<p>As a class of 2015 HS graduate want help English to prepare for SAT. My child is a straight A student, very motivated and want a very good teacher who can guide her in English SAT practice online. If anybody can help me with this information.</p>
<p>Sign up for the SAT Question of the Day on the College Board website, and buy the “10 Real SAT’s” study guide. There are a lot of other study guides out there, too. I’ve used Kaplan and found it helpful. Good luck.</p>
<p>Focus on Math. This is the only one that could be improved. Lots of math questions on material from middle school that simply needs to be refreshed. You cannot improve Reading/English beyond getting familiar with format. Instead focus on compensating any shortcomings by improved math score. That is what my D. did (also straight A including college). She just did practice math tests (for about 1hr/day for a week before taking ACT). SAT is too much reading, not her type of test</p>
<p>Of course you can improve English, lots of people do. The single most important thing is to learn to read faster. I truly believe reading lots of novels for pleasure is the real secret. It doesn’t have to be classics, both my kids got skyhigh scores reading nothing but sci-fi and fantasy. I also think using xiggi’s method methodically to see what sort of mistakes you are making can be enormously helpful. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html</a></p>
<p>I’m an SAT tutor who works online. PM (private message) me if you’d like to talk. I’d need a lot more information about the situation to know whether I can help!</p>
<p>From personal experience: if your daughter has the basics of the English portion of the SAT down (in other words, she knows how to do the problems and isn’t struggling with answering a majority of them correctly), then you might want to think about not going to a tutor for help. They can only teach the basics, some “tricks of the trade”, and help build you up to a certain point. If you’re already at that point, then only practice (getting to know the test like the back of your hand) will do. </p>
<p>If your daughter is at the point where she’s answering questions wrong but can’t figure out why they’re incorrect, or is struggling with reading comprehension and/or grammatical intricacies (vocabulary is something that can be self-taught without tutors, IMO), then a tutor might be the best way to go. Schools often have SAT prep courses and resources for finding tutors (whether in person or online). I would have her ask her guidance counselor or the career center (if her school has one) for a list of references.</p>
<p>“I truly believe reading lots of novels for pleasure is the real secret”</p>
<p>-That will require to read at least a book every day for a week. Not everybody likes to read novels, so some people will not have pleasure reading them. How about other activities? I do not know anybody who could improve reading in one week or couple of weeks in preparation for any standardized test. My own D. could not improve it even for her MCAT, taking several months to prepare and reading suggested The Economist. She was lucky to tremendously improve other scores (in all kind of sciences).<br>
As I have mentioned, fast reading is not always the best way to read anyway and D’s slower reading has been serving her very well, except for test scores. But she was always able to compensate low Reading score with very high English/writing score (has been her highest since elementary) and high math/science. Another note, English is not the same as Reading. Many have great English and writing skills, including being strong and fast writers and still being slower Reader (my D. is an example of such person). As you can imagine, D. does not like to read novels, it is not entertaining for her, not an avid reader by any measure, but she can truly write well and very fast and it has been a blessing in every HS/college class, including those long Science Lab reports.
D. took SAT prep. class and said that it was waste of time and money. She self-prep. for ACT and did better on ACT than SAT as many do. As I said before, she prep. only Math by taking timed practice tests and going over every incorrect answer.</p>
<p>I’d never recommend reading the Economist for improving SAT scores, unless you love the subject. The point is this kid has at least six month to improve scores. If they are willing to put in four or five hours a week just reading for pleasure instead of checking facebook updates or watching they could improve their scores pretty painlessly. Many students simply don’t read fast enough to get through the problems, and they don’t read enough to have a good enough SAT vocabulary. My point is that if you have some times, you don’t have to just do practice tests, though lots and lots of students have gotten at least modest improvements doing just that. It does depend on what seems to be causing the lower than desired score. And yes, sometimes, the answer is to decide that a score is good enough and focus on what you are good at. My younger son decided not to worry about his math score, which was 100 points below his verbal score, but I am sure it did impact where he got accepted.</p>
<p>Well, it might take about 6 or so hours to improve your math considerably. That is all that took my D. - 1 hr/day for one week to the point that it was enough to compensate for low Reading score. The fact is that lots of math material is from Middle school, it just needs to be re-freshed.<br>
While some people are capable of improving Reading, others seem not to be able to do so even after taking expansive speed reading classes. If 6 months is enough, kuddos to this person. If she does not enjoy reading novels though, I feel very sorry for her as I am in the same boat myself. Best wishes either way.</p>
<p>Thanks for ur reply. I’ll check that.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the valuable suggestions. I am also checking with school counsellors. Whether ACT or SAT is also a question in my plate. I guess now most of the colleges accept both.</p>
<p>All colleges and universities in the US that require a standardized exam for admission accept both the ACT and the SAT. Your daughter should try practice exams for both of them and then take the one that she feels most comfortable with.</p>
<p>Is your daughter a native speaker of English, or did she learn the language after starting school here? Depending on the number of years she has been in the US school system, some colleges and universities may require the TOEFL or IELTS. Again, she should try practice exams for both, and then choose the one that is likely to give her the best score.</p>
<p>Reading novels is an excellent way to improve vocabulary. If your daughter doesn’t have the energy or time to read stacks of books outside her regular school reading, she might like to take a look at some of the SAT Novels by SparkNotes: [SparkNotes:</a> SAT Novels](<a href=“http://www.sparknotes.com/satfiction/]SparkNotes:”>http://www.sparknotes.com/satfiction/) These are fun ways to practice some of those SAT words.</p>
<p>Do have your daughter check out Xiggi’s method that is mentioned above. The strategies he suggests are applicable to all standardized exams.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>CR is worth taking the time to seriously improve over 6 months, and any good tutor will give similar advice to that given by mathmom. Learning to read faster and with stronger comprehension is key to doing well in college.</p>