<p>I have been trying to get D (Junior) to work on preparing for the SAT and ACT. She is very resistant to doing this. If I tell her I want her to do such and such math problems, she starts enumerating how she has homework, or she's tired, or she's going to a party. If she does do some, it isn't more than 15 or so in a day, and that's like pulling teeth. Her vocabulary is sadly lacking, but she won't work on that because "they're doing them at school". </p>
<p>If I say that she needs to work at it in order to do well, she yells that I think she's stupid. I don't think she's stupid, but math is not her strong subject, and as I said her vocab is lacking. </p>
<p>All this is very stressful for me, and sometimes I feel like throwing up my hands and telling her it's her problem. At the same time, I know this is important to opening opportunities that she will want to be there down the road. H has already told her that we will only pay as much for her as we are paying for her brother (he has half tuition). If she does poorly and can't get any merit, it will severely limit which schools she could attend (not to mention the increased probability of not getting accepted). </p>
<p>If you figure it out, let me know. My husband and I had this discussion this morning after getting sons ACT scores from 9/10 that are 1 point lower than necessary to get full tuition. SAT from 1/11 are 20 points below getting full tuition. </p>
<p>He is scheduled for SAT’s saturday, and has done very little preparation. </p>
<p>Having gone through a similar journey, I can identify. My DS has never been one to listen to advice, nagging, encouragement, etc. He has his own timetable, and there is not much I have ever been able to do to change it.</p>
<p>Maybe consider this first SAT as a practice. Your D is only a junior, and it is early in the year, so there is plenty of time to re-take the test if your D does poorly on a certain section. Let her take it while doing the studying she wants (or doesn’t want) to do. Let her see what scores she gets in what sections. Then you can sit down and have a conversation about what she might want to do to improve, and how to go about it.</p>
<p>This gives her control over the test taking and lets her see where she needs to go. I would imagine that she understands the relationship between SAT scores and what colleges she can apply to.</p>
<p>Crizello has the best advice about treating this as a practice. If she takes it and doesn’t study, her score may reflect it. Kids talk, especially stressed out seniors. If she has a low score compared to her friends, that may be what she needs to do and hit the books. I would make sure she has the materials to study.</p>
<p>What worked for my DS was taking him to a few schools and then let him see the average scores for those accepted. It was easy for him to see the difference between Indiana State University and Northwestern.</p>
<p>D2 didn’t want to prepare for the SAT so she didn’t - and she got a disappointing score that basically signaled to her that she wouldn’t be going to a high-end school back east like her big sister. That motivated her for the retake. She studied using the Xiggi method and raised her score 270 points. She is now Jr. at an Ivy.</p>
<p>So glad to see we are not the only ones facing this. Our son has always pushed himself, so we have never even had to remind him to do homework. He is still doing so with school, however has every excuse in the book why he isn’t doing anything for the SAT/ACT. I bought him study guides, offered to pay for a review course; not interested. His friends are finishing up their review courses so I keep thinking maybe the peer pressure angle will work, but so far no! At this point we have decided to back off and let him take the test to see where his scores will be. He still has time to improve and even take a course if necessary. </p>
<p>Thanks for posting coureur- that is exactly what I am hoping for with our son! I should stop worrying as he always seems to pull through somehow…</p>
<p>One method that works with teenagers is hitting them in the wallet. In a positive way that is! Offer them a compensation for taking practice tests in earnest. Not full tests – just a couple a of sections a week. Ten dollars per successful completion of a section should be about ten bucks an hour. This will make your child happy, be a LOT cheaper than sending them to a worthless class, and contribute to a healthy relationship in these taxing times. </p>
<p>You could even claim to be serving your country by signing your own “job” bill. :)</p>
<p>It can be tough to talk some kids into studying for the SAT. Understandable, because they may feel they’re being pushed out the door before they’re ready, or resent the idea of extra time away from activities they pick for themselves, or just have test anxiety. But unfortunate too, because self-prep can really make a difference. But if a kid’s resistant, self-prep won’t be as effective.</p>
<p>Do you know what schools she’d like to attend, and what her intended field of study is? Can you have a low-key talk about what kind of schools she’s interested in, how far away she’d like to go, whether she’s thinking about scholarships, etc. - stuff that’s more personal, and interesting, than the notion of SAT study? You could even say, “Let’s go out to lunch to talk about college but NOT about the SATs.”</p>
<p>Once you know what her hopes are, you can point out what the middle 50 percent score ranges are (a few days later), and ask if she thinks she’ll qualify. It helps some kids to see those stats in black and white - it did mine. The xiggi method is a great study tool, but there are others that may interest her, too. My youngest d liked receiving the daily SAT question by e-mail from collegeboard.org. (It still comes to our email address and my husband enjoys doing the math questions.) That’s about as low-key as it gets, and it would at least familiarize your d with the question forms.</p>
<p>Have your D take it once, cold. No prep at all, just sharpen the pencils and show up. It doesn’t take all that long to get the scores.</p>
<p>Once you have the scores, look at them together and discuss what schools they will get her into and (if important) what type of merit aid they will qualify you for. The scores may be good enough to get her where she wants to go. If not, this shoud motivate her to prep for the next time.</p>
<p>DD2 and I had this discussion a couple of years ago. I got the SAT Test Prep book that has 10 different SATs that were given in the past. I just wanted her to work through one complete test to be ready for the kinds of questions asked. She resisted until I told her she had an option. She could take the test in the book or get a job to earn the equivalent of 4 years scholarship for a NMF (which her older sister received). She did the practice test.</p>
<p>I agree with missypie and crizello. First try is a practice. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the fly in the ointment is the PSAT. Being a junior, her one and only shot is 2 weeks away. Perhaps xiggi’s compensation idea will get her to complete a few practices from the free booklet she can get at school. If not, it’s not the end of the world. </p>
<p>I find that teens need to have an end goal in sight. Like Mizzbee says, if they can see the scores that it takes to get in or receive merit, it could give them something to aim for. Vague objectives like “get a good score” don’t mean anything without context. </p>
<p>Reading and math CAN be studied for. My son’s biggest issue is that the math on the SAT he did so long ago, that he just needs to brush up on some of the simple skills that are not used frequently in his current math levels. More of a refresher. Also, just familiarizing yourself with the reading section is supposed to make it much easier, as well as studying vocabulary. So there is plenty the kids can do to prepare for the test and improve their scores. Especially if it is for a small bump in numbers.</p>
<p>While it is true that many kids can study for the SAT on their own, many can’t.</p>
<p>So I would recommend you enroll her in an organized prep course, where she actually has to go to some building once a week or so. Or where she must do it on line, where you can track her actual results.</p>
<p>She could do it on her own by simply buying a book with SAT practice exams, but she won’t.</p>
<p>Explain to her that this one exam is worth about the same as 4 years of high school grades, and therefore, is of critical importance.</p>
<p>You still have time though.</p>
<p>She has all of the summer to study for the exam.</p>
<p>And she does have her regular school work at the moment.</p>
<p>So for the time being, I would have her go to the prep course just once a week, and gradually work up to a full scale preparation in the summer.</p>
She will be taking the PSAT, so maybe the scores from that will help motivate. When she took the practice PSAT last year, she got around 165. We’re certainly not expecting her to make NMF, so I see it rather as a kick start to see what type of SAT score she might get without further preparations. </p>
<p>Right now, my goal is to get her to take the SAT for a first trial in March so she has time for additional trials if she needs them. S only took it once and he waited until June. Fortunately he only needed one shot.</p>
<p>Part of D’s problem might be that her brother did very well on his and she feels pressured from within and without to do equally well. Sometimes that can be paralyzing rather than motivating. :(</p>
<p>sylvan- seems like your daughter is reacting negatively to the pressure you are putting on her. be careful that you are not sending her the message that she is not as “worthy” as her brother if she doesn’t score as well on the SAT. A person’s worth is not measured in terms of SAT score.</p>
<p>I could not get my S to study more than a slight amount for PSAT or SAT even through I told him his competition would be studying. The realization did not sink in until I learned from the mother of one of his good friends that his friend had taken an SAT class to prepare. He then conceded and did study well for ACT and second SAT and it did pay off.</p>
<p>It sounds like it has become a power struggle between the 'rents & the kid. I would sign her up for a prep course & let the teacher there, who is not her parent, help her get ready.</p>
<p>Junior D is scheduled to take them this Saturday (in my mind as a prep for the PSAT; she was close to our state’s cutoff last year.) She really HASN’T had time to study and I’m hoping that she can do a little math review later this week as well as look at the last two years PSAT results to narrow down where she can improve. I haven’t nagged her at all; if she doesn’t like the results that will be a wake up call and she can retake. No biggie. It’s early. </p>
<p>I think you can cram for the math. I think the CR score reflects how much you’ve read since elementary school. Yes, you can learn test taking skills, but if you’re a kid who doesn’t read “for fun” it’s tough to raise that score.</p>