<p>I think self studying is more effective than tutoring because, after all, you are the one who best knows what your strong/weak suits are.</p>
<p>It all depends on if the student has desire to study extra. If they are the dedicated workaholic type I never was, they will learn all they need from an SAT book or two (they are exhaustive). The classes are there to essentially force students to learn just as school does (Put that phone away! Answer my question! Do this worksheet!) for those who do not want to study on their own. The counter-push from lazy students is to do exactly when they do in school, doze out staring at a wall for a few hours. If your student is of the first type, they can learn on their own and the classes are a waste, if they are the latter it is useless as well for they cannot be “forced” to learn since there is no repercussions as there are for bad report card grades which barely gets them by in schools.</p>
<p>Pointless either way.</p>
<p>My sister took tutoring class for SAT and she did okay. I actually did better than her and i never did any tutoring for the SAT. it is better to study on your own than waste money.</p>
<p>Absolutely not. The SAT itself was made as a business. Collegeboard is a company and all they want is money, and the education industry is so lazy that when Collegeboard first introduced a single test used to evaluate a student’s performance, they jumped at it. SAT tutoring is also just people exploiting a business opportunity; the people offering tutoring services just want money. Seriously, costs can be around $200/hr.</p>
<p>But if you want a more in-depth answer, tutoring is hardly even possible it because the SAT is a test of skills and not knowledge. This is also why it’s not worth it, because it’s almost futile. Skills are something that have to be developed over long term, whereas tutoring programs go maybe a month or few months tops. How much do you think you could possibly improve in that time? If you want to hire a tutor to teach you math, chemistry, economics, etc. to prepare you for the next test, that’s doable. But hiring to a tutor to teach you what you need to ace a test that’s supposed to assess the skills you’ve accumulated throughout your life is NOT doable.</p>
<p>Depends, in part, on how self-motivated the kids is</p>
<p>It’s amazing how wrong people who don’t know much about the SAT can be about the test. </p>
<p>Neither the SAT nor the ACT is anything like a true curriculum-based test. The SAT subject tests and AP tests ARE true curriculum-based tests, but anyone who asserts that the SAT or the ACT are good tests of “core abilities” or “academic skills” or “accumulated knowledge” simply doesn’t know what he or she is talking about (the ACT tries, but fails, to be such a test; the SAT doesn’t even try).</p>
<p>I’ve been working as a test prep coach for 35 years, and it’s a fact that the SAT is HIGHLY coachable (i.e. tricks and specific test taking skills that dramatically improve scores exist and are easy to teach). Evidence? The multi-billion dollar (and growing) test prep industry (companies, publications, tutors, etc.), which wouldn’t exist at all if it didn’t provide a product with at least some redeeming value.</p>
<p>Score improvements with good private tutoring in the range of 50% of points remaining to a perfect score (e.g. 1800 to 2100) are not unusual, while 33% is common (e.g. 1500 to 1800) – IF – the student involved <em>actually does</em> the considerable amount of practice testing, careful critiquing, and diligent review that’s almost always necessary to achieve good results.</p>
<p>The SAT, especially, can be “gamed” to a large extent utilizing test-specific tricks and techniques … but again, for this to work, a LOT of test-taking practice followed by careful post-test analysis and focused review is required. It’s in the analysis and review of practice work that an expert test prep coach can be especially useful.</p>
<p>Can students achieve the same gains without an expert (i.e. expensive) private tutor?</p>
<p>Yes! Yes! Yes! As has been mentioned earlier, good SAT prep guides exist in book form (and in the test prep section of College Confidential – FREE!!) that teach essentially all that’s required to “game” the system to the nearly the maximize extent possible. After that, it’s mostly about doing tons of high-quality practice, critique, and review.</p>
<p>Gaining more than 50% of remaining points is very hard without also doing time-consuming content work. But content work (improving base reading/grammar/math skills) normally requires a lot more time per point gained than does time spent learning and integrating test taking techniques and strategies. Hence, in my private work with SAT students, I rarely focus much on subject content. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, most students, with or without skilled private coaching, don’t achieve 33-50 prp (percent of remaining points), typically because they lack the motivation to do the work required: 10-20 carefully critiqued practice tests plus diligent review and disciplined reworking of tough questions encountered. Each practice test takes 4 hours to complete and correct, 2 hours to critique and analyze, and 2 additional hours to properly review over subsequent months (approximate numbers). </p>
<p>So yeah, getting the big score gains takes a HUGE investment of time and energy. In general, in this culture at this time, unmotivated students are screwed, whatever they do or don’t do (that’s the trouble with being an unmotivated student today, when good blue-collar jobs no longer exist). Having a coach helps; but it’s mostly doing the grunt work that really matters.</p>
<p>And almost without exception, an expert private tutor will be of MUCH greater help (at generally much greater cost, unfortunately) than an ordinary SAT prep class. Almost anything is better than nothing, though, given the stakes.</p>
<p>Really, there’s nothing on the SAT that you can’t solve just by walking in and taking it. For me, my main issue was just making careless mistakes, which could happen with a lot of studying anyways. That said, I didn’t study and scored quite well.</p>
<p>My two kids took the SAT and ACT untutored spring of junior HS year. Figured out they were both better on the ACT than the SAT. Paid several hundred bucks to have each of my kids tutored on the ACT over the summer. </p>
<p>The kids took 5-6 practice tests over the course of the summer, then met with the tutors who coached them on their weak sections. Each boosted their scores substantially in the fall of senior year, which resulted in each getting a merit scholarship at their private college worth more than $20k per year. </p>
<p>So the $1500 I spent on tutoring turned into $160k in merit scholarship money. Your mileage may vary, but I usually don’t get a 100X ROI on anything else I invest in.</p>
<p>I was personally amazed at how coach-able these tests actually are. Like most everything else, practice makes perfect.</p>
<p>every single person in my town gets tutored and so many of them get in to better schools than the should based on their gpa</p>
<p>It depends on the student. My sister went to Elite and she got a 300-point increase, but it was quite expensive. I think I’ll stick to the blue book, but it really requires more self-discipline.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Elite Prep. I suppose they technically are a “big corporation” kind of prep company. Just out of curiosity, is there a difference between Elite and other money-seeking companies like PR/Kaplan? I know that Elite designs its own practice tests which can be a good thing and a bad thing(only good if they based their tests off the Blue Book).</p>
<p>To address the question though, I don’t believe prep classes are in anyway necessities. I believe it’s similar to the logic behind hiring tutors-only necessary if the student is focusing on targeted areas of improvement and requires extra motivation from the instructors. However, most people have succeeded without tutors and similarly many have gotten a high score on the SAT without prep classes. The Fox Business people are morons for generalizing paying thousands to SAT prep classes as a “obligation” for parents.</p>
<p>A high ACT/SAT will not guarantee anyone a great life.That comes from within.</p>
<p>I took classes for sat. Were they worth it for me? NO. What about you? I don’t know. I think that it depends on your score and what you want.</p>
<p>Icarus77 a high ACT/SAT may not give anyone a great life but it sure gives your kid more college options in terms of where they get in and merit aid.</p>
<p>I’m currently meeting with an ACT tutor. I took mine for the first time after self studying and got a 27, now I am meeting with him hoping he can help me get a 29. In my opinion it feels worth it, he’s very knowledgable and can really pinpoint exactly where my weak spots are (Ex. English and Geometry). I really have trouble with math and geometry is just something that I can’t teach myself. So it’s obviously on a case by case basis, but I think people in my position would find it really helpful!</p>
<p>shacherry ,you are correct that it may help in admissions however getting in and succeeding are two different matters.This thread emphasizes a single measure and places too much pressure on the student.</p>
<p>Icarus – in my kid’s case, the time/money for the tutoring were hugely worth it. The bump in the test scores opened up a lot of possible school choices to them. </p>
<p>Adding 4-6 points onto your ACT composite score (which is what my kids did) turned some reach schools into match schools. Both in terms of admissibilitiy and also financial affordability.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know if I buy the argument that raising your scores will then get you admitted into a school you can’t handle. I just don’t think it works that way:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many of these schools are harder to get into than they are to survive. The schools turn away lots of kids who would have been fine. Raising your score just gives you a better chance at being among those who don’t get turned away.</p></li>
<li><p>There’s an asymmetry here: low scores will keep you out but higher scores alone don’t get you in. They just keep you in the pack so that your GPA, extra-curriculars and recommendations can then work their magic…</p></li>
<li><p>Whether you self-study (which totally works for those who are motivated and do it right) or work with a tutor or program, raising your score takes commitment and disciplined effort. As long as those traits don’t mysteriously disappear, you will be fine at the school that they led you to.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Is SAT tutoring a waste of time and money? It all depends on what kind of student you are. If you are productive and determined, preparing for the exam by yourself will be sufficient enough for you to achieve a decent score on the exam. But, if you much prefer a cooperative-learning environment and lack the willpower to set aside some time for studying, then, by all means, get tutoring. Also, tutors can help you strengthen your writing ability needed for the SAT writing prompt. For me it was a combination of both tutoring and self-studying that helped me do well on my exam. I studied all the subjects by myself except for the SAT writing prompt. It was through feedbacks from my tutor that I was able to improve my writing score from 6 to 10.</p>
<p>It is NOT worth the cost. If you think that money must be spent in order to make a phenomenal score on the SAT, you are dead wrong. If anything, it’s just emotional comfort - you think you’ve done everything necessary for the SAT simply because you’ve spent a considerable amount of money, and you feel secure about your child’s ability to then score high.</p>
<p>The truth is, with the right way of studying, anyone has the ability to make a 2400 in the SAT. Prep classes and tutors don’t offer any magic formulas that cannot be found in regular prep books (or the internet) that cost 10x less. The only thing tutors and prep classes offer is external motivation. They force students to study even when they normally would be too lazy to do the work. </p>
<p>Think about it this way, you are paying $2000+ (instead of like $50 for books only) for external motivation. Although, some students may need it. Or they can simply start learning how to motivate themselves.</p>