Square sent me a free card reader that works with my iPad and set me up in a few minutes to accept credit cards for tutoring services. If you provide a mobile service and don’t yet take cards, I would certainly recommend looking at Square.

Thus far, the Square credit card reader has worked wonderfully.

This photo of the Square Reader by Capsun Poe and licensed under CC ND 2.0. Learn more about Capsun by visiting his blog at http://capsun.org/

For those wondering what kind of SAT or ACT scores it takes to get in to a particular Florida public university, here is the chart:

Thanks to SP for providing me with this chart of GPA, SAT, and ACT scores for FL Universities.

If you need help bring your SAT or ACT scores up, call Eric at 813.787.8959. He will help you with one-on-one private SAT or ACT prep at a very affordable cost.

Sports Geezer and Olympic Swimmer Dara Torres waves to the crowd after winning the silver in the 50 meter freestyle in Bejing. Photo by Bryan Allison. CC Attribution Only 2.0. See more of Bryan's photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996647372@N01

Pre-reading Vocabulary

Before you read the article, look up the meanings of any unfamiliar words or phrases from this list:

• Geezers
• mortifying
• unabashedly
• craggier
• Scorsese
• phenom
• sprightly
• complimentary and complementary (know the difference)
• satchel
• icon
• teeming with
• dated myself
• skeptic
• lofty

Checking Reading Comprehension

1. What is the general idea of Jason Gay’s article?
2. What is the structure of the article?
3. What point is the writer making in the first three paragraphs?
4. The next two?
5. The next seven?
6. What is his point about the motivation of older athletes made in the next paragraph?
7. What does he mean by “these athletes have perspective”?

Understanding the writer’s tone

1. What is the tone of the opening part of the column?
2. What is the tone of the ending of the piece?

Eric Anderson is a private SAT critical reading and writing tutor who lives in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Contact him at 813.787.8959 or by e-mail at eanderson216  at verizon dot net.

I have been meaning to actually do the free online practice SAT that College Board offers for many moons. Although I’ve done quadrillions of practice tests with Tampa SAT students, I’ve never actually logged in to do College Board’s  free one.

Tonight I did.

Do I know how to have fun on a Friday night or what? I was hoping for a pair of 800s in Critical Reading and SAT Writing and I came close.

My math score, however, remains a secret.

Test: Pretest
2011-2012
Date Taken: 05/04/2012

Student: Eric Anderson

At any rate, I spent part of this morning working a vocabulary-building exercise that uses “The Big Doubt Over Facebook,” which appeared in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

Book face photo by Massimo Barbieri. Photo licensed under CC Attribution Only 2.0. See more of Max's photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimobarbieri/

For those who want to give the kid a little extra vocab practice and get the WSJ, here is the SAT Critical Reading practice exercise I created:

“The Big Doubt over Facebook” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2012. The link to the article is good right now, but no guarantees.

Pre-Reading Vocabulary

Before you read, define these terms with part of speech:

1. Initial Public Offering (IPO):
2. nascent
3. dilemma
4. lofty valuation
5. revenue
6. social media
7. willy-nilly
8. alienate
9. highhanded
10. animosity
11. stymied
12. quantifiable
13. brand
14. metrics
15. ergo

In one or two sentences, answer the each of the following questions:

1. What is the general idea of the article?
2. How do the writers structure the story?
3. What points do the writers make about the doubts about Facebook?
4. What words would you use to describe the authors’ tone toward Facebook?

Eric Anderson is a freelance writer and SAT reading and writing tutor in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Contact him at eanderson216 at verizon dot net or by phone at 813.787.8959.

She includes a great run down of the ways that The  Chicago Manual of Style, Gregg’s Reference Manual and Garner’s Modern American Usage differ in the punctuation guidance they give.

This bulleted list isn't quite parallel and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Image by Ben Ostrosky and licensed under cc by 2.0. Visit's Ben's blog at http://sylvar.livejournal.com/

My pet peeve is bulleted lists that don’t follow the rules of parallel structure.

Eric Anderson is an English and history tutor in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

To be fair, the clerks were nice and took good care of me, and I was in and out in record time.

I was a little disconcerted by the security guard asking me to stand against the wall but that’s only because of bad memories of other encounters with cops. Just teasing.

I asked for free WiFi and free soft serve and cake on the service comment card, but I’m not holding my breath.

However, the Pasco County tag offices are really missing the boat by not running bingo to balance the  budget. They wouldn’t even need to hire a caller.

No charge for the genius idea, Mike Olson.

This post really does not have much to do with tutoring but still might be useful to you because of a few things the clerks shared with me.

My step daughter turns 19 in a few days and is moving out. Although I was at the tag office to renew my license, I happened to ask a question or two about a car that we are planning to gift to her. What I learned might help you if you are planning to let the kid take wheels when he or she blows town for college or for good.

This image created by Brian Cantoni who writes about software development, mobile websites, and occasionally sports with wit and grace. Visit his blog at http://www.cantoni.org/. The image is his and is licensed under CC by 2.0.

First, I learned that if convenience is your aim, it is better for married persons to title a car with OR (rather than AND) between the names, so that either half of the couple can do business with the title office. Fortunately, we followed this tip with the car in question.

Second, I learned that if you have a kid leaving home and are going to gift a car to him or her, do it before he or she leaves and changes driver’s license addresses.

When the kid’s and your driver’s licenses match home address, the plate can be transferred at a lower cost because of a “family exemption.”

Using the exemption lowers the cost by $200.

OK, now back to your regularly scheduled educational programming….

Eric Anderson is an English, history, SAT, and writing tutor who resides in lovely Wesley Chapel, FL. Reach him at 813 787 8959 or at Tampa tutor at Tampa bay dot rr dot com. He shares his thoughts about whatever tickles his pickle here.

Although I do not subscribe to the belief that test results are always a valid measure of the quality of teaching, I do think parents should know that they can take a look at how well the students of a particular AP teacher do on the exam that he or she is preparing them for.

Image by Jixar and licensed under CC by 2.0. See more of Jixar's photos on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/j1x4r/sets/

I think the information might be useful to examine so that parents could try to get their son or daughter into the  AP classes with instructors that have the best pass rates.  If I were a parent and the school that my son or daughter attended had several teachers of the AP course, I would look at the numbers.

If you feel the same way, get AP Exam pass rates for Hillsborough County by teacher at http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/interactives/ap-scores/

(This link has scores for both Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties…keep scrolling for Hillsborough County AP Test scores by school and teacher….)

I could not find the data for Pasco County AP results by teacher, so if anyone knows where it can be found, please post a link in the comments.

Eric is a private tutor in Wesley Chapel. He tutors writing and history, SAT, AP American Government, AP American History and AP World History. Call him at 813.787.8959 or email him at eanderson216 at verizon dot net.

We reviewed all of the major grammar rules tested on the SAT in one marathon session.  At any rate, our work together and the practice tests he took helped him make a 150-point increase! He already had a decent score, so getting to an elite level really took some doing.

Way to go, JV!

The shirt sported by many Princeton partisans at the Yale-Princeton game.

Princeton-Yale game photo courtesy of Peter Dutton. Photo is licensed under CC by 2.0.

Visit Peter’s world at http://joeshlabotnik.livejournal.com/

This image by Sakura licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Only 2.0 Generic. Visit Sakura's blog at The Little Things at http://sakura.blogsome.com/

I am thrilled for her and hope that the higher score will help her get into the university of her choice.

Great work, KM!

Eric