any advice on test prep services?

[Anonymous]

Does Montgomery College MD offer classes?

[Anonymous]

OP, with that kind of low score, please don't waste your money on group classes. They're not going to percolate. Your child needs one-on-one attention.

Prep Matters was great for my severely inattentive and low processing kiddo. He ended up with a 35 out of 36 on his ACT. His tutor tried him on the SAT and the ACT, and they determined that ACT was better for him. They kept drilling, talking test strategies, brushing up on forgotten math, etc. Math and science were their areas of focus, since DS was pretty good with the language portion already. He was of course optimally medicated for his ADHD at the time (now he's tapered off his meds in college and is doing well - high school was the most difficult part of his educational path, it seems).

Nothing beats a private tutor. Invest, OP. Higher test scores probably contributed to my son receiving 20K/yr merit aid at his favorite private university, which is nothing to sneeze at.

[Anonymous]

Is there an equivalent to prep matters in McLean/nova?

[Anonymous]

Another suggestion to consider prep matters. My daughter got a 36 on the act (which certainly helped with college outcomes) - but your kid definitely has to put in the work between sessions. They also offer virtual sessions if that format will work well for your kid.

[Anonymous]

We did prep matters for two kids. 1490 SAT and 35 ACT were the results. They are expensive, so you need to be focused on the issues at hand. Take practice tests and figure out the weak points. I'll say this about that company, they are efficient. I think we did about four or five sessions each. In the end, it was worthwhile. But it only works if the kid is willing to put in the work. It's not magic.

[Anonymous]

Another shout out to Prep Matters. My daughter has some anxiety which affected testing. The tutor was fantastic and my kid worked hard. She took it once and got a 35.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prep Matters is the best in the area, but they're very expensive. We used them for my son who had an IEP and severe ADHD with low processing speed. I think his starting score, without his extended time accommodation or any prep, was maybe 29. His final score was 35 out of 36, after a ton of in-depth work. The student needs to put in the work. Tutors can't just magically wave a wand and hand your kid a high score.

Prepmatters has some great tutors, but be careful when they place you with someone. It can be hit or miss. Because of availability, they might assign you to a younger and inexperienced tutor. We had to ask for a reassignment after one session and luckily they comped the first session with the new tutor who had many years of experience and was in more demand.

[Anonymous]

What does prep matters charge?

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend Everitt Clark, we did one on one, and he came to our home. He can do 90 minutes and 60 minutes sessions focusing on your child vs a group. We only did 3 90-min sessions and 1 60-min sessions over the course of 2 months (once a week or so with a lot of homework to do), the kid went from low 1400 to 1540. Though kid says he could do prep on his own if he knew which books/tests to study. Plus 1400 was his very first attempt in March, but I did not want to risk it and we hired prep to get best shot at 2nd attempt and not have to do August testing.

[Anonymous]

Does the kid want to do test prep? My kid with a similar score (took one time) decided to only apply to test optional schools and didn't want to prep - he had prepped before the first one and felt like he couldn't improve enough to be worth it. He is happy at his LAC and we didn't spend time or money on preparation or tests that he didn't even want to take. Obviously that doesn't work if your kid wants to apply to schools that require tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, with that kind of low score, please don't waste your money on group classes. They're not going to percolate. Your child needs one-on-one attention.

Prep Matters was great for my severely inattentive and low processing kiddo. He ended up with a 35 out of 36 on his ACT. His tutor tried him on the SAT and the ACT, and they determined that ACT was better for him. They kept drilling, talking test strategies, brushing up on forgotten math, etc. Math and science were their areas of focus, since DS was pretty good with the language portion already. He was of course optimally medicated for his ADHD at the time (now he's tapered off his meds in college and is doing well - high school was the most difficult part of his educational path, it seems).

Nothing beats a private tutor. Invest, OP. Higher test scores probably contributed to my son receiving 20K/yr merit aid at his favorite private university, which is nothing to sneeze at.

This. We aren't doing prep matters but highly recommend getting a one on one tutor. My DD is on the 1170 range and we're not longer messing around with group classes or self paced.

[Anonymous]

We used Princeton review for one-on-one tutoring. It made a significant difference in terms of understanding how to work through the questions swiftly, how to approach large pieces of text, how to dismiss the "wrong" 2 answers to focus on the 2 more likely correct ones and figure out which was the right choice.

Its kind of a technical skill, taking the SAT and it can be learned.

Also with this tutoring your kid has to take a pre-test and then several other full length tests at home, during the period of tutoring, and while that can feel like a slog, the tests become more familiar and the taking of them becomes more like a muscle memory, like with learning to drive.

This means that when your kid is in a testing center feeling nervous, they are less likely to be distracted by the room / location / sounds of someone slurping water, or tapping their pencil (ok, keyboard) because they've done it a dozen times already.

I would recommend calling them and talking to Chibi Davis who takes in a lot of detail about what you're needing before passing it along to the team who matches your kid with a tutor. Some are more Math orientated, others are more language skilled. They all teach the same methods, but depending on your kids sense of strengths and weaknesses they can match pretty accurately.

[Anonymous]

^^ the other thing I forgot to mention, the PR practice tests are actually designed to be HARDER than the real tests, in order to cover all eventualities and to push the student so that when they are faced with the real test (or a practice one from the college board) it is less daunting.