"An army can be likened to water; water flees from the high places and seeks out the low. Thus must an army flee from strength and attack weakness." Sun Tzu, The Art of War


"The primary thing when one picks up a sword is the purpose to cut the enemy, whatever the means." Musashi Miyamoto, The Book of Five Rings


I don't know a lot about history. However,I was once told--or maybe I saw it in a movie, which seems more likely--that the warmaster Shaka Zulu employed a particular battle tactic that analogyzes nicely with test preperation. King Shaka would put his weakest (and hence most disposable) warriors at the foremost place in his attacking force, front and center. Since prevailing military wisdom (and indeed, common sense) dictated that one should attack from a position of strength, Shaka's weakest forces--those holding together the center of his army---would be inferior to the men they faced, and would be at a disadvantage, combat-wise.


As I heard the story, "at a disadvantage" does not adequately characterize the plight of King Shaka's core contingent. In fact, they would be slaughtered. The enemy, upon meeting such easy resistance at the outset, would push forward into what they thought was easy victory. So anxious would the enemy warriors be that, by the time they realized that they had fought their way through the soft center and were surrounded on all sides by Shaka's best warriors, they were doomed.


Such a gory image--and one can only imagine the horror of Shaka's enemies on those bloodsopped savannas--probably holds currency for those in the midst of test preperation. The makers of standardized tests use more than simple knowledge against us; they also use our own humiliation and exhaustion. By the time we know enough to be able to devise a strategy, we are too exerted to implement it. Shaka's brilliance, although it must have come as scant comfort to his lowest minions, lay in the realizaton that by turning his weakness into strength, he could synergistically make his strengths invincible.


In this same spirit, I offer two core tools to you who are preparing to take a standardized test: concentrate on middle-difficulty questions, and re-work questions that you have previously done. I tell my students this frequently, and most often they don't want to hear it. After all, they reason, if they can solve the hardest questions on the test, surely the easy ones will fall into place. This accords with common sense, but see above. There are times when common sense can get one surrounded, and when strategy requires doing the seemingly nonsensical.


By concentrating primarily on middle-difficulty questions, we learn to think like the testmakers. Remember, most of the questions you have to answer--the strong core of your score--will be middle-difficulty. Working these questions allows you not only think about the individual problems themselves, but also the more subtle elements of your test. Don't just ask yourself what the answers to the problems are; study the wrong answers; study the way the questions are phrased; look for those patterns to reappear.


Likewise, work problems that you have seen before. This is perhaps the hardest test-preperation strategy to convince my students to follow, which is a shame because it's one of the best. Students, understandably, want to work new questions that they have not seen before. However, see "common sense," supra. Re-working problems a month or two after you've last seen them allows you to re-examine the test from a structural and strategic perspective rather than a purely reactive one. It allows the student to re-examine wrong-answer choices that once might have looked tempting, and to catalogue them. Having thus catalogued them, you'll be able to reject those wrong-answer types when you see them on the real test.




▼▽▼▼Douglasの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【Smoke and Makuuchi】2008.10.01 (Wed)
･【It's Always Something】2008.10.22 (Wed)

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There's more than one way to skin a cat
Why is it that you do better in some classes than in others? Of course there can be several reasons, but your individual learning style may also affect your performance.
Test questions like anything else can be tackled in a variety of different ways - all of which can lead to the correct answer. Some people may understand a problem explained verbally, others may prefer a visual explanation, while others may prefer to work through the problem by themselves. Some people see learning as a means to an ends and just don't like it at all!


Identifying your own learning style can take some time and effort and unfortunately as we get older we tend to get more and more stuck in our old ways. There are a number of pop quizzes available online such as MBTI and Multiple Intelligences which can help you glean a feel for your most predominant style but the most important thing to do is some self-analysis. (If you want feedback on the MBTI quiz you can get it here.)


Start by looking at your past learning experiences and reflect on both the positives and negatives. What were your study habits? Which worked best/worst? What was the environment like? How much time did you spend studying? Next, move to the present and analyze what you need to change to improve your learning efficiency to emulate your ideal learning conditions. Finally, draw up a plan, stick to it and review it regularly.


Plans and routines are great but it is also important to note that you shouldn't be afraid of exploring new ways of learning from time to time. Although you may feel you are comfortable with a certain routine that you are 'used to' sometimes it can be beneficial to try a different approach and step outside your comfort zone to explore an alternative way of doing something. The classroom is the best place to take risks, make mistakes and try out new strategies, as this will better prepare you for whatever it is you hoping to achieve outside the classroom.




▼▽▼▼Paulの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【The Pareto Principle】2008.10.15 (Wed)

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We talk to students every day who are working hard to improve their test scores.
For non-native English speakers, of course, the four basic language skills (reading, speaking, listening and writing) are crucial for success in academic settings abroad, so these are all tested in the new TOEFL iBT.


For most people, writing is the most difficult of these skills to master. As a result, students tend to avoid it, hoping to improve more on the others. In fact, however, it's relatively easy to make significant improvements in writing scores, so it pays to put some effort into writing. Even if you have problems with grammar and language use, you can improve your score significantly with better organization and by learning how to improve the content. And don't forget - the ability to write a logical, easy to understand essay will come in handy after you're admitted to your new school, as well!


Kaplan's courses provide you with the tools you need to successfully write essays for the TOEFL, as well as other tests. For those wanting to improve their writing even more, we even have courses which concentrate exclusively on this skill.


If you want to improve your overall score quickly, don't neglect writing!




▼▽▼▼【講師】Kurt先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【How much will I improve?】2008.10.08 (Wed)

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There's are two old sayings of which I'm particularly fond; "It's always something," and "Things change." Now, these aren't particularly deep sayings at first browse. They certainly don't have the epistemological avoirdupois of "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" Nonetheless, each has a certain ontological pith. They are sayings with long fuses, apt to detonate when almost forgotten.


And that's what I like about them; their simplicity belies their profundity. Of the two, "It's always something" likely requires more explanation to the non-native speaker of English. The "it" in the saying is, basically, life itself, whereas the "something" is adversity, or at least the ethereality of perfection. I might say "it's always something" when my car blows a tire while I'm on my way to an important meeting, or my cell phone dies exactly when I most need it. When I was a kid and tried to make excuses to avoid mowing the yard (it's raining, it's snowing, I have a broken leg), my father would say, "it's always something." Translation, "do it anyway." In this way, the saying is somewhat akin to Japan's "ganbatte."

I love the saying "Things change" even more, because it is entirely bereft of reconditeness. The saying means exactly what the two words mean. Your favorite ice-cream shop goes out of business? Things change. Your girlfriend leaves you for someone who does not eat fruit directly from the fruit section of the supermarket? Things change. Your best friend betrays you and sells you into slavery while you are on safari? Things change. The world ends? One apprehends the picture.


Despite their somewhat resigned and fatalistic nature, neither of these sayings should be conflated with that omnipresent Japanese rejoinder "It can't be helped." I despise that phrase, because it smacks of submission rather than efficacy. "It can't be helped" indicates that one has stopped trying; "It's always something" and "things change" imply endeavor and perseverence.


Both sayings fit nicely into the lexicon of students preparing for standardized tests. It is, indeed, always something. You have your job, your family, and your life to contend with even as you struggle to prepare for a tough test. It's likely to be discouraging, infuriating, and even humiliating. But things change; do the work, fight the angst, and you will get better and stronger and tougher and, ultimately, ready.




▼▽▼▼Douglasの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【Smoke and Makuuchi】2008.10.01 (Wed)

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Tokyo must be one of the busiest cities I've lived in and everyone seems constantly rushed off their feet. So, with this blog in mind I decided to write about something loosely related to saving time.


The Pareto Principle, better known as the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of the results from any series of actions are caused by 20% of the actions themselves. In other words, most of the success we achieve comes from a small minority of our actions. The rest are either wasted or produce little of value, despite the amount of time we may spend on them. Some everyday examples of this include: 80% of delays in schedule arise from 20% of the possible causes of the delays, companies have 80% or their revenues from just 20% of their products and on a micro level you may make 80% of your phone calls to just 20% of your acquaintances. Clearly this is not an exact science and the 80/20 is just a rule of thumb for the general principal at work. The value of the Pareto Principle is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters most. This general concept can be applied to almost anything, not least studying.


Most study involves vast amounts of reading which can be very time consuming. Applying the Pareto Principle can help with this. For instance, rather than spending 3 hours to read 3 articles in detail (which may not be relevant to you), spend 5 minutes glancing through 12 articles (1 hour) and then spend an hour each on the two best ones (2 hours). Likewise, in terms of language learning it makes sense to focus on those words or grammatical structures that are most frequently used - you don't need to know a grammar book back-to-front to be an effective communicator. In test prep, those question types that occur most often, or those strategies with the biggest impact, may also fall into the 20% category. Using this general idea to focus your studies on key areas can help you manage your time more efficiently, while still achieving your goal.


Some people do strive for 100% perfection. However, in most situations we have neither the time nor resources to achieve a perfect score or learn every detail. Focusing on the critical 20% is an effective strategy to optimize your bang for your buck. In the case of standardized tests, your ability to identify the areas of the test that have the biggest impact on your overall score is crucial. Similarly, in the admissions process schools may place more emphasis on certain areas of your application; some schools may place more importance on personal essays while others may focus more on test scores or interviews. Identifying the most important areas and how they relate to your strengths and weaknesses will inevitably give you a better chance of success. The most important point is to identify what activities generate the best results and give them your appropriate attention.


Sometimes it can be difficult to identify what exactly are the most important areas to focus on as everybody's situation is different. Doing a little research, taking practice tests and having counseling sessions with your teacher are some of the tools at your disposal to help you figure out what is most important for you. Although all this may seem equally time consuming, it will pay off in the long run.


The point of the Pareto principle is to recognize that most things in life are not distributed evenly. Therefore it is often a good idea to make decisions on allocating time, resources and effort based on this. Remember, if you have to miss out something in your study plan, make sure it's not part of the 20 percent that matters most.

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