...is a good test score, right? Maybe not, but if I were a betting woman (and I'm not) but if I were, I'd wager that any test-taker would relish the idea of getting a fantastic score on their test of choice this holiday season. It's just too bad that friends and family can't purchase a high score (legally) so testers typically get what the rest of the country does: a nice sweater set or a 10-pack of tube socks.

At any rate, here's my list of the Top 10 Things Testers Really Want This Holiday Season:

1. A pencil sharpener that won't eat half of your pencil.
2. Test questions that miraculously adapt to the specific cultural, ethnic, regional, and religious affiliations of the test-taker.
3. Practice tests that don't make you feel like an absolute idiot.
4. Free Starbucks for life if you score a 13 R or higher on the MCAT.
5. A  masseuse to work out the kinks in your hand the second it cramps up during scantron oval-filling.
6. A personal tutor with the brains of Einstein and the face of a Greek god/goddess.
7. Chocolate chip cookies as brain food.
8. The innate ability to tune out (choose one) annoying roommates/noisy children/meddling friends when you're trying to study.
9. People who score higher than you on the LSAT to mysteriously choose to join the Peace Corps.
10. And last but not least....Three words: NO MORE SAT.

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So what's your holiday wish? Add it here, in my forum!

Oli Scarff/ Getty Images

The empire may have struck back in Star Wars, but it's nothing compared to what Empire Edge, a Manhattan-based tutoring company is conquering in the standardized test market, particularly for the SAT.

If you've checked the link, you'll see that the website isn't all that snazzy - nothing compared to the Princeton Review or Kaplan. So why am I impressed?

Empire Edge's iPhone app for SAT Math, called Adapster.

If you've read my stuff before, you know that I have a list of of the best iPhone apps for the SAT. Well, this one's going on there immediately.

Jody Steinglass, with his undergraduate degree in Economics from Yale and his Masters in Interactive Education from NYU, is the founder of  Empire Edge and the whiz behind Adapster.

The app is unlike any other SAT study app I've seen. It's truly adaptable to the user. For instance - if you answer a question incorrectly about quadrilaterals, the software makes note of it, and offers you further instruction on that concept while assembling more of those types of questions for you to work on. It also offers hand-written explanations of the theory behind the correct answer and tutorials with question-answering strategies for what you've missed.  Amazing. Just check out the demo - you'll see!

Why should you study concepts you already understand? With this app, you don't have to.

Currently, Adapster is only running SAT Math. However, SAT Reading and Writing is coming soon (in the next few months) and the ACT will be following soon after.

Bonus? Steinglass' software is not just intended for the iPhone. His long-term goal is to "transform the role of technology in education" by tailoring instruction toward the unique needs of every student in classrooms across the country:

"Scores of students of different abilities can sit in the same classroom with the same instructor and still enjoy a customized experience that keeps each of them challenged and motivated."

Will his technology work to truly differentiate learning? I don't know. But I do know that the app is fabulous and it's refreshing that someone is actually thinking about education in a 21^st-century kind of way (for once).

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Did you like the demo? Leave me a comment below!

Photo courtesy Empire Edge

I've mentioned Grockit before - you know, the website where the test prep is less about boring and more about gaming? Well, today, Grockit announced a new leg of their test prep journey:

The GRE.

They already provide gaming test prep for the SAT, ACT, and GMAT, but as of today, they've added the GRE to their repertoire.

Are you planning to take the GRE? Are you bored with traditional test prep? Then maybe Grockit is right for you: compete with fellow test-takers, get real-time online assistance from tutors, and determine which section of the test you need the most help on.

After all, the first few days are free, and as you'll discover...

...the games are addictive.

The LSAT is coming up on December 5, and with that high-stakes test approaching, LSAT tutors are in a frenzy, trying to help their pupils prep for the task.

Steve Schwartz, an LSAT tutor in New York, is gearing up for the big day, too.  He recently asked me a few questions about LSAT anxiety and procrastination for his blog, and I was happy to provide him some answers.

I'm happy to give them to you, too, if you're asking yourself some of these same questions Steve asked me:

1. What are some ways that test-takers can force themselves to sit down and look at their LSAT books?
2. Given that the LSAT is such a high-stakes exam, what are some ways to make the stress manageable?
3. What are some ways test-takers can cope if they freeze up on Test Day?
4. How can test-takers make the 3-week-wait for their test scores more bearable?

If you'd like to see my answers, check out the interview here!

What are you thankful for this holiday season? In my forum, we're discussing the little stuff we're thankful for. We all know we're thankful for the biggies - family, friends, health, jobs, houses, cars - but sometimes, we forget to be thankful for that little stuff. The stuff that keeps us going day in and day out.

So here's some of the things people have been thankful for in my forum:

1. Stickers (to help potty train toddlers)
2. PUR water filter
3. The ability to conceive (that's a biggie, but goodie, so we'll keep it)
4. Hand sanitizer
5. P-touch label machine
6. The morning light
7. Disposable diapers
8. Diaper Genie
9. Laptops
10. Coffee

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What about you? Show some holiday spirit and add your "little thing to be thankful for" to the list. I'll be thankful you did!

Photo © Flickr user Road Fun

This comes from The Princeton Review's Cracking the SAT 2009 Edition:

In the xy-plane, which of the following is a point of intersection between the graphs of y = x + 2 and y = x² + x - 2?

(A) (0,-2)

(B) (0, 2)

(C) (1, 0)

(D) (2, 4)

(E) (3, 5)

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Post your answer here in my forum!

For many people, reading is a barely managed chore.

It ranks right up there with cleaning a toilet, picking up after your dog, and listening to a server explain the specials of the day in a long, boring monologue despite the fact that you've told her repeatedly you aren't interested in the specials.

Things that make you want to stick a fork in your eye.

For some, reading has the same effect. It's mundane. A chore. Long passages of text are confusing, irritating, and filled with incomprehensible words. A person can certainly practice to become a skilled reader as an adolescent or adult, but the best way to help a person become an effective reader is to start young when he or she is a listener.

With children, you have to teach them to think critically about what they're hearing. When you're reading to them, coach them, too: Is this something they've heard before? What does this mean? Can they predict the ending? Can they use this information in a new way?

Many people do this naturally, because children are naturally curious. Kids ask  questions and comment about what they're hearing or seeing. "What's this, Mommy?" "That doggy says 'woof, woof'!" "Where did she go?" "That bear is blue like my bear!"

Struggling adult readers often fail to do the same thing with their own reading, They don't question, comment, or relate it to their own lives. They fail to truly think about what's in front of their eyes, and that's when reading becomes difficult.

In order to be a good reader, you have to be able to think critically about what you're reading. And with that, practice makes perfect.

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Give some reading comprehension questions a shot. Practice your own critical thinking!

Photo © flickr user Pratham books

Hold on to your drafty hospital gowns! The AAMC has just begun a review of the MCAT, one of only five that has been completed since the MCAT was first administered in 1928. Typically, big changes follow these kinds of reviews.

What is this 22-member committee looking for on the current MCAT? They are evaluating the content and "recommending changes that keep pace with advances in medical education and practice."

In other words, an overhaul is in store for the MCAT test as we currently know it.

So what does this mean for current pre-med students studying their stethoscopes off for this bad boy? Not a whole lot right now. As all committees have their fair share of time-commitment problems, this MCAT review committee is no different; it has no idea how long the review will take.  The members do promise, however, that a new test would be introduced no earlier than 2014.

So if you're a pre-med student trying to CYA for the MCAT coming up in January, then have no fear. You've got some time before you have to learn a completely new set of skills to pass this standardized test. For right now, your MCAT will remain the same as it's been for years and years:

Extremely, excessively difficult.

Okay, let's say for a moment that you were an average college-bound student in early high school - A's, B's and the occasional C. Sure, you studied, but you weren't breaking your neck going for the 4.0 (or 4.4 as the case may be).

And now, as a senior,  your mom is suddenly interested in getting you into the University of Michigan. Or UPenn. Or Dartmouth. What now? Your GPA is certainly not good enough to get you in, right? You're already into your senior year, so your college admissions chances are pretty set in stone, right?

Not necessarily.

A recent study commissioned by the National Association of College Admission Counseling, found that 20 to 40 percent of colleges agreed that "a 20-point math increase or a 10-point reading increase [on the SAT] would significantly improve a student's chance of admission."

The SAT is still one of the only ways you have to boost your chances of getting into that top-ranked school once you're a junior or senior in high school. You can't change your transcripts (legally). You can't go back and change the number of sports you played, extra-curriculars you participated in, or volunteer hours you clocked. That stuff is set in stone.

What you can change is your SAT score. Even boosting your score by ten or twenty points can be advantageous because most schools have a minimum requirement for scholarships, and some even have a minimum for acceptance. At the very least, counselors have an average SAT score you should be targeting, and if you're way off, then your chances of getting in are slim.

So, even though you can't change your GPA, you can boost your chances of getting into that school of your dreams with a little SAT prep work.

Get started here!

Photo copyright Flickr user Bdway Diva1

Here it is from the SAT Math Section:

If f(3) = 6 and f(4) = 13, then which of the following could be f(x)?

A. x + 3

B. 2x

C. 3x + 1

D. X² - 2

E. X² - 3

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Post your answer here in my forum!