R: Hi! Welcome back to "Let's Talk". Today, I' m he re with five college students and we are so thrilled to host them. Three of them are guests to China. We are di scussing college, college entrance exams & college admi ssions. So I know that it's very important to many of y ou listening. I want to first welcome Arthur, MaZhihua( 马志华), he is the president of the under graduate law cla ss, here in Beijing at Beijing University. And also, Wa ngYing(王瑛), she is one of the top graduates in both eco nomics & law, also at Beijing University, she is finish ing. And other three graduates are all from Yale Univer sity, and they are making a tour of the world, and have stopped here in China. This is Lesley, Lesley French, right?
　　L: Yes
　　R: And she is from Texas. And can you tell us a lit tle bit about Yale University?
　　L: Well, Yale University first of all is located in New Haven Connecticut, and that's in the North-east por tion of the United states. And we are just recently gra duated from Yale about two weeks ago, and we are on a w orld tour, so Beijing, China is one of our stops.
　　R: Oh! That’s wonderful. What we really need to tal k about actually entrance exams, and its sort of a funn y topic that they’ve all just finished, they are really felling relieved, they finished their studies for many years, but they are also have some worlds have words of wisdom for us. If you think back when you were applying to college, what do you think? Angie, remember we were talking before the program about having to take entranc e tests, and the main two tests are usually the SAT and the ACT. And you are saying do you ended up having to t ake the both, is that right?
　　A: Right. I'm from Mississippi, which is in the Sou thern part of the United States, and in that particular ly region of the country, the ACT is actually emphasize d a lot more that the SAT.
　　R: In the North, they take that or the West.
　　A: Yes, and so applying to Yale I had to take SAT, that's required, but because I'm from Mississippi, and I wanted to qualify for scholarships there, I also had to take ACT, because that's everything based on. So def initely I’ve had to experience with both, but more so w ith the ACT.
　　Arthur: Excuse me, would you please tell me what is ACT & SAT. In China, we don't have it.
　　R: They are high school, 中考 tests you must take to ask for admission to all many many colleges in the Unit ed states. Many Universities require some kind of admis sion process. Now you may be only go to the one in your state, and it's easy to get into, you just have to fini sh high school, and perhaps visit the University and su bmit your grades from high school, but most of them req uire you the take this big standard test that every stu dent must take, and that is called......It's very much like the exams in China at the end of 中学, everyone take s the exam. And so in the American English we say, "tak e you exam", and in British English you may have learne d "sit an exam", but in either way, it's a big test. An d it's required. and as Angie was saying there are two different ones, but they are very similar. Many people now practice before they take the test. I don't know if that's true, is that true in China? Do you practice man y tests before?
　　W: True, practice a lot. Practice makes perfect.
　　R: Yeah. That's a great idiom, you are right. But n ow there are many ways of preparing for the standard co llege test, the SAT, or the ACT, and some of them are i n school, and did you practice mostly in school?
　　A: Mostly, mostly in school we have simulated tests . All the time.
　　R: But, we are also in U.S. we pay extra money and register for a course where you would spend your summer preparing.
　　R: Lesley, didn't you say that you have done that n ot for high school level but for college level.
　　L: Exactly, when I was a sophomore in college. I wa s preparing to take the MCAT, which is the medical coll ege admission's test. And I did sign up and pay for Kap lan, which is one of the preparatory courses in the Uni ted States.
　　R:Stanley Kaplan it’s very famous, and it's expensive.
　　C:Yes.
　　R:My husband also took one, but for MBA program.
　　L:Ok.
　　R:So there have many programs, right? Yours is medical?
　　L:Yes.
　　R:And I know Angie and Katherine, I forget to intro duce you, Katherine Hamm. They are going to law school, she is doing a business degree. Stanley Kaplan teaches the course of all these preparation, right?
　　L:Yes. My course lasted about two-month, and I took it during the summer. And the MCAT is divided into four different sections, and they cover all of the sciences, and they also have a verbal informal section and a writ ing section. So we were taught all of those in all of t hose different areas. We were given books to review, fl ash cards
　　R:They give you the books, and they follow a course , don't they?
　　L:Yes. They do.
　　R:And they had that also in the old days but I unde rstand now they also have computer programs for practic e test, isn't that right?
　　L:Yes.
　　R:You could do a book or a computer program.
　　L:I believe that is true for the GRE.
　　R:Oh, I see.
　　L:The MCAT is actually still written, maybe one day it will be computerized.
　　R:But you took actually your private tutoring cours e, that would actually help you even more, right?
　　R:Right. In my area, I'm from New York we had a ser ies of private tutors who were trained in these tests. In stead of having a big class where you were all taugh t the same things, I would have a private teacher who w ould only focus on what I need the most help in. For ex ample, I didn't need that much preparation in math, I u nderstood that a lot better. And I needed more help in English vocabulary. So my tutor would just work with me on vocabulary, and skip over a lot of the math, portion s of the SAT. So it was a little less expensive for me because I didn’t have to take the preparation for makin g that I didn’t really need.
　　R:I think that's excellent. We have an English idio m, called "tailoring" like "裁缝" tailoring the course to your needs.
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　　今天我有幸请到五位嘉宾其中三位是来访中国的客人我们今天谈谈大学入学考试的话题我想今天的话题对许多观众来说都是很有意义的首先介绍马志华北大法律系的学生会主席王瑛北京大学经济法律系的高材生现在即将毕业其它三位是来自耶鲁大学的毕业生她们正在进行一次周游世界的旅行此刻他们在中国暂作停留这是Lesley French她来自得克萨斯州你能向我们简单地介绍一些耶鲁大学的情况吗耶鲁大学位于康涅狄格州纽黑文东北部我们两星期前刚从这所大学毕业现在我们正在作环球旅行中国北京是我们旅行中的其中一站他她们刚结束学业感到如释重负回想一下你高考的时候我们在节目之前谈过关于大学入学考试的话题通常主要有SAT和ACT两种考试这两种考试你必须都要参加吗是的我来自美国南部的密西西比州在这一地区对ACT考试要比SAT更为重视一些要想申请鲁大学我必须参加SAT考试同时我还必须参加ACT考试因为它是最为基础的所以勿庸置疑我必须参加这两个考试但ACT更为重要打断一下请您解释一下ACT和SAT好吗在中国我们没有这类考试。
　　在美国这两种考试类型是在升入许多大学时所必须的许多大学要求入学程序若只想进入本州大学就读很容易你只须读完高中可能还要去拜访一下学校并递上自己的高中成绩但大多类的学校都是要求大型的统考成绩的这一统考很像中国的大学入学统一考试在美国英语中称之为“Take the exam”
　　而在英式英语中你可能知道称之为“Sit an exam”
　　它总是一次必须的大型的考试如Angie所说ACT SAT虽然不同却很相近许多人在考前都要做充分的练习准备在中国也是这样吗是的 要做大量的练习熟能生巧嘛这是个好成语但现在备考的方式可谓五花八门有的要在学校备考你们在学校备的考吗大多数是在学校备考我们有模拟考试但我们在美国要利用暑假缴一定的额外费用参加学习班以备考Lesley 你说你参加的是研究生入学考试而不是大学本科考试是吗是的我在念大学二年级时就开始准备MCAT医科大学的入学考试了我缴费参加了Kaplan备考班。
　　这个班很有名气但费用很贵我丈夫也参加了这个班备考MBA的考试这个班有许多课程是吗你的考试科目是医学我忘了介绍Angie和Katherine了她正要进入一家法律学校的学习Stanley Kaplan这个备考班提供了各科的复习吗是的 我在夏季时参加这个班达两个月左右MCAT的考试可分为四部分要复习到所有的理科课程和其它的非常规部分及写作部分在这个备考班里我们得到了全方位的复习该班还发给我们一些书以供复习之用他们发给你们书然后为你们提供备考复习的服务是的以前就有这种方式了我了解到现在要用电脑来作练习是的GRE的考试就是这样的是这样但MCAT考试还是笔试也许在将来的某一天会用电脑进行测试吧但你实际上请了个私人教师这样帮助更大些 是吗是的 我是纽约人我们这里有许多为考试设的私人教师服务项目私人家庭教师只讲授你需要的内容例如 我不需进行太多的数学准备我这方面很好但我在英语词汇上需要更多的帮助所以我的家庭教师只集中教我英语词汇方面的知识而跳过SAT考试中的数学部分请私人教师虽然贵了点但我这样就不必要对其它对我不重要的科目准备了我想 这样太好了我英语里有一个成语叫“tailoring ”
　　就像汉语里的裁缝根据自己的需要选择所要学的课程。　

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