Desperate Dad trying to help son increase SAT scores!

<p>“We take much of the blame and are very sadden by the fact the we obviously have not prepared him with good fundamentals to be successful on this test. Be that as it may, we are now willing to accept our failings and offer him as much help as possible at this point. We realize that nothing can replace the years of not preparing.”</p>

<p>Hmm… Seems to me that maybe his school hasn’t been that helpful either.</p>

<p>Anyway, practice, practice, practice and don’t let anyone tell you (or him) that there is such a thing as vocabulary “run out”. He needs to live and breathe the test. Ask him to explain the reading passages as if they were his favorite novels. What happened in the passage? What did he like about it? Dislike about it?</p>

<p>Also, go through each type of math problem to understand the formulas. Make sure he knows which questions can be guessed on and which should be left blank. Make sure he knows how to eliminate answers that can’t possibly be right.</p>

<p>Don’t let him give up on himself and don’t let anyone tell him that he can’t do it. A lot of his success at this point will be dependent upon his confidence in his own ability to make it.</p>

<p>“to assist with baseball scholarship money, or even acceptance into a good school.”</p>

<p>I know you didn’t ask, but you might also consider broadening your view of “good schools” to include those like CTCL schools, where I understand a GPA outweighs an SAT. I don’t know if any offer baseball scholarships.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/[/url]”>http://www.ctcl.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Don’t worry. Your son is lucky in the fact that a 400 to 550 score jump is easier to achieve than a 650 to 700. I don’t see why it can’t be higher.</p>

<p>The professor dude is wrong when it comes to vocab. Your son NEEDS to do both volumes of Direct Hits Vocab- this itself will help a lot. Your son needs to start reading more- while reading he needs to ask himself- what is the main point,what is the author’s purpose, what is the author’s tone, why did the author write that, how are the characters feeling? That’s critical reading. First just read to get used to critical reading then try getting faster and faster.</p>

<p>For math, practice, practice, practice. Your son’s GPA is a clear indicator that he is a good math student. The SAT is a reasoning test- he needs to APPLY his knowledge to correctly answer questions. I know it’s easier said than done- which is why I review previous math concepts and then do math sections. Then I carefully analyze why I got the question wrong. After each section I list the lessons I have learned and what to do and what not to do in the next section- learn from mistakes. </p>

<p>I’m no perfect or near scorer, but I find that this has helped me so far.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>