A lot of students have expressed frustration with Khan Academy. I think that it depends upon the individual’s learning style. Plus it is too easy to get off schedule since there is no formal time scheduled.
Most importantly, however, is that a tutor can adjust to the particular student’s needs & learning style.
My two oldest went to a prep class, and their scores didn’t increase, got private tutors and they did. My current senior’s tutor was only $60 an hour, used him one or twice a week for about three months, she got her score up to a 34 (but only 1470 on the SAT). Well worth the money, she got the top scholarships at almost all schools she applied to (which was the plan). My twins will be junior next year and will start in August (1190/1360 on PSAT’s). We don’t qualify for FA, so scholarships are necessary.
Our park district offers prep classes for <$100. DD’s high school offers SAT prep for $75 for eight 4-hour sessions, which includes a couple of practice tests. There are separate classes for math and English, so $150 in all. Princeton Review is the “Cadillac” service in this area at $1,500.00 (that comes with a retake-the-class-free guarantee if you don’t improve to a certain point). The Porsche option would be private tutoring, which would range from $65-$100 an hour. $5,000 would probably be the Lamborghini.
There are plenty of excellent and free self-prep resources out there, but DD needs the structure built into her calendar.
@Mwfan1921 if you read my post I did not say to not use a tutor. I said it was unnecessary for just about anyone to spend 80 hours and 5 grand prepping. My son used a tutor. He certainly didn’t spend 80 hours with them.
Why the ACT? Why not SAT?
Why not Khan Academy?
I tutored my own kids. Cost of the books plus time. We probably spent ~50 hours or less. Every Sunday afternoon for 2-3 hours for several months, but we skipped done for vacations, holidays, etc.
Yikes- that is exorbitant. That much time and money for just a test? Even if it helps improve scores how do you think she would do in schools she needs the score boost to get into? What will she do with no extreme boosting? Better off going where her study habits, knowledge base and ability let her in. That is wasting a ton of money better used to pay college costs. Please, please do not try to game the system with ridiculous test prep like this.
Test prep is not gaming the system; it is learning the material. And it can make the difference between acceptance & rejection as well as in scholarship or full pay status.
But this kid has looked at test optional schools…and can look at more of those.
None of the NMSF’s in my kid’s school had a private SAT tutor, or even spent much time taking SAT prep courses. All were excellent students, though, and were getting As and Bs on Honors Math, Science, and English classes. They also all had done the PSAT 10 at least twice before they took the PSAT/NMSQT.
An important issue to remember is that no SAT tutor or class can teach a student the material that they need to know for the SAT. Unless a kid has taken pre-calc, as well as two years of English and science, SAT prep will not help them get a high score. Much of the improvement in PSAT and SAT scores is due to increased mastery of the subject which can only be provided in the classroom. The benefits of practice tests also cannot be underestimated. The increases in test scores that result from additional practice tests are far larger than almost any factor except the number of official tests. On average, tutors and classes increase the SAT scores by about 20 or 30 points. On average, students score increase by 60 between official tests, without any additional tutoring or studying.
@Mjkacmom A. What was your Senior’s PSAT? B. A PSAT 10 of 1360 is in the 98th percentile, and 1190 is in the 91st percentile. As I wrote (and I have personally seen), a 60+ increase between official tests is not uncommon, so for the PSAT/NMSQT they could easily score close to 1300 and in the 1400s, and have even higher scores on their SATs. The summer is long, and practice SAT and ACT tests are available in multiple online locations. I already mentioned that my kid’s scores increased 150 points between the second PSAT 10 in her sophomore year and the SAT, almost entirely due to increased familiarity with the test, and the material she learned in class between February and the following March.
For our kids, one refused to take ANY test prep, as he felt his errors on the exam were careless and no amount of training would help with that. With our other child, we had her take the test prep course over the summer with other kids from her HS. It helped her learn the math that was new to her, so it did boost her math score. Both our kids had excellent vocabulary so didn’t need any assistance with the verbal sections of the exam.
The Us our kids were applying to were mostly interested in SAT exam scores, but our S did similarly on both SAT & ACT.
I’d be very sure the particular student WANTS the proposed test prep–mode of prep, person providing the prep, materials, etc before I would even consider paying $5000 for this.
As mentioned earlier today in this thread:
Thank you all, great feedback and advice. We will skip the 5K in test prep and use a hybrid approach of many of your suggestions. Again, greatly appreciate the experiences everyone shared.
Would love some additional feedback on the “Test Optional” process. Does it put a kid at a disadvantage to those with good test scores?
Hi! I wanted to add one other suggestion that you may or may not have received (didn’t get to read all replies). Go back to the PSAT and look at each question that was wrong and then figure out why it was wrong, get to the root cause, and then work on that. Run out of time? learn time mgmt test taking strategies Mistakes in computation? Learn a process that helps you self-check…etc. etc. I do wish you lots of luck and I think you are smart to skip the $5000 and tailor your approach to your student.
My son did about 20 weeks of prep…but some weeks were skipped based on workload and ECs. His routine was 90 minute tutor sessions on a Saturday with one hour of homework to be completed during the week. He had a total of three mock tests (one of the before starting prep). He brought his ACT from a 33 on first mock test to a 36 on the actual test – one and done.
Four hours a week seems like an awful lot. I would scale it back to 2 hours a week. The 20 weeks does not seem unreasonable. I agree with others that the hourly rate is good, provided the tutor is well qualified. If that means the price goes to about $2,500, that is a bargain.
https://fairtest.org/university/optional
Go to Fairtest.org and read about the colleges that are test optional. Both Fairfield and Marist are test optional…and you have seen these already.
Some schools do require either the standardized test scores or something else if a student is applying for merit aid. But many don’t have that requirement either. There are excellent colleges on that list…well worth a look see.
Pretty much all the test-optional schools are privates. Some people may not care but
Still, a bunch of practice test books may work just as well or better.
@PurpleTitan there are 1000 schools on the test optional list now. And that includes some public universities.
If the family has financial need, there are also a bunch of colleges that meet full need on that list now.
in my opinion, I think there are plenty of valuable resources online that she can utilize including the ACT practice tests and Khan Academy. Although they don’t have ACT catered lessons, using the SAT lessons are still beneficial.
From friends, I’ve heard that their prep class didn’t provide personalized instruction so they didn’t get much out of it which is something to consider.
Maybe consider what your daughter will best be suited towards. Maybe try self-studying first, take a practice test and see where she is. Then if absolutely necessary, try out the prep course?