start learning the parts. This may be part of why he hasn't found learning very interesting in the past. Sometimes something as simple as reading the table of contents of the textbook before starting and periodically thereafter can be helpful. I would make sure he knows how to memorize something, how to keep something memorized, how to break up big tasks into little ones and make a check list, how to keep an assignment book, how to pick out the important points and take notes, how to skim for a specific piece of information, how to use an index and table of contents, computer skills (like typing and knowing what a reputable source is), and how the learning process works, also, since those are key to being able to manage college. The community college may have classes that teaches these skills. I know ours has a how to use your computer class and a study skills class. Things like how to use the library or the internet for research are covered in composition 1. If he is looking at community college, you may be able to put off many of those skills until after he has managed to pass the placement tests, or at least managed to pass parts of them.

 

Nan

I think you need to have very specific assessment of where he is in each of these subjects, before doing anything else. Without this, it is impossible to say how long it might take to catch up.

[Yolanda in Mass]

I think you need to have very specific assessment of where he is in each of these subjects, before doing anything else. Without this, it is impossible to say how long it might take to catch up.

 

:iagree:

[1Togo]

You might consider going to a community college and having take the Compass test. That will give both of you a good idea of his placement in math and English. Then, he could start with those classes at the cc.