Dear customer,

Welcome to the May edition of ICON+’s University Access Newsletter. You are receiving this e-newsletter because you inquired about our test prep and/or admissions consulting services.

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College is that brand new, exciting venture. Finally you’re away from home, no longer under the thumb of parents monitoring your every movement, able to pursue your own interests. It seems a simple change, yet keeping that enthusiasm, and ensuring that you make the most of your university experience, is a little harder than it might seem.

During the first weeks at college students will find themselves inundated with offers to join various societies ranging in focus from academic, to sports, to humanitarian, to general interest and many more besides. Alongside your studies, you will not have time to do them all, but your first year can certainly be one for some experimentation. Take the time to try activities that you wouldn’t ordinarily try, and don’t limit yourself to only taking part in those societies that are directly supportive of your major. Whilst companies will of course want to see that you have understood and done well with the academic material once you graduate, they also want to see that you have expanded your interest and developed skills in other areas too.

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Colleges in the US demand that either the SAT or ACT exams be taken by all applying students. These are the standards that everyone gets measured against, for the simple reason that it can be difficult to relate a standard American curriculum student to someone taking A-Levels, or another taking IB, or whatever else. Having everyone take one of these two exams just makes things easier, and also gives a hint as to learning styles at US Universities.

The vast majority of students in Singapore will have heard of the SAT, but perhaps not really understand fully what it entails. Only a small smattering will probably have heard of the ACT, despite the fact that this has grown in popularity in the last few years and is very much a viable alternative to the SAT. It is unlikely that you will find any American college that would not accept both.

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In both the TOEFL and IELTS exams, the speaking section can present a problem not only in terms of sentence structure and coherence of thought, but also in terms of pronunciation. A number of students find themselves quite confident in terms of understanding ‘what’ they need to say, but struggle in ‘how’ to say it. A native accent can indeed be a difficult thing to overcome as this is likely to damage a score in the speaking section, but it can be worked on.

In short, practice makes perfect. Don’t fool yourself, also, into thinking than an American accent must be better for TOEFL and a British or Australian accent would be better for IELTS – all are acceptable. The exams are looking to be sure that you’re clear and that you articulate correctly, not that you can just mimic a native speaker well enough! You do, however, certainly need to be able to speak clearly otherwise your score will suffer as a result.

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