What a better use of the money? Thanks.
In our experience it was the individual tutoring.
I think tutoring is helpful if you just need help in one or two subjects. If you need help on everything, a general course might be better.
I think it depends on the tutor and the student. Does the student work well with individual tutor or in a class? and whether the tutor can identify the weakness of the student or teach specific strategy ? etc… etc. I had observed one tutor who just gave a kid the practice test, then asked the kid to re-do the wrong problem…
For one daughter we first used an inexpensive SAT class at a community center in our town. Then she had a few individual tutoring sessions. Total cost was way under $900. This worked out very well and the tutoring sessions were very helpful and well worth the cost.
The tutor should either give you a practice test or make use of the detailed results of a SAT that you already took, then immediately zero in on the areas where you need help.
We used a very small local outfit which is very good – I think that the entire company consists of two tutors plus a receptionist. There should be similarly small companies where ever you are. We found the one we used via recommendations from other parents.
@DadTwoGirls Thanks! I’m thinking a smallish, boutique type place may be better than a big operation like Princeton Review. I’m having a hard time finding recs. Everyone we know uses private tutors or self studies.
We’ve done both!
Private was infinitely better.
Save your money and use Khan Academy. Take a couple of practice tests in simulated testing conditions and see what areas you need to work on, Get individualized help if necessary, but take advantage of the free resources you have at your disposal.
My DD and I agree with @LoveTheBard. She used Khan academy and her score went up about 250 points. Now, she’s super self-motivated and followed their proposed calendar with practice days, took probably 5 practice tests, did extra review. But hey, it was free, and in the end her math score went from about 570 to 770. I think it works great if a kid is motivated enough to independently do the review through Khan, but if they need more guidance or a class to encourage practice, then Khan might not work well.
@LoveTheBard and @lifegarding Thank you. We ended up finding a math tutor at a reasonable price, and my husband is helping my D study for the Eng section of the SAT using workbooks. I wish she would use Kahn Academy as I hear great things about it, but D has used them in the past for math practice and claims she doesn’t like it. Maybe I can convince to check it out again. Sounds like your kids had great success with it.
The more individualized, the better!
Make you that you are very clear with what you want an individual tutor to work on. My D had one session with an ACT tutor that a friend recommended. We specifically wanted him to review essay strategies (she brought in the practice essay she had done with the revised ACT prompt (they changed the format a couple of years ago). The tutor proceeded to waste an hour going through rules of grammar that D knew like the back of her hand. I was not amused.