Thinking ahead for my DD, rising Junior. She’s not a natural test taker, has ADHD, Tourette’s and OCD. These make standardized tests very difficult, and her first crack at the SAT/ACT were solidly average- around a 1050 / 23. She’s an A student, very academically bright. Her brother is great at standardized tests, got a 35 and is at an Ivy. She’s just as intelligent, but struggles with big tests, even with her accommodations. She’s looking at competitive LACs, so far she loves Oberlin and Vassar. So knowing that the “average reported scores” of many of these schools are 33+, would you dump a ton of time and money into prep? Or just say, ‘we’ll go TO and hope for the best’? I know she can increase her scores through some prep, but realistically I don’t think she’ll be able to smash it and get a 33+. We know that the prep will be a big time sucker, and she’ll be taking APs next year. What would you do?
I wouldn’t dump money into test prep, but I WOULD invest $30 in a review book from Amazon and with your D’s cooperation/advice/participation, figure out a prep method that will work for her and not drive her crazy.
She may go TO in the end anyway… but college is filled with tests of all kinds, and there are no guarantees that the types of accommodations she needs are actually going to help her. So getting her on board with some moderate, low key prep so she gets in the groove might be a really helpful tool as she looks at other colleges.
Kids with “solidly average” test scores often have a big, glaring hole… like she was out with flu the week her class learned converting fractions to percentages. Filling that hole can raise the scores substantially AND it’s a useful skill to have as an adult!
If she concludes she’s going TO, no harm no foul. A few hours a week of prep and 30 bucks… not so terrible. I think official test prep classes are best for the gung ho kid who absolutely, positively has to score as high as possible- not for a kid like yours who might need something kinder and gentler…
I would just go test optional if she’s interested in LACs. Could you wring a 1300 out of her? Maybe? But that’s still not high enough. Take a look at the Common Data sets for the schools she’s interested in, my guess is that a large percentage of applicants are test optional.
Good luck!
The standard recommendation at our feederish HS is try a practice test of each first, then pick your favorite and do some reasonable prep (it doesn’t have to be expensive or horribly time-consuming, it can be self-study at home with full practice tests, Khan, or so on), then try again. If you get the score you need, great, if not you can assess if more prep, maybe focused in some way, could help.
But if you don’t make much progress after a reasonable amount of prep? You can just stop and go test optional.
In your case, I might even go straight to test optional. But I definitely would not put a lot of time and money into prep yet. Because if a reasonable amount of low-cost prep doesn’t lead to at least a lot of improvement in a second test, an unreasonable amount of high-cost prep isn’t likely to work either. And that’s OK.
I would have her spend some time this summer prepping on her own. If she’s an A student, she knows how to study and can definitely work through practice exams and prep books. She can also sit and take practice exams (on paper) with someone timing her, etc. I know the SAT is online only now but ACT still offers a choice. She can take the tests at the end of the summer or early in the fall, before classes really heat up. You can re-evaluate after that.
Despite the prevalence of prep centers, it is definitely possible for kids to study on their own and do well. I know several that have done this successfully and ended up with 1500+ and 33+ scores as juniors. The key is to:
- make sure that you analyze the practice scores and focus on fixing the problem areas and
- practice the test mechanics (i.e. tracking time with an analog watch, bubbling effectively for the paper test, skipping questions and going back if there is time, etc.)
Good luck!
Thank you for all of these great suggestions- much appreciated! I do like the idea of doing some self-study over the summer and seeing how much her scores improve before investing in expensive courses or 1-on-1 tutoring. She does have some unique EC’s and awards, so hopefully that might balance out going test optional, if that ends up being what she decides to do.
I’d just plan on going test optional.
Every kid is different; handles training and the pressure different.
A 1030 to 1330 is highly unlikely. Of course, she might try the ACT.
You can get a book, do practice tests, watch some videos - and then drill, drill, drill and try to get a score up.
But will all the drilling (in one section) cause more harm than good?
If she likes LACs and I have no idea if she’ll be in range for Oberlin or Vassar, but if not them - there’s tons of sub schools that will provide a great education - even those ranked #100, etc.
So TO and LACs go well together - so the risk/reward probably says to stop.
To really go up, she can learn on her own - but it would just be hours upon hours upon hours of drilling question upon question - to move up that much.
Good luck to her.
I’m not suggestion “hours upon hours upon hours” of drilling. I think that’s an ineffective strategy for anyone. I’m suggesting figuring out if there’s an actual hole in her knowledge base causing her to miss the same type of question time and time again. And rather than drilling- just sit down and learn what she’s missing! She’s a strong student already so she knows how to learn something new. She doesn’t need a drill. She needs to figure out what’s missing. And this is a skill for life, not just test prep. No matter what she studies in college, there will be times where she’ll need to teach herself X… and knowing how to do that is a valuable skill.
1000 to 1300 is probably not very likely.
One of my DDs (not best test taker) was able to move from 1260 to 1410 with my guidance and not much prep (mostly plugging holes in Math, get more familiar with test format and type of questions, and reading sections questions approaches.)
I would not waste my money and time. Your child can spend time for othet more productive things.
It’s my experience (party of one and two kids) that even when you learn the strategies - you have to drill - to make sure you understand and can do the work - that the confidence is there.
When I studied for the gmat, it was 30 mins a day on one section and I might do that same area 3 days in a row.
So I think you need to understand and then repeat and repeat.
But as I noted - if one is trying to jump 300 points and has other issues, and since they want an LAC which is more open to TO, I’d probably not go here at all.
But I don’t see a chance by simply learning the strategies.
Perhaps the ACT would fair better - but unlikely.
And sometimes the test that day is just easier - how mine could get a 24 and and 31, back to back tests on an ACT section.
Just my opinion.
In this case, I’d probably skip the test given other factors OP mentioned.
PS - being an A student today, depending on the school, doesn’t necessarily mean much - unfortunately.
Given so many differences issues even with A student and bunch of accommodations, I would choose college very carefully. You do not want overly competitive environment. Your child needs to feel comfortable in college instead of proving nonstop herself. Find place where she would shine and be happy.
I also wanted to add the following to this:
- my D24 wasn’t a stellar test taker. Initial SAT was about an 1130. She also took the ACT cold and got something like a 25-26, upon repeat testing, it went down. SAT on repeat and minimal studying went up to a 1200.
- BUT that ‘minimal studying’ for the SAT was painful for our household. A LOT of nagging and bugging on my part. She truly hated it. There was absolutely no way that even 30 min a day of SAT/ACT test prep was going to happen for my kid.
- only YOU know your kid best. We don’t know your kid. For example, do you think that doing a lot of test prep will only serve to stress her out more? Then don’t bother.
- Will applying test optional hurt her chances of getting accepted at school X, Y, or Z? That depends. It depends on how truly ‘test optional’ they are. This will probably require you to read the details on colleges’ websites and pay attention to what they say in info sessions. For example, if the website says they’re test optional but submitting test scores is ‘encouraged’ or ‘preferred,’ then I’d take that to mean “We really want you to submit SAT/ACT scores.” And, therefore, maybe that college shouldn’t be one you have your heart set on.
- Shift gears and focus on finding some additional LACs that are similar to the tippy-top ones that your daughter really loves. Figure out what is it specifically about Oberlin and Vassar that really speaks to her. Is it a particular vibe on campus? Is it a specific program that she really likes? etc., etc. And then also look for other LACs that are similar to that.
- why do that? Because it will give her options to choose from once acceptance & rejection letters come in.
Those are ACT scores. Did you means she should try the SAT…which she already tried with a 1050 score?
Does she have an IEP or 504 plan at school? If so, does she have any testing accommodations. And what does her transition plan stay regarding after high school?
Has her school counselor given her suggestions on colleges, or the TO strategy?
I also would stop compare her to her brother. That will not help her. She does not need to prove to anybody that she is as smart as he is. She is a different person. She does not need to go to competitive LAC or Ivy. She needs to be successful and happy. That can be in a place like Juniata or Goucher too.
I have 3 kids and they attend totally different types of colleges. I hope they all eventually be successful.
Like you, I have 2 kids. One does great on tests, had a high SAT score, and is at a US News Top 10 school. My other son is slightly on the Autism/Asperger’s spectrum. My Neurodiverse son wanted to study for the SAT himself and got a 1220. For a state school that he had his eye on, we knew he would likely need to improve that score a bit. He went to an SAT class and saw an individual SAT tutor a handful of times. He then got a lower SAT score than the first time. He was done at that point.
Your daughter sounds like a better overall student than my son, so the results could be very different, but with Neurodiverse kids, you just never know.
My D24 sounds reasonably similar in many ways. She did considerably better on the ACT than the SAT. It might suit your daughter much better. Consider suggesting just enough studying to learn a few tips about each section and how to be efficient. When I worded the couple hours of studying like that instead of just ‘study for the ACT’, it really helped. I am a firm believer that the first few hours of studying may provide huge benefits, then it’s very diminishing returns after that.
Also agreeing with the earlier posters who suggested requesting extra time. An ADHD diagnosis should get a 504 plan which is then reasonably straight forward for the school to request the extra time on the ACT.
Given she is a rising junior, I might do a typical round of 8-12 weeks of prep prior to next spring taking it again. If she wanted to do the prep. If she didn’t, I might just have her take it again anyway if she were willing. Because sometimes some magic just happens over a years time. Test taking reliably can be a developmental skill for some students. If she were saying she is done, I also think that is fine.
I have paid for and done tutoring and have watched a bunch of students go through the process, and have worked with neurodiverse students. I don’t think what tutors are doing is anything you couldn’t do on your own most likely. But if you have the budget, it’s fine to pay for a tutor of course. I wouldn’t be throwing boat loads of money or time at it. I do think there are diminishing returns at some point.
But at the same time, even with a reasonable one year jump, these scores may not be where you want them to be for these particular rejective LACs. For this kid I would focus on casting a wide net and finding a good fit where she can be successful and any accomodations are met and discourage focusing on particular schools. I think it’s easy for a junior in high school, especially with a sibling at a highly rejective school to fall in love with highly rejective schools. I have a kid that was accepted to Oberlin, we’ve been on a ton of campuses and I think he could have been happy at a number of great LACs, including less rejective ones. As a parent, I would encouraging a wide net and an open mind and let the process play out as we continued to learn more about the options on the table. I probably wouldn’t ED without a campus visit and a sit down with their disability resources, understanding mental health services, etc.
Took a quick look at Vassar’s freshman profile. 60% test optional with an average of 1489.
Honestly, I just wouldn’t bother with test prep 
I’d just have a good list with wide range of admissions selectivity at schools that your daughter likes.
She does have an IEP, and received accommodations on both the ACT and SAT she took. She did not do any extensive prep for either, though- was actually out sick the week before the SAT, so I’m sure there will be upward mobility in her score. Just doubtful that she’ll get up to a 33/34+, which seems to be what kids report nowadays for competitive schools.