SAT Prep Courses?

[LisaNY]

Hi Everyone,

My dd's high school offers SAT prep courses, and we are trying to decide whether or not to enroll her. (It's $275 for math/english) I remember some discussion here about a video SAT prep course, but I forget the details.

The scheduling for the course is really going to be a pain, so if I can find something she could do at home, that would be great.

I want her to be well-prepared for the SAT, so all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks! :)

[Sandra in NC]

We did SAT prep ourselves using the College Board's big blue book called "Official SAT" or something like that. He took a full practice test one morning and I scored it. Based on his scores, we decided that he needed to work only on math, so he did a practice test (not all in one sitting) from the book each week. Often he just did 10 problems a day and he checked them. CollegeConfidential.com has answers explained for almost all the blue book math problems. So, if he got any wrong and didn't understand why, he checked collegeconfindential.com and that explained it clearly.

We are prepping for SAT subject tests similarly. 10 problems a day from practice tests....researching the ones he gets wrong to make sure he understands the concepts.

I believe the key is spaced repetition. Do a little each day. Our SAT II prep takes about 30 minutes a day.

Here are posts by an "expert" on College Confidential that are relevant: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggi-s-sat-prep-advice.html

[Gwen in VA]

I second the suggestion to have your child study on his own. The materials are readily available!

1) My kids worked through the Rocket Revolution study guide. while they didn't agree with all of the study suggestions and didn't follow all of them, the guide made my kids really think about the types of questions on the exam and how they approached them.

2) Do get the CB SAT exams and work through them. My kids did the last two in one day, but before that they just did one section per day. They did several exams that way.

3) Also, use the collegeboard.com's SAT question of the day. Over several months it does a great job of familliarizing students with the types of questions on the SAT in a non-threatening format. (Great for 9th and 10th graders).

[LisaNY]

Thanks for the suggestions, Ladies! The link to the SAT discussion was very interesting!

I went ahead and signed my dd up for the course at the local Teacher's Center. Her friend told her that the course helped earn her somewhere around 500 points on the SAT.

[NancyL]

What I did for my older (with some success)--When the SAT prep courses were starting to be pushed or marketed to her grade (around 11th back then, earlier now)--I studied the courses and figured out approximately what they covered. For example, one big blue book, with 3 practice tests. As those books are readily available (library, thrift stores, or half price books--) Get one out and figure out how much you get for that cost. I then came up with a plan that told her--yes, these tests are important, because people are willing to spend big bucks on the test prep. Ultimately the student benefits from this program when you get a better test score, of course. BUT, I told her I would rather give money to her instead of a commercial program. SO- I did a unit cost analysis of the "product" and offered her HALF directly, payable upon satisfactory completion of the words, practice tests, whatever. To segue off --that included doing Wordly wise books. I counted the number of words and compared it to the test prep courses to figure the worth of this kind of study. I rationalized that the test prep is generally in addition to school, and many parents sacrifice a lot to make this available for their students. Not to mention driving them there, carving out the time, etc. So the money really was a nice motivator. (they only get money from yard work otherwise) It ensured cooperation from all parties, and if they didn't really want to pursue this, then that could be their choice. Keeping in mind that teenagers have a lot of "needs" then in my mind its win -win, because individual study is always more benefical that the group sessions, just not much fun. At the end-- the scholarships she won more than paid for the small amount that I gave her, plus was wonderful for her self esteem.