<p>Y’know, xiggi, I think if there were a problem taking the test in a timely manner, or struggling over questions, that you’d have a point. That is, for students that have that problem, I might agree, if they have a goal of having a particular score. In our case, I and later my son always had extra time leftover on the test. My point was that while we theoretically <em>could</em> have done some sort of prep and gotten higher scores, it’s not a family value in our home to spend time on the SAT, or on prep for it. We value our time differently.</p>
<p>I think that as a family, we fall into a number of QM’s categories – high scoring parents, a household vocabulary that exceeds the silly vocabularly lists, much outside reading, etc. My daughter is another story; I’m sure she could increase her SAT score by spending hours in SAT prep courses, but it would be ridiculous to work on something that her target schools don’t value highly.</p>
<p>I’m not saying no one should prep. I’m saying that prep is not a value in our household, and I would probably have teased my son had he felt the need to do it. We’re both satisfied that he made the right choice, because he’s at his dream school with a full ride.</p>