college preparation news stories on Newser

Colleges Seek Kids' Opinions on Grapefruit, Perfect Crime

Ambreen Ali — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:34:00 CST

Bored with prospective students regurgitating textbook knowledge, Cambridge and Oxford have revamped their interview questions to include the abstract (Would you rather be a novel or a poem?), the existential (What does it mean to be happy?), and the downright crazy (How would you poison someone and get away with...

Test Prep Firm Accidentally Publishes Student Data

Nick McMaster — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:09:01 CDT

An error in the Princeton Review’s website left personal information and standardized test scores for tens of thousands of students exposed on the internet for 7 weeks, the New York Times reports after a rival test-prep firm informed the newspaper. Data on 34,000 students from Sarasota, Fla., and another...

PSAT Will Expand College Testing Stress to Jr. High

Nick McMaster — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:55:01 CDT

The College Board will start offering the PSAT to eighth-graders in 2010, the LA Times reports. Students normally take the exam, a precursor of the SAT, in 10th or 11th grade, but kids have been signing up earlier in recent years. Critics charge that the College Board is pushing the...

Arrivederci to AP Italian? Not So Fast, Educators Say

Wesley Oliver — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:24:01 CDT

Italian-American groups, outraged the Advanced Placement course in Italian language and culture could soon be shelved, have mobilized to save it. The College Board, which administers the AP program, plans to cut the $84 test and three others because of meager enrollment and funding. “We cannot have the Italian program...

The Nation's Best High Schools

Nick McMaster — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:00:03 CDT

Rather than GPAs or graduation rates, new research suggests, participation in AP and IB programs is the best indicator of academic success in college, even if the student does not do well in the advanced classes. In light of that, Newsweek presents the nation’s 100 best public high schools, measured...