X-Post SAT Prep Class Questions for Senior

[mamato4girls]

My daughter needs to raise her SAT score, there is a highly recommened SAT prep class near us. There is no guarantee on rasing the score, or how much it will be raised, and it is $500 for a 6 week class. The class meets once a week for 2 hours. Is this worth it, a rip off? What are our other options?

This seems like a lot of money with no guarantee, but then again if it raises her score significantly then it is well worth the money. This is for my oldest who will graduate in 2013.

Would love to hear what others have done and recommend.

[Bostonian]

My daughter needs to raise her SAT score, there is a highly recommened SAT prep class near us. There is no guarantee on rasing the score, or how much it will be raised, and it is $500 for a 6 week class. The class meets once a week for 2 hours. Is this worth it, a rip off? What are our other options?

This seems like a lot of money with no guarantee, but then again if it raises her score significantly then it is well worth the money. This is for my oldest who will graduate in 2013.

Would love to hear what others have done and recommend.

 

How has your daughter prepared so far? There are lots of SAT prep books available. One study http://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/why-chris-hayes-fails/ found that the average SAT score gain for whites from a prep course was only 12.3 points (I think this is a total for all three sections).

[Barbara H]

I understand this class doesn't offer a guarantee, but iff you look carefully at the guarantees for classes they are usually not so great. Sometimes they are void if the student misses a single class and even if you can collect all you get is the opportunity to take the class again which may not be worth a lot.

 

There are less expensive options than a $500 class. It will depend on your student and her learning style. Some students do well just taking practice tests and studying what they did wrong. If she's got lower scores in one particular area such as math, it may help to get some one on one tutoring just in that subject. It may also be worth looking at the ACT if she hasn't tried a sample test yet.

 

Homeschool Buyer's Co-op has a Kaplan online course right now that's about $50. http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/homeschool-test-assessment-curriculum/

[elizabeth]

Order old SAT exams and have her do the work. Timed. Every week for a month and go over what is missed and why. It is a tricky exam in many ways. The Barrons guide is a darn good one and my daughter scored higher on the SAT than on the practice exams in Barrons guide. It is excellent if the only thing the student needs is refining for actual instruction in an area I like the McGraw Hill guides from Amazon. The most important thing is timed practice to get them used to mental fatigue so that when the day comes they can chug right along knowing the fatigue and stress are par for the course and all in a good days work. Best of luck.