Xiggi's SAT prep advice

Parents Forum
121

<p>i didnt really study for my sat but my dad signed me up for one of those classes. i went to one and then told him to get his money back because they are a waste of time. there is nothing you cant learn by going to the bookstore and reading their books that the tutors will teach you.</p>

<p>for the verbal learn vocab words and practice old tests for the reading comprehension.</p>

<p>for the math you either know it or you dont. trying to use these BS tricks they teach you in those classes s a waste of time , if you dont know trigonometry then you just dont know it, you cant learn a trick to get aroundthe problems. if you know math then you just do it on the test, thats it, pretty straight forward</p>

<p>you should also practice test taking and how to decide when u should guess or not.</p>

<p>good luck</p>

122

<p>Your reply is unconvincing. </p>

<p>The student who has the diligence to work his own study plan, and the smarts to absorb from books is still likely being INEFFICIENT by not having a guide for the times where a book leaves you with unanswered questions.</p>

<p>I agree that the SAT is not Kabbalistic magic. I can learn plumbing from lots of manuals too, but my time is important, and my sureness of DOING IT RIGHT is paramount. For both reasons, I'm calling a professional. SAT success is even more important than plumbing success, and that's why for most students who want to maximixize their scores, a professional SAT coach is time AND money wisely spent. </p>

<p>I advise parents and aspiring teens to get a WELL-RECOMMENDED tutor, and advise her or him on your aspirations and needs. My company's tutors do as many or as few hours as needed, so you need not buy into a "package".</p>

<p>If your father "just signed you up for a class" without your and his mutually game-planning, it's no wonder you didn't get much out of it. And I emphatically disagree with bubblekid that "trigonometry can't be taught". For the four trig questions on the ACT, our tutors can and do teach the skills to trig tyros for getting at least three of them right in 2 - 3 hours. </p>

<p>Yes, I'm biased (I run an SAT prep organization), but I'm open to what works. Please be more open-minded. When money is an immediate issue, targeted tutoring may not be cost-beneficial. But where $1500 can BUY YOU A BETTER SCORE, (and likely $5000+ YEARLY in college scholarship awards) it's misleading to families to dismiss the use of a good tutor or a good class.</p>

123

<p>if you feel my reply is unconvincing then you need not follow it, it's that simple. i dont post on these boards with a mission to change the face of the world, i simply offer what i know and have learned from my previous experiences, it is up to the other members to decide how to take it.</p>

<p>although, you have honestly misconceived the information I have portrayed in my reply.</p>

<p>your assumption as to why I "didn't get much out of it" (being the class) is incorrect. The fact that my father was the one to sign me up and I did not enthusiastically go to him to sign me up doesn't even matter because when I went to the class I myself had an open mind to any tips that could improve my score. The truth of the matter is that I simply did not think they had anything to offer me. They had vocab flash cards, well gee, I could have just used my vocab book I got from school (though I didn’t, that’s not the important part though).</p>

<p>You also incorrectly percieve my point of view on the math, although I partially blame it on myself for lack of clarity. </p>

<p>what i'm trying to say is, these classes/tutors/organizations, they come up with these "tricks" (IE joe schmoe is your average joe blow, what would he think the answer this question is? well joe schmoe is in your 50 percentile range so there he would probably guess C because everyone else does, ETC ETC ETC. however the tricks end up acting as a substitute to just STRAIGHT UP LEARNING THE CONCEPTS, which is what I feel is the problem with these classes, they effectively draw students into learning paths into getting around just simply having to know the material, instead of just actually knowing the material. and I will say right now that if you actually have a good grasp of algebra, geometry, algebra 2 then you may score very well on the math portion. </p>

<p>If you are going to have a child spend several hours each week ( as well as money) into learning how to effectively get by without knowing how to do the math, then why not just buy them a textbook so they can refresh their memory….better in the long run too.</p>

<p>As for the verbal, I personally feel it is only divided into 2 parts, vocab, and reading comprehension. Why pay some institution several thousand dollars to tell your kid what vocab words to learn, yet again visit your local bookstore. And the for reading comprehension, I yet again refer you to the bookstore, the book “10 real SATs” has just that, 10 real SATs, why not practice with the ACTUAL tests instead of problems that certain organizations “guess” might be on the test. Which leads me to another point, the “practice problems” that the class I was taking had, were insanely easy, I mean they were no where near the same level of difficulty of problems on the actual test, which probably gave half the people in the class a false sense of security. </p>

<p>Although, I will say, unlike the math portion, knowing some techniques on the verbal may be helpful. If you have common sense you probably already use the techniques, and the classes/prep books are most likely the same but patent them with their own names. But yet again, nothing you cant learn by taking a visit to the bookstore.</p>

<p>Writing this entire thing has really made me rethink and I can honestly say that probably the biggest issue preventing many from achieving well is personal will. If you are the one who is on this website looking for information FOR your kid then you should probably re-evaluate who is taking the test. Although many of you will say that your kids at this age lack the level of responsibility and/or experience to make these sorts of decisions, which I will agree with. Yet I digress, if you have a child who comes to you wanting do better on their SAT and you feel they have average intelligence, if not above average, then send them to the bookstore with 100 dollars. At barnes and noble you can return “unused” books for store credit after almost any length of time, or you can simply go to the bookstore with a notepad and work out of the books there.</p>

<p>Now my outlook on the matter may be skewed by the fact that I typically believe in spending time, and not money. But these are my experiences, again, take them as you wish.</p>

124

<p>let me also mention that I personally did not have enough personal drive to study for this test. I had a decent vocabulary, knew math, but did practice some reading comprehension here and there. but I have gone to the bookstore for numerous tests such as these, and if I actually wanted to improve my score to something like a 1600, these are the steps I would have taken to get there.</p>

<p>if you have the money, and you have a child who won't listen to you or anyone unless they are getting paid 1500 dollars to read out of a book, then first off, your child is spoiled, but secondly, just send them to the class.</p>

<p>PS. regarding what ive said as far as parenting goes, im not one....so im putting up the disclaimer.</p>

125

<p>
[quote]
Your reply is unconvincing. </p>

<p>The student who has the diligence to work his own study plan, and the smarts to absorb from books is still likely being INEFFICIENT by not having a guide for the times where a book leaves you with unanswered questions.</p>

<p>I agree that the SAT is not Kabbalistic magic. I can learn plumbing from lots of manuals too, but my time is important, and my sureness of DOING IT RIGHT is paramount. For both reasons, I'm calling a professional. SAT success is even more important than plumbing success, and that's why for most students who want to maximixize their scores, a professional SAT coach is time AND money wisely spent. </p>

<p>I advise parents and aspiring teens to get a WELL-RECOMMENDED tutor, and advise her or him on your aspirations and needs. My company's tutors do as many or as few hours as needed, so you need not buy into a "package".</p>

<p>If your father "just signed you up for a class" without your and his mutually game-planning, it's no wonder you didn't get much out of it. And I emphatically disagree with bubblekid that "trigonometry can't be taught". For the four trig questions on the ACT, our tutors can and do teach the skills to trig tyros for getting at least three of them right in 2 - 3 hours. </p>

<p>Yes, I'm biased (I run an SAT prep organization), but I'm open to what works. Please be more open-minded. When money is an immediate issue, targeted tutoring may not be cost-beneficial. But where $1500 can BUY YOU A BETTER SCORE, (and likely $5000+ YEARLY in college scholarship awards) it's misleading to families to dismiss the use of a good tutor or a good class.

[/quote]
Of course you are biased. And what about the students who cannot afford pricey tutors? I didn't have that kind of money to spend. Yet I took the SAT and was among the highest scoring students at my school. What did it take? A couple test prep books to practice, intelligence, and a TON of motivation. O_O I hate to say this, but if you're not the smartest kid and you don't know algebra, exactly like what bubblekid said--if you don't know it, you don't know it. I had a neighbor whose parents pushed her into SAT summer camps and SAT tutors for the school year...thousands and thousands of dollars for what? She got a 1040 on the SAT (the old one). I could keep arguing, but you can't teach a clueless kid reasoning abilities. Money can't buy intelligence.</p>

126

<p>Students with weak starting scores should not be clumped into "clueless" as your post implies. Weak scores are often indicative of little time focused on SAT. Among the bad scorers, there are those who do need time and coddling; and there are those who are quick absorbers but inexperienced. I can help both.</p>

127

<p>Well I for one thank God for my SAT prep course. If left to my own devices I would probably pick up a prep book once a week and look it over a little bit and call it studying. Having to drive to that class twice a week, sit through the instruction and take endless timed tests helped me tremendously. I was ready and confident to take the new test. My parents and I went halves of the 700.00 cost. I don't think the courses make much difference for most of the highly motivated kids on this board looking to go from a 740 to 800 and will self study. I on the other hand am an average video game playing, tv watching, sports playing, food scarfing, couchaholic guy who went from 580/590 to 700/710/690. I'm not clueless and spend hours on my passions, I just needed that structured, focused time to prepare fo the SAT's.</p>

128

<p>The purpose of this thread was NOT to pit self prepaparation AGAINST the use of tutors. What is important is to recognize what is needed and that there are no universal cases. As someone said, there are many ways to climb the same mountain. In general terms, students who remain unmotivated and are prepared to only put in a minimum of effort will not see great results with any of the available methods. Students who fail to complete their assignments and sit passively listening to a tutor or read prep book passively will reap minimal benefits from their time investment. </p>

<p>The key is to try to be as reaslistic as possible in evaluating your individual case. For some the best approach is to sign up for an organized class, for some self preparation can be the best option, and some will need individual tutoring or medical attention. </p>

<p>The beauty is that everyone should be capable to find the help needed to reach his or her true potential, and this at various price levels.</p>