<p>Actually, I only discounted the areas in which you showed insufficient knowledge, and instead acknowledged the general areas of agreement with other posts on this thread, including yours.
:)</p>
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<p>They do tutor the actual curriculum. That’s what you don’t understand, which is why I referred to having knowledge before posting on something requiring knowledge of it. Excellent professional test prep goes beyond what is covered in a test-prep book, and does teach curriculum where it has become apparent such teaching is needed. That is why test prep programs vary so much in quality: if the tutor is not experienced in teaching methodology (including of general curriculum), the product falls short of the expectation.</p>
<p>epiphany, so would you recommend researching and hiring one-on-one tutoring?</p>
<p>My d has been a strong student to date and has done well in math.</p>
<p>She is savvy enough to see the value of test taking tips and strategies, and I do not plan to sign her up for tutoring unless she feels that it will be of benefit to her (and is prepared to do the extra homework).</p>
<p>It depends on the kid. DS did a Kaplan course and it really DID help him improve his score…by over 300 points. The reality was that he was disciplined enough to do all the practice tests and other work WITH this course, but would NOT have done so without it. Well worth it for him.</p>
<p>For DD, it was a waste of money. She did the Kaplan course and her second SAT was virtually identical to the first. Yes…she could have done the course again FREE and taken the test again…but that would have been a waste of time. She simply wasn’t committed to doing the work to practice.</p>
<p>I do believe doing those practice tests is KEY…as many as you can do. DS did that…and his scores improved. DD didn’t…and hers didn’t. </p>
<p>The SAT prep folks can’t MAKE your kid do the homework.</p>
<p>We paid for a private local SAT prep, had a guarantee that scores would raise at least 100 points, and they did. Thing thing with D was that she was applying ED to a very competitive college and while her scores before the prep class were high (maybe even high enough), the boost was worth it. I wish that I could have had her study on her own, but that wasn’t happening and she seemed to do better with the structure of having a class.</p>
<p>Like so many things, I thing this depends on the child, the parents (I have friends who are completely against test prep) and the situation.</p>
<p>Our experience: D’s 10th grade PSAT Selection Index was in the low 190’s and we knew that was not too far from NMSF range in our state. She has some mild attention deficit issues and self-study was not an option. She did the Princeton Review weekend course right before the 11th grade PSAT and her score went up 20 points, enough to qualify for NMSF.</p>
<p>For SAT, we went the private tutor route, again through PR. Raised her math score significantly, but her verbal score didn’t budge. </p>
<p>I agree with FallGirl - I think it really depends on the student’s desire to improve and the parents’ willingness and ability to foot the bill.</p>
<p>D. said prep class was waste of time. Self-study was much more effective, since she developed her personalized prep. strategy that made her self-study very effective.</p>
<p>My kid scored 95-98 percentile on sophomore PSAT subtests. We considered prep to maximize scholarship eligibility. The corporate prep courses would aim too low to be helpful (considering that most of their students would be mid-range), and waste time. We paid for 10 sessions with a private tutor who taught to my kid’s level, fine-tuning the approach to the hard questions. My kid would never have made the time otherwise. Considering that scores are more likely to go down than up when a kid scores in the high persentiles, we were amazed to see every score go even higher. It was more than worth it because, IMO, the post-prep scores brought in numerous scholarships and made the difference in ultra-selctive admissions. Could this kid have done same with self-prep? Quite possibly. WOULD this kid have taken the time to self prep? No. So, for this family, money well spent. Our tutor made no claims, but had a good reputation locally.</p>
<p>D. got Merit $$ at every school that she applied. Her scholarships cover full tutuion at her college (college junior). Merit packages were based on GPA and ACT (took once after self-prep).</p>
<p>I’m sure you understand that you’d have to have a control group to really determine the effects of any SAT prep. (Bunch of kids who sit for the exam twice with no additional prep/bunch of kids who sit for it twice with various forms of prep; then compare score differences between the two groups.)</p>
<p>Back in the day, didn’t we pretty much all take it twice? And didn’t almost all of us see a significant jump in scores for the second go-round? And didn’t we all go in for both sittings cold?</p>
<p>That said, I had one kid take the semester-long class offered by the public hs, had another take a group class because the hs dropped the SAT prep class. Both saw nice increases in scores but, again, no way to know what their scores would have been second time around with no additional prep.</p>
<p>A friend of mine just spent at least 3k on individual tutoring for her son to prep for the ACT. He is a solid B student in a very good high school. She told me that he did not do well at all. He only took the test once and she is now panicking! I guess that individual tutoring does not help everyone. BTW, this tutor was someone that she got from through a test prep company.</p>
<p>nottheastmom,
D. has developed her own personolized prep strategy that worked very well for her. I believe that it is the way to go. Please, no panic, it is not the end of the world. Her friend needs to sit down with her S. (unless he can do it himself) and go thru the test with cool head. Each person is different. Here is my D’s strategy (Just an example, strategy would be different for your friend’s S). D is very slow reader with very high comprehension. She decided that it was not possible to improve her reading speed, so no reason to spend time on reading section, live with lower score. Science section is not really science, it is just slower reading, she could handle it very well in practice tests, no reason to spend time either. English was just very easy for her, she decided not spend time on it at all. Math definately could be warked on and improved as a lot of material was from earlier years and needed to be refreshed. D. spent one hour for about 7 days taking Math practice tests and going over every single answer that she got incorrectly. That was all her prep for ACT. She took it once and got 33, with Reading score much lower than the rest but being compensated by others as she predicted. No tutor will know kid as well as kid himself and/or parents. D. took SAT prep class and mentioned that it was complete waste of time and money and her SAT was lower than ACT (using conversion).</p>
<p>I’ve told my Son’s story several times but I’ll tell it again. His sophomore PSAT score was strong - a few more points and he’d be in National Merit territory. His verbal was very strong and his math was rather weak.</p>
<p>I enrolled him in an expensive group prep class. I noticed that his sample test scores kept going down; the prep school had a million answers for why that was okay. On the junior year PSAT, his math scores went up but his verbal scores went down by almost the same number, with a “whopping” two point gain for the $$$$ I had paid and the hours he had invested. He took the SAT before the PSAT results came out and the SAT scores were equally unimpressive. </p>
<p>He re-took the SAT three months later. I told him to keep going to the prep school for math and to forget everything they taught him for verbal. The result was a 70 point increase in math and a 50 point incease in verbal.</p>
<p>The moral of the story is that if the student is already very strong in one area, don’t go to a group prep class in that area. The “tricks” they teach them just cause them to doubt their original answers.</p>
<p>We are going to hire a private tutor for D. Her 9th and 10th grade PSAT scores have not been strong.</p>
<p>Adding: MiamiDAP’s D’s method would work well for most students…but my own D certainly does not have the motivation or self-discipline that MiamiDap’s D does!</p>
<p>Strong or not strong, I agree. Group prep classes generally do not work. Where there are increases in scores, they are usually minuscule (10-20 points). But then, I already said that.;)</p>
<p>An individualized approach to test prep is as good as three things combined: the approach used, the raw material of the student, and the skills of the teacher. Where even one of these is lacking or compromised, the outcome may not be much better than in group classes. Where the student ability is at least average, student motivation and follow-through high, the methodology excellent, and the teacher skilled, the outcome can be significant.</p>
<p>Hated Kaplan and I am convinced they lowballed the scores on the assessment tests. They were completely 100% incompetent at grading essays. USELESS. S2 isn’t using them, though the school offers their classes at a very attractive price.</p>
<p>It’s been said many times, but I’ll repeat it here - if your kid has trouble with the SAT, have them try the ACT. I don’t know of a single college that does not accept ACT scores, some that require both the SAT & SAT II will waive SAT II requirements if you take the ACT.</p>
<p>The reason for this is that SAT claims to test ability, while ACT tests knowledge. It’s not <em>easier,</em> it’s just a different approach. For example, the math skills required for the ACT are actually more advanced than those required for the SAT, but the questions are much more straightforward. SAT math questions can be like little brainteasers - the secret to the whole thing is figuring out WHAT they’re asking for. It usually requires 2 or 3 simple steps to solve it. On the other hand, the ACT flat out gives you a problem and asks you to solve it. In the reading sections, the SAT is more vocabulary oriented. The layout of the ACT reading part made more sense to my D too. Basically, instead of reading a passage and then answering questions about it afterward (as on the SAT), on the ACT as you read along in the passage the questions on each particular phrase/sentence are listed on the right-hand side of the page next to the phrase they are referring to. The ACT also has a writing component (which the SAT copied a few years ago) and a Science portion. The science portion is really more about the ability to read and analyze data, it doesn’t require more scientific knowledge than a basic general science class. Some colleges ignore the Science portion, on the theory that the SAT doesn’t test science and if they’re going to accept both SAT and ACT scores they should be on more equal footing.</p>
<p>Anyway, many students who do well in school but struggle on the SAT do better on the ACT. It’s just a more straightforward test, and it seems to be less “coachable.” There are fewer “tricks” - there is no penalty for wrong answers, for example, so no agonizing over whether to guess or not. The best way to prepare for the ACT is simply to practice so that you are up to speed on your math skills and prepared to focus for several hours.</p>
<p>The College Board even developed a concordance to allow college to translate ACT scores into “equivalent” SAT scores, and vice-versa. My D’s ACT scores translated to a combined SAT score 150 points higher than she actually got on the SAT, and her percentile was 16 points higher on the ACT than the SAT.</p>
<p>If your kid “bombs” the PSAT, have them try the ACT before dumping a ton of money into SAT prep.</p>
<p>Our experience was identical to Lafalums. We paid for expensive SAT prep for both Ds - one’s test scores improved marginally, the other’s actually went down. They both then took the ACT with no professional prep, and scored significantly higher on it than the SAT (according to the equivalency charts).</p>
<p>I haven’t read through the other posts, so don’t know if mine will be repetitious or not:</p>
<p>oldest d took no prep class, but studied on her own - concentrating on math</p>
<p>son took prep class, but didn’t get all I think he could have due to his attitude and a lack of effort on his part - he knew it all already, i.e., “waste of time”</p>
<p>youngest d took prep class with the attitude of having it make a difference and her score went up on the PSAT by 27 points</p>
<p>IMO it is the attitude of the student that makes the difference.</p>
<p>In the case of my three kids, studying on their own could have happened but not to the extent that the prep course had them practice. Busy schedules at schools that loaded up on homework; it would have been easy to keep putting off that practice just a bit. Instead the prep class was just another scheduled activity. And the prep company offered the course at the hs, so the kids were with classmates and friends.</p>
<p>My oldest daughter believes (rightly or not, who know?) that with a prep class she would have had the one point needed to qualify for NM. She feels that the added familiarity with the test would have been enough to increase her score by that one point. I know that she regrets not just going for it.</p>