So, before I tutor for the SAT, some thoughts...

Test Preparation
1

<p>So before I actually start tutoring for the SAT and start giving poor souls my advice, I thought I would write down my thoughts on the different SAT sections. I developed most of these ideas while self studying. I have a 2320, and two 800s on the SAT II's, along with the normal overachiever creds. If anyone has any thoughts, those would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Reading</p>

<p>My two mottos (from the standard prep books):</p>

<p>"Read all the words. Every phrase has meaning."
"Make the world your vocabulary soup ball. Analyze everything you read until the test. Go over any words/grammar you don't understand."</p>

<p>I actually read for fun (crazy, right!?!?!), so this section wasn't that bad.</p>

<p>I did two things: (1) I read tons of newspaper/magazine articles that interested me, analyzing their vocab, etc. For each I would (in my head): summarize it, extract the main idea, determine the mood/tone, etc. I would work on forecasting what the rest of an article was going to say based upon the intro paragraph. Of course, these are all things one is supposed to do when actually taking the SAT, so I figured I would do it all the time when reading my newspapers...</p>

<p>The (2) part was pretty similar to Xiggi's idea, which consisted of me going over official collegeboard CR sections (slowly, not timed), and then going over the official answers and explanations. This is where I really picked up on the patterns/tricks the collegeboard uses. Especially how there is an "almost" answer.</p>

<p>For vocab, I put the sparknotes and majortests.com vocab lists into the online flashcard website quizlet.com. I would go over the flashcards when on the phone, watching TV, etc. I also listened to the Kaplan Words to Go audiobook. As it' s fairly easy for me to do this vocab stuff, I feel it was worth it personally. After memorizing these lists, I never missed a sentence completion on any practice or real SAT (though, I didn't miss many before either).</p>

<p>What reading material would you recommend?
My choices:
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
The Economist
The Harvard Business Review
Time Magazine</p>

<p>Writing</p>

<p>Even though I am a math guy, I consider the writing section the easiest one to prep for. It's so repetitive! </p>

<p>For this, I first memorized the basic grammar rules from Barron's Writing Workbook. Then, I simply went over a bunch of collegeboard practice SATs. I think seing the patterns is really important here. For instance, almost always any answer choice with the word "being" in it is wrong. </p>

<p>For the essay, I didn't really follow any of the formulas, and just wrote a little thing with a point of view and some evidence to back it up. 9... I don't really know what to do about teaching this essay thing. None of the formulas worked for me!</p>

<p>Math</p>

<p>My one problem with the math section is that I rush through the easier problems to get to the hard ones. I never get any hard ones wrong, but I almost always miss an easy one. Hence my 750.</p>

<p>However, I am confident that I can teach the concepts that the collegeboard loves to test (those damn quadratic questions, probability, those weird factoring tricks, etc).</p>

<p>In summary, when tutoring this stuff I really think I am going to focus on how the SAT doesn't really test high school knowledge at all, and it is far more a test of very basic reasoning and thinking abilities (if even that in the case of the writing section). Patterns are essential. Understanding every type of question the collegeboard can throw at you is a must. But after understanding all this, I think one becomes very comfortable, almost relaxed, when actually taking the real SAT.</p>

<p>So, any thoughts? Am I flat out insane? That wouldn't be news, really....</p>

2

<p>Am I that insane? )-:</p>

3

<p>You’re not insane, except I think more students would rather be tutored at some program with an adult, because they’ve probably had more experience, although your scores do prove you seem to know your stuff. If you do tutor people, revise your second motto, because it’s not catchy and they won’t remember it.</p>

4

<p>Those who can’t do, teach. You obviously can. Don’t teach.</p>

<p>Haha, just kidding. But try not to emphasize vocab too much over passage reading. Passage reading is the meat of the CR sandwich. Vocab is just the mayonnaise. Maybe lettuce at most.</p>

5

<p>So, how should I go about this? Ads in shopping centers? Craigslist? Thinking of running a google ad for my zip code…haha…! Like freakchild said, im only a twurpy kid, so I’m betting $15/h is more than generous…</p>

6

<ol>
<li><p>flyers in town at hotspots: pizzeria, library etc</p></li>
<li><p>canned dice: “those who can’t do, teach. those who can’t teach, teach gym.” </p></li>
<li><p>im starting to tutor kids for sat now and get a solid 15/hour</p></li>
</ol>

7

<p>In groups? Or personal one-on-one? I am thinking groups might work if you are just going to be covering the same stuff over and over…like going over the same practice test.</p>

<p>How old are you brown14? Or I guess more importantly, how old do you look? haha…</p>

8

<p>I tutored the SAT for Kaplan for a year, and informally for longer than that. I got a 800 CR, and on the GRE I got a 790 verbal and a 6.0 in analytical writing (out of 6.0). I also edited college entrance essays. (I do not claim to be a math whiz, so I won’t say anything about the math portions. I scored above average but nothing exceptional on the SAT math.) </p>

<p>I don’t agree with the “read all the words.” I actually think it’s a much better strategy to skim the passage, looking for key words, overarching themes, and global messages. That way when you answer those “global” questions or inference questions, you aren’t bogged down with details, but when the detail questions need to be answered, you can always refer back to the passage. Critical reading is an open book test.</p>

<p>I hate flash cards and I think that they promote the wrong kind of word learning – rote memorization, instead of actual grasping the shades of meanings of vocabulary words. Ironically, I especially hate Kaplan’s flash cards, as they pick easy words that are unlikely to rase your score above around 650. If you’ve already got a high CR score, Kaplan’s flash cards are unlikely to do anything for you. I instead advocate making one’s own flash cards with words that are unfamiliar to them, if you must use flash cards. Write the word on the front and the definition on the back, along with a sentence.</p>

<p>My favorite word list is Barron’s 3500 high-frequency words. This is excellent, and all of my students (both SAT and GRE) have said that those words show up repeatedly.</p>

<p>I always told my students that reading was the key to doing well on the CR parts. Reading anything and everything that you could get your hands on, and keeping a dictionary nearby to look up the words. I always said that reading The Wall Street Journal and the Economist is great, but unnecessary. Reading high-level works that have college-level vocabulary and actually interest a student are better, because they will be focused and actually learn something. The Economist would’ve bored me to tears at age 17, and it would be obvious that I was simply combing it for vocab words and not understanding.</p>

<p>One of my students (a JROTC XO and Naval Academy hopeful) read books on military history to satisfy this recommendation. That was great.</p>

<p>As for the essay, the best thing to do is to get the rubric from the College Board website, memorize it, write several essays, and evaluate yourself against that rubric. But if all else fails, use the standard five paragraph essay. Seriously. It sounds so boring and stupid, but it works. Intro, thesis statement with three examples, expound example 1, expound example 2, expound example 3, conclusion. Example 1 should be your weakest example and example 3 should be your strongest. One can be a personal anecdote and you can make it up if you want.</p>

<p>AS for your business, I would suggest applying through Kaplan or Princeton Review to tutor. They will pay you $14-17+ an hour (depending on where you live, possibly more) and reimburse you for travel as well. They will also provide you with all of the materials you need, and you will get lots of automatic business because they will arrange all of your students and people trust the PR and Kaplan names. This is by far the easiest way to get into tutoring test prep.</p>

9

<p>I don’t know if this is helpful at all, but one thing I was taught for critical reading that helped me was that the College Board needs to have sufficient proof that one answer is correct over another, so you can always find one specific phrase that will make an answer unquestionably true. If there isn’t that phrase, there will be debate and people complaining and the College Board doesn’t want to deal with it. SO: always look for the specific phrasing that makes any answer true or false. </p>

<p>Just a little strategy you might be interested in sharing.</p>