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588. BIG CHANGES TO AP TESTS IN 2025

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Release Date: 08/20/2024

616. EXTEMP WITH AMY & MIKE: December 2024 show art 616. EXTEMP WITH AMY & MIKE: December 2024

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

The Tests and the Rest podcast has always been relentlessly focused on exploring important topics in testing, admissions, education, and learning with amazing expert guests. Once in a while, though, we enjoy an unstructured opportunity to discuss our own takes on major issues, upcoming events, and our endeavors at the intersection of business and education. Catch up with us in the latest episode of EXTEMP with Amy & Mike. What are five things you will learn in this episode? How was the NTPA Winter Workshop? How did Amy celebrate the end of Mike’s term as NTPA President? How will...

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615. THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLEGE INTERVIEWS show art 615. THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLEGE INTERVIEWS

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

How odd is it that one of the most effective ways to learn about college applicants tends to be among the least frequent steps in the process. How valuable is direct conversation for evaluating prospective members of an educational community and what might the future hold? Amy and Mike invited college admissions expert Parke Muth to explore the importance of college interviews. What are five things you will learn in this episode? What is typically meant by a college interview? How common and impactful are interviews in the current admissions process? What are the best ways to prepare for...

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614. QUALITIES OF GREAT EDUCATORS AND COACHES  show art 614. QUALITIES OF GREAT EDUCATORS AND COACHES

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Just about anyone can become an educator or coach, but can anyone become great at it? Amy and Mike invited educator Dan Lerman to enumerate the qualities of great educators and coaches. What are five things you will learn in this episode? What are the foundational qualities of a great tutor or coach?  What can be taught to tutors and how? How do you know if you are not a great tutor or coach? Beyond a test, what does a great tutor teach?  What is the current state of tutor training?  MEET OUR GUEST Dan Lerman is a professor of Cognitive Science at Columbia...

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613. IEC PROFILE:  Alison Merzel show art 613. IEC PROFILE:  Alison Merzel

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Ready to learn the history, philosophy, and practice of an experienced independent educational consultant? MEET OUR GUEST Meet Alison Merzel. Alison Merzel is the founder of AHM Advising LLC, an independent educational consulting practice focused on helping high school students and families find their best-fit post-secondary educational options. Prior to launching her business in 2019, Alison was at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business for 15 years, most recently as the Senior Director of Graduate Recruiting and Admissions.  Alison holds a BS from Northwestern...

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612. IEC PROFILE: Julie Spak show art 612. IEC PROFILE: Julie Spak

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Ready to learn the history, philosophy, and practice of an experienced independent educational consultant? MEET OUR GUEST Meet Julie Spak. Since 1985, Julie has been connecting students to their futures in her work as a College Admissions Officer, Financial Aid Officer and Honors Program Counselor at the University of New Hampshire, where she received her M.Ed in Counseling and BA in Communication and English. Julie also worked as a School Counselor, so she knows how to help students and families from "both sides of the desk." She is a Past President of New Hampshire School Counselors...

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611. IEC PROFILE: Stef Mauler show art 611. IEC PROFILE: Stef Mauler

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Ready to learn the history, philosophy, and practice of an experienced independent educational consultant? MEET OUR GUEST Meet Stef Mauler, founder of the Mauler Institute™ and author of . She began working in Ivy League admissions over 30 years ago. She met thousands of high school students and their families as they went through the mysterious Ivy League admissions process. Discovering that the majority of applicants had the academic record, but were not accepted, she set out to find patterns in what differentiated the students who were accepted from those who weren’t. Stef holds a B.A....

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610. IEC PROFILE: Michelle Siddons show art 610. IEC PROFILE: Michelle Siddons

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Ready to learn the history, philosophy, and practice of an experienced independent educational consultant? MEET OUR GUEST Meet Michelle Siddons. Michelle is an Associate Member of IECA, a new member of NTPA, and has her Masters in Education from Seton Hall and undergraduate degree from Colgate University.  Michelle has been helping high school students for over twenty five years with test prep and the past five years with college counseling. She completed her certificate in college counseling from UCLA.  She and her husband live in Mountain Lakes New Jersey, have three young...

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609. IEC PROFILE: Feiyang Liu show art 609. IEC PROFILE: Feiyang Liu

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Ready to learn the history, philosophy, and practice of an experienced independent educational consultant? MEET OUR GUEST Meet Feiyang Liu. As a naturally introverted high school student, Feiyang felt immense pressure to adopt a bubbly, inauthentic persona for my college applications. This led to a lack of fulfillment and a realization that pretending to be someone he wasn’t came with significant consequences. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Political Science and from USC with a Master's in Education (Enrollment Management and Policy), he grappled with people-pleasing while...

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608. HOW TEST PREP PREPARES YOU FOR COLLEGE  show art 608. HOW TEST PREP PREPARES YOU FOR COLLEGE

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

The successful outcome of preparing for the SAT & ACT can yield a massive return on investment, but the real value lies in the process itself. Amy and Mike invited educator Rob Pollak to explore how test prep prepares you for college. What are five things you will learn in this episode? Is test prep all about tips and tricks? How is standardized test prep more than just preparation for one isolated exam? In what way does test prep challenge students to think more strategically about their learning and approach to studying? How do the skills students develop during test prep...

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607. THE DIFFERENT ROLES OF SCHOOL AND PRIVATE COUNSELORS  show art 607. THE DIFFERENT ROLES OF SCHOOL AND PRIVATE COUNSELORS

Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Teens on the road to college tend to encounter a variety of counselors positioned to support them on their journeys. However, not every one of these counselors has the same job. Amy and Mike invited educational consultant Margaret Rothe to define the different roles of school and private counselors. What are five things you will learn in this episode? In what ways are school and private college counselors the same? Do you have to be a high school counselor to be a private college counselor? What is something high school counselors do that IECs don’t or can’t do? What is something...

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More Episodes

Advanced Placement courses have set the standard for accelerated subject studies in many high schools, but next year’s offerings may look very different from what teachers and students are used to. Amy and Mike invited educator John Moscatiello to explain the big changes–both in testing platforms and course options–in AP tests in 2025.

What are five things you will learn in this episode?

  1. Why did the College Board revise the scoring of AP tests?

  2. How has the College Board recalibrated AP test scores? 

  3. What new AP tests will be available in the 2024-2025 school year?

  4. How is digital testing affecting AP testing? Which tests?

  5. What potential changes could be on the horizon for the AP program?

John Moscatiello has been a leader in the education space for the past two decades. His career began at the Princeton Review, where he taught the SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests, AP Exams, ISEE, SSAT, SHSAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT Verbal, and TOEFL. At the Princeton Review, John went on to train hundreds of teachers, write content for 13 test preparation books, and work as a college admissions consultant. In his capacity as the National Director of Tutoring from 2007 and 2009, John managed thousands of teachers and tutors, supporting them with online professional development and the creation of an online community. From 2015 to 2016, John starred in more than 200 educational videos for the Princeton Review’s SAT, ACT, and GRE self-paced courses.

John’s academic career began as a Spanish major at New York University, where he realized the value of the AP Program by using credits to graduate a full year early. He then pursued graduate degrees in history from Fordham University and the University of Notre Dame, where he won awards for his undergraduate teaching. He was a Fulbright scholar to Spain in 2012 and worked at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Madrid. John’s academic research has been published in both English and Spanish. He currently teaches part-time at a private high school in Princeton, New Jersey.

John has supported thousands of students by building and implementing programs for underserved communities through the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, TEAK Fellowship, NYC Service, Corporate and Social Responsibility at Proskauer Rose LLP, and the Aga Khan Development Network. John’s tutoring and NGO work has taken him to more than 10 states and 25 countries around the world, especially in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Africa. In 2018, John founded Marco Learning in order to address the lack of high-quality AP resources and to better support AP teachers and their students.

John previously appeared on this podcast in episode 241 to discuss The Future Of AP Exams and episode 448 to discuss Controversies Around New AP Programs.

Find John at https://marcolearning.com.

LINKS

Advanced Placement Program

AP Score Changes: 2024

The Great Recalibration of AP Exams

RELATED EPISODES

CHOOSING BETWEEN AP AND IB PROGRAMS

HIGH SCHOOL COURSE SELECTION AND ACADEMIC RIGOR

HOW IMPORTANT IS GPA IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS?

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you’re interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, feel free to get in touch through our contact page.