Book review

Thinking about morning routines

Thinking about morning routines

SAT scores are weird. You get a number, ending in a zero, on a scale of 200 to 800, twice: one for reading & writing, one for math. You get a total score between 400 and 1600...except, of course, for those years when the writing was separate and you got somewhere between 600 and 2400. You're allowed to take the test multiple times and combine your highest reading & writing score with your highest math score, giving you a "superscore" that's higher than the total scores you got any of the individual times you took the test.

And then what? What does that number even mean?

Some book recommendations

Some book recommendations

Last week I gave a talk at a local P.T.O. meeting, explaining to a room of parents why the phrase "it looks good to colleges" is a red flag, what the "Am I worthy?" mindset is, and why it's a better idea to treat college admissions like a relationship. After the talk, a woman asked if I had any books I could recommend. Of course I do! Here are four, in no particular order.

Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Cal Newport is a Computer Science professor and productivity writer. You may have seen his recent piece in the New York Times about social media. While his intended audience has shifted toward professionals, specifically "knowledge workers," earlier in his career he wrote a lot about and for students. 

Two of Newport's earlier books are especially good for ambitious high school students.