Anonymous wrote:Private SAT prep is a billion dollar business. What do you think?

My friend's kid, a B student, had a 900 SAT.

Parents sent him to SAT tutoring. 8K later he bumped up to a 1400 SAT.

It depends on how motivated the kid is and how much disposable income the parents have. That’s it.

The Khan Academy link to College Board identifies items your kid has missed on the practice tests and will suggest practice problems and instructional resources. So just as good as a tutor if your kid is self-motivated and self-directed. The tutor mainly is a way to focus attention. I told my kid if they could self-tutor and improve their score I'd give them $1 a point (so if the score went up 100 they got $100) otherwise the money would go to paying a tutor. This plus their own motivation to study to improve their scores was enough. I more billed it as--let's just try and see if you can be your own tutor before shelling out money for a formal tutor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has been working through several SAT prep books.
The books have lots of general strategy tips (about time management, choosing questions, etc) and then break down the types of problems (there is a finite number of types) and explain how to do each category.

Then there are a zillion practice problems.

If a kid is doing all of this (and so far---about 3 weeks in, they are) is there any value to taking a course instead?

[b]What does a course (or individual tutoring) do? [/b]

Does a tutor/course mainly serve to keep a kid on-track and help with studying time-management? I.e a kid is far more likely to actually study if a tutor is there making him do the work?

He's found that he understands all the explanations the book gives so it's not an issue of needing someone to actually explain from scratch how to do things. It's more that he's forgotten how to do a math concept (from Covid era geometry 2 years ago) and then reads the book's explanation and is like, "oh, right. I remember. Got it".

Thank you!

Hello! I used to be a Kaplan test prep teacher and tutor so I can answer this for it.

Class: The material in the book is EXACTY THE SAME as what you find in the class. the only benefit of the class is if you are not self-motivated to work through the material. If you are self motivated, you don't have to. I will say, the classes work -- a lot of students like having the voice of the teacher in their head while they are working. And, depending on the class size, the teacher can help you figure out where your blocks are.

Tutoring: Now, this one is different. As a tutor, I spent a lot of time working with students to figure out exactly how they were thinking, and to figure out the best strategies for them to use (can be personalized). We would also go through every practice test together and go over their errors, figure out why they made and error, and give them stratagies so they don't make the same errors again. I was able to help students raise their scores by 200-300 points. I think, if you have the money, it can be very worth it.

This. My kid has an SAT tutor right now and this is what she does with him. Its very helpful. He went up 200 pts between baseline and 1st practice test. He mostly needs help with forgotten math concepts, his verbal is routinely 750

Anonymous wrote:My kid has been working through several SAT prep books.
The books have lots of general strategy tips (about time management, choosing questions, etc) and then break down the types of problems (there is a finite number of types) and explain how to do each category.

Then there are a zillion practice problems.

If a kid is doing all of this (and so far---about 3 weeks in, they are) is there any value to taking a course instead?

[b]What does a course (or individual tutoring) do? [/b]

Does a tutor/course mainly serve to keep a kid on-track and help with studying time-management? I.e a kid is far more likely to actually study if a tutor is there making him do the work?

He's found that he understands all the explanations the book gives so it's not an issue of needing someone to actually explain from scratch how to do things. It's more that he's forgotten how to do a math concept (from Covid era geometry 2 years ago) and then reads the book's explanation and is like, "oh, right. I remember. Got it".

Thank you!

Hello! I used to be a Kaplan test prep teacher and tutor so I can answer this for it.

Class: The material in the book is EXACTY THE SAME as what you find in the class. the only benefit of the class is if you are not self-motivated to work through the material. If you are self motivated, you don't have to. I will say, the classes work -- a lot of students like having the voice of the teacher in their head while they are working. And, depending on the class size, the teacher can help you figure out where your blocks are.

Tutoring: Now, this one is different. As a tutor, I spent a lot of time working with students to figure out exactly how they were thinking, and to figure out the best strategies for them to use (can be personalized). We would also go through every practice test together and go over their errors, figure out why they made and error, and give them stratagies so they don't make the same errors again. I was able to help students raise their scores by 200-300 points. I think, if you have the money, it can be very worth it.

Anonymous wrote:I can answer this -- I taught SAT prep for Kaplan. The lessons in the self prep books were virtually identical to what I did in the in-person class.

That said, when I studied for the LSAT, I did an in-person class. But that is only because I have ADD and needed the forced structure/study time that came with having to show up for classes that I'd paid for.

I have two kids.

One is super smart. All they did was take a couple of practice tests. Scored 1580.

The other one is probably going to need in person tutoring because they aren't as academically inclined, nor are they as self motivated.

I think it depends on the student.

Anonymous wrote:Private SAT prep is a billion dollar business. What do you think?

That they are preying on fears and providing little benefit.

It's worth studying for a bit, but the best prep for verbal is reading two hours a day for ten years, and the best prep for math is good math classes for 10 years. There's some benefit from studying online or from books yourself. The extra benefit from classes is for kids who won't do it themselves. Maybe, maybe, there's a tiny bit of benefit from classes for kids who are self-motivated enough to study themselves, but it's going to be rare and small.

Yes, there will be times where score will jump after classes but that's because scores will bounce around from test to test even for the same student, and no one talks about the times scores decline after classes.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/no-one-likes-the-sat-its-still-the-fairest-thing-about-admissions/2019/03/22/5fa67a16-4c00-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html

"What about coaching and other forms of test preparation? Highly paid tutors make bold claims about how much they can raise SAT scores (“my students routinely improve their scores by more than 400 points”), but there is no peer-reviewed scientific evidence that coaching can reliably provide more than a modest boost — especially once simple practice effects and other expected improvements from retaking a test are accounted for. For the typical rich kid, a more realistic gain of 50 points would represent the difference between the average students at Syracuse and No. 197 University of Colorado at Boulder — significant, perhaps, but not dramatic."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For my kid, individual tutoring (at $95/hour) was immensely helpful.

That sounds like what DS needs. Who was the tutor?

Not in the DCUM area so won't be useful to you. But as a guide, look for a Private tutor who runs their own company, not part of a national corporation....look for somewhere that what they focus on is test prep (SAT/ACT/GMAT/LSAT/MCAT/etc) and ideally view references---we were referred there by our friends and our private college counselor (one in the $3-4K range, not the crazy DCUM/NYC/LI type). That way you know who you are getting---not just someone who started last week.

I can answer this -- I taught SAT prep for Kaplan. The lessons in the self prep books were virtually identical to what I did in the in-person class.

That said, when I studied for the LSAT, I did an in-person class. But that is only because I have ADD and needed the forced structure/study time that came with having to show up for classes that I'd paid for.

Anonymous wrote:Are there still SAT books? I thought it was all online. Everyone we know seems to be paying for prep classes but we are using the free online prep course. I figure if we have good grades, strong class schedules, good ECs, and a good enough SAT that another 40-50 points won't matter anyway.

See my post below---but private tutoring ($100/hour for 4-6 hours) can be worth every penny! It will help get your smart kid to their best level without much extra work. Knowing the little tricks can help a lot. But yes, beyond that, I don't recommend 20+ hours of tutoring, time is much better spent on good grades, class rigor, and enjoying HS/life/becoming the person your kid wants to be.
I'd say $600 for a 150 point bump and 4-6 hours plus a few tests time is worth the increase.

My kid got into 2 schools in the 30s and another 4 in the 40-70 range, most with good merit, and WL at one in the 20s. DOn't think that would have happened with a 1330 score submitted.

Private SAT prep is a billion dollar business. What do you think?

Anonymous wrote:For my kid, individual tutoring (at $95/hour) was immensely helpful.

That sounds like what DS needs. Who was the tutor?

For my kid, individual tutoring (at $95/hour) was immensely helpful. Here is what it involved: Took a baseline/practice SAT. My kid then spent 4 hours of individual tutoring that was targeted specifically to the "tricks" and what my kid had done wrong. Then kid took another simulated/practice test (at 8am on a weekend at home). Test score went from 1330 up to 1490 with only those 4 hours.
Did another 2 hours of targeted tutoring, took another practice test and scored 1490. Then took the actual SAT, Scored 1490 and was done. Math was 790 and verbal was 700 and not likely to increase much without a lot of work.

Basically 4-6 hours was all that was needed. Because of the private tutoring, they taught more than just "tricks" but specifically analyzed what my kid was missing. Made the entire process simple.
Now, we decided to stop then, but if we had wanted to, another 10 hours of Verbal specific tutoring might have Gotten another 40-60 points but we determined it was not worth the effort/stress.

But basically that first baseline test and 4 hours of tutoring got my kid a 150 point bump and that is where all of their future Tests (practice and real) hovered around. I'm fairly certain it would have taken a lot more of my kid doing practices tests to get to that score---my kid knew the material and just needed the tricks/guidance for how to approach the test.

Are there still SAT books? I thought it was all online. Everyone we know seems to be paying for prep classes but we are using the free online prep course. I figure if we have good grades, strong class schedules, good ECs, and a good enough SAT that another 40-50 points won't matter anyway.

My kid has been working through several SAT prep books.
The books have lots of general strategy tips (about time management, choosing questions, etc) and then break down the types of problems (there is a finite number of types) and explain how to do each category.

Then there are a zillion practice problems.

If a kid is doing all of this (and so far---about 3 weeks in, they are) is there any value to taking a course instead?

What does a course (or individual tutoring) do?

Does a tutor/course mainly serve to keep a kid on-track and help with studying time-management? I.e a kid is far more likely to actually study if a tutor is there making him do the work?

He's found that he understands all the explanations the book gives so it's not an issue of needing someone to actually explain from scratch how to do things. It's more that he's forgotten how to do a math concept (from Covid era geometry 2 years ago) and then reads the book's explanation and is like, "oh, right. I remember. Got it".

Thank you!