HI All! After posting here about Ds stats and huge ballet EC commitment someone recommended some tutoring to get SAT score up. I got in touch with the school counselor to see if she had any recommendations and she gave me the information for the new Huntington Test Center in town.
For reference D got a 1310 on the PSAT in OCT wanted to increase score especially in Math.
We called set up a time to take a practice test and then a follow-up meeting to review the test and scores. There was a HUGE push to make sure me AND my husband were at the meeting and they seemed put out that I did not bring him along. D scored a 1220 and was devastated (note: Huntington does NOT use official SAT practice tests as they have devoted their own). Of course they recommended she postpone the March SAT to May and presented a 54 hour study plan with them for just under $4000. Not only was this insane but the schedule was impossible with the huge EC commitment she has and their hours of operation. But I still wanted the kiddo to be able get some one on one tutoring so we set up an alternative schedule of 2-4 hours each week on Friday afternoons- and D set an independent self study goal of 40 hours before March 10 (this was mid January). Upon enrolling Huntington issues the Peterson book for studying (which I a surprised by now after doing more research given lots of negative reviews). Enrolling in the program also comes with the promise that the tutoring is custom tailored to students and based on practice test results in areas of weaknesses.
First session: 4 Hours of Math with a young woman with a teaching degree who just returned from living in a 3rd world country who confesses to D she had not taken Calculus “since high school” and did not know what the PSAT-NMNSQT was when D mentioned it?!?! This “tutor” just worked on problems alongside the kid and missed many herself and could not explain how one problem was worked out but promised to figure it out before next time! She also spent the first hour slowly walking through the book reading to D about “how the SAT works”. D wanted to jump out a window. Before the next scheduled session I politely asked for a “SAT specific tutor” which we were promised she would get “our top SAT math tutor” in the future.
Next 3 Sessions: Tutors continue to work slowly with kid from beginning of book. After 2 session D finally tries to tell them she knows this content and asks for helps with “specific” math concepts she is having trouble with on SAT reports. She gets push back that they will “get there” and they continue to insist she move through the material one chapter at a time. Several of the tutors remark about how quickly she moves through the material and practice questions. After 8 hours of tutoring I had set up a 2nd practice test when I first scheduled her for the 6 weeks. The day before I get a call and they tell me they really don’t recommend she take a practice test until she has had 12 hours of tutoring. D insists she wants to take the test and so I back her up and she goes in to take the practice test (FYI practice test are free when you are signed up so they are not getting paid for these). D “improved 80 points!!” to a 1300. D reports these tests are way harder than SAT and is still really upset about score. She did one more session (the day she got the 2nd practice test results) and hasn’t been back- more specifically will not be back! All through this process owner and staff were very negative about Ds score and progress were and pushing more hours if she wanted to be “anywhere near competitive” for the schools she wanted to apply to. I can accept they are a money making operation but I cannot accept how hard they are on these kids’ self-esteem or how there never was a “custom SAT program based on her results” as promised (she had to start at the beginning of the book and work chapter by chapter). Anyways, we scratched Huntington and the kid kept up the independent studying and we got the Official SAT CB book for her to work on the practice test. Yesterday she took Practice Test #5 and scored 1470. Kid feels way more confident for Saturday and actually wants to keep pushing through the week now!!
I have been doing some reading and have found some reports that some of these testing centers purposely deflate student scores to push for tutoring hours. One article I read actually went so far to say these non-college board tests at testing centers can actually hurt students because some are actually very poor representations of the types of questions CB asks on the official SAT (even question types that have never even shown up on the SAT)
*I know there are lots of independently owned centers so maybe this is reflective of the local center and owner only but given the poor materials and terrible SAT support I am not so sure I would take the chance elsewhere.
*A classmate of the kid is going for a couple hours every other day or so and hates it but parents have BIG $$$ and I suspect parents were sold the “study plan” and their kid just shows up and does the minimum possible.
Apologies for the length but I just thought I would have loved to see something like this when I was first considering Huntington.