<p>Yikes- so many people pay, and so much, for this. So glad we were in a region paying testing tutors was not considered.</p>
<p>We paid ZERO. Son was able to get top scores (2400) by learning from school and having the ability to do well without it. We forced him to do practice tests even though he had done gifted talent search tests in middle school.</p>
<p>Instead of doing last minute cramming with tutoring parents should have their kids doing the school work and perhaps doing free prep work from online sources sooner. Many parents also need to accept the child they have. If it takes mega hours of homework and tutoring the goal just isn’t worth it. And- cut the activities that interfere with getting the work done. The student who puts forth such effort with the result of getting into a college they may not have will be in college with those who have more native ability- what will happen then???</p>
<p>Oh, lordy, now I’m freaked out. I love the idea of one-to-one tutoring tailored exactly to the student’s needs. But I don’t think that’ll be in the cards for us. Will a kid without any tutoring be able to reach their potential for ACT and SAT? </p>
<p>@dyiu13, my kids only did a couple practice tests from the College Board book. Their scores were respectable, so I’m not regretting that they didn’t have tutors. However, more self prep probably would have been helpful in “reaching their potential”, so I think it’s worth exploring some of the SAT prep advice on this site.</p>
<p>I think that SAT tutoring would be great community service. If a student volunteers his services to under-served students, it would be win-win. What would be more satisfying than helping the less advantaged improve their chances in college admissions?</p>
<p>@bogibogi, actually, her school runs free after-school tutoring and she was a tutor for that. But she said it was pretty frustrating because she made the commitment to be there but very often the kids just didn’t show up. She could have been doing a different EC, and this year she chose to do so.</p>
<p>@mathyone, good for your daughter for trying. I understand her frustration if other students are not putting in the effort. Based on what Xiggi is suggesting, it may still be worth it for your daughter to pursue the paid tutoring. It would be no cost to her to post on Craigslist to see if she has any takers. Good luck.</p>
<p>While on the subject of math… I think this is a <em>first</em>. Posts from a certain parent who then did not take the liberty of reminding us that her dau was a val, got scholarship $$ to college and is in medical school =D> </p>
<p>I paid a college junior nursing student $15 and a pre-med student $20 to tutor chemistry, physics and math. I used Care.com so you might consider registering with them though I passed right on by the high school age tutors and went to the college students. I know the nursing student also said she tutored test prep though we didn’t pursue that with her. I wouldn’t pay for SAT or ACT tutoring at all - we used test prep books. She scored so low on the practice test that the school gave it scared me but she’s scoring in the high 20’s/low 30’s now. I think the Kaplan course is like $600. Not. paying. it. She wouldn’t want to take it either for that much (she likes money too much and would be trying to figure out how to keep that money in the household for her own possible use). </p>
<p>“Will a kid without any tutoring be able to reach their potential for ACT”
-Absolutely YES.
But it means that the kid have to prepare and do it in serious manner. First, analyze what personal customized plan will make sense specifically to this kid. As an example (example only, since this was customized to my D’s needs and hers are different from others), here is what D. did for ACT self preparaion:
she got familiar with all sections and took practice tests in all
-based on the above, she evaluated her stand in each section:
She is a slower reader, she decided that it would be a waste of time trying to improve her Reading score
2. English section looked to her like common sense
3. Science section contained no science questions, it was just slower Reading section, close to her speed
4. Math - the questions in ACT were related more to Middle school and HS Freshman math material. Lots of it was simply forgotten. D. decided to focus ONLY on math to make sure that her Math score will compensated predictable low Reading score.
She has spend one hour preparing math every day for 5 days right before her ACT test. Her scores were amazingly as predicted with the Reading section score lower than the highest section score by whooping 7 points. Her total was 33 and she was accepted to several places of her choice with huge Merit awards at couple.<br>
Again, this is just an example. No tutor will know for sure how kid feels about each section of the test and why. That is why D. said that prep. class that she took for the SAT was complete waste of time for her and she decided to pursue her ACT preparations on her own. Well, in total it was only about 5 hours of very efficiently spent time with result that was enough for her goal. Again, goal is also different from kid to another. D. did not have to have a 36 </p>
<p>I paid 100-125/hr for 1:1 tutoring for both kids. D1’s tutor(s) were from NYC metro area, and D2’s tutors were hired from a firm located in CA, but they could have been any where in the country because she did it via Skype. We got those tutors through recommendations - She raised my kid’s CR score by 200 pts, he was very good at explaining some math problems to my kid. I don’t think I would hire anyone without a track record, even if it’s free. I would be more concerned with opportunity lost. </p>
<p>D1 did a lot of subject tutoring while she was a senior in high school and through out college. Around our area, the going rate for certified teachers was over $100, someone asked D1 to tutor her daughter when D1 was in high school because her kid had an affinity to D1. She paid D1 75/hr. D1 was able to help the daughter raise her letter grade by a whole point across most subjects. She then recommended D1 to her friends, and the rest was history. When D1 was in college, people would book her before she came home for winter and summer breaks. Most people want to hire tutors with good reputation/recommendation. If this person hadn’t asked D1, I don’t think D1 could have gotten a lot of jobs on her own. If OP’s kid wants to do tutoring, the best way to do it is to get a teacher or an adult to recommend him/her. By putting up a poster at a library or grocery store is not going to get you that many students, especially when OP’s kid is only a high school student.</p>
<p>Frankly, not much “knowledge” in ACT. I did not see any…
D. got lower score on the SAT because there is no “slow reading” a.k.a “science” section on the SAT. Again, there are no science questions in this section, it is just slow reading and a boost of score for slower readers…the other sections are similar. I heard that it is common to do better on the ACT. I bet that the reason is the same - “science” section just gives a chance to improve the score for slower readers.</p>
<p>I was assuming that regular subject tutoring wouldn’t work because she would not be available during the school year. I don’t think there would be any market in our area for subject tutoring over the summer. Hard enough to find any clients who would start studying for the SAT over the summer…</p>
<p>Frankly, not much “knowledge” in ACT. I did not see any…</p>
<p>I havent taken either the ACT or the SAT, and I imagine for most on this thread, it has been a * very* long time since they have. :-B
However, I can google & the differences between the tests seem to be in what they are assessing.</p>
<p>SAT places more importance on vocabulary, and students may need to identify what the questions are asking before they can solve the problem.
ACT questions are more straightforward, and the test aims at getting the big picture.
You take the test as a whole, rather than having it broken up into sections.
ACT tests for scientific knowledge, while the SAT does not,
and ACT asks trigonometry ?, as well as the basic arithmetic, algebra & geometry, contained on the SAT.
The SAT essay is part of the test, the ACT writing sample is optional and not included on composite score.</p>
<p>Schools will accept either one, ( or not require either), and it is to the students advantage to know which test fits their learning style.
The ACT has more questions than the SAT, ( 215/170) for roughly the same time frame, (3hrs 25min/3hrs20min) but as the questions are more clear, ( and there is no penalty for guessing) students may still do better on the ACT.</p>
<p>My nephew was getting around 2000, no matter how hard he studied. He already took the test 2 times, so my brother found a new tutor for him. The new tutor noticed while my nephew was taking his practice tests, his scores got worse with each section, but he clearly knew the material when the tutor went over his mistakes. The tutor thought maybe my nephew was losing focus as he got tired, so he suggested to my nephew to eat some power snacks/drinks during the breaks. They also practiced a few times before the actual exam day by taking the tests at exactly the same time when SAT would be given. My nephew’s score went up to 2250 for his third try. This tutor told my brother that a lot of kids do one practice section a day, they had no experience of taking a 3 or 4 hr exam, so they often ran out of steam at the end. </p>
<p>EK4, googling has obvious limitations! Although it would amount to wasting good time, it might help to take a look at both tests for yourself. Your conclusions might be different from the above. You will soon realize that there is NO scientific knowledge tested on the ACT. It is a grossly mislabeled section. The test as a whole … makes no sense. The testing is similar but the ACT offers a composite score in addition to the individual sections. For the SAT, you simply add two or three sections for the final score. </p>
<p>As far as the differences go, after all the various changes, it is hard to separate the tests. The stated differences between “contents” and “knowledge tested” tend to be pure … horse manure, and often reflect the lacking understanding of the tests and their fabric. </p>
<p>If one is more straightforward than the other remains totally in the domain of the individual. On a personal note, I have always found the SAT to be EXTREMELY straightforward and the ACT to be more screwy. I also disliked the slightly different presentation and the fact that it did NOT penalize the wild guesses. In the end, the merit of having two (slightly) different test is that it allows a student to pick the one that fits his or her aptitude better. </p>
<p>Lastly, one of the biggest misconception about the SAT is that it is a test of vocabulary. Inasmuch as people with strong vocabulary (read voracious early readers) tend to well, the rewards do not come from knowing the words, but from understanding the context of the words and from being able to read critically. What people are pathetically missing is the reasoning ability that helps earn strong score, and for that you can blame our education system that is mostly populated by people who are … very weak in the precise element of logic and reasoning. And why most of our education system is based on rote memorization and testing short term memory. </p>
<p>In a way, the ACT success, in addition of having milked its political ability, has been to offer a test that is a bit more high schooly than the SAT. </p>
<p>PS To be clear, I have little respect for the Iowa organization, as I also consider the “Iowa Tests or ITBS” to be horrible jokes played on generations of K-12 students. </p>
<p>Nearly all of them do. But if you are trying for National Merit money, you’re kind of locked in to the SAT.<br>
And not penalizing for guessing is just wrong. And not practicing the SAT under as-close-as-possible test conditions is just poor strategy.</p>
<p>My interpretation is that the schools had little choice to accept both tests if staying in the applications’ rat race was important. With the growth of the ACT and the ability of the ACT folks to “convince” a number of states to adopt the ACT as the pony of choice, even the staunchest of coastal schools had to drop the must have the SAT requirement. </p>
<p>In the end, that was not a bad deal for a number of students. The pendulum, however, did swing too far when a few schools started accepting the ACT “Science” score as a substitute for one of the SAT Subject Tests. </p>
<p>How schools interpret the relative scores remains just as nebulous as about everything in terms of … admissions! </p>
<p>^National Merit is only ONE source. Many public and private colleges have huge funds for Merit awards, but they are very different from college to college. If Merit financing is the goal, research colleges you will be amazed. D. did NOT receive any National Merit awards, did not qualify. She ended up going on Full Tuition Merit for all 4 years, which went up in later years because of additional scholarships for high college GPA. Another (private) college also gave her almost full tuition Merit. However, while she received Merit awards at others, some were very low to take into consideration.<br>
Again, if financing is one of top aspects, check colleges very closely. More likely than not, you will find some money for your kid. Adn in most cases they take both GPA + score into consideration, not jut SAT/ACT score. </p>
<p>My son’s tutor, a Yale graduate who aced both the SAT and the ACT, is young and do this on the side. He is now 25 years old and very current. My son felt very comfortable with him and led him from a 1970 to a 2220 and I paid $75 for 1.5 hours. I recommended him to other people and everybody loves him:) Obviously, my son did his part. His math was great (scored 790 on SAT II math), so he needed help basically on vocabulary and writing. </p>
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