<p>M - hope your daughter feels ok soon.
Maxwell I use a private tutor that I used with my older one. Everyone here either uses a tutor or attends a class. The cost for our private tutor is not much more than the class, surprisingly. The classes around here are approaching well over $1,500 just for the SAT ( no ACT).</p>
<p>The classes around here are approaching well over $1,500 just for the SAT ( no ACT).</p>
<p>:eek:</p>
<p>I would like to add my two cents about tutors and classes after being through this now for the second time: I believe that if you have a highly motivated kid, he or she could self study. I also think that the on line courses are good if the student is motivated. My daughter attends a school where everybody gets tutored ( lucky me) so unfortunately I must do something to keep her on a level playing field.</p>
<p>Yes Suzy the classes here are very expensive… I get flyers in the mail all the time for combined ACT/SAT classes that are over $2,000. It’s out of control. My daughter is self studying for the ACT. It’s just a matter of doing practice tests.</p>
<p>I too want to wish “Good luck” to all the kids taking the PSAT this week! </p>
<p>twogirls - that’s pretty expensive. Have you tried “fish” option? </p>
<p>I’ve heard that if your child is looking to improve hundreds of points on SAT, classroom setting (e.g., “boot camp”) is better than one-on-one tutoring. If your child is scoring at the top end, then one-on-one tutoring is better. </p>
<p>D received 4 hours of tutoring prior to her Sept ACT ($125/hr) but didn’t help much.</p>
<p>FromMD we will be eating lots of fish lol!!</p>
<p>Yes I was told that the classes cater to the " middle," which makes sense to me.</p>
<p>MTG, healing thoughts heading your way.</p>
<p>SD School of Mines is always high on the best value and best ROI lists. They have mostly science/engineering majors. 98% employed at graduation with $62K avg. starting salary. And, get this, OOS COA is only $19K. That includes books and rm/bd, but not personal/travel. MN residents get reciprocity, only $17K. If ACT 32 or better, automatic $3K/yr scholarship. It’s not ranked, easy to get into, small- only 2,000 kids, 75% male, in Rapid City on the way into Mt. Rushmore. They are in session during S’s spring break. Maybe I’ll drive up there with S and have a look, kind of intrigued. Could combine with a visit to the Black Hills. Don’t get how they can run an engineering school with such good results and yet such easy admission standards. They have auto-admit for 25 ACT + 2.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Best news. Went to doctor with S this morning for ankle exam and to talk about his winter break surgery to remove extra bone that gets ankle inflamed. They did an x-ray.</p>
<p>They said he’s still growing!! Doc says he has another full 2 years of growth left, growth plates are ‘wide open’. Kind of unusual. 60% of boys his age are completely done growing and most of the rest are almost done. He’s just 5’5", so this is a BIG deal for us. He’s getting so hairy and muscular I was afraid he was finished.</p>
<p>Mittentigger, sending get well wishes to your D. I hope she feels better quickly and maybe even gets a chance to enjoy her rest. </p>
<p>Good luck to all taking the PSAT tomorrow! D expects to be bogged down in homework and we’re trying to convince her to take it easy tonight. I’m all for a yummy sushi dinner too. She’s not really focused on the PSAT. </p>
<p>Twogirls, D’s school is also filled with kids who are being tutored for the SAT. It doesn’t seem to help most of them all that much though. Honestly, I think there’s a benefit to understanding the structure and thinking of the test and then practicing to see where you go wrong or right. Tutoring or classes can help those who need that but in the end, there’s no magic to it. </p>
<p>The irony is that in the end, at D’s school, it’s the non-grade and non-score factors that will determine the range of choices a student has. The GCs are very clear that it’s the norm to have recruited athletes and development cases admitted to reaches every year: You can see it for yourself when you look on the naviance scattergrams. The tippy top students with near perfect and perfect SATs and perfect and near perfect grades have no assurances and that’s true at schools below the elite level. The silver lining is that no one in this family is feeling a huge amount of stress about the testing tomorrow. I’m still looking forward to that sushi dinner though. :)</p>
<p>I know you are probably tired of hearing about my d1. She falls into top 1% range on test scores, so do her college friends. Since d2 is beginning the testing process it came up in conversation when we took a group out to dinner. Interesting listening to them discuss testing they took. None of them did much in way of test prep. These kids " got it" and probably did most of their academic life. D1’s good friend went to a concert the night before her SAT and got lost on the way home- didn’t get home till midnight. Scored a 2380. I suspect many students in this range are similar.</p>
<p>My d2 tests in the 90/ 95th percentile range. Has since 1st grade. We have spent $549 on a SAT test prep group class. If it can push her score into the range for Flagships Honors college- it will be money well spent. I think the main benefit is confidence. Her GPA is high, so if the test prep can help her with some of the " low hanging fruit" yeah!!</p>
<p>Enjoy the sushi!</p>
<p>Actually it’s COLORADO School of Mines that people talk about, I think. Though SDSOM really does have the salary/placement that I quoted and all the other info about school is accurate, best value, etc. Colorado has slightly better starting salary, but mid-career is much better. $46K/yr OOS, and much more competitive admission. I knew it was too good to be true. I shouldn’t even post some days, just spouting nonsense…</p>
<p>S has PSAT tomorrow. His prep hasn’t gone well, pretty disheartening, told him he could just skip it completely since ACT clearly so much easier for him. But he is doggedly determined to to suffer through it.</p>
<p>Sally and everyone, I love hearing about your older kids so keep those stories coming. It’s very helpful to me because my 3 are so different from each other that anything I learned with the first didn’t help with the second and neither of the first two helped with the third.</p>
<p>I forgot about the sushi thing and bought some salmon, yogurt and fresh dill today…hopefully fish is fish for brain food 
</p>
<p>Very, very little prep done here. We went over last year’s PSAT wrong answers the other night. She can answer all the math problems she missed, it was a trick question (or five) that got her. She can, I think, improve her writing and reading scores though there are still vocab words she doesn’t know. The lowest score was writing and she could get a lot that she missed last year, so hopefully she sees a big improvement this year over last. NMF would be nice but she’s obviously not concerned about it enough to do a lot of studying.</p>
<p>She and I are meeting with her AP Gov teacher tomorrow…she did pretty badly on the latest big-points exam so we’ll see what she needs to do to better study for those in the future.</p>
<p>Good luck to all testing tomorrow and this weekend!</p>
<p>Haha Sally, funny you should mention a concert…D just texted me asking if she can go to Jingleball in the city in Dec. b/c tickets go on sale today at 5. I looked at the calendar and saw she has the ACT the next day. Sorry kiddo but the answer is a big fat no. I got a crying emoji texted back to me but I think she understands lol.</p>
<p>No fish tonight, she has a game that starts at 6:00 so I brought pasta up to the school so she can snack during the JV game. Today is one of those 14 hour days at school so she should sleep well tonight. Good luck to all going for the prize!!!</p>
<p>@MittenTigger, Oh no! I hope your D has a speedy recovery from her back injury. </p>
<p>@Shoboemom Have your daughter look at the PSAT as just another practice session and nothing more. BHG plans to use tomorrows PSAT to practice test-taking strategies in common with the ACT along with marking answers in the test booklet and then bubbling answers in groups to increase her speed. Other than that, BHG is most excited about the no homework rule in effect since Monday in preparation for the PSAT, and is using the time wisely by relaxing and rejuvenating herself with home facials, manicures, and pedicures while most of her classmates freak out about scoring within NMF range.</p>
<p>@KeepmecruzinBHG is going in a group of 2 parents and 5 friends–big KDWB radio fans. Shes a night owl, so may not make a difference for her. Im trying to buy a block of 7 tickets! </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone sitting the PSAT tomorrow, and eat lots of fish or fish analog for my fellow vegan/vegetarian friends!</p>
<p>OHMomof2: She and I are meeting with her AP Gov teacher tomorrow…she did pretty badly on the latest big-points exam so we’ll see what she needs to do to better study for those in the future.</p>
<p>Since my D won’t let me contact her AP Gov teacher, will you let me know what your D’s teacher says? ;)</p>
<p>D wouldn’t touch fish with a ten-foot pole. Pickiest eater on the earth.</p>
<p>Jingleball… I am sure mine will ask and the answer will be NO as well!!
Celeste that’s great news about your son.</p>
<p>My older daughter had the tutor for a long time. This one thankfully does not need it. The tests are just a snapshot in time- she has the grades and ECs and will have excellent LOR, so whatever scores she gets will have to be good enough. I am not pushing her too much. I will, however, get some sushi!!</p>
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<p>LOL. When she got this latest test grade I asked D by text if she wanted me to set up a meeting and her exact response was “no…get away from me”. I let it go but about 10 minutes later she texted again…“actually sure I don’t care”. I double checked if she really wanted to meet with him, she confirmed, and so we meet tomorrow.</p>
<p>What is a little annoying is he doesn’t let them have their tests back (to keep). I’m sitting here looking at a scantron with no questions and two graded FRQs without the questions. How is she supposed to go back and learn what she missed? All this stuff will show up on his midterm/final and then again of course on the AP…she can’t just shrug and move on. </p>
<p>But the main point here is to see if the way she is going about studying is inadequate. I’ll report back :)</p>
<p>Hi! I just wanted to wish all of tomorrow’s PSAT takers GOOD LUCK :D!!! (my S included)!</p>
<p>Mine hates fish, and isn’t at home for me to feed dinner, so we’ll just have to take our chances with tonight’s menu. :-)</p>
<p>Good luck, all.</p>
<p>S2 taking psat tomorrow, using it as practice for SAT-no chance of NMF I don’t believe. S1 was 1 point away 3 years ago, but S2 hasn’t been scoring as high during the last 2 years on psat. He has taken a few of the practice tests in the Blue Book to get ready for SAT, but that has been about it. He is actually quite happy to not have homework tonight and is watching The Walking Dead that we dvr’d the other night.
Good luck to all taking the test tomorrow or Saturday!</p>