<p>My opinion (based on my experience with my students) was that a huge increase of 150 on CR (or either section for that matter) generally indictated that the poorer score was a fluke due to some problem (headache, fatigue) the first time they took the test.</p>
<p>Which reminds me of a really funny story! When my oldest took the SAT for the first time, she was seated right behind a young man who was having, shall we say, gastro-intestinal issues. She told me that she was so completely distracted by the sounds and smells that she had a huge amount of difficulty just getting through the test! They reseated her for the writing portion after she asked to be moved and got a 750 on that section, but in the high 500’s on the other two. She took it a month later, in a gas-less environment this time, and got over 700 on both the other sections. We still laugh about this although she sure didn’t think it was funny at the time.
And, for those who worry, the superscore is what mattered and she got a full ride at her first choice school …</p>
<p>How many posters used private tutors? We have spent $$$ on a private tutor for my S to take the test again on November 7. His practice scores have shown improvement, but I’m hoping for a bigger gain on test day. Just curious. He has spent a great deal of time on prepping, and it seems that most of what he’s learned has been helpful…how to take the test, etc.</p>
<p>My son took the Kaplan course. He did it online because we live 30 minutes away from the facility and he already travels that far to school so he didn’t want to have to drive another hour 3 times a week for SAT prep. It obviously helped. How much of an improvement are you seeing in the practice tests? I can ask my son what his practice tests were showing…</p>
<p>Sailfrosty - on the first practice test we saw a 70 pt jump in his CR score, though his math score actually went down…I am convinced that the sections he does earlier are the ones on which he does better. Most of the schools he’s applying to don’t factor in the writing score, which of course went up the most - 140 points!</p>
<p>My dd took Princeton Review prior to her first test date last spring. She got an 800V, 640M, 690W. Just before the October test we hired a private guy to just come for a few hours and tutor her in math a bit. Didn’t cost a ton and I’m glad because she only went up to 660M (but went up to a 750W - go figure). But, it’s important to note that she really didn’t practice much. I think if she had she probably would’ve gone up more in the math.</p>
<p>D2 is pretty happy with her retake score overall. Her total score went up 70 points so she thinks it was well worth doing it twice.</p>
<p>Her math score actually <em>dropped</em>, though, and she was disappointed about that, since math is her weakest score. But she was cheered by significant gains in her Critical Reading and Writing. </p>
<p>After being unimpressed with what Princeton Review did for S1 three years ago, we spent $$$ on a private tutor for S2. It was well worth it. S2 took the October SATs and did well enough to be done. It was his first time taking it, so no comparison to previous tests, but a 230-point increase from last year’s sophomore PSATs (if out of 2400 rather than 240). </p>
<p>I’m sure if he had been disciplined enough to follow the “Xiggi method” on his own he could have achieved comparable results, but it was clear to me that he was not going to be able to do it on his own. The tutor really motivated him and helped him focus on what he needed to study.</p>
<p>D took a local “budget” course that her older brother took a few years back. His second score went down 100 points; hers went up 140. Of course, she actually did the homework…</p>
<p>Proving that all is relative, this morning we were bummed that DS’s math score of 750 put him under the 25-75% range at one of his EA schools. If only he’d done another practice or two… First and only time for SAT. Then we thought of how great a kid he is, how much we love him, and gave him a big hug and congratulations when he came home from school.</p>
<p>How many tutoring sessions did your kid have? How many hours each session? And, how many practice tests were included into the deal? Would you care to share which service you used?</p>
<p>We are arranging now private one on one tutoring for S2, and am curious how many sessions/hours will form a “critical mass” for a meaningful score increase. S2 has never taken a real SAT before, but took PSAT a couple of weeks ago (no results yet). He took some Kaplan practice test (not PSAT) and we got a plenty of warning just based on those results and that’s why we decided to arrange tutoring for him.</p>
<p>rodney, Caltech at 770-800. Yes, it’s ridiculous. As I understand it, the curve in Oct was -1 got you 770, -2 got you 750 (out of 55 or so) in math.</p>
<p>MIT is much more <em>reasonable</em> at 730-800 :)</p>
<p>The first time S2 took the SAT, he got a 2200-- 710/700/790. He retook in June and got a 2290 – 740/760/790 (first time 74/12, the other 80/8). He was thrilled to add the 90 points just where he wanted them, though was stunned that math wound up higher than CR. He said had the CR and W been reversed the first time, he would have been one-and-done. </p>
<p>9th grade PSAT was a 181 – 64 CR, 55 M, 62 W, made a 203 as a soph and a 218 junior year (80/65/73). Took it cold in 9th and 10th, then practiced for junior year with a few previously released tests. We found that pre-IB versions of Alg II w/Functions, Pre-Calc, and English, did wonders for improving his skills.</p>
<p>Only SAT prep was the Blue Book. He mostly practiced on sections rather than many full sittings (though he did a couple of those too so he could pace himself) and then we would dissect the error patterns. The second SAT, he went in pretty much cold because he had just taken 5 APs and 2 IB exams and was fried.</p>
<p>Regarding private tutoring - we used a private tutor through Princeton Review, which had worked well for our D two years ago (gain of 200 points). Our son has really bonded with his tutor, and has done the homework and worked hard with him. The package we bought was for 24 private sessions of 1 1/2 hours - we knew that he wouldn’t work that hard on his own, and it seems to be helping. He also took the ACT last Saturday and we are hoping some of the tutoring will spill over to that score. It was very expensive - $2400 - but we felt it was a worthwhile investment, because raising his scores can really change his chances of admission to quite a few of the schools he applied to. Can’t wait to see how he does on the 7th!</p>
<p>i’m pretty pleased. up 10 points in writing, down 10 points in critical reading but up 80 points in math, bringing me up to a far more acceptable 640. I worked with a math teacher/tutor for 1hr/week about 5 weeks ($35) for math before my first test, but i was too anxious to actually use the skills she gave me. I think less anxiety coupled with a few practice ACT math sections i did before this one, helped out. overall, I have a superscored 1960, which is pretty good for my match and safety schools</p>
<p>when you say your D gained 200 points after tutoring, what was the length of time between the two test? Was the first test, say March, and the second on in June? June and October? How long did you stretch out the 24 sessions?</p>
<p>^^ From the SAT prep board. The kids there are all over it. The only scores being reported for math are 800, 770, 750 and I think 730 is the next step down. These kids have all compared answers and know exactly how many they got wrong etc and have it all figured out. </p>
<p>The problem is that if you get 3 wrong, then because of the penalty, you get kicked down to -4, so if you answered all the questions and got -3, then you’re down to around 700. Harsh.</p>
<p>S took SAT in March with result of 590CR, 590M and 640 W. Didn’t have much time to prep for May so I offered an incentive of $X for each math problem that he did from the SAT question of the day calendar. His R remained at 590, the M went up to 640, and the writing dropped to 600. Over the summer, we used a local tutoring company that used old tests and the big blue book for practice. He liked the math tutor but did the homework and not much else to prepare. He didn’t relate well to the R tutor but did write out vocab cards and did the homework. Did about 6 sessions for math and 4-5 for reading. His results today were CR680, M700 and W660 for a superscore increase of 170. A motivated student could probably improve using the XIGGI method but the tutors forced my S to actually do the work 2 hours a week. If he had put out more effort, I think that he could have done better, but I am pleased. I will guess that the tutoring will also make a difference in the ACT which he took last Saturday; he did no additional prep for the ACT and I doubt that he will do much for his 2 subject tests. He is burned out from testing.</p>