And apologies if that sounds snobby - it’s not meant to be AT ALL. We had the luxury of affording test prep, and while partially for merit money (important when you fall between having too much income to get financial aid, but not enough to pay full price) but also partially for her own reach schools. I’m also new to the CC community so don’t want to offend. 
@planner03 If you would’ve read the entire thread before making a comment, you would’ve seen that I have quite a few posts on this thread. You would’ve seen the posts where I said that what’s right for one family is what’s not right for every family and that each one should do what’s right for them. The judgement that I am referring to is your judgement that people who take a class lack drive and need handholding. That was what I took offense to, not that someone has a different opinion than me regarding taking a test prep class.
@Finalthree The test taking strategies were what my son found most helpful as well.
IMO, that is really quite absurd. I did no prep at all and my SAT score was fantastic. My girlfriend at the time was first in our class and was light years ahead of me in terms of GPA, and scored well but definitely lower on the test. Beats me why, but those kinds of tests have always come very naturally to me. Others not so much, so they can benefit from more direct test prep than a book might be able to provide. Others do great with just a book. So having options is fantastic and it is unfortunate that the number of options is stratified by wealth in most cases. But to make such a statement as the above is simply wrong, and it is potentially insulting to all who decided on prep courses for their kids. Besides, that same kid you are talking about that might be struggling in college with a course might indeed need a tutor, or need to spend a lot more time with the prof and TAs outside of the classroom. What’s the difference? Are you saying they are somehow weak or defective and should just suck it up and only use books, despite the fact that other help is available, cost or no cost?
And yes, this is my first post to this thread. So what? Oh, and I suppose I should add that neither of my kids did the prep course route, doing nothing more than working the “problem of the day” email the web site offers on a more (in my D’s case) or less (in my S’s case) regular basis. They both took the SAT only once, the former scoring 2340 and the latter 2180, which “got them into” all the schools they were aiming for. But if I had seen either struggling with that kind of test, especially my S, I would have had no hesitation in using a prep course to help. I don’t think he would have been crippled in college or in life had we done so.
RE: “farms kids for NMF”–not my phrase but I think it means that the school “invites” those with high sophomore scores and kids in the gifted program-- to “free” (paid by school) test prep courses–for the purpose of getting bragging rights that the school produced a high number of NMFs. The school itself is “grooming” or “raising” those NMFs for its own glory.
(Our HS does this, and I wonder if it is the same school/district?)
The low income kid needs to look at both types of aid. My kid was a 0 EFC who couldn’t afford test prep. She self studied. Our strategy was to apply to only full ride merit or meets need schools. Nothing in between. She ended up not choosing the one need school and took one of the 4 full rides.
But the Science Reasoning section doesn’t test your knowledge of basic science. It tests whether you can read a chart, and for some reason it was always harder for me than every other section. 
@MurphyBrown Loved the analogy with boots! And your honesty about kids never cracking the books. I have a crisp study guide for the old SAT if anyone is interested.
Again getting back to the original question of thread, I’d say the most common reason parents don’t pay for test prep is that they don’t believe it’s necessary. Their kid is going to score a 1000 SAT anyway and get in somewhere, anywhere, one of the directionals, college is college, doesn’t matter where you go, we parents did okay with degree from Nowhere State, etc. A shrug of the shoulders and attitude, well, my kid ain’t going to Harvard or Duke or Chapel Hill anyhow.
Yes, some might send their kids to prep classes if it were free, but pay a thousand dollars? No way. Just like, why pay to send to your kids to private college when any of the publics are the same thing? Why be a sap and pay that high tuition? Hey, the state governments make up all that tuition difference through generous funding!
MurphyBrown may be right about what the “fancy prep schools” do in terms of standardized test preparation.
However, plenty of students from the middle of nowhere score fine on the tests without prep in school and without outside tutors. So the statement that parents don’t pay for test prep because they don’t believe that it is necessary applies near the top end of the score range as well as in the middling ranges.
As mentioned earlier , I grew up in a factory town. We did not have any actual standardized test prep. We did have “vocabulary words” in English classes (with questions of the “use these words in a sentence you construct” variety), but I think that is pretty much a staple of English classes. Also, we did have standardized tests in 3rd, 6th, and 8th grades, then a state test in 9th grade, and then the National Merit Exam (olden days). I don’t know of districts that give no standardized tests along the way, but perhaps there are some.
Families with little experience with the SAT (not on CC) may buy into the idea that one needs test prep in order to score well, or one needs to go to a “fancy” school. This view turns up in newspaper stories from time to time. This is problematic in my opinion for two reasons: 1) It may discourage the student from looking through a $20 book, which can usually be obtained from the library, and 2) It fuels class divisions, because there are some families that truly cannot afford $1000 for a company’s prep course, and if they think that is the only route to a high score, of course they would be resentful.
I think it’s a combination of several things in our area:
High school counselors don’t want to recommend prep that costs money for equity reasons in our school with 40% free and reduced lunch. At our HS, they suggest only free prep resources, such as Shmoop, Khan Academy, and CaliforniaColleges.edu.
High school students who are truly middle income and not the kids taking all APs may not be thinking about college until late in junior year or early in senior year.
“Again getting back to the original question of thread, I’d say the most common reason parents don’t pay for test prep is that they don’t believe it’s necessary. Their kid is going to score a 1000 SAT anyway and get in somewhere, anywhere, one of the directionals, college is college, doesn’t matter where you go, we parents did okay with degree from Nowhere State, etc. A shrug of the shoulders and attitude, well, my kid ain’t going to Harvard or Duke or Chapel Hill anyhow.”
This is exactly right, IMO. They’re not INTERESTED in finding the scholarship to send the kid halfway across the country for college because why on earth would you want your kid to go so far away from home when East Directional State is an hour away and it’s plenty good enough for any purposes they can think of?
They look at those of us who sent our kids away and they kind of secretly scratch their heads and wonder why. It isn’t their goal or their ambition to “live like us” or to give their kids the kinds of college experiences most of us on this board value. So it stands to reason they aren’t going to invest in extra efforts to bring that about.
It’s kind of like asking “why don’t more Americans get passports.” Well, they’re not interested in traveling abroad. So why bother putting in the effort?
“Many middle class folks are penny wise pound foolish. Kids have the newest iPhone, data plan, play travel sports when the kid isn’t even talented or in the least bit appreciative, $200 cleats, eat fast food after school, et cetera et cetera. The garage has a boat in it, mom drives a new leased SUV, $200 cable bill.”
I think you’re confusing “CC middle class” (which is really upper middle class) with TRUE middle class, which seriously cannot afford the latest iPhone, $200 cleats, a boat, new leased SUV.
What else is there to say on this thread? (Oops, just bumped it).
The parents who need it are not here. But it serves as a brag thread, with 2 camps:
- My kid (or me) got a 34 or 1520 without a lick of prep. Sorry your kid 's a bit dull.
- We paid $1000, maybe $2000 for a tutor----and never missed the money!
No, the parents who are not here need to hear camp 3: My kid used an inexpensive or free book and scored very well. Don’t believe the hype of people with an agenda that only rich kids can buy the prep necessary to do well.
Touché!
I worked with my daughter directly a bit, on strategies (I gathered them online fro ma few different sources and printed them for her and we went over them) and a couple of practice books from the library. Maybe 4-5 hours total including her taking a few practice sections on her own. She’s an excellent test-taker just normally but I think the bit of work she put in with me helped her, she had a near-perfect score.
"the parents who are not here need to hear camp 3: My kid used an inexpensive or free book and scored very well. Don’t believe the hype of people with an agenda that only rich kids can buy the prep necessary to do well. " - Exactly! It is even applicable to MCAT. My D. who took an MCAT prep. class, passed all of her MCAT prep. material to her friend, who did just fine and is an MD now. He mentioned, that he passed her books to the next person who also did just fine.
Going back to ACT, the 5 hours customized preparation plan at home, did all the trick in our case also. No perfect score though, just enough to be where the kid wanted to be. She never could rely on her test taking ability, had to work hard to prepare for them all!
- My kid was motivated enough to self-study with the $20.00 book and did as well as the kids of who paid thousands for tutoring!
Add me to camp 3.
20 bucks for an inexpensive studyguide book meant enough leftover change to go on a family vacation the next summer.
This thread has taken on a patronizing, condescending, and disturbing tone. (Well, actually it’s been that way from the start.) And nine pages?? This is the sort of thread that critics of CC will love to quote.
Yeah, what’s wrong with all those rubes out there listening to incompetent guidance counselors and not willing to fork over major bucks so their kid doesn’t end up at - God forbid - some state directional. Clearly these folks wouldn’t know enough to get their kids some money either. Better to hand over your money to someone pushing a test prep! Yeesh.