<p>^Yes, I know, I used to live in Manhattan and grew up in CT - but the NE is more than just metro NYC. </p>
<p>Wow–I am seriously underpaid!</p>
<p>Variable. I worked for a test prep company and they charged anywhere from 150-300/hour (this was a couple of years ago). I only made a fraction of that, which is why I stopped working for them. I have teacher certification so I charge $80/hour. That’s not unreasonable for around here–high school teachers usually charge around $100/hour for tutoring in their subjects (I’m in the NY area). $250/hour isn’t even that high–I’ve read that some of the top city tutors charge north of $500/hour. We’re talking about clients with a LOT of $$, though–when I worked for the test prep company, I got shown the side door of some REALLY nice houses. ;-)</p>
<p>S didn’t take a class or have a tutor for the SAT. He scored at the Presidential Scholar level nontheless.</p>
<p>We did pay an incoming HS senior to tutor him in Spanish for about 6 weeks the summer before freshman year so that he could skip the first year and start at Spanish 2. IIRC we paid about $10 per hr.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised that so many of you would think that someone who can answer all the questions would be so completely unqualified to tutor this. So, I’m wondering, do you think a high school graduate might not be able to explain things well enough for another student to understand? Whereas a college student or Yale grad would? Or do you think there are tricks to answering SAT questions that only certain SAT gurus understand?</p>
<p>Do SAT tutors take the SAT themselves from time to time to prove their expertise, and do the tutoring companies provide this information to clients? Or why would someone pay a company so much money for someone who didn’t/can’t score exceptionally well themselves to teach their kid? Or do they just say, my students gained X number of points? How do you evaluate that since most students are going to improve with serious prep?</p>
<p>Our sons test prep place requires tutors to score in the 95th percentile or above on the SAT/ACT to be hired. I think they are then taught the strategy portion of standardized test taking. For D1 this place was worth the money, but she “bought in” to the program whole heartedly. S2…we shall see. I think we should have just hired a tutor to drill and kill with the SAT blue book. </p>
<p>Hmm. 95th percentile is only about 2050. I wonder how much training they get after that and how many of their clients can already score higher than that. </p>
<p>Mathyone…I’m fairly certain most exceed the minimum. Lots of 2400s coming out of this place. Very demanding clientele. In our case, out scoring the teachers ain’t happening. Just need 60-70 points. :)</p>
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<p>There’s a huge difference between doing well on a test and being able to teach it. There are very intelligent people or really good test takers, who are not very good teachers. I’ve certainly had my share of professors who were like that. When I took the SAT, I got 2290 with little prep (I flipped through a prep book the night before, and I think I took a practice test), but I don’t think I’d be a very good tutor at it. I just did it, but I don’t know if I would have any “tricks” to give other students that aren’t just common sense, and beyond explaining why one answer is right and the other is wrong (which a prep book can do perfectly fine), I would be of little use. But could I get people to pay me to tutor them in the SAT? Absolutely. I just turn them down because I really don’t feel qualified to do it. I would hope that SAT tutors are doing more than just explaining the right and wrong answers.</p>
<p>I don’t think it even has anything to do with what degree they hold, but rather, how much experience they’ve had teaching and specifically tutoring the SAT. A high school grad with TONS of experience teaching the SAT would do better than a college grad who hasn’t taken the SAT for four years. Some people are intuitively really great at teaching, some people are really great because they’ve been doing it for years, and some people market themselves as tutors but are really just a waste of money.</p>
<p>“beyond explaining why one answer is right and the other is wrong (which a prep book can do perfectly fine”. I was assuming that people would want a tutor because they have trouble understanding the explanations in the test prep book. I agree that teaching experience would be very helpful, but some people seemed to think college experience in and of itself would somehow make for better tutors than a high school grad. That kind of puzzles me.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if I would have any “tricks” to give other students that aren’t just common sense”. Most of the “tricks” I’ve seen in test prep books and on the web seemed like just common sense to me. Either that or a dumb/gimmicky attempt to differentiate themselves from all the other test prep books hawking a comparable combination of common sense and gimmicky “tricks”. </p>
<p>I have a relative with a masters in special ed as well as a degree in education. She tutors and also tutors for SAT prep as requested. She was charging $50/hour, but I believe she may have raised it (to $60 or $75 tho haven’t confirmed). </p>
<p>I love it when someone asks for opinions, and then argues with the people who offer an opinion.</p>
<p>I love it when certain commentators just seem to come on here to make snide remarks to people who are trying to have a discussion. If you don’t like my posts, don’t read them.</p>
<p>Im amazed that some pay more than $60 an hr for tutoring. Of course, we didn’t feel it was necessary and while one daughters SAT scores could have been higher, instead of cramming for a retake, she took the ACT instead.
Much better.
Both girls were admitted to all their choices & without going crazy.
:)</p>
<p>My kids never did SAT prep so I have no idea what the going rate is. It doesn’t surprise me that experienced teachers command higher rates; however, I would be willing to hire a high schooler if they had scores proving their proficiency. I get mail all the time from local learning centers advertising their prep classes. They market their product by naming tutors and what high school they go to and their enviable SAT scores. These centers hire high schoolers as tutors so they must think they have something to offer. I know these program fees are not cheap, so I would rather hire the kid directly. Still not sure how much I would be willing to pay since I never priced these things out, but If the kid is smart, we could work something out. </p>
<p>After law school, I taught LSAT prep for a big company and made like $20-25/hour (but not including my prep time which the first round took a bunch of time). They trained you. That same group did SAT prep…I never saw someone that young teaching. </p>
<p>It’s interesting to see how much regional variation there is. I think the market here must be depressed by a lack of parents stressing about these tests. Actually I only know of one student who got any tutoring and none who took a prep class. I did a little research and found the local going rate is $30-50/hour and that includes everyone from college professors, PhD’s, JD’s, and licensed teachers with years of experience to college students.</p>
<p>@TempeMom, maybe it’s the area we live in. Around these parts, perfect (or near perfect) SAT scorers are not uncommon so their scores alone could make them marketable. I’ve never been to any of these centers so have not actually seen these young tutors. I’m just going by the literature that I receive. For all I know, they could just be administrative helpers. </p>
<p>In any case, if I see that a kid is smart, I would have no problems hiring him (or her). The worst that could happen is that I discover that he is not a great teacher and be forced to fire him. But, if he is competent and helps my kid, that could be huge savings. (Hoping that all this is moot and that my kid will self prep with a book.)</p>
<p>Does anyone remember Silverturtle? I believe he was a high schooler when he posted SAT prep on this site. My kids did not use it, but I got the impression that he helped a lot of kids here.</p>
<p>The gold standard for SAT test prep on this site is the “xiggi method”. </p>
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<p>Same here, except I don’t know any who got tutoring, or who took a prep course, including my 5 Ds.</p>