Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PR tests may seem to start "low" so that they are more likely to show an increase by the end of tutoring, thus "justifying" the cost.

To have a good idea where your student stands, have them take only official College Board practice tests. Official tests can be found both on the College Board site and on the Khan site - they are the exact same official practice tests.

You can find additional tests that are real previously-administered tests later released as QAS in the forum https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/

do you have another link, that one isn't working

Sorry, I must have pasted it twice. https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/ However, I don't know what happened to the thread with the links. Try here https://app.box.com/s/jok32eudf57qif9usjq0qkhco3mv60oy/folder/170599144662

OP here. I found this, in the search for whether the PRP tests are the same as the CB tests. It appears not, and this tutor has quite a lot to say on the matter (though the blog post is out of date, it seems relevant)

https://mcelroytutoring.com/blog-post.php?id=218#:~:text=The%20only%20real%20SATs%20are,and%20scaling%20is%20notoriously%20inaccurate.

Anonymous wrote:PR tests may seem to start "low" so that they are more likely to show an increase by the end of tutoring, thus "justifying" the cost.

To have a good idea where your student stands, have them take only official College Board practice tests. Official tests can be found both on the College Board site and on the Khan site - they are the exact same official practice tests.

You can find additional tests that are real previously-administered tests later released as QAS in the forum https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/

do you have another link, that one isn't working

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - has anyone's kid experienced similar? I'm grateful for the other advice, but this is the question I am really interested in hearing answers to. Thanks.

Former Kaplan teacher -- this is a thing. It happens when they are just starting to implement new strategies. It's frustrating, but once your kid gets the hang of the strategies and it can all be less conscious, they scores will go up again.

OP here. Thanks. I did wonder if this was what was happening. I'll let my kid know because this will cheer her up.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - has anyone's kid experienced similar? I'm grateful for the other advice, but this is the question I am really interested in hearing answers to. Thanks.

Former Kaplan teacher -- this is a thing. It happens when they are just starting to implement new strategies. It's frustrating, but once your kid gets the hang of the strategies and it can all be less conscious, they scores will go up again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the PR tests are real and from the college board

A few years ago when we used a PR tutor, PR had their own tests. PR has changed how they operate?

OP here. I don't know I'll see if I can find out.

If the PR tests are real College Board tests, you should be able to determine exactly which ones they are by matching them up to the official practice tests.

Anonymous wrote:All the PR tests are real and from the college board

A few years ago when we used a PR tutor, PR had their own tests. PR has changed how they operate?

OP here - has anyone's kid experienced similar? I'm grateful for the other advice, but this is the question I am really interested in hearing answers to. Thanks.

All the PR tests are real and from the college board

Anonymous wrote:PR tests may seem to start "low" so that they are more likely to show an increase by the end of tutoring, thus "justifying" the cost.

To have a good idea where your student stands, have them take only official College Board practice tests. Official tests can be found both on the College Board site and on the Khan site - they are the exact same official practice tests.

You can find additional tests that are real previously-administered tests later released as QAS in the forum https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/

But this contradicts what I explained. She started at 1300 and has gone down since. That doesn't justify any cost. If she doesn't get a final score of 150 pts better than her base test, all tuition is refundable. Its in their interests that her score goes up, if not on the practice tests, the the real one.

PR tests may seem to start "low" so that they are more likely to show an increase by the end of tutoring, thus "justifying" the cost.

To have a good idea where your student stands, have them take only official College Board practice tests. Official tests can be found both on the College Board site and on the Khan site - they are the exact same official practice tests.

You can find additional tests that are real previously-administered tests later released as QAS in the forum https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/

Anonymous wrote:Where are they getting their practice tests from? Have them take an official practice test from the college board.

They are practice tests in The Princeton Review book - and they are taking them in the order instructed by their PR tutor.

Where are they getting their practice tests from? Have them take an official practice test from the college board.

So for those of you whose kids took SAT practice tests, either thru Khan Academy or Princeton Review, or even other places, with or without a class / tutoring. I have a question - did their score patterns go DOWN during the practice tests before then coming out higher in the actual SAT?

My kid took a baseline test and scored 1300 first time, no studying. But in every practice test since (with tutoring / classwork in between) each score has gone down. We've been told the practice tests are designed to get harder and push the students further as they go along, but the psychological effect of going down each time is not positive.

Anyone else experience this?