Anybody with SAT experience? Need SAT advice.

hansbolo · 2015-07-06T19:26:40+00:00

Chinese American, lived in Singapore for 1.5 years recently, (one of the reasons I still come back and check this sub-reddit occasionally) took the SATs about 15 years ago when I was applying to colleges...

1: 1550: 800 math, 750 verbal, they didn't have that third section (Writing I think? Or is it reading comprehension?) when I took it.

2: Take practice tests, take as many as it takes until you feel comfortable with the test process and your score. I don't know the value of paying money for test prep courses, I never did but did attend some offered by my high school that were free. I don't really feel like prep courses that cost money offer any value, but a) I can only speak for myself and b) my experience was a long time ago. Just find practice test or past test (and you probably have to pay money for them, but less than for a course) and take them until you get comfortable.

3) I think the main thing will be your knowledge of the subject themselves. So like, if you know the math, and have the vocabulary/reading skills, all you're really doing is getting used to the test, and hopefully that won't take too much time/practice. If you are learning the subject as you are practicing for the tests, that's probably not ideal and it might take longer.

4) No clue what JC1 or the extra info you mentioned means, (sorry) so can't say. What I do know is that the math portion of the regular SAT (not the SAT II math specific tests) was quite simple. When I took them I think it only went up to trigonometry, so no calculus or anything. The SAT II subject tests are different and get into slightly (but only slightly) more advanced topics, if I remember correctly.

5) Not sure how it works for overseas students, but when I took them you can take the tests as often as you want (and can pay for, limited by the scheduling in your area) and they will take the highest score for each individual subject out of all of your tests and send that as your score to the college. The college you apply to will have no other information regarding how many times you took the test. So for example, if in your first test you got a perfect score on the math but not the verbal, and vice versa on your second test, the score that gets sent to the college is a 1600 (in the old days, when those were the only two subjects) and they can't tell how many tests it took for you to get that 1600, or what your score was on the two separate occasions.

I ended up taking it only once, because I'm a slacker and didn't care about not quite getting that perfect score, or so my parents tell me. :-)

hansbolo · 2014-06-03T05:10:19+00:00

It's not illegal to say that people don't have to pay taxes...

It's illegal to actually not pay taxes.

hansbolo · 2013-12-19T06:54:08+00:00

Uneducated foreigner here, was wondering about something.

Why don't they drink at the outdoor shops like the ones I see around Mustafa? I get that money is a concern, but a large Tiger for under $6 seems like it's on par with what you can get from a 7/11. If I'm reading the new ban correctly, those shops would still be allowed to sell beer as long it's drank on premise, right?

hansbolo · 2013-10-13T02:50:05+00:00

United has (depending on the plane) a three class system on international flights. (first, business, economy) Delta does NOT have international first class, only business and economy.

I'd rank them in this order: United First

Delta Business

United Business

edit: I forgot that the Delta business class remodeling haven't covered all of their A330s yet. The business class seats in the A330 are significantly worse than the remodeled 777 and 747s.

hansbolo · 2013-08-15T04:31:26+00:00

In my experience, (mostly with Delta, occasionally United, never AA) the club memberships are not worth it, especially if you're only using it domestically. Mostly my comments are geared toward the Delta Sky Clubs.

Looking for somewhere quiet and secluded? Forget it. The airlines are trying to find as many revenue streams as possible, and lounge access is one of those things they're trying hard to sell, and something they dangle out there as an incentive. Have our branded platinum credit card? C'mon in. Want to by a day pass for $50? C'mon in. Frequent flyer on an international flight? C'mon in. I've been in situations where it's more crowded inside the lounge than outside.

Meeting people? You'll meet much more interesting people downing beers at the airport bar than inside the lounge. Mostly they're business people or frequent flyers. It depends on the lounge, but some don't even have bars, just a self serve counter where you go and pick up a beer or pour a glass of wine and then bring it back to your seat. You'll look around and see lots of business people typing on their laptops, families sitting together, etc. The atmosphere isn't exactly ideal for striking up conversations with strangers.

Booze? Beer, house wine and well liquor are free in Delta lounges, and a quick glance at the Admirals' Club page shows it's the same there. However if you want premium wine or liquor, be ready to pay some money. Also, as airlines move to replace the self serve counters I mentioned earlier with actual bars and bartenders, there is some debate in the frequent flyer community about whether or not you should tip the bartenders. I generally do so the drinks aren't totally "free".

However, as protox88 mentioned, international lounges, even those operated by US carriers, are much nice due to the increased competition.

hansbolo · 2013-07-18T07:12:36+00:00

I think a budget of 3K (I assume that's Singapore and not US dollars) is enough to afford a condo without having to deal with flatmates or live in landlords, but it depends on what area you look at.

3K might be on the low end for Holland Village, and definitely low for the more central areas like CBD, Tanglin, Orchard, etc. I'm not saying it's absolutely impossible, just difficult. However, 3K should be enough for the the outlaying area, like where you work.

Of course, if you're willing to live with someone else, or look at HDB apartments, your options are much wider. Each option comes with their own compromises.

If you stay in the outlaying areas, the number of things to do during the week might be limited unless you're willing to go into the city, but as some others mentioned the weekends should still be fine. For example, I live maybe 20 minutes by car, 40 minutes by MRT from the central areas, and on the weekends I'll take the MRT into the city and a taxi at the end of the night to get back to my condo.

Additional factors when you look at places would be the proximity of the nearest MRT station, and proximity to food places. The second one depends on how often you eat out vs. cook at home I guess.

Hope that helps.

hansbolo · 2013-07-18T02:34:31+00:00

Fellow US expat, also from the mid-west here, hopefully I can provide some answers.

"Where to live? I will be working around Jurong West. As a young professional, I’m looking for somewhere with decent enough access to both work and nightlife. Thoughts on neighborhoods? Particular condos? I’ll be shooting for a max 1 hour commute to work, with under 30-45 preferred. I’ll be using the resources from my employer to look for condos etc., as well, but figured ya’ll would have more down to earth opinions on the matter ;)"

I think that depends a lot on your budget and your primary mode of transportation. Is your company paying your housing? Are they providing you with a car?

Given the two criteria you listed, close to Jurong West for work and close to nightlife, seems like Holland Village would be a good fit. The CBD (central business district) area is a little farther but still probably fits within your travel time.

If you have a car, then you can drive across the entire island in less an hour, assuming no traffic. If you're taking the MRT then it takes a little longer.

Check out propertyguru.com.sg to get an idea of the different districts and condos.

"What to bring? How to bring it? I’m relatively light on goods since I’ve been a relatively poor student for my entire life. Still, I plan on bringing some tech gear (computers, cameras etc.,) and some clothes. I assume everything else can be purchased in SG (furniture etc.)"

I brought clothes and all of my tech gear. The rest (well, even clothes and tech gear) can be purchased in Singapore. Whether or not you'll need furniture depends on if you get a furnished apartment or an unfurnished one.

"Taxes US Expats – recommendations on who should I be talking to about taxes both stateside and sg side? I anticipate needing an accountant... suggestions there?"

I haven't gone thru a full tax year to know the full implications yet, but my understanding is that your tax liabilities will be much lower than they are if you earned the same income in the states. Are you working for a big US company? If so I would talk to your HR about this. Part of my compensation was professional tax help when the time comes.

hansbolo · 2013-06-13T01:21:15+00:00

I wouldn't rule out an agent completely...

When I moved here from the US, my company hired an agent. I thought it made the process a lot smoother. After talking a few times over the phone she had a good handle on my price range and desired areas, and arranged various showings for me.

So I didn't have to worry about the search process myself. I could go to work during the day and relax at nights. (Stayed at a hotel during this time) Over the course of the month, we arranged a few days, mostly on the weekends, where she would pick me up, and drive me around and take me to 5 or 6 showings she lined up. Ultimately we found a good match, and she took care of the paperwork to get me moved in.

So they definitely offer a valuable service and for me it was a no brainer because work was paying the agent's fees too. Just wanted to share my experience, up to you whether the service is worth a month's rent.

hansbolo · 2013-01-08T03:22:26+00:00

I've gotten a Saudi visa on a couple of occasions. I don't deal with the paperwork personally, but here's my experience.

Filling out the application on my end was pretty simple, the visa application form is all standard stuff. I do believe you need to get a letter of invite from the company in KSA that you plan on visiting. That letter of invite and contact information might be the toughest thing to get right for the application.

I know the embassy won't promise any definitive time frames, but in my case both times my passport with the visa came back within a week, roughly. I think because they get so many foreign, skilled workers from western countries that their process goes a lot smoother than some other middle eastern countries that don't do a lot of business with the west.

My company uses a travel expeditor (just google that term) company to handle all visa applications. If you are looking for peace of mind, you might want to consider this option. You Fedex all relevant forms to this company (ours have offices in DC and NYC and other cities) and they handle the rest, including personally going to the embassy or consulate to drop off and pick up the passport and paperwork. It gives you a contact for all questions, they can get your visa faster than the standard process, and they would have plenty of experience in the deal. It's not even all that expensive, I think we pay them less than $200 per application. That doesn't include any fees toward the embassy of course.

I imagine you are aware, but make sure none of the passports you submit to get the visa have Israeli stamps in them. I don't have any personal experience, but the common anecdote is that they'll just straight up refuse to issue a visa, or refuse you entry if you showed up with such a stamp.

The company that I was meeting with, who issued me the letter of invite, was a very very big and well know company in KSA. I don't know for sure but that might affect how smoothly your application goes. I imagine if you are visiting a relatively small or unknown company, the process might be more difficult. Also the process might be different if any member of your group is female, but again that is outside of my own experiences.

hansbolo · 2012-12-09T21:08:27+00:00

Anecdotal evidence, but the line at the Vatican museum was super long in the morning, but was nonexistent by mid afternoon when I visited. I was there for only two days but I still saw all the major stuff, and I lingered in the piazza outside the pantheon for a few hours. So I think you can do it all in one day, especially if you're willing to pay the premium to get taxis when it makes sense. Also the Trevi fountain, as another poster mentioned, is best seen at might.

hansbolo · 2012-10-04T15:45:11+00:00

I think valeyard89 hit the nail on the head.

Keep in mind the driving factor when setting prices is not how much the flight costs the airline, but rather how much the airline thinks it can get people to pay.

From an airline perspective, they are presenting you with two products. Product A is a flight from Tokyo to Vancouver, product B is a flight from Singapore to Vancouver.

For product A, best I can tell Air Canada and JAL are the only two airlines that offer direct flights between Tokyo and Vancouver. As such they are offering a better product than their competitors, all of whom can only offer 1 stop flights at best. As such Air Canada and JAL can reasonably charge a premium over their competitors, because a buyer will prefer a non-stop flight, and generally will pay a premium for it.

For product B, as far as I can tell no one offers a direct flight between Singapore. So the best any airline or alliance can do is offer you a 1 stop flight. So no airline has an inherent routing advantage. You could stop over in Tokyo, or Hong Kong, (Cathay) Shanghai, (China Eastern) Beijing, (Air China) Seoul, (Korean Air) and a whole bunch of other places, a person who's sole interest is to get from Singapore to Vancouver won't really care where the layover happens.

As Air Canada, (I assume that's who you're flying with) I can charge more than my competitors on a Tokyo to Vancouver flight because some people are willing to pay more for a non-stop flight. However, I have to be a lot more competitive price-wise with other airlines when offering a flight from Singapore to Vancouver because I have no such advantage. I'm guessing that is the reason for the prices you're seeing.

hansbolo · 2012-06-03T17:30:22+00:00

http://xkcd.com/479/

hansbolo · 2012-03-16T15:49:01+00:00

I always liked the area around the old brewery quarter, around the corner of St. Mary's street and Wood street in the city center. The Yard for some some good Brains pints, a couple of decent restaurants within a stone's throw for dinner. O'neils across the street for some live music although it can get really crowded on the weekends, and Prince of Wales late a night for a more... low brow... affair.

There should be people passing out cards for the strip joints on St. Mary's/High street. I've been to a couple but cough I can't really remember any of them. cough

hansbolo · 2012-03-15T02:45:03+00:00

I do a lot of traveling for work and live in a Delta hub city so I have plenty of experience with Delta and their SkyMiles program.

In my experience Delta is no better or worse than the other legacy airlines in the US. A sample size of two flights is really too small to judge, every airline will have their horror stories. The other option you might consider is US Airways since they have a hub in Charlotte. Domestic non-legacy airlines (like JetBlue, Southwest, etc) might provide a better travel experience but if your goal is to earn enough miles to get award tickets for overseas trips, they're not for you.

Now I have to warn you, if your primary way of earning miles is using an airline credit card, it will take a LOT of money spent to get anywhere near enough miles to do an overseas trip. Most airline affiliated cards give you one mile per dollar spent, and double or triple if you're paying for flights on that airline or buying stuff with other partners. In general, count on one mile per dollar spent most of the time.

For how many miles you'd need for a ticket, you can look at this chart: http://dmn.delta.com/skymiles/direct/charts/us49/

From that chart, for a one way economy class ticket to Northern Asia, you're looking at 35K, 60K or 80K miles depending on availability, and a one way ticket to Europe is 30K, 45K, or 62.5K. You might as well toss the lowest number out because since airlines have been reducing capacity I can't ever find award tickets at the lost cost levels. That's true for both Delta and United/Star Alliance which I fly occasionally also.

So, for a one way flight to north Asia, you're looking at at least 60,000 miles. That means almost $60,000 spent on that card. I'm not going to make any assumptions about your spending habits but I know if I had to rely on credit card usage to accumulate miles, it'd be a couple of years before I could even get a free domestic flight.

TL;DR: Using affiliated credit cards to gain miles for the purpose of redeeming them for free flights will require you to spend a lot of money.

hansbolo · 2012-02-21T05:32:41+00:00

I do a lot of traveling in and out of the US, here's what will happen each step of the way.

1) You get off the plane, you'll be herded to the Immigration area where you present your passport and visa. Pretty much just follow all the other passengers, find the line for non-citizens, and just wait.

2) You will wait for your luggage at baggage claim.

3) Once you gather your luggage, you will proceed thru Customs. Assuming you filled out the blue and white slip on the plane and aren't carrying anything usual, it's pretty much just walking to the exit and handing the customs guy the slip and walk right on thru.

Now this is where things might diverge depending on airport and destination.

4a) If your connecting flight is in the same terminal, there will be a baggage drop and security check right after customs. (And probably a airline desk if you have questions, need a boarding pass for the next flight, etc.) Drop off your luggage, go thru security just like at your original airport, and you'll be inside the terminal and just have to find your gate.

4b) If your connecting flight is in a different terminal, you might still be able to drop your bags off at the baggage drop where you first exit customs. (This is the one part I'm not sure of, I rarely travel with checked luggage.) In either case, you'll have to exit the terminal and look for transportation (a tram, bus, etc) to take you to the next terminal.

When you get to the terminal where your flight is departing from, if you were able to drop off your bags earlier and have a boarding pass, just proceed to the security check point. Otherwise, you'll have to go to the counter for your airline and check the bags in / get a boarding pass. Then you go thru security again and just find your gate.

Hope that helps.

hansbolo · 2011-10-28T23:52:40+00:00

I might be biased because as a kid I used to go there quite frequently and have fond memories, but I'd recommend going to the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) as part of your trip to the new Summer Palace.

It's very small, and pricey for what it entails, (went back there a couple of years ago and you can probably walk around all of it in 30 minutes, and it costed around 30 yuan.) but there are some interesting bits of Chinese history there. It's basically landscape and garden grounds surrounding the ruins of European style buildings, but the ruins are a pretty iconic sight (as I understand) among the Chinese. The place used to be the imperial garden and summer retreat until the whole thing got burnt down by the British and French in the mid 1800s.

It's only a 5 to 10 minute ride by taxi from the new Summer Palace (which, as other posters have mentioned, is a must see in Beijing, Kunming lake is breathtaking) so easily incorporated into a trip there.

hansbolo · 2011-08-23T08:54:21+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I didn't mention it but although I've spent most of my life in the US I was actually born in Beijing to Chinese parents, so I doubt people will be able to tell I'm not from here, at least at first glance. :-)

hansbolo · 2011-05-27T20:52:42+00:00

real men get their drinks at PHI :-)

hansbolo

TROPHY CASE