<p>I would only do it if HE wants to do it, if he cares about his SAT scores. There are good four year colleges out there for all students. </p>
<p>I think another way to think about this is to find something to motivate him to raise his grades and worry about the SAT in the Spring. Sometimes a college visit when an admissions person talks about the required stats will be a good wake up call to a student. I remember when we took my daughter to PSU, a college that she thought was in her ball park. The admissions guy told us that they wanted kids with GPA’s over 3.5 UW. On the way home we stopped at a lower tier state school where they said they wanted kids with a 3.0 gpa. She immediately realized the difference in the two schools and really stepped up her efforts.</p>
<p>Waste of money. What I recommend instead is have HIM work and pay for the prep class himself. Maybe if it was his sweat financing it, he will take it more seriously than if you open your wallets for this expense instead.</p>
<p>Bflogal, is his 2.88 weighted or unweighted? I wouldn’t spend the $ on prep right now if he’s not interested.</p>
<p>My S2 sounds similiar to yours. His gpa was over 3.0 because he took a lot of weighted honors classes and 2AP’s. If not for the extra points it would have been below 3.0 His class rank was 170/500.
He had no interest in college discussions during his jr. yr. He really didn’t know what he wanted to do so chose not to think about it too much. </p>
<p>He took the SAT once w/ no prep and scored lower than your S’s practice test score.<br>
He refused to take it again saying he would go to college wherever his score would get him in. I said “Fine, it’s your decision. Just know it might limit your choices”. </p>
<p>By fall of senior yr.,a lot of his friends were talking about college so S2 decided to send in apps. to the two directional instate publics that he thought he could get in. He got in both. One was rolling admissions so he had one acceptance in hand in Nov. before his “smart” friends had even sent any apps. The other acceptance came in Dec.
After those acceptances, there was no more discussion. He decided he was def. going to the four yr. school.</p>
<p>His first sem. was terrible…academic probation. He had to learn how to go to college. Every sem. since he has raised his gpa. He’s a jr. now (with a B avg) and making the best grades he has ever made. The best part is he seems really proud of himself. </p>
<p>Just wanted to encourage you and let you know there are others just like your S.
It just takes some kids longer to"get with the program". S2 loves his big state u. and is very glad that we gave him a shot at it even though he wasn’t wasn’t a great h.s. student.</p>
<p>If he takes the ACT this spring w/o prepping he will have a sense of which test is a better fit for him. Then he can prep over the summer or in early fall take his preferred test in Oct./Nov. of his senior year. Right now his time could be much better spent getting his grades up. By senior year all his friends will be applying to college and his he may get caught up in the excitement. If he doesn’t he may not be ready for a 4-year college anyway.</p>
<p>When you start looking for colleges with him, take a look at your nearby CSU. Several of the more selective CSU’s relax the admissions requirements for students in their local service area. When my kids were applying, Sonoma State said that it would accept any local student whose composite score (GPA + standardized test) met the CSU minimum while out-of-area students had to meet a much higher standard. </p>
<p>I’ve just finished reviewing the peer reviewed empirical studies on SAT coaching (as in the courses you can take kind). In particular, several meta-analyses that examine a multitude of different studies conducted in different ways (with and without matching groups, with control groups, statistical adjustment for a host of problems with trying to parcel out the key effect). Bottom line is at best it accounts for about 15 points on the V, 20 on the M. Finding this same pattern time and again across many studies (these are independent researchers, not ones from the marketing machines of coaching firms).</p>
<p>So I thought this was interested and wanted to share it. You can’t of course predict with precision how a given kid will do, but should probably assume the $500 might buy you the points above. Maybe that will give you a sense of whether that will make a difference and have value to you or not.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m missing something here (nobody has commented); but he scored 1600/2400 on a practice test with no study? That’s perfect, right?</p>
<p>If I’m not misunderstanding, then by all means save the $500 and let him take a shot at the real test.</p>
<hr>
<p>OK, never mind, I think I figured this out (I’m new here). Back when I took the test (in the dark ages), there were only two scores that totalled to 1600 max. I’ve seen some folks here expressing the SATs as traditional-2/new-3, and I thought that’s what I was seeing here. But it’s obviously numerator/denominator for the new-3. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but I get it now. </p>
<p>In fact, I’m wondering if I may have been misinterpreting other posts. Here the round numbers might have jogged my mind into reconsidering.</p>
<p>OK, now that I’ve demonstrated my ignorance, I’ll give my best opinion: Skip the SAT prep test, and instead focus on figuring out what your son might want to do.</p>
<p>“Collegeboard has the SAT Question of the Day” - Yes, I think it is great. I don’t think my kid did it much, but I had fun getting the email too He is just a naturally good test taker and did fine without study. But for most kids one question/day sems a great way to go… especially as they are discovering which areas need work. </p>
<p>Other options may be worth it if this is a kid wanting to work harder and show an “upward trend” GPA and strong scores to go along with it.</p>
<p>Such classes are almost always ineffective, and especially for uninspired and unmotivated students. </p>
<p>Here’s a simple (and better) way … very few teenagers resist the appeal of money! </p>
<p>Get the College Board blue book (about 13 dollars at WalMart,) cut the book apart and set aside four or five tests. Buy a box of manila folders and divide the tests in smaller sections. Offer him ten dollar for each section he reviews after taking it as a practice test. Take the time to score the sections and keep a tally. This should take him about 30 to 60 minutes for each session. Offer to help him locating tougher answers. Hint: the CC SAT forum is the best resource available online. </p>
<p>He will quickly realize where he can improve and focus on those sections. For most students, the lowest hanging fruits are in the writing and the math areas. On the other hand, some students do exceptionally well in raising the CR as soon as they remember not to overthink. </p>
<p>Ih he perseveres through 50 sessions, he will be 500 dollars richer, and a LOT more adept at taking the test on any given Saturday. In turn, you will not be really 500 dollars poorer. Stretch this exercise over a period of time. The best preparations are slooow marathon and not sprints!</p>
<p>PS If you are not sure about his willingness to take 4-5 tests, you can get at least 3 older SAT tests from the College Board. Again, links are posted in the SAT Prep forum.</p>
<p>xiggi, is that the xiggi method earlier posters referred to? I love it!! That might work much better for S than a formal prep class. He’s stashing $ away left and right from his PT job so I’m sure the opp to earn even more $ would be welcome.</p>
<p>Some have suggested finding something to motivate him to raise his GPA-- we’ve got that in place already-- a driver’s license. No license w/o a 3.0. However, the 3.0 requirement is for a single semester, not cumulative, so he will have to maintain it to continue driving. His first shot at taking his road test is Feb (after this semester). No 3.0, no road test. Sadly, it would be nice if his motivation were college acceptance, but at this point, whatever works…</p>
<p>Just to clarify, the practice SAT he took a couple weeks ago was actually a practice SAT/ACT formally offered by Kaplan. Although he didn’t blow anybody away with his scores, he did do better on the SAT relative to the ACT, so we will stick with the SAT. That was worth finding out for the $25 fee.</p>
<p>Changing my original question a bit-- is it ok if he takes only the SAT?</p>
<p>the xiggi method refers to the combination of full-length tests and then working on specific areas in between. My xiggi method didn’t involve money. ;)</p>
<p>My method, do nothing. It’s my child’s test, not mine as it’s their college, not mine. They both chose to do little prep and did fine (2080, 2370). Both increased their scores by 130-200 points between the 1st and second time taking it without prep. I really don’t get this micro-managing parental tactics and paying kids to practice a test which is for their benefit.</p>
<p>We paid nearly $1000 for our D to take a Kaplan SAT prep class. Total waste of money. She hated the teacher and the class and didn’t do any of the homework. Her score actually went DOWN 100 points in one section!</p>
<p>Moral of the story - well, there’s 3 morals:
Don’t use Kaplan
Don’t pay for a class unless your kid is willing to put in the time & effort
Try the ACT, also. D’s ACT score was the equivalent of 200 points higher than her combined SAT score - with no prep. Some kids’ minds just work better for the ACT than the SAT.</p>
<p>GT: “I really don’t get this micro-managing parental tactics and paying kids to practice a test which is for their benefit.”</p>
<p>Let me explain. The reason I “micromanage” my kids’ PSAT/SAT practice is for the financial benefit of my whole family. I want my kid to make NMF so he can take one of those big scholarships. I’m a SAHM–I can’t make $89,000 (value of OU NM scholarship, for example) in, say, 50 hours.(Think of how many hours kids spend practicing a sport–just for the hope of making the HS team!)
That is pretty good $$ for encouraging my kid to take/scheduling the practice tests, watching the clock and reviewing SAT questions for a few hours. My D got a $66,000 merit scholarship based on SAT scores. She wouldn’t have been able to attend the school of her choice without it. And she wouldn’t have gotten a good SAT score without practicing.</p>
<p>I didn’t pay my kids to take practice tests, but I’m not opposed to it if that works for a particular kid.</p>
<p>IMO the Kaplan books are helpful. I wouldn’t pay for the course.</p>
<p>Back to 2nd question: OK to take SAT only if your kid scored higher on it relative to the ACT.</p>
<p>And I hope your successful atomom and your son wants to go to OU. But, prepping is no guarantee of NMF status. I have one who is one and one not. I doubt any amount of prepping would have changed the outcome and only result in resentment at my house. But, I suspect you have kids more amenable to such parental involvement. About your daughter going going to the school of her choice, that’s my point. Kids should be self-motivated to do what it takes to go to the school of their choice. If not, they can’t go to the school of their choice.</p>
<p>Sometimes kids need help getting motivated–and that includes understanding how prepping can help get them scholarships. No guarantee it will work. But if a kid’s sophomore score is one point off the state qualifying score, I wouldn’t leave it to chance that he’d just happen to improve by junior year. I’d say prep like heck. If he doesn’t make it, at least he’d know that he did everything possible–he won’t be saying to himself, “could’ve worked harder.” (Junior S is feeling pretty good about his test and I doubt there was any kid in his class as well prepared–paid prep course or no.) Not OU, necessarily, but he’ll check out his options. </p>
<p>Prep courses might not have a good record of raising scores, but folks are foolish to think that systematic practice doesn’t help.</p>
He is just a naturally good test taker and did fine without study. But for most kids one question/day sems a great way to go… especially as they are discovering which areas need work. </p>