AV Geeks 16mm Lunch 4-24-2025

Hello everybody. I'm Skip Alzheimer. Welcome to the AV Geeks lunchtime streaming show. Where am I sitting today? Uh anyways, yeah, that was some uh New York subway footage from the National Archives and Old Radios was quick to point out that that film is as old as I am. Um 1966 is when I was born. Uh so today we got a whole bunch of 16 including some stuff that we just recently scanned from our collection and from uh Cornet. Um so let's go ahead and jump into it. Here's reaching your reader. Enjoy. [Music] Linda Laskkey had a fantastic trip to the [Music] Orient. Back home, she decided to write an article about her experiences. Her mind was filled with impressions which she poured onto paper. By gosh, she thought, "This is a masterpiece. I'll bet I can sell it to a magazine or newspaper. I wonder what I'll get for it." What she got was a polite rejection. The buildings have tiled rogues and they have these round tile caps on the ends. I brought one home. Linda gave up trying to be published and just read her article to her friends. She read, "My journey began with the long flight by airplane across the Pacific Ocean. And from the train, we could see many interesting sites." And she read was moving. We had to see everything in kind of a hurry. For as long as they would listen. trip. I thought it was interesting. Well, at least you're still here. I'm narrating this film, so I have to stay. Thanks a lot. Where did I go wrong? But you went wrong by telling us about your trip instead of letting us experience it for ourselves. Read the part about eating lunch. See what kinds of pictures you can create. I wasn't used to dying oriental style. I was awkward with the chopsticks and I embarrassed myself. something awful. I didn't get a picture of anything awful. You should have been there. Exactly. But your words didn't put me there. You simply made a statement this time. Don't tell me it was embarrassing. Recreate it. Show me what happened. Well, we were seated on the floor at a low table and I was trying to impress this young man. [Music] It was awful. This time I believe you because instead of telling me about your experience, you recreated the experience for me. I think I see the difference. I'll illustrate it once more. The writer cannot transfer a feeling to the reader just by telling him about it. That was stimulating. [Music] Oh, is it really? The only thing that can be transferred is the stimulus to his senses. I'll show you what happened. [Applause] Yes, that is stimulating. Great. But how do I do that with a typewriter? Use words that stimulate the reader's memory. Well, how did you get your impressions of the Orient? Well, through what I saw and what I heard. Through your five senses. Sure. All our experiences come to us through our senses. Well, it's the same with your reader. To make a reader believe and react, appeal to the five senses. Say your reader is a man. If you're describing a train ride, give him the feeling of that ride. Let him look here. feel, smell, and uh taste. When your words appeal to his five senses, you'll take him right along with you. Look, hear, feel, smell, and taste. You make writing sound like a course in cooking. Fair enough. Only you have to do your cooking with words. Imagine this. A saucepan. Listen. You'll hear a thick burbling sound. Something's boiling in the pan. Mhm. Now, imagine the aroma. It is boiling chocolate fudge. Do you remember what chocolate fudge smells like as it boils? M. Yes. Aha. I stirred a memory image through your sense of smell. But you had to use candy. No, just words. Well, anybody would react to fudge. The point is, give us sights, sounds, and feelings, and you'll draw us into your scenes. By sight, you must mean description. I use that. Here, get this picture. There were many modern buildings downtown. The streets were very busy, and the people mostly wore the same clothes we do. Pardon me, but that's passive description. There were many buildings. The streets were busy. Passive, dull. Try using strong nouns and active verbs. Active verbs put life into a description. And besides that, it sounded like New York City. No, it was Soul, South Korea. Then pick out specific sites that belong to soil and not just any town and use active verbs. Yes. All right. Let's see what I remember. A massive gate from the ancient city wall stands marooned in a stream of modern traffic. The fluted roofs of a Ye dynasty palace overshadowed by high-rise hotels. Women in brightcolored fulllength traditional dresses floating like flowers through the brown gray streets. You're getting closer by creating images with feeling and movement. Yes. And don't forget the other four senses. There are, you know, words that suggest sounds. For example, the thin tattling of a [Music] mandolin, a sizzling hamburger, a wet mop that flops down and goes slurping into a corner. Suggesting aromomas is another means of sharpening the reader's awareness of place. The fishy mud bottom smell of an Ozark lake or the whiny smell of apples spoiling in a musty cellar. A movie lobby may be remembered by the warm aroma of buttered popcorn. And there's the sense of touch. The feel of cold plastic and hard metal suggests one type of setting, while the feel of polished wood and soft velvet chairs suggests a different atmosphere. Familiar tastes also stir a response in the reader. Not only the sweet taste of caramel or the sour acidy taste of lemon which tightens your jaw muscles, but also the fresh moodprovoking taste of a sea breeze gusty and seasoned with salt. I never realized description could be so involving. It can. But be careful not to let sensory appeal become an end in itself. Use it judiciously. Now you're afraid I'm going to overdo it. Just remember three things. Don't talk about incidents. Show them happening. Use strong nouns and active verbs. Make use of sense impressions. Do you want to know what I really saw and heard and felt in my trip? A bridge strung like a clothesline between mountains. Raincarved heels with peaks. His jacket is broken glass. Gray ribs that lift their skirts at the corners to reveal pettic coats of riotous colors. The solemn drumming and chanting of mucks. The metallic clamor of an assembly line. And the meditative silence of a pavilion beside a steel pond. The air stirred into haze by crowds sifting through a narrow market street. A Buddha image towering above the trees like a skyscraper with the teiered ribs of a temple like a toy village at its feet. [Applause] [Music] What a burn from that narrator. Well, I'm narrating this film, so I have to be here. Wow, pretty great. Thanks, Centron. Uh, let's see. Um, uh, let's see. Hoa. We haven't seen some Hoa. So, we're going to watch um Hoa Takes a Wife. Enjoy. [Music] [Music] If you were riding a donkey instead of being where you are right now, what pleasant view would delight your eyes? Please have no fear. Slowfoot has always been a very gentle donkey. A gentle donkey. Now we must hurry down this familiar street to uh we must hurry to that coffee house ahead where a kind old shake retells the well-loved stories of Naseradin Hocha. Enough for Hunt. We can't stop Hamid when have been paid to deliver these jars. Hermit doesn't feel like work. He feels like having coffee. Ow. Come on, Bhan. I want coffee. But our work. Well, that's Hamid for you. Come along, slowoot, or we'll miss the shakes tales of Nasuredin Hoa. You are lazy, Hamid. That's your trouble. I'm not lazy. You know, there are some countries in this world where the workers control everything. They own the land, tools, shops, and they get the best of food, bowls, and houses without working. I hear they work when they want to. That is not what I have heard. The workers in the countries you refer to do not know where they are going and cannot choose a life for themselves. They work, speak, think, and die as their master commands. Nah, you're wrong, Hamid. What I can't understand is how these foreign slave drivers get workers like you to believe their nonsense. You think they're liars? Why not? Why have the masters of these paradise countries drawn iron curtain across their borders? To help people learn the truth about them or to stop people from learning the truth? Everything they say can't be lies. You are too sure of yourself. Amid offendi, tell us what you think. Nonsense. The shake can tell us nothing. He is slow and he is old, too. Slowness can bring shoress and wisdom comes with age. What armade believes about the workers in some countries does not surprise me. For by repeating one big lie a thousand times, you can make it appear true. Allow me to tell you the story of Nasuredin Hocha that may prove to you what I have said. [Music] There was a time when the hocher was very sad and [Music] lonely. His beloved wife had died over a year before, and there was no cheerful home waiting at the end of each weary day. The Hoch's friends were unhappy, too. They missed the old days when Nasaredine would sit with them and laugh at their jokes. Ah, they are jokes. Wise men have marked the thin line between comedy and tragedy, but fools know it not. And so, though they called themselves the Hoous friends, the two villagers thought of the ugliest and plainest unmarried woman they knew, and they made their plans. [Music] the ho. 's friends with their distorted sense of humor let their imaginations run wild. And much as expected, their lavish descriptions of womanly beauty set fire to the lonely thoughts in the Hocher's unhappy mind. [Music] was being the Hocha agreed to marry the ugly old maid chosen by his [Music] friends. As was the custom in that time and place, Nasaredinhocha did not see his bride before the marriage contract was signed. But at last the day came for him to welcome her to his home. [Music] Welcome to my house, good wife. I hope you find it pleasing to your eyes." And the hocher was hoping the same thing for himself as he peered at her veil. [Music] Through the bitterness of his shattered dreams, the Hocha knew how he had been tricked. And he knew his friends must be taught a [Music] lesson. The next day, instead of being angry, the Hocha thanked his friends many times for finding him such a lovely woman. And you can imagine how this unexpected gratitude put them in a diver. Had they made a mistake? Perhaps the ugly girl was not ugly at all. You really couldn't be sure what was behind her veil. And the Hoa himself was sparing no words about the beauty of his new wife. [Music] Finally, by the time the story got back to the two friends, everyone was envying the Hocha and marveling at his rare luck in having such a bride. [Music] Rumors about the beauty and charm of the Hocha's wife grew and grew until the two bewildered friends really believed it when they told a stranger that Nasured was married to the most beautiful woman in all the [Music] world. At last the Hocha had reason to smile again, while the truth lay always concealed behind the veil of his faithful wife. And so you see, you would be wise to question the grand stories that come from behind a curtain of secrecy. For like the Hocha's big lie, they may have very little truth to them. [Music] So there's a very popular uh Brigham Y Young University film called The Legend of Johnny Lingo which is very similar to this Um I I don't have it handy. I have it in my collection and I watched it and I was baffled by it. But it was something that I know was shown a lot and it was essentially the same idea where someone was marrying a daughter and it was like in some village and for the dowy. The father of the daughter asked for like a cow and it was kind of known around the village that she was homely. the daughter. And so Johnny Lingo actually gave five cows, you know, that's what I'm kind of remembering here. And everybody was like, "What?" They were shocked. And it come the the daughter comes out and she is beautiful. She's beautiful. And it's because someone cared about her and made this gesture and the inner beauty show showed out. So I I was wondering if it was going to go down that path and it did not. But yeah. So there you go. We don't know what she looked like. No idea. All right. What do we got? Uh all right. Get that job. Get it. [Music] Where will you fit in? How do you get there? How can you choose what you want to do? How can you put yourself into a real place in the working world? Soon you'll be making a choice if you haven't already. But will that choice be the right one for you? Maybe we can help shade the odds in your favor by showing you how some people a lot like you made their choices. [Music] Jerry is an all-around athlete. A guy who puts muscle into everything he does. Likes to work with his hands. Finds it satisfying. He works part-time on construction jobs. But now he's got to get it all together. graduation is coming up. He didn't quite make an athletic scholarship to college. And being from a large family, money for more school just isn't there. So, it's time now to think about how and where he's going to fit into the world of work. What kind of job should he look for? What kind of job will fit him? With his school counselor, he saw some materials that started him toward thinking about the choice he was going to make. These are two of the best reference books you can find, Jerry. This one is called the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and it's published by the Department of Labor. Here's information about the nature of different jobs, the types of work, what training you need, what kind of money they pay, and so on. Here's another labor department book that may be of help. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles. And the library has a lot more specialized careerhelping books you'll find awfully interesting. Jerry's homework showed him a pretty wide choice of career opportunities that might match his education and abilities. He made a temporary decision. His part-time work gave him a taste of a possible career. He wants to stay in construction and he's chosen contracting. Does he have what it takes? Well, he does something everyone ought to do. Ask the person who is what you want to be. Get the inside story. I talked to this guy and a couple more and found out something that kind of shook me. You've got to have a thorough knowledge of all the building crafts before you can work with them like a contractor does. Kind of took me down a little. Carpentry, electrical work, concrete finishing, many more specialties. You have to know about them all before you can try for the big job, the general contractor. All right. He did set his sights too high to start and he's disappointed. But now he's beginning to think in an important way. He's thinking about alternatives, ways to stay in the same general field. Building and construction is the field. Jerry's sure of that. What could he do in that field? Many contractors started with carpentry. Well, it's pretty obvious what Jerry did. He asked the man who is one. And he got some valuable information about what could become his first career choice. And he learned not only how people in this craft live, but he also learned that there's a federal government apprentice information center in the area which can give him more facts regarding his career idea and can administer aptitude tests to people considering trade apprenticeship programs. Jerry's off and running. He built up to his career choice carefully and effectively by putting good information together with knowledge of himself. Now he's trying the job. It seems to be a good fit, but only time will tell. A job isn't a career yet. Let's look again at some of the things Jerry did to come to his decision. [Music] Now meet Susan, a girl with a passion for line, color, design. She's been drawing, painting, making things for as long as she can remember. Art has been the main theme of her life. Art director and illustrator for the class annual yearbook. Class cartoonist, a real talent when it comes to putting her own ideas on paper or whatever. But Susan has money problems which won't allow her to go on to art school or college to develop her talents right away. Susan's lifelong ambition had been to be a fashion illustrator, but in several meetings with her school counselor, she told me I was trying to start out at the top. Anyway, thinking about it, we found out that the fashion field is very limited. And even if I had bunches of talent, I'd never be able to compete with the pros. Not at first, anyway. Not without some more training and job experience. Guess I'll have to start out somewhere low and work up. So, she went to the library and started digging. First, she checked the Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook to see if her goals were really in line with reality. Maybe yes, maybe no. But she made a major discovery. The art field was so much broader than she'd imagined. The book showed that there were at least 20 job categories that might use her talents. I know I'm good, but is art the only thing that I'm good at? Susan was dead serious about questioning herself. Her counselor helped her to get an even better picture of how she compared with professionals working in the art field using vocational tests, which can be given right in the counselor's office. Her desires and interests were matched and examined. And when it was over, she knew she had more ammunition for her search for a place in the real world of work. Best of all, she'd found a solid direction through the test. She shared nearly all of the work attitudes and desires of a professional artist and then some. So Susan made some tentative choices and set off to see if they'd work, if she'd work. Not that place. They wanted somebody to work nights on mailing lists. Even if the job was okay, it was no place for an artist to start off. Well, let's get going. You can say this for her. She was persistent. She really went after every possibility that could lead her to a start on that art career. It took a while, but she found it. A start, a taste of what she wanted. Her entry into a professional career was as an assistant artist in the advertising department of the local newspaper. A chance to work with her imagination, words, pictures, and people. Who knows, it could lead her eventually to that fashion illustrator's career she had always dreamed of. Susan did a few of the same things that Jerry did to reinforce and try her career choice. Plus, she added new ingredients to back herself up. And she tried what she had settled on, knowing that a job isn't always a [Music] career. This is Mitch, an average to good student in school. Born and raised on a farm. He's had a love affair with the outdoors all of his life. Something has always seemed to draw Mitch toward nature studies. He appreciates the natural world around him and learns as much about it as he can. Ideally, Mitch wants to go on to be a professional biologist or a botonist to follow his inner feelings for nature into a meaningful career. His chances of going to the university are pretty slim, and he's investigated some of the junior colleges, but their programs didn't satisfy him. He's sure that somewhere there are opportunities that will suit his interests, his inclinations, and the lifestyle he wants. Well, whether he knew it or not, Mitch's career choice probably began to shape up when he worked with other students on a clean water ecology drive. Mitch picked up on the idea and visited the school's vocational guidance counselor just to see if there was a chance he could get into the ecology field. Mitch's questions stumped the counselor at first, but not for long. The first call was to the state Environmental Protection Agency. Indeed, there were job openings for high school graduates at the state agency, which coordinated its work with the federal government. Meanwhile, Mitch did some digging on his own, looking up and studying pamphlets, articles, and audiovisisual materials put out by industries and associations involved with the environment. There were some possible career tips. While he didn't find a firm answer to all of his questions, he did get some insight into the the information from the vocational counselor. Mitch's own research and something even more important, Mitch's conviction that the environment was his field. He went straight to the state agency working on environmental projects and was surprised to find that sure enough there was an entry-level opening for someone like himself. While the first job opportunity in his chosen field might pay on the low side, he's assured that if he works to improve his knowledge in on the job training and perhaps in the new junior college ecology programs, a career in water supply, for instance, could await him. he could be on his way to becoming a real working environmentalist, a career with meaning to everyone. Let's go over what Mitch went through in choosing his possible career. Well, I tried to match my interests, what I'd done in school, and how I'd like to live with some sort of career. My school vocational guidance counselor really got in and helped me find the right direction. I really got a lot out of the publications put out by business and professional organizations. Then I talked with people who really knew what was going on in the field. Now I'm trying to work. I'm no big honcho right now, but the work suits me fine and I can get ahead if I want to. What you've seen in these three examples today are some of the better ways of choosing what could turn out to be careers, working ways of life for three average people. What worked for one may not have worked for the others. But you may have noticed that Mitch, Susan, and Jerry all had strong first choices. Some weren't necessarily practical, but the methods they used showed them whole families of other career options, which were within reach, possibly just as satisfying, certainly realistic. On the job training is available in more and more career areas, as Jerry and Mitch found. Sometimes the best information about a career can only be gotten by trying it. There's no one answer for everyone because the only thing we all have in common is that we're different. Decide what you want to be, then decide what you have to put into it. Choosing a career is a tough job, but it's easier if you know yourself. [Music] So, I don't know if you noticed the handwritten text that would go past very quickly. You would see like uh so that tells me that that film was a work print. Basically, someone made that print and then made notes, literal notes on the film about what needed either to be tightened or faded or, you know, it was a critique. Um, there is software that will allow that will stream together all the frames so you can actually see what they wrote. Um, and you can also do it manually, but there you go. All right. You asked for it. Um, it's that time of year. Uh, you're looking, you're a junior and you're looking, uh, to go to college, so you have to prepare for the SAT. Uh, well, how are you going to do that? This film is made for you. And the timing of this film, when it was made, is right on track for when I took the SAT. So, or the pre the uh preat. So, here it is on your own preparing for a standardized test. Enjoy. Please make sure that your admission ticket is on your desk. If you have other papers of any kind, books, pamphlets, this is a scene familiar to just about all of us. Most likely sometime in our past, we've had to sit down and take a standardized test. And more than likely, sometime in our future, we'll have to take another one. pick them up after the examination. Watch calculators must not be used during the test. This group of high school juniors has gathered here on a Saturday morning to take their scholastic aptitude test or SAT. The SAT is one of the criteria used by college admissions officers to evaluate students for acceptance. But colleges are not alone in using these types of tests. If you want to go to medical school or prep school, practice law, or sell insurance, you often have to show that you are ready by taking a standardized test first. One of your answer sheet. When I tell you to open your test book, read the directions, and begin work. Begin work. [Music] I'm Bill Paul. And I'm Shirley Brown. We've come to the Educational Testing Service, one of the largest test development companies, to learn some of the things you should know about test preparation. We've interviewed the experts who designed these tests. the teachers and admissions officers who use them. And we've also spoken with some ordinary people who've taken them. We learned there are no easy tricks to raise your score. But if you're willing to work at it, there are steps you can take to improve your test readiness. Of course, we can't cover everything in a 26-minute film. But we will tell you some of the questions you should ask and where you can go to find the answers. You know, all of the information you've learned is right up here in your brain. And if it's working, it's got a lot of Mia Reeves is a counselor and test preparation expert at Pine View Elementary School in Tallahassee, Florida. She spends several hours each month developing the test taking skills of her young students. The last part that we're going to talk about today is on test anxiety. Now, that's a pretty big word, anxiety. And you may not know it, but all of you have anxieties. What are they, Michelle? Um, I feel like I got butterflies in my stomach and I can hardly ride cuz I'm shaking real bad. When I start taking a test, I feel scared. And I think it's important for everyone who's going to take a test to know that you can do things to prepare yourself for the test. And you should do everything possible to prepare yourself to make as good a score as possible on the test. I teach elementary students skills that make them better test takers. They're not complicated things. Most of them are very simple and you can do many of the same things that I'm teaching these children to do here. The first thing you need to do is forget any misconceptions you've made. You should find out what's covered on your test. And if you're in school, the place to start is right here. Good morning. For every test, there's an information booklet called a bulletin. Stacks of these are sent to schools and colleges around the country. If you're not in school, you can get them directly from the organization that gives your test. Your bulletin is an essential source of information. It has just about everything you'll need: descriptions, sample questions, even a complete practice test. Others are smaller, but usually include a form you can send away for a separate booklet of sample questions or practice tests. As soon as you decide to take a test, you should get a copy of its bulletin and sample questions. Once you have these in hand, you're ready to begin. There are three basic steps in test preparation. And these steps can be applied to any test you take. First, know the material your test covers. Second, know the test and the types of questions that are on it. Third, understand what your score means. Let's examine the first step and see how we go about learning the material for our [Music] test. Now, I think you can see that a coalition war of this nature might present some problems. There are many types of admissions and selection tests, including achievement tests, aptitude tests, licensing and certification exams. So the area you need to know depends upon your specific test. An achievement test, for example, measures your understanding of a course or subject, very much like a final exam. Know something about the first world war, but one of the things that's important to understand about the Second World War is that it in fact was a coalition war. When this class is over, these students can take an achievement test that will compare them with other American history students across the country. There are achievement tests for subjects from French to physics on both the high school and college levels. A similar type of test is licensing and certification exams. Before these real estate agents could open this office, they had to take a special course and pass a licensing test. And there are similar exams for professionals from lawyers to insurance brokers. You study for a licensing or achievement test just the way you would for a final exam. But be careful. Last minute cramming can help you learn facts and formulas, but you'll need to know what the facts mean and how the formulas are used. It's fine to know what year Washington crossed the Delaware. It's more important to know why he did it. And that kind of review takes more than a few days. Allison Krueger is a member of her high school track team. when she recently signed up to take a Speedman test. She decided to bring the same rigor and discipline to her test preparation as she does to her running. I chose to take the Spanish achievement test because I've been taking Spanish for 4 years and I felt I was good enough now to take the achievement, but I also felt that I had to study for it. So, what I did is I studied from some vocabulary lists and I did some review exercises in a Spanish book. I did this about an hour each night so I could familiarize myself with the kind of questions that would be on the test. As with her athletic training, Allison began preparing for her achievement test weeks in advance. Allison's careful review and study techniques not only got her ready for the test, but also increased her understanding and knowledge of the Spanish language. Knowledge that will serve her well the rest of her life. The result, I felt confident when I went in to take my Spanish achievement test because I had studied as much as I could have for it and I felt prepared for it. So when I came out of the test, I felt that I had done as well as I possibly could have. Licensing and achievement tests like Allison Krueger's Spanish exam cover specific subjects, but there's another group of admissions tests that don't. Instead, these tests measure some of the skills and abilities that are important to your success, whether in high school, college, or graduate school. As a group, they're called aptitude tests. And that word aptitude has caused a lot of confusion. To find out about aptitude tests, we spoke with ETS's director of test development for higher education programs, John Freemer. Many people think that aptitude tests measure innate abilities, the abilities that you were born with. But really, they are much more limited than that. All they can measure are those skills that you've developed up until the time that you take the test. Uh your verbal skills, for example, your ability to read a passage and comprehend it and answer questions about it. your mathematical skills, your ability, for example, to compare quantities and evaluate which one is larger or whether they are of the same magnitude. And that's all that a test can do. Measure the skills that you've developed up until the time you sit and take the examination. We can't go back in time and measure the abilities you might have had given a different education or a different set of experiences. We also talked with Ethel Porter, ETSS's program director of college level services. Admissions personnel use a combination of information in making admissions decisions. Test scores enable them to make judgments about the likelihood of individuals applying to their institutions succeeding. Aptitude test scores, however, don't measure such things as motivation or creativity or other abilities that may prove very important in long range success. You learn the material for an aptitude test differently than from a licensing or achievement exam. You've been developing the skills they measure all your life with every class you took here. What is and also outside with every book you've read, every checkbook you've ever balanced. But there are ways to improve your aptitude skills so you'll be better prepared when you take your test. Leah Reeves had this tip on improving verbal skills. best things you can do is to read and read widely. Read on a broad range of topics. Challenge yourself to read things that you wouldn't normally read. And as you come across words that you're unfamiliar with, have a dictionary there right there with you to look up those words. By doing this, you'll increase your vocabulary skills. The quantitative sections of an aptitude test often require basic math. over them again. And like riding a bicycle, it won't all come back when you look at your test. And when was the last time you tried to calculate interest rates, multiply fractions, or determine the volume of cylinders like these? If you're like me, it's been a while. So, you should look in your bulletin and find out which skills are needed for the test. Then, go through your books or notes until they're fresh in your mind. Or if you feel you need help, look for a school or college in your area that offers counseling or refresher courses. That's what Julie Schaperman did. After being out of school for 25 years, Julie Schaperman felt uneasy when faced with the prospect of taking her graduates. So, she enrolled in a course at the UCLA Extension School. The course, coupled with extensive study at home, helped her brush up on her math skills. When I started uh studying for the GRRE, I realized that I could answer a lot of the sample questions in the verbal area, but I found that I just had forgotten how to do a lot of the basic procedures in math. To think that I had forgotten everything was absolutely crushing. I started to relearn some of it and I found it just as exciting and interesting on relearning it as I did originally. = 40. Therefore, the angles are 40 and that's deep. If I hadn't studied, I just know that I could not have answered half the questions that I did. Studying was extremely helpful to me. Julie went on to do very well on her GRE and enrolled at the school of her choice, but the initial uneasiness she experienced is not at all unusual for adults preparing for standardized tests. Larry Kuvon is an associate professor at Florida State University's College of Education. Many of the students that we work with are adults who are returning after years of being away from school to prepare for a standardized test. They're generally very concerned that they'll not be able to compete with the younger students. My experience is just the opposite. They come back with greater dedication, greater perseverance, and in my experience, they do well. Once you are confident that you know the material, whether it's Spanish vocabulary or geometry, then the next step is to know the test. This means knowing what types of questions you'll be facing. The more acquainted you are with your test and its question types, the better you'll be at pacing yourself, working out the harder questions, and knowing when to skip and when to guess. You can begin knowing your test by studying the sample questions part of your test bulletin. Read the directions for each type of question closely. To help you remember the directions, take the time to underline key phrases. One very important thing that you can do for preparing for standardized aptitude test is learn the instructions for the various types of questions that are on the test. Jane Glight is the program administrator at Florida State University Center for Professional Development. so that when you get to the test taking situation, you're familiar with the instruction, you of course will reread them and then go right on to answer the questions. You save yourself 10 to 15 minutes in the test taking situation. Once you've read and understood the directions, try to answer the sample questions for yourself. Then read the explanation that follows each question to see if you got it right or if you got it wrong, what the right answer is and why. You may have trouble with the instructions or the answers to some of the questions. If you're in school, ask one of your teachers for advice. If you're not in school, you can probably find help at a local college or from someone who has already taken the test. Well, I know it's embarrassing sometimes to go and admit you haven't learned yet that you go to a teacher, go to a counselor, explain what your problem is, and get them to help you. By just asking, many problems can be cleared up quite easily now before the test. But reading through the sample questions usually isn't enough. Most tests have strict time limits, and the questions seem a little harder under that kind of pressure. So, you'll need to prepare yourself for the time limits of the real thing, and you can do that right in your own home. The bulletins for many standardized tests offer sample tests complete with instructions. If your bulletin does not have a sample test, it should have a form telling you where to send away for one. Taking a sample test is one of the essential steps in proper test preparation. Ever since coming to this country from Colombia, South America, Tony Hernandez has loved working with and for people. That's what drew him to insurance. But before becoming an insurance agent, Tony had to pass a licensing exam. Besides studying and reviewing the material that would be on his test, Tony took an athome sample test. Tony chose a quiet Saturday morning and took the test right in his own kitchen. He set a timer to the time limits for each section of the test so he could simulate the actual test conditions as closely as possible. At the beginning, I was not as comfortable as I thought I would be. I just wasn't used to the ticking of the clock and the feeling that I had to make up my mind right away for each question. But after 10 or 15 minutes, I got used to the feeling and I discovered that I could beat the clock. Later, when I took the test for real, I just pretended that it was another practice test, which really took a lot of pressure off and calm me down. Tony Hernandez passed his licensing exam in his first attempt, and today he is a certified insurance agent. Tony credits his success in part to learning important test taking skills from his sample test. Well, I think a crucial thing to do on a test is pace yourself on that test. Most tests have time limits and most test each questions of an equal value. Therefore, you need to answer as many questions as possible within the time. You spend too much time on any one question. You can hurt yourself by not getting to other questions later on that you could have answered. Here's the best way to pace yourself. your first time through each section, work through the problems you understand completely. Even if a problem takes an extra 30 seconds, you'll probably get it right, so it's worth the effort. But when you come to a problem you don't understand, for example, if you don't know the meaning to a key word in an analogy, don't let yourself get stuck. Mark it in your book and go on to the next question. Then, when you reach the end of the section, if there's still time left, go back to the questions you skipped and try again. Spend a little longer on each one than you did before, especially when you know enough about it to make an educated guess. Careful guessing is recommended for some tests, but when you guess depends on how your test is scored, and you can learn that from your bulletin. Some standardized tests have no penalty for wrong answers. If yours is one of these, you should feel free to guess any question you can't answer. Your correct guesses will earn you points and your wrong guesses will not be subtracted from your right ones. But other tests do subtract a fraction of a point for each wrong answer. So if yours is scored like this, you should guess only when you know enough about a question to rule out several possible answers. For example, suppose you skip this sentence completion question because it seemed too difficult at first, but later coming back to it, you realize that it must describe something peaceful. Ominous, which sounds threatening, and intolerable, which means unbearable, are not peaceful words at all. So, you cross them off. Now, having eliminated two choices, it's worth it to take a guess. But if you can narrow it down more, that's even better. Looking at erosive, you may notice that it has the same root as erosion, which isn't a peaceful process either. This leaves two words, and there's a good chance that one of them is the right answer. So, don't hesitate. Choose the one that looks best to you and go on to the next question. One of the things that people forget is that some of the items can be solved with common sense. I'm thinking of a of an item that asked, "How far will a car travel in 1 second going 30 miles an hour?" The possible choices for answers included uh 2 feet and 900 ft. Now, these are obviously not reasonable. We've watched cars traveling 30 mph. You certainly can eliminate these two responses. When you take your sample test, work on your test taking skills. For example, make sure you read all the choices for each question before you pick an answer. You may find several choices that are almost right or partly right. So, you don't want to mark the first choice that looks good when one of the others may be better. Use your test book for scratchwork. Many questions seem hard at first, but with a little figuring, they may turn out to be easier than you thought. Make sure you use a sample answer sheet. And each time you mark an answer, check to see that you're in the right place. Press firmly and avoid making stray marks. Mistakes on the answer sheet can hurt. You'll avoid problems later. After you finish a practice test, it's important to sit down and look at it. Figure out what kinds of questions you had problems with, identify your weaknesses, and then come up with a plan to help you focus on those weaknesses. Now, prior to the test, when the time comes to take your test, you may feel nervous. Don't worry about it. A little anxiety is perfectly natural. During the test, you'll probably feel more pressure than when you took your sample test. And if yours is an aptitude or achievement test, you may be surprised by the number of questions that you can't answer. But don't let this discourage you. You don't need to answer all the questions correctly to score well. In fact, on many standardized tests, you only need to get about half the questions right for an average score. So, stay calm. Pace yourself. Use the test taking skills you developed by taking your sample test. Raise your hand if you find you have a serious problem. For instance, if you've marked a group of answers in the wrong spaces and there's no time to fix them, remember the test supervisor is there to help you solve such problems. the right number. Now, what happens to your answer sheet once you leave the test center? Well, it's returned to the test company where it's graded by high-speed computers. The computers are backed up by quality control that's done by hand. Then, a few weeks later, your score report will be sent to you. This brings us to the third and final step. Understand what your score means. If you have any questions about your score, simply refer to the interpretation booklet that is enclosed in your score report. A licensing or certification score is easy to understand. Protise Woodford is director of testing programs for ETSS's international office. The results of these tests are usually reported on a pass fail basis. If you answer enough of the questions correctly, you get the license or the certificate that you're after. But even if you don't pass, in most cases, your score report will tell you what your score was and will indicate which subjects gave you the most trouble. And then you can use this information to prepare yourself to take the test again. Aptitude and achievement tests, on the other hand, are reported as a number on a scale. 200 to 800, for example, or 1 to 36. Your score on an aptitude or achievement test doesn't tell you how many questions you got right. It only tells you how well you performed in comparison to others who took the test. If you're a person of average ability, you're likely to get a test score that places you somewhere in the middle of a test score scale. Your score is just a number. Its value depends on where you apply and it's important to remember test scores are just one part of the admissions process. Louise Wise is the director of admissions at Skidmore College but we're looking to gather every bit of information we possibly can about information. We go to the high school transcript that tells us what kinds of courses a student has studied in high school and uh uh the level of achievement. Um we go directly to teachers for reports. They're the ones who have had the student in the classroom and they can tell us something about uh initiative and motivation. Those are all extremely important factors if a student is going to go to college. I will now collect a test book and answer sheet from each of you. Ideally, you'll pass your licensing exam or score as well as you'd like on your achievement or aptitude test, but if you feel you can do better, then you should take the test again. And while you prepare for your second try, you should learn from your experience with the first. Remember, use your bulletin and the sample test. They tell you what to expect. [Music] Know the material that will be on your test. [Music] Know the test and the types of questions you will be facing. And finally, understand what your score means. We hope that what you've learned in this film will be helpful the next time you take a standardized test. Of course, we can't guarantee that following our advice will help you raise your score, but we do believe that by the time you take your test, you'll be prepared, you'll feel confident, and the score you get will accurately reflect your own knowledge, skills, and abilities. I'm Bill Paul. And I'm Shirley Brown. Good luck. Heat. Heat. [Music] No, I know. I know. That could have been a 15inute film, 10-minute film, but uh it blathered on and on. And really the the key points were um and this is what if you took the Princeton review seminar before you took your SAT, ACT or uh other standardized tests, they would tell you the strategy um which they just barely mentioned which is that because it's a time thing, the more questions you answer, the better it is. So, if you get stuck on something, jump ahead. Um, I mean, those are Yeah. Um, but boy, that just resonated with me cuz that's my environment that I was in. Um, the fashion, the watch calculators. I did not have one. I wanted one for some weird reason. Although, like, you know, it was like you have to use a pencil to hit the buttons. Um, and plus it doesn't do fractions, so it doesn't matter. Like, you really can't use it on a lot of these tests. But, uh, thanks for joining. Uh, your stories about taking standardized tests were awesome. Um, that's kind of one of the reasons I wanted to show it is to see if, uh, you guys would, uh, comment, and you did. Uh, so, thanks for watching today. Uh, again, um, concrete has been poured. The final amount of concrete has been poured in the storage unit. I'll take some pictures today and show you. But uh one of the things I asked for yesterday, which I would love to hear, is uh your advice on what is the way to get this wonderful support that I'm getting by you guys watching every day. How can I translate that into getting the films back into the archive space? And uh either with physical labor, uh you guys show up, all of you show up, uh we'll set up some bean bags and some uh sleeping bags and um you guys will just work for two weeks just moving films or financially support us. Um so we're looking for ways to kind of think that through. Um, and so if you have some ideas, email me at skipavgeeks.com. So skip, that's megeeks.com. And we have some ideas. One of them was the adopt a shelf idea and we're trying to figure that out. Um, but uh, yeah, we collect these films and show them to you, but we also have to move them because they are physical objects and they are a pain in the butt. They're very heavy. So, give me your uh your thoughts. I already have a couple of really great responses. Uh so, they're very kind. So, thank you. We'll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow's Friday, right? Enjoy the rest of your Thursday. Take care.