starting a SAT writing tutoring business?

[Anonymous]

I'm a college professor who teaches writing, and someone suggested to me that I should offer individual tutoring for the SAT writing test as a small side business. I don't live in the DC area, so I'm not trying to solicit business here! I would just like some unbiased advice from parents of college-bound high school students.

1. If your child has already taken an SAT prep course of some kind, do you feel he/she would benefit from additional writing instruction?

2. Is the writing portion of the test regarded as more difficult than the math or reading sections? Or does it just depend on your child's individual strengths? The person who suggested this to me was saying that the SAT grammar is really tough, but I wasn't sure if everyone has the same perception.

3. I'm not a parent myself, but it seems that most parents would hire tutors based on word-of-mouth referrals. Does this seem right? Any suggestions for how a new tutor could go about building up a clientele?

Any other comments are very much welcomed. I haven't decided if I will pursue this or not; I'm definitely still in the researching stage.

[Anonymous]

The writing portion of the SAT is the least important. Many schools don't even look at it. I would never hire a tutor simply for the writing section.

[Anonymous]

We paid big $ for tutoring and writing was a small piece of that. So it does seem to get short shrift. But from what I understand the SAT writing is somewhat formulaic. My DC was told the most important thing was to fill both pages. Following the standard 5 paragraph structure is also important.Basically once DC filled those pages the score went way up. So not sure real writing tutoring is critical for SAT purposes.

[Anonymous]

The other thing is that writing for the SAT has little to do with good writing. The people grading the exams have a rubric and you just need to knock off the specific things in the rubric. Its very easy to game. Unless you have some insight into how its graded, you have nothing to offer.

[Anonymous]

This person said her daughter needed help with the multiple choice grammar questions more than the essay. From the research I've done, it does seem that you can game the essay scoring pretty easily.

But thanks for the feedback! This is precisely what I was worried about: that one person's specific experience is not true of most people's.

[Anonymous]

Maybe application essay writing. You'd have to learn the formula for that too.i

[Anonymous]

I agree with pp. As others have said, some colleges just ignore the writing section. Anyone going to a good h.s. will do fine on that portion of the SAT. But, as immediate pp wrote, if you can coach on essays, someone might hire you for that.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there also talk of de-emphasizing writing in the new version of the SAT?

[Anonymous]

Starting a Sat tutoring business cane be accomplished by following:

1. Have your own website built
2. Print out some pamphlet
3. Distribute them to school, library, college and cafeteria


You can get more information online on how to start tutoring business. Tutor pace can be a good place to enquire about.

[Anonymous]

Not certain, but I thought I heard that the revised SAT was going to do away with the essay and go back to a 1600 point scale. OP -- I don't see a promising business here. You would be better off just trying to get a part time tutoring job on the reading/writing portions of the SAT at Prep Matters or one of the other test prep companies.

[Anonymous]

My alma mater doesn't take the writing section into consideration at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting a Sat tutoring business cane be accomplished by following:

1. Have your own website built
2. Print out some pamphlet
3. Distribute them to school, library, college and cafeteria


You can get more information online on how to start tutoring business. Tutor pace can be a good place to enquire about.

I also use Craigslist to find tutors for my kids. If you are careful, you can find pretty decent tutors w/ reasonable price.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the 2 previous PPs recommending college application essay tutoring. I've hired tutors for all three of my children in this area and I think it helped them and was well worth the money. Good Luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid big $ for tutoring and writing was a small piece of that. So it does seem to get short shrift. But from what I understand the SAT writing is somewhat formulaic. My DC was told the most important thing was to fill both pages. Following the standard 5 paragraph structure is also important.Basically once DC filled those pages the score went way up. So not sure real writing tutoring is critical for SAT purposes.

What company did you use? My son needs some tutoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We paid big $ for tutoring and writing was a small piece of that. So it does seem to get short shrift. But from what I understand the SAT writing is somewhat formulaic. My DC was told the most important thing was to fill both pages. Following the standard 5 paragraph structure is also important.Basically once DC filled those pages the score went way up. So not sure real writing tutoring is critical for SAT purposes.

What company did you use? My son needs some tutoring.

Prep Matters. They were very good.