Someone asked me how to motivate/inspire/scare his kid to study for SAT/ACT? His daughter is a good student but can’t manage to find any time to prepare for her SAT due in January. Either she is busy with study, ECs, parties,friends,tv or internet. She got 1400 in a practice SAT last year but he has no idea where she stands now. Most of her peers go for SAT prep on weekends and have been spending summers and winters at SAT prep school. Dad is quite worried but she dismisses his concerns or promises to do better and doesn’t comply.
I don’t know if this will help, but I back in the day I bought my kid the CD Rom version of the prep. I see that CDs are offered by several different publishers along with a book. My kid would have short times available to study and would answer a few questions when possible. The CD I got gave immediate results for each question, i.e., you knew immediately if you’d answered the question incorrectly and were given an explanation of the correct answer.
It was just a lot easier to get my kid to answer a few questions when there were 10 minutes available to do so than to expect kid to attend a SAT course or follow a set schedule. 10 or 20 minutes a day or several times a week is better than no studying.
It’s too late to use my other method. I set a PSAT score that had to be met. If kid met it than I would shut up about SAT prep. If kid didn’t meet it, kid had to take a prep course, even if that cut into ECs or social time and there would be no arguing about it. Kid did enough studying to meet the target score and thus never took a prep course. If the girl is a junior, I guess the dad could use a variant of that—get a certain SAT this junior year and you don’t have to take the SAT as a senior. If she doesn’t get that score, she has to take a prep course over the summer and take the SAT again next fall.
Did the girl you are talking about take the PSAT? If so, she should have a pretty good idea of where she stands.
We are going through the same dilemma at our house. My son has signed up for the Dec ACT but really hasn’t started studying. We both agree on his goal to bring up his score by 2 points. We told him that if he gets his goal score, he gets to choose our summer vacation destination, if not, little sister chooses. He told me to go ahead and make his reservations. Haha.
They have the online Khanacademy prep with Collegeboard that is free. Haven’t started it yet so not sure if you can fo a bit at a time but thought it should be possible.
My D had some SAT prep apps on her phone and did SAT question of the day.
Our school offers a SAT prep course in fall but it is several days a week after school for 2 months, and my S has stuff going on after school every day.
So we are going to start with online prep soon.
Is he against the prep class? I mean that forces them to at least focus on it during the prep class. It sounds like she got a pretty good score on the practice test.
As jonri mentioned, maybe an alternative form of studying. My D appeared to appreciate having a physical book in front of her that she could just flip through.
All that being said, in the end, my D (who is always self motivated, does all her h.w. gets good grades) never studied at all. I signed her up for a course, but she went into a funk/depression around the same time so only attended 2 out of the 12 classes. She took the SAT in June, got a decent score, but not fab enough to get in the school she wants, she swore up and down she would study over the summer, never did. She had work, trips and other activities and quite frankly I think she just needed some “fun” as well. So I pushed the new test date to November and she kept talking about how she really wanted to improve her grade to get in her dream school, but with the senior course load, college apps, school play, etc. she just never got around to studying. So difficult to watch. Throughout the time, I tried to convince her to study, offered rewards, even reminded her “if you want to get into XX School” etc, didn’t matter. So very frustrating!
Point being, I think some of these kids are at an age where they will either self motivate or they won’t and you know what? it’s on them at this point. We can only try to guide them as much as possible. But in the end, if my D didn’t do well and doesn’t get into the school she wants, well then so be it, maybe it wasn’t meant to be and she will learn her actions have consequences.
Also, in your friend’s situation, I mean she took a practice test, which is a form of studying. That’s good!!
The friend can join cc and ask questions directly. They can get lots of helpful info. And set an example for their kid that initiating research and doing HW pays off.
Another friend’s child? It’s difficult to have many questions for your own and then take on advising others. I’d suggest you just point them to good basic books about how to prepare for college choices, the testing, (and any hunt for fin aid.) Takes that off your shoulders. Have you ever looked at Cal Newport?
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread. “Asking for a friend” posts are not allowed. If your friend wants info, a CC account is free. S/he can sign up and ask.