The question seems simple enough--does studying for the SAT help you score better when you actually take the test?

Common sense tells us the answer is yes. What do you do when it's time for a Geometry test?You study what's going to be on the test. What do you do before you take your road test for your driver's license?Get behind the wheel and cruise. What did LeBron James do to make that whamma jamma 3-pointer to beatOrlandolast Friday?Right--practice. Based on this iron-clad logic, taking a look at the SAT practice questions available in your school counseling office would sure seem to be a good idea before you crowbar yourself out of bed at dawn on a Saturday to take the actual test, especially since the new questions are patterned after the old ones.

On the other hand, this is college admissions we're talking about, a place where my seniors tell me common sense is sometimes uncommon (“They recalculated my GPA by taking out all of my Art classes, but Art is my major!”) Just as you're about to give up part of your Memorial Day weekend to do a little test prep, along comes a report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, saying students who test prep on the SAT usually don't improve more than 30 points. You might want to take a look at a summary of these results for yourself, at http://www.nacacnet.org/News/Newsfeed/Pages/Article.aspx?id=I109483552&type=News...

...and when you're done looking at that, take a peek at the related article from USA Today, where an impressive number of colleges say that a 30 point increase may be small, but it might be enough to really raise your chances of getting admitted, especially at some selective schools. This article can be found at http://www.nacacnet.org/News/Newsfeed/Pages/Article.aspx?id=I3176773572&type=News

If these two articles give you the same feeling you had when you first read the periodic table, join the club. If the report is true, students shouldn't bother prepping for the SAT, since scoring 30 more points isn't that big of a deal. Then, along come a number of colleges that say 30 points IS a big deal, since many colleges rely heavily on test scores to sort out students. This test-heavy reliance is something NACAC discourages, but colleges do it anyway--especially with many scholarships, where a minimum SAT score guarantees merit cash for a student.

On top of that, there's the other reporting source we started with--common sense. We all know a couple of students who blew out their second SAT attempt after doing some kind of intense studying. It may be that some students got nothing out of test prep, but then there's the study factor, something the report doesn't cover; did the kids who gained 200 points study harder than the students who only showed up to class to please their parents?

There's sure to be more push back on this study and what it means--for starters, call the colleges you're interested in and see if 30 points will matter to them. If you're not sure, or if you want to play it safe, my money's with LeBron's approach to making his dreams come true. Even if you don't have the bucks to spend on private test prep, use the free pamphlets and the free online materials to sharpen your game before the 8AM tipoff. Once you know your opponent, it's easier to make the test-prep highlight reel with a killer score--and like it or not, that matters to some colleges.

There's a lull in the wonderful world of college admissions, so this is the perfect time to talk about why choosing a college is so hard, in 3 words or less:

Choice and change.

This sounds pretty simple, but there is a world of “Whoa!” behind the idea that students can choose the colleges they apply to. Most students don't have a choice about kindergarten, middle school, or high school--you go to the public school that's closest to your house, or you go to the school your parents have in mind. After 11 years of being trained to go where you're told, someone like me comes by and says “OK--2600 colleges on the menu. What looks good?”

No wonder you're scared you'll make a bad choice--you've never done this before, your friends have never done this before, there's 3 million other students with the same lack of experience you have trying to get into the same colleges you want to go to, and there's all that paperwork. This is not only a big deal, it's a new deal...

...and to quote the only US President who flunked out of Columbia Law School, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself. You may be a little green when it comes to choosing schools, but you figure out what to wear, eat, listen to and do on weekends without much help at all--and given the huge number of choices about Internet Web sites, choosing 8 colleges to apply to out of a paltry 2600 should be a breeze.

Of course, it's easier to make a choice if the choices don't change very much-- but colleges are better at making change than the soda machine at school. Just this week, New York University changed the tests they require for everyone applying for admission; you can now send just the ACT, the SAT with two subject tests, the SAT and two APs, the--well you get the idea. NYU says they made the change to offer students--you guessed it--more choice, but many counselors say this freedom creates more stress than it reduces; just tell the kids what to do, and they will happily comply.

Sometimes I wish college was like that, but it isn't--neither is life, and part of college involves getting you ready for making the most out of what you know, even if you don't know everything. Once you have some colleges in mind, check their Web sites about application procedures for next year. After that, call them to ask if they plan on making any changes to those procedures this summer--with this economy, they may make changes about everything from the application fee to financial aid procedures. You don't know that--heck, maybe even they don't know that--but asking will most likely make you smarter, even if the answer is “We don't know yet. Call again in August.”

As you start the college search, you can tell yourself you don't know enough to make this choice, and that the changes are just too confusing-- or you can think about who you are, what you like, what matters to you, and go from there. Yesterday in the school cafeteria, you chose between the gross brown casserole and the gross yellow casserole with less background knowledge than that--lead from your strength, do an online college search, (collegeboard.com or princetonreview.com have two nice ones) ask a lot of questions, and persist. Knowing what you don't know is the first step to freedom--and wouldn't that be a nice choice for a change?

As seniors continue to weigh their college options and colleges continue to look for the crystal ball that will tell them how many students are really coming to campus this fall, a small story broke this week that should be of great interest to juniors. Colby College is now giving applicants the choice of submitting either the SAT or the ACT OR three SAT Subject tests. The addition of the option of sending Subject tests adds a brand new option to test takers. Since Subject tests are designed to measure what students have learned in classes, students might decide these tests will better show what they know and require lest test prep.

Colby's decision adds another test choice in a year that's rich with new test choices. College Board is now offering students the option of choosing what scores to send to colleges--remember that College Board used to send all SAT results to a college, leaving the student no choice but to send low scores along with high ones. College Board feels this new option will take some of the stress out of test taking...

...but of course, it hasn't. Some colleges have responded to this new option by announcing they are going to require students to send ALL test scores, even if College Board and ACT offers the choice of sending only some. Counselors have expressed concern that the new policy will put more pressure on students who may have a high Verbal score on one test and a high Math on the other--will sending both be an advantage, or will the low scores on both put them behind the 8 ball?

Finally, all of this test talk has led even more colleges to look at their testing policies and say “Ya know what? Forget it!” Connecticut College is the latest school to go test optional; you can send some, all, or none of your test scores, and it's more than OK with them. CC joins hundreds of colleges who have made the same decision--since test prep courses can sometimes teach students to appear smarter than they are, the transcript is becoming a more reliable source of information, even though grading scales vary greatly from one high school to the next. http://www.fairtest.org/ has a list of test-optional schools; take a look, and be sure to go to the college's Web site to confirm the policy.

What's a junior to do in the midst of all this change? First, take a test. Unless you know all the colleges you want to apply to are test optional, there's a good chance you're going to need a set of scores come September--and since rolling admission colleges are first come first serve, you want to have a set of scores good to go. It's not too late to sign up for the late spring tests, so get busy--go to www.collegeboard.com and www.act.org for SAT and ACT, respectively.

Second, watch the Web sites. Colby and Connecticut College announced their changes this week, but many other colleges are so focused on this year's seniors, they might not get around to making their announcements until May. The changes may not impact your decisions about which tests to take and which scores to send, but you never know the opportunities new changes might bring. So bookmark the Web pages of your favorite colleges, sign up for a test or two, and buckle up--the ride may get pretty wild.