Dear customer,

Welcome to the January 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.

This month's feature article focuses on crime and safety on US university campuses. Read on to keep yourself safe!

Flip on the television and images of violence in America abound. From news clips on the most recent hunt for a new serial murderer to television series such as CSI: Miami, it sometimes seems that crime is woven into the very fabric of life in the US. From Singapore, where a single rape is headline-worthy news, US crime rates seem big, scary and ugly.

At the same time, many of us yearn to cross the Atlantic or Pacific in hopes of attaining what we believe might be the best education in the world. Therein lies the conflict: is an excellent university education in a cutting edge research environment worth exposure to astronomical crime rates?

In recent years, we’ve witnessed murders at both Yale University and the University of Virginia, shootings at Ohio State University and Virginia Tech, and a never ending stream of rape cases. Despite its status as a wealthy and powerful nation, the US has an undeniably high crime rate that seeps even into the lives of college students.

Read full article, including safety tips.

Are you a high scorer on the SAT? If you already have a 2000 or above, the below tips will help you bump up your mark even more.

Critical Reading

To score better on sentence completion questions, you simply need to put your nose to the grindstone and memorize SAT vocab. Studying etymology, or the prefixes, suffixes, and roots of words, will enhance your ability to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary.

Reading comprehension passages on the SAT can be divided into four types: humanities, social science, science, and literature. Most students can cope with the humanities and social sciences passages; it’s the science and literature passages, especially the long ones, that tend to trip up test-takers.  Figure out which passage types you are weaker in, and focus your test prep on those!

Particularly for the science passages, don’t be intimidated by the looooong words or technical jargon. You probably don’t need to understand their exact meanings to answer the questions correctly.

Read full article.

As mentioned in previous ICON+ blogs, using idiomatic expressions in your speaking and writing for the TOEFL and IELTS is a fantastic way to achieve top marks. Incorporating idioms into your sentences helps show the examiners your fluency in English. Furthermore, it adds emotion and creativity to your work.  If you are getting bored with your revision for TOEFL and IELTS, spice up your language by using some of the idiomatic phrases below in your speaking and writing.
 

Idiom: A piece of cake

Definition: A task that can be completed easily

Example: Making toast in the morning is a piece of cake.
 

Idiom: Go the extra mile

Definition: To go beyond what is expected or what is required.

Example: My teacher always goes the extra mile by staying behind after class to help me with my homework.
 

Check out more idioms.