<p>^ Your thoughts on this? :)</p>
<p>I'm thinking no, I can manage it on my own like I have been, but does it help or just weigh you down?</p>
<p>My advice as a parent: I would buy one of the Princeton Review-type books with sample tests…and take one as a diagnostic first. Then make your judgement based on what your score is vs. where you want to be. That’s $20 vs. $90/hour for for however many hours “they” say you “need”…</p>
<p>i would say to use books as sevendad said. if you think that you need a tutor though, then get one, but if you are doing fine practicing on your own-there’s no need. it depends though on what you think</p>
<p>It depends. I’m not going to get a tutor because I don’t need one. I’d just get the Princeton Review book and order the prep book from the official SSAT people. The practice tests in the Princeton Review book are ridiculously hard. But if you think that you would score low even after studying with the Princeton Review book, then I guess it makes sense to hire a tutor.</p>
<p>It depends on what kind of test-taker you are.</p>
<p>Are you someone who…</p>
<p>Likes games and puzzles such as Sudoku, Crossword puzzles or grid puzzles? and/or</p>
<p>You miss questions on practice tests because you don’t know the math involved or you don’t know what words mean, and/or</p>
<p>You’re hoping to raise an 88% to a 94%, and/or</p>
<p>Your test scores match pretty well with your grades.</p>
<p>If so, you’d probably do well studying on your own with a good prep book.</p>
<p>If, on the other hand…</p>
<p>You find logic puzzles difficult, confusing or annoying, and/or</p>
<p>Your test scores and grades are wildly mismatched (an A student with 50% test scores), and/or</p>
<p>You miss questions on material you’ve covered and mastered in school, or you can’t figure out why you chose the wrong answer out of the options, and/or</p>
<p>You run out of time with a lot of questions left, you panic on tests, or you have a LD, and/or</p>
<p>You’re just too d***ed lazy to study without someone pushing you,</p>
<p>You could benefit from a tutor. The primary benefit of a test prep tutor is in helping you crack the code. He or she can show you how to manage your time, figure out the subtext of questions (what are they really trying to get at?), and overcome any anxiety you may be feeling about testing. </p>
<p>Some people are naturally good at taking these types of tests. They tend to be the people who find logic puzzles fun and are good at figuring out what answers teachers are looking for on tests. These are often the people who say they didn’t study at all and still did fine on the SSAT. When they miss questions it’s usually because they did not know the content being tested.</p>
<p>Other people are thrown by tests like the SSAT. Deconstructing the questions isn’t natural for them and they can find testing trying. If you’re this second type I’d recommend finding an experienced SSAT tutor.</p>
<p>Take a practice test in a practice book first, and see what your percentile is. Then go from there based on what your score is. If it’s 50 or below I would go for the tutor. It really depends on you like Sue22 said. For example, I had a friend tutored every week for an hour and got in the 65 percentile, but got into St. Georges. Another didn’t do anything but got a 99 percentile (she’s crazy smart, so just study anyways).</p>
<p>Haha thanks for the advice everyone.</p>
<p>I think I’ll keep on studying for the rest of the summer, it seems to be going okay…Anyway I still have a while until November. ^^</p>