In this activity, Landon continued to work on the calculator portion of the PSAT practice exam. A new exam for Landon will be started on 7/05.

Landon took a practice PSAT test with his mom and she reported the scores. We reviewed Landon's incorrect answers, and most of the questions he missed were a result of reading the passages too fast. I encouraged Landon to slow down when reading and use all the time available for the test. He enjoys reading for fun, so I suggested he continue the Percy Jackson series to study sentence patterns

In this activity, Landon continues to do very well on his practice exams and is able to keep within the time restraints. We only stop the exam when an incorrect response is made or we stop when it's important to talk about strategies used.

In this activity, Landon continued to work on the on line practice exam and will complete the exam in his next session. He has the speed and skills to do very well with practice.

In this activity, Landon started a new, on line, PSAT practice exam. Landon moves very fast though the problems and I am encouraging him to slow down to eliminate careless errors. I am also encouraging Landon to write down the process rather than solving most problems in his head.

I asked Landon on a scale of 1-5 (l=low, 5=high) how confident he felt with his learning. He said 4, and felt a practice test would help him. Landon took the practice test quickly but only missed one question. I asked him what caused his success, and he said reading the Percy Jackson series of books helped him become familiar with sentence patterns. I encouraged him to continue reading and practicing strategies which help him. He wants to take another practice test when we meet in person next week.

In this activity, Landon used the graphing feature of his calculator to reinforce his understanding of the workings of functions. He also completed half of the exam that allows the use of his calculator. This will be a valuable tool in his work next year in pre-calculus.

In this activity, Landon covered basic PSAT test taking strategies. We also talked about which calculator is best for all standardized tests and in the mathematics classroom. We then completed the non calculator portion of the exam.

Landon practiced slowing down when reading, but is concerned it will influence his reading comprehension. I suggested that he read aloud at home and told him there was no perfect reading rate because it is different for every student. I encouraged him to practice reading faster or slower until he felt comfortable with his reading pace. He is concerned about grammar, so I told both twins to make learning grammar and vocabulary fun by using strategies such as playing Worldle, playing Scrabble, teaching words to other people, and watching the Grammar Rock cartoon instructional videos on YouTube. Landon is excited aboout reading the Percy Jackson series, so I recommended he uses books he enjoys to study details about characters and plot.

Landon wanted to review the questions he missed on the practice PSAT. He admitted racing through the questions, so I compared test preparation to a doctor preparing for surgery. Since Landon wants to be a doctor, this idea connected with him. The questions he missed were focused on specific details, so I encouraged him to practice a strategy called "close reading," where readers pay attention to as many details as possible in a small section of text. We also discussed grammar and test taking strategies.