Thoughts on help for the SAT/ACT for a smart student who is struggling with these tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of all 1410 is fine, stop comparing them to their twin. I had class of 21 twins who had a 1380 SAT and an ACT of 30 (respectfully) and they are both at a top school and doing great. I know scores are trending higher now because people don't submit lower ones, but the 1410 is perfectly acceptable.

I would stop at a 1410. Test scores will trend downward again as more universities require test scores anyway. A 1410 is still a great score especially if you're looking beyond T10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid just went test optional- doing great in college

more and more colleges are requiring tests.

OP, maybe send your kid to SAT prep. I think it's about confidence. I have two DCs and they are like yours: one got a 1580 first (and only) try; the other is struggling with their psat.

I'm the OP. Thank you!
He/she has been doing 2 hours of prep a weekend with a tutor (1:3 ratio--1 tutor, 3 kids) for months. I bought a package of hours at a place (not super high end place but an established company). My first kid never even went (had some schedule conflicts) and then got the high scores and that was that.

This second kid has been doing questions with the tutor. Probably 15 visits for 2 hours a time?

Are are there better tutoring options?

I am so frustrated by this. Not because I care that much about the scores. I ultimately don't. He/she could go test optional or apply to different schools.
Because within the dynamic of our family (twins) it is causing such an issue. As parents we don't talk about it. We are as chill as can be. Never mention the SAT or ACT. But the second kid compares himself/herself to the sibling. I know that life isn't fair, we don't all succeed at everything, etc. And it very well might be that twin #2 never figures this out. But I'm in the information gathering stage to see if there is more help that we can get before we call it a day

Very similar kids to yours. A lot of tutors don't change their teaching to what a kid actually needs to study. They continually do practice problems and that's it. If you have the time, below is what I did to help my 1300 kid get above 1500 (an 800 in math)

-Print out old tests (there are several on Reddit)
-Each day over the summer take one section of a test (timed) and then review missed questions
-there are several YouTube videos that will go over in depth the question you missed and several different approaches for each problem
-watch the "how I got a 1600" videos on YouTube

The SAT is very repetitive in the questions it asks so once you understand the patterns, it is very easy to do well. Use all of the free resources on Reddit and Youtube

Princeton Review deals a lot in SAT patterns. I used to teach for them.

[Anonymous]

stop doing ACT.

talk to kid about doing "tactical skips", meaning you can skip - just bubble something in - 3 or so questions that have historically taken him too much time. easy to identify in math, but also true in English. Dont do this early and dont do it on 3 consecutive.

[Anonymous]

Apply TO to:
WashU
Vanderbilt
UChicago
Yale (submit AP)
Rice

Pomona/CMC
Amherst

Add test blind:
UCLA/Berkeley

[Anonymous]

Get a new tutor. One that has methods to deal with Test anxiety. Ask your DC if they re read passages and or math questions because they are too focused on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why you don’t just list if they are boys and/or girls. Is the one in easier classes who scored well a boy and the one in harder classes who didn’t score as well a girl? That is often a typical pattern. The maturity rate fue boys and girls can vary. The one in harder classes has thought of herself as the smarter twin and it wasn’t a problem before. Now it has been equalized by the other twin getting better test scores. So now it seems they are equal. Doesn’t seem like a problem.

OP-
I made their gender ambiguous in this post because I was feeling exposed by otherwise sharing specifics (including the exact score).

dp.. I'm a PP with a similar issue.

DS was the high scorer; DD was not, but DD has anxiety issues.

It's not gender specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all 1410 is fine, stop comparing them to their twin. I had class of 21 twins who had a 1380 SAT and an ACT of 30 (respectfully) and they are both at a top school and doing great. I know scores are trending higher now because people don't submit lower ones, but the 1410 is perfectly acceptable.

I would stop at a 1410. Test scores will trend downward again as more universities require test scores anyway. A 1410 is still a great score especially if you're looking beyond T10.

I believe they will trend downward, but I don't think that will help the '25 kids. I think test required might just reduce number of applicants at those schools next year. It will take a year or two for numbers to reset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why you don’t just list if they are boys and/or girls. Is the one in easier classes who scored well a boy and the one in harder classes who didn’t score as well a girl? That is often a typical pattern. The maturity rate fue boys and girls can vary. The one in harder classes has thought of herself as the smarter twin and it wasn’t a problem before. Now it has been equalized by the other twin getting better test scores. So now it seems they are equal. Doesn’t seem like a problem.

OP-
I made their gender ambiguous in this post because I was feeling exposed by otherwise sharing specifics (including the exact score).

dp.. I'm a PP with a similar issue.

DS was the high scorer; DD was not, but DD has anxiety issues.

It's not gender specific.

I think OP was more concerned about the identifiability of the kids, not whether gender played a role in the scores or how the kids were feeling about them.

[Anonymous]

I have two kids; one is a great test-taker, and the other isn’t, and I can’t recommend going TO highly enough. It will continue to be an option at a lot of great schools—the list someone offered above is a great start, to which I’d add Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Northwestern, Michigan.

Your kid’s high rigor + strong AP scores put them in a great position; even Yale is on the table since they accept AP scores in lieu of SAT/ACT.

It was a huge relief for my TO kid to let go of testing; their time and energy was much better spent focusing on their rigorous schedule and time-consuming ECs (not to mention unstructured time with friends).

Good luck to your kids!

[Anonymous]

If no improvement after months of tutoring, I would have the kid stop and work with the test scores they have. Three attempts is plenty.

Curious why it is not ok in family dynamics for one kid to be better at school and other to be better in standardized tests? Doesn’t the standardized test kid get to be better at something?

[Anonymous]

'The reading/writing portion is a tough one to increase your score on. My kid was in a similar situation on the math, so this may not translate well. But I sprang for a 1-1 tutor and it made all the difference, and very quickly. I think DC only went to 4-5 hour-long sessions (with homework in between). 3-1 ratio seems good, but the approach is necessarily standardized. (They give the kid a worksheet and then spend a few minutes going over the answers when they're done.). A 1-1 is more likely to craft an approach that is more individualized to the kid.

Again-- our experience was in math so it may not translate. But after the first session, the tutor identified a few specific points that needed work and gave targeted homework.

Don't listen to people on test optional-- many schools have moved away from it and others will by fall. Plan on having to submit scores. (Of course, if your list of schools remains TO in August, you can go that route. But it's a risky route to plan on.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two kids; one is a great test-taker, and the other isn’t, and I can’t recommend going TO highly enough. It will continue to be an option at a lot of great schools—the list someone offered above is a great start, to which I’d add Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Northwestern, Michigan.

Your kid’s high rigor + strong AP scores put them in a great position; even Yale is on the table since they accept AP scores in lieu of SAT/ACT.

It was a huge relief for my TO kid to let go of testing; their time and energy was much better spent focusing on their rigorous schedule and time-consuming ECs (not to mention unstructured time with friends).

Good luck to your kids!

Good choices to add to that list.
Apply TO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If no improvement after months of tutoring, I would have the kid stop and work with the test scores they have. Three attempts is plenty.

Curious why it is not ok in family dynamics for one kid to be better at school and other to be better in standardized tests? Doesn’t the standardized test kid get to be better at something?

It doesn't come from us. The twins compare themselves with everything. The amount of money they made last summer, the miles they drove when getting their drivers' licenses, the ice cream sandwiches they ate last week...

Twins are an exceedingly interesting dynamic. Their entire world (teachers, friends, neighbors, their pediatrician) compares them to each other constantly. As parents you fight against this from the minute they're born when the nurses make comments on who is longer and who weighs more. The kids internalize this when it's all they hear for years. As parents you spend their entire lives trying to make people see them as individuals.

It's entirely different with our other kids (we have 2 more). They don't compare things to each other or their siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:'The reading/writing portion is a tough one to increase your score on. My kid was in a similar situation on the math, so this may not translate well. But I sprang for a 1-1 tutor and it made all the difference, and very quickly. I think DC only went to 4-5 hour-long sessions (with homework in between). 3-1 ratio seems good, but the approach is necessarily standardized. (They give the kid a worksheet and then spend a few minutes going over the answers when they're done.). A 1-1 is more likely to craft an approach that is more individualized to the kid.

Again-- our experience was in math so it may not translate. But after the first session, the tutor identified a few specific points that needed work and gave targeted homework.

Don't listen to people on test optional-- many schools have moved away from it and others will by fall. Plan on having to submit scores. (Of course, if your list of schools remains TO in August, you can go that route. But it's a risky route to plan on.)

Did you have this success with math on the digital test (between the March and May administrations?)

[Anonymous]

Gender does matter. When looking at the scores for higher scoring students boys score higher than girls.

For example a score of 1400 is on the 95th percentile for girls but only the 92nd for boys.

A math score of 750 is the 97th percentile for girls and the 94th for boys.