My son is a sophomore in high school and I’m looking into different options for SAT prep. I just went for a consultation at
C2 SAT prep and the reviews here were horrible. I am so glad I didn’t commit to 11k for their cheapest program. I have heard very good personal stories about Focused Coaching, they are located in Morganville, New Jersey. Does anyone have any information on Focused Coaching?? I would love to hear more about them good or bad. Thanks
Can’t comment on that company, just thought it was funny that someone with a screen name of stopthemadness is contemplating shelling out $11,000 for someone to teach their kid how to answer SAT questions. That’s madness in my book.
Exactly
Start with free https://www.khanacademy.org/sat then either some books or a local prep class. Then look into private tutor if needed. $11K is crazy!
Indeed.
First kid used Barrons. Now that they’ve changed the test, I’ll have to spend another $25 on test prep.
princeton review is like 2000
How do you even know he needs prep? Let him take a timed practice test before you spend a nickel. Even old tests, old format will be fine. If he’s already scoring in the high 600’s/low 700’s and is only a sophomore, save your money for tuition.
The College Board’s study guide - known as the “Blue Book,” until they changed the SAT and changed the guide’s look - costs $14.68 plus shipping & handling. For 0.1% of an $11,000 program’s cost, it provides all the prep most students need. You can buy it here:
If you go the tutoring route, the Blue Book is still invaluable, because even students familiar with test-taking strategies and comfortable with the material will want all the practice tests they can find. The best way to get accustomed to the format and timing is to take practice tests with the same format and timing.
In my view, an $11,000 course is worthwhile only if your son is scoring closer to 400 than 1600, the tutors offer some sort of “400-point increase or your money back” guarantee, or you’re one of the 0.01% and consider $11,000 pocket change.
Go to the SAT Prep subforum and look for the Xiggi Method and SilverTurtle’s method (pinned threads).
Our school offers a SAT prep course in junior year it’s about $50. We also bought the blue book for about $10.
My D did practice tests in it.
My S is a sophomore. We will probably use some of the free test prep materials from CB for him.
My sophomore will use a book or two and maybe what’s available on Khan, though neither of us were very impressed with the Khan PSAT materials.
I think it’s a myth that you need to spend thousands on private tutors to score high. True, many kids who had private tutors score high. I’m sure that outstanding students are over-represented in the population whose parents are hiring tutors.
But you do need a little more self-motivation to prep without a class or tutor.
I wouldn’t have put my kid in a test prep class even if it were free. Unless you are in the score range they are teaching to, it’s not likely to be a good use of time.
My advice would be to first see how far the student gets with books and free materials. Then, if necessary, a tutor could work with what’s actually hard for the student to master.