<p>SAT tutoring is worth the cost, but with this in mind: YOU need to put in the work. Asking this question is much like asking whether a personal trainer is worth the cost - the answer is “yes,” IF you’re willing to go to the gym and follow the trainer’s advice. If you expect to go to use a program or work with a tutor and improve simply by exposure, you won’t get good results. It’s necessary to put in the consistent, focused practice required by your program or tutor to get the results you’re looking for. My one recommendation would be to avoid SAT classroom courses like the plague. Classroom courses are one-size-fits-all, meaning that there is basically a 0% chance you’ll spend the right amount of time on the right things, or receive the attention you deserve. A self-guided program or a tutor are the best options, whereas classroom courses charge $1,000+ to read a book out loud to you. Source: I’m an SAT tutor who has a self-guided SAT program, and I’ve also worked for a large classroom prep company in the best. TL;DR - prep is worth if it you’re willing to study and take the time, but if you expect any simple “exposure” to make you better, it’s best to save your money.</p>
<p>My D is currently enrolled in a SAT Prep class now for the Nov. test. She did ok on her 1st attempt the Spring of her Junior year and it would get her into her #1 choice. She did this 1st test without any prep (you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink!) Now that she is about 150pts away from their 1st tier academic scholarship and 250pts away from the 2nd tier, we are trying the course to help her possibly reach that goal. She is not a kid who would do it on her own, so we are hoping the course will help her. Regardless of the outcome, we will know that we did all that we thought we could for her to maximize her potential.</p>
<p>Hi zebradome,</p>
<p>I like your phrase, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink!” This is exactly what’s happening to my son. He would do the practice tests only when I asked him to do so. However, ever since the school started, I could see his performance on these practice tests dropped as he focuses so much on his schoolwork and activities. Therefore, I got him an one-on-one tutor for the upcoming October test. I will let you know how that turns out a month later.</p>
<p>By the way, what was your daughter’s SAT score on her 1st attempt?</p>
<p>StevenToCollege</p>
<p>Steventocollege - my D is not like many of these amazing kids talked about on these forums. We weren’t sure she’d break 1000 (combined CR & M), she shocked us though and got a 1010. Her writing was scary, think it was like 410. She hates to read & I feel like she just thinks the college thing will come on its own.</p>
<p>Now, she is an athlete and that does help & I’m thinking she is starting to see how things all tie together. The coach of her sport at her #1 choice told her that he has no pull with admissions, so she has to be able to get in on her own. So she is realizing how important her GPA is. We are still in the waiting process to see if she will be offered anything athletically. There is a strong chance that she might be able to get a partial athletic scholarship, so now she is seeing why the SAT scores are so important because if she is responsible for half of her tuition and she can get to the SAT score that would qualify her for the academic scholarship, then she will owe even less.</p>
<p>I said to her now do you see why we are on you about your grades & studying for the SAT. She is taking the SAT course she is in now seriously because she knows how close she is. I can only hope that her hard work pays off.</p>
<p>I have some free 'net resources to help especially with the Writing section–PM me for a link since I think posting external web links in these forums is against the rules (I’m a little unclear on that but want to stay on the safe side). Anyways, I feel so bad for my students who wait until the fall to study for their SATs because, like StevenToCollege said, then they’re slammed with homework, sports, a social life, the normal rebellion tendencies that teenagers have, etc. I’m trying to get my students to start back in the summer or the entire year(s!) before, and they usually agree…but then don’t hit their weekly practice quotas. Ah well, there’s a lot to learn by trial-by-fire, too, and we “grownups” often procrastinate in other but essentially parallel ways :)</p>
<p>i think it depends on you as a student. There are people in my school that did not even study once before the sats, and still scored a 2000. Then there are others who get a 1600 even with sat prep</p>
<p>As far as I am concerned, the SAT is a hard work test that a tutor can only guide you in. SAT prep classes are a complete waste of money as the students do not receive any one to one attention. Private tutoring on the other hand could be helpful but not much. In the end, it all comes down to the hours one spends at the table shading those accursed circles.</p>
<p>I think Princeton Review Prep was really good but costs a lot</p>
<p>Do you think one can improve her SAT from 1800 to 2200?</p>
<p>^I doubt one can get that improvement using Princeton Review. The Important Threads on this forum though indicate that plenty of people have using self-study, lots of blue book tests, etc.</p>
<p>Sure you can. I worked for them for years (I don’t anymore, and I’m not connected in any way. Just my honest opinion). I’ll put in a vote for the prep classes, which tend to be more economical for people. If you have a reasonably motivated kid who is going to do the homework and not screw around in class, AND the kid takes advantage of after-class help, you can get pretty much the same benefit as 1:1 tutoring (and yes, I’ve gotten kids who were scoring in the 1800 range into the 2200 range. But again, you have to do the work. Merely being in someone’s august presence is not going to raise scores). IMO, what you’re paying for are the materials and the strategy, which are pretty good, especially for math (reading, not as much; writing is decent). I’ll disagree also with the received wisdom above: prep is going to be more effective with lower-scoring students. It’s easier to go up from a lower score than a higher score–think about regression to the mean.</p>
<p>zebradome- (replying to your first paragraph) I wouldn’t feel bad about that or anything- I had to work my butt off to get an 1860, and I feel like complete garbage when I see people talking about how they got a 19xx on their first time.</p>
<p>It really depends on the child. If they don’t have a motivation to do well, then they can only score so high, so personally, I would let the kid decide if he wants a tutor.</p>
<p>The biggest factor in a student increasing their scores is how much work they do on their own. If a student lacks motivation, a tutor can be a big help. Motivated students may not need any outside help, especially if they are starting in the higher ranges.</p>
<p>NEVER!!! SAT tuition costs are never justified, they test 10th grade math and english, almost anyone can self prepare and score good.</p>
<p>From my experience, all SAT classes do is provide discipline. </p>
<p>Is SAT Tutoring Worth the Cost? I believe sat tutoring worth the cost because it enhance student confidence in the exam hall and therefore more confident in the exam. I am currently tutoring at Tutor Pace and tutored thousand of student s who appearing for the test exam. They all have reported a higher grade after talking private tutoring classes.</p>
<p>Hi guys…this is my debut here on CC. I have been an underground tutor for a while and I jst wanna let you jnow that tutorin is extremely worth it, if you go to the right people</p>
<p>Btw how much do you think tutoring costs. I need answers peoole.</p>
<p>I will let you know if the tutoring is worth the cost or not when my son’s score comes out in 3 days.</p>