How does one find an SAT math tutor?

[Anonymous]

DD is a high school junior with very good grades with school provided accommodations, but who has been denied accommodations by the College Board and the ACT. Math is her particular area of weakness, not just because of the LD, but also some funky stuff with her math progression and MCPS over-acceleration a few years back. She's got some holes to fill, math-wise, and I'd like to take care of those and build her confidence and familiarity with what can be expected on the SAT.

Suggestions on how to go about finding a math SAT tutor? Recommendations of individuals or services? Googling gets me nowhere and I don't want some random 21 year old. We're in the Takoma area.

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

I went with an online tutor. The craigslist people mostly seemed scary/fakers, though it might be unfair....I mean, which medical student has time to tutor a high-schooler????

[Anonymous]

Many high school math teachers tutor. I recently inquired of my son's private school math teacher if he did any outside tutoring. He now tutors my next door neighbor's son at the public library for $50/hr.

Go on some of the private school websites (they usually have a staff directory) and send a few emails and inquire.

I would never go through Craig's List.

[Anonymous]

I'm a college counselor - go through Princeton Review or Kaplan to have TRAINED instructors. I would never suggest going to a school math teacher (private or public) - you will get someone who knows their math, sure, but they don't know the tips and tricks for SAT math... totally different ballgame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college counselor - go through Princeton Review or Kaplan to have TRAINED instructors. I would never suggest going to a school math teacher (private or public) - you will get someone who knows their math, sure, but they don't know the tips and tricks for SAT math... totally different ballgame.

You may be a college counselor but not everyone wants to pay overinflated prices for a Princeton or Kaplan TRAINED instructor.

If you want to pay college board prep prices and learn to scheme and plot for the SAT then by all means go with SAT prep. You can just go over to Prep Matters in Bethesda and get a math tutor and pay out the a$$. If you want to understand geometry, calculus, and other math to get an A, then a good math teacher will do just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college counselor - go through Princeton Review or Kaplan to have TRAINED instructors. I would never suggest going to a school math teacher (private or public) - you will get someone who knows their math, sure, but they don't know the tips and tricks for SAT math... totally different ballgame.

NP here. I would agree that SAT trained instructors might have an edge but how do you assume that a high school math teacher wouldn't know math tricks of the trade? I would think that AB/BC calculus teachers might know a thing or two about math levels on the SAT. Both my kids used really knowledgeable math tutors for classroom and the SAT and did quite well with scores of 2350 and 2375 respectively. I don't really think paying a substantial amount of money would have been worth picking up an extra 50 points.

However, 50 points might make or break the deal so you never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college counselor - go through Princeton Review or Kaplan to have TRAINED instructors. I would never suggest going to a school math teacher (private or public) - you will get someone who knows their math, sure, but they don't know the tips and tricks for SAT math... totally different ballgame.

You may be a college counselor but not everyone wants to pay overinflated prices for a Princeton or Kaplan TRAINED instructor.

If you want to pay college board prep prices and learn to scheme and plot for the SAT then by all means go with SAT prep. You can just go over to Prep Matters in Bethesda and get a math tutor and pay out the a$$. If you want to understand geometry, calculus, and other math to get an A, then a good math teacher will do just fine.

We had a very good experience with Prep Matters. OP if you just need math help it won't require too many sessions so may be worthwhile even though it's expensive. They also do lots of practice tests, which are free, so my DC was quite used to doing the test by the time he did it for real.

[Anonymous]

There are math tutors at ASDEC.ORG that specifically understand LDs.

I would identify and fill in the gaps with that tutor and then go for SAT prep.

You also may want to look at schools that don't take SATs.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the suggestions everyone... Will definitely follow up. And yes, we'll be looking at test optional schools too.

[Anonymous]

OP, I found a tutor (complete with background check) on Wyzant to help my DC with math throughout junior year, transitioning to SAT math towards the end of the year. It wasn't expensive, and it was probably the best return we've gotten on an education investment -- grades shot up immediately, confidence improved, practice test scores rose. My DC is an otherwise strong student who has always lagged in math; the individualized instruction didn't turn DC into a math genius, but provided just enough extra help to keep up with the rest of the class. I regret not going the one-on-one route years ago. And yes, we spend a fortune on private schools.

[Anonymous]

+! on Prep Matters. Our DC did a different comprehensive SAT prep course -- it was generally good, but he still felt he wasn't doing as well as he could in Math. We got him a few one on one sessions at Prep matters and that pulled things up.