Went to the bookstore today

Actually in Hyde Park where I made a stop in Treasure Island and saw a uniformed police officer with a card that indicated that he was on the "presidential detail".

Anyway I dropped by Border's and since I've been out of school for perhaps the past month, being a graduate and all, I've got to figure out what's next. My plans have been to return to school although I will admit my road to Morehouse was bumpy but my road out of Morehouse was bumpier still. I need to polish myself a little bit before I can even think I would be good enough to be accepted into a graduate or professional school.

I spent most of my time at Border's looking at prep books. For the GRE or the LSAT and I look forward to finding more information on those two tests. I hear that the GRE is said to be easier than the LSAT perhaps because the LSAT is designed to test your reasoning and reading comprehension.

Anyway I decided perhaps I may need a book on getting into either a graduate program or a law school. There's more literature on getting into law school than on getting into graduate school. Although while both are difficult to enter into graduate school competition just has to be rough because there are less programs than one might find in undergrad.

Since I was in the section I checked out the other offerings. Let's be honest here, I never thought you would need a prep book for the ISAT. The ISAT is a test taken by 3-8 students in Illinois testing in such subjects or skills as math, writing, social studies, reading comprehension, or science. It's roughly the same test I would have taken during my years in school, but it would have been called the IGAP (Illinois Goals Assessment Program). This book I saw was for those who were in 8th Grade. Well this lets me know that these standardized tests that are supposed to measure what these students have learned in school is a big deal enough to warrant having prep books. In my day, the teachers (well my 8th Grade teacher especially) would teach us for the tests whether for the Iowa test or the IGAP. Today you don't need classroom prep, but certainly there is a book to buy now!

BTW, of course there were books on prep for the ACT or SAT. I don't have to take those although when I took the ACT many years ago I probably could have used some prep for that. More than was offered during my junior year in high school. Fact was back then I simply didn't appreciate the meaning and the purpose of these tests enough to really want to do well on them.

My focus was on these books about getting into college. If I had seen these books when I was in my senior year of high school, I would hope that I wouldn't be as intimidated as I was back then. I would have been worth a few dollars if it meant whether or not I could see the course forward as I feel I wasn't at the time.

One book talked about working on an application. One discussed writing an essay for your application, however one piece of advice was while you should be true to yourself. Don't be down on yourself either. Be honest, but be sure to give admissions officers confidence that you will do just fine in their college. The example I remember showed an athlete getting a promise letter for an ivy league school, but it was no good after they saw her essay and that essay proved she wasn't a good fit for them.

I had to look at the books that discussed the various colleges out there. Morehouse in one book was still a school where the best and brightest could go. I was flattered being a Morehouse alumnus myself. Although depending on who you talk to there may be problems in attracting the best and the brightest, especially if going to school in ATL might cost close to $30K a year. That's a lot of grants, loans, and cash with nothing to spare. Probably something to work on if you want to get the best and brightest students and be able to compete with other top schools who can deliver scholarships or what not without forcing students to resort to student loan debt.

Other books listed as top school such HBCU's as Fisk, Howard, or even Spelman. Although in that book that listed Morehouse it failed to list Spelman College and many consider that school to be especially elite.

I had books back then to show me the schools I could go, however, in those days I lacked the follow through. It was difficult to move on the great unknown, although now it's much easier because I did it more times than one. So I expect that moving up in the education world, while not a cinch, is a little easier to do as long as I'm able to investigate what it takes to get to where I need to go.

Anyway let's open this post up a little. I may be asking for a lot so here goes.

• Any recommendations for books on prep tests for the LSAT and the GRE?
• Any recommendations out there for books on prep for the ACT and SAT, for those who are looking to go to college?
• Any recommendations on books regarding college? Especially as far as admissions or going to college?

I know I'm asking a lot, but let's just try to cover some bases here. You might be helping me out as far as LSAT or GRE prep, but I do hope we can help out anyone else who might need a hand into high education as well.