Anonymous wrote:It used to be an open secret among tutors that c2's diagnostic SAT test is hardest than the other SAT tests students take at c2 later on after some test prep. students score lower on intial test. Is it to show that kid's score went up after a few weeks of prep with them?

Hmmm maybe this is why DD scored lower on the c2 diagnostic than the PSAT a year earlier!

It used to be an open secret among tutors that c2's diagnostic SAT test is hardest than the other SAT tests students take at c2 later on after some test prep. students score lower on intial test. Is it to show that kid's score went up after a few weeks of prep with them?

Does c2 offer ACT prep and was it any good?

If your child is in MCPS, there is low-cost Saturday School, which has SAT prep.

Anonymous wrote:

Wow, that's a lot of money. Please tell me that are cheaper alternatives!

Khan Academy is free. The College Board's book of released practice tests is about $20.

You can spend as little or as much as you want on SAT prep. We opted to spend zero dollars and that worked out fine.

I hired a private tutor at $90 per hour. Didn't come to as much as that, but it did come to a few grand. I thought money well spent.

I have 3 kids in HS. One rising senior, one rising junior and one rising 10th grader.

Getting high score on the SAT come down to how much $$ you're willing to spend to get your child ready. It is the "have more" and "have" versus the "have not". If I am going to spend 50k to prepare a child for SAT prep, an below average child can easily gets a very high SAT score. That's exactly what I did with my kids. Before the SAT prep, the rising senior and junior scored 1090 and 1100, respectively. After the SAT prep, the rising senior and junior scores 1590 and 1580, repsectively. Both got perfect SAT score in physics and biology. It cost me about 30k for both kids for 1 on 1 SAT prep.

Am I happy about this? No but it is the reality in today environment.

Best way to use private tutor is is to find out which areas your kid needs help. Use every possible free resource, to develop an idea of how much help your child needs...

Mine has been doing Khan Academy and using the book of practice tests. Starting a short cram course through Princeton Review tonight, so we’ll see how that goes. He’s always been a terrible test-taker yet seems to have strong knowledge of content, so he needs help with the actual approach to answering questions, not actually the content.

Anonymous wrote:

Wow, that's a lot of money. Please tell me that are cheaper alternatives!

Khan Academy is free. The College Board's book of released practice tests is about $20.

You can spend as little or as much as you want on SAT prep. We opted to spend zero dollars and that worked out fine.

My kid prepared for the ACT using two books and old tests found online. Score went up 5 points.

SAT score went up by 200 as well - although he didn’t do specific prep. The tests are more similar than they used to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Wow, that's a lot of money. Please tell me that are cheaper alternatives!

Khan Academy is free. The College Board's book of released practice tests is about $20.

You can spend as little or as much as you want on SAT prep. We opted to spend zero dollars and that worked out fine.

Try this before you spend thousands on prep. That’s what we are doing. DS (rising junior)is using this for prep over the summer (as well as a Kaplan book). If he isn’t happy with his score in December we will consider paying for prep.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting ready to pick one SAT prep program. I know about the expense. I just want to know if it is worth my money.
Do you think it helped your child get better scores?

Three of my kids did C2 at the Franklin Farm location. They improved their scores, but it was never clear to me if it was C2 per se, or the repetition of test prep. It was expensive - roughly $14-15 K over the course of my kids' tenures.

We have a rising HS soph. Am thinking we may shop around - especially if there are cheaper alternatives.

Wow, that's a lot of money. Please tell me that are cheaper alternatives!

C2’s business plan is built on making money, and getting as much out of parents as possible. (That’s not to say that other places don’t do this...I just have the most experience with C2.)

Wow, that's a lot of money. Please tell me that are cheaper alternatives!

Khan Academy is free. The College Board's book of released practice tests is about $20.

You can spend as little or as much as you want on SAT prep. We opted to spend zero dollars and that worked out fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting ready to pick one SAT prep program. I know about the expense. I just want to know if it is worth my money.
Do you think it helped your child get better scores?

Three of my kids did C2 at the Franklin Farm location. They improved their scores, but it was never clear to me if it was C2 per se, or the repetition of test prep. It was expensive - roughly $14-15 K over the course of my kids' tenures.

We have a rising HS soph. Am thinking we may shop around - especially if there are cheaper alternatives.

Wow, that's a lot of money. Please tell me that are cheaper alternatives!

Anonymous wrote:Getting ready to pick one SAT prep program. I know about the expense. I just want to know if it is worth my money.
Do you think it helped your child get better scores?

Three of my kids did C2 at the Franklin Farm location. They improved their scores, but it was never clear to me if it was C2 per se, or the repetition of test prep. It was expensive - roughly $14-15 K over the course of my kids' tenures.

We have a rising HS soph. Am thinking we may shop around - especially if there are cheaper alternatives.

Getting ready to pick one SAT prep program. I know about the expense. I just want to know if it is worth my money.
Do you think it helped your child get better scores?