Question about SAT Prep

[Anonymous]

My kid is a junior and plans to take the SAT in May or June. She is a pretty good test taker and did well (700+) in the math section of PSAT but less well (650 range) in verbal. She struggles with grammar and the reading analysis. She is at a large public HS in the area (decent but not Amazing). Never learned grammar at school and has had subpar ELA teachers for both 9th and 10th grade. I’m wondering what is the best way to improve her verbal skills. SAT tutor just for verbal portion or ELA tutoring with a good HS teacher (maybe someone from private school)? I consider myself very strong in writing and always did very well in SAT and GRe verbal. Cal I tutor her myself - with what resources? I’m not really worried about her math. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Look up Erica Meltzer's The Critical Reader and Grammar Guide. Have her work through both books and her scores should increase.

[Anonymous]

If the only score she has is the 10th grade PSAT, definitely link her CollegeBoard account to Khan Academy and have her do one of the practice tests there. Most kids improve and if she is in AP Lang, she probably is actually covering these topics this year.

My son had a 650 on the 10th grade PSAT writing/English, but tested at 700 when he started his (minimal) test prep for the SAT.

I've read good things about the Meltzer books, but my kid was not going to go through hundreds of pages of grammar. He did the Khan Academy exercises and found them helpful.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice. I will plan on getting the Meltzer book. Let me know if anyone has other ideas. Do PSAT scores track pretty closely with SAT scores?