Students get help prepping for SATs
R.B., L.B. students get boost for college entrance exams
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Above, Adjunct Professor Mary Bulvanoski helps local high school students prepare for college-entrance exams during an SAT prep class at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, on March 4.

WEST LONG BRANCH - As a matter of choice, some area high school students are rising early on Saturday mornings to go to college.

About 40 of those students were expected to show up this past Saturday at Monmouth University to get ready for the standardized test that could ultimately determine if they are accepted to the college of their choice.

That test, of course, is the dreaded SAT, and admissions representatives at Monmouth are hoping to make the examination less nerve-racking for the students in the test preparation workshops.

In two, three-hour sessions, two or three instructors have been tutoring large and small groups of students, mainly from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, in the verbal, reading and math portions of the SAT via exercises similar to those they might face on the actual test, according to Lauren Vento Cifelli, Monmouth's director of undergraduate admissions.

"As a university in the local area, we feel that it is part of our mission to help those in the community," Cifelli said last week.

"We thought that this would be a good way to help these students gain access to higher education."

One purpose of the sessions is to level the playing field for college-bound students whose families might lack the financial means for private SAT tutoring, Cifelli explained.

The sessions are also designed to build the students' confidence and help them be less jittery about taking the SAT when the time comes, she noted.

"They get the necessary preparation for the SAT," Cifelli said. "Without the SAT and without a good score, they might not get into the school of their choice."

To relieve pre-SAT stress, the instructors encourage the students to voice their concerns about taking the test.

"The instructors try to get the students to relax and feel comfortable with the exam," Cifelli said. "They have discussion time during the session. They help them to open up and try to find out what they feel nervous about."

CHRIS KELLY staff

Program organizers hope that the students signed up for the session, which began this past Saturday morning inside the Magill Commons, will return for the second class in the series scheduled for this Saturday.

The classes run for three hours each from 9 a.m. to noon with a short break, Cifelli said.

"The students really enjoy the program," she said. "It's a lot of work to get all the preparation over two days, but it's worthwhile."

Most participants attend high schools in Abbott districts such as Long Branch, Keansburg, Lakewood and Neptune, and several from Red Bank Regional High School are in the tutoring sessions as well, Cifelli said.

All participants are selected by guidance counselors at their home school.

"We've been working closely with the guidance counselors. They know best which students need financial help and are serious about continuing onto higher education," she said.

At the first class, students receive the actual SAT application to be completed at home and turned in at the following week's class.

Most of the students in the current session anticipate taking the SAT administered in May or June, Cifelli said.

The university picks up the registration fee for the participants, along with costs for the instructor's course materials, and refreshments, she noted.

In between classes, the students have homework, that is, study guides to be completed at home.

Even after the course ends, the students can work on study guides provided by the university as a means of practicing for the test itself, Cifelli added.

"It's up to the students to decide how much they want to put into it," she said.

The first half of the class is devoted to the SAT's verbal section under the tutelage of Mary "Dee" Bulvanoski, owner of Clear Advantage SAT Prep Services, Oceanport. Bulvanoski is also an adjunct professor of English at Monmouth.

Together with Cifelli, she developed a workshop geared to the needs of high school students who otherwise would not have access to the prep classes.

During the second half, students are divided into two sub-groups to work on both the critical reading and math exercises, taught by two other instructors from Clear Advantage, she said.

According to Bulvanoski, response to the program has been greater than expected.

"We had such a tremendous response to the outreach," she said. "Initially, we planned on capping the group at 30, but 40 students signed up and they were so excited to be there. We just felt that they came with motivation and we helped to empower them, and we are excited about closing the gap."

This past Saturday and next, Kelly Korz, Monmouth's counselor for special admissions, plans to guide students through the reading review.

"The instructors assess the needs of the class and decide where it needs to go," Cifelli said.

Students are also welcome to meet with instructors individually should they need more assistance, she pointed out.

This year is the second for the program, which began last winter as a one-day tutoring workshop done in conjunction with Long Branch High School, Cifelli said. Nineteen students attended that seven-hourlong session, she added.

Though Cifelli says it is still too early to gauge the program's success, students who have been tutored are glad they came.

"The guidance counselors have received very positive feedback from students who participated last year," Cifelli said.

The university chose to open the program up to more high schools this year, and with the recruitment efforts of guidance counselors another 16 students came to the tutoring sessions held on Feb. 11 and 18.

"We hope that with this preparation and the support of the guidance counselors, they are able to continue their education," Cifelli said.

While the university administration hopes that the participants will be impressed enough with Monmouth to enroll there as undergraduates, they are more interested in seeing the students continue with their post-high school education at whatever college they want to attend.

"Our hope is that they will enroll in college somewhere," Cifelli said.

The admissions staff first came up with the idea for the SAT tutoring for students from Abbott districts as a means of encouraging higher education and to reach out to the community, Cifelli said.

The university administration gave its blessing to the initiative.

"They agreed that it would be a good idea, and we implemented it," Cifelli said.

This summer, Monmouth will offer the tutoring to 30 students in similar circumstances for a full week courtesy of a grant from the Johnson & Johnson Corp. in New Brunswick.

The corporate support will help keep the tutoring going, and more importantly allow the university to reach more students who might otherwise find getting into college a struggle, Cifelli said.

"Our goal is to encourage students to continue their studies and provide as much assistance in the community as we can," she said.