How to motivate student to study for SAT/ACT?

[gingersmom]

My daughter has me :banghead:

 

She is a sophomore and took the PSAT. She did poorly (to put it kindly). She was not phased by this at all. She has done poorly on standardized tests since elementary school so I think that is why she was so blasé about it.

 

We have had extensive discussions about college. She knows she wants to go into nursing, has a backup plan if she doesn't get into a direct entry nursing program, has a list of colleges she would like to apply to, has the rest of her classes planned out through senior year. All sounds good.

 

She is a high honors student at a very good private school.

A recent conversation about studying for the test this summer had me :cursing:

 

I can't seem to get the importance of studying through to her and I am through nagging her. I told her there was always community college (she ignored this suggestion).

 

She does not need scholarship money so that is not a motivation.

 

I am afraid she is going to have a rude wakeup call.

 

 

How have you imparted the importance of studying for the SAT/ACT to your child?

[Musicmom]

Well, I imposed test prep on my kids, and made it a part of our homeschool. But with your dd in private school, I don't know if you're in a position to do this. My kids also didn't push back in this area, so I don't really have experience with your specific situation, but here's an idea you could think about:

 

Have you checked the average ACT score ranges (you can do this on College Board) of the colleges she's interested in? And do you know where she falls in relation to those? You might have her take an initial ACT--cold--to see where she lands without studying and then have her compare it to the colleges she'd most like to attend. If she scores high, then you don't need to worry. But if not, you could point out to her (in a casual, off-hand, matter-of-fact way, not a finger-pointing way) that she will probably need to be near the upper end of that middle 50% in order to have a good chance of being accepted. Or you might ask her how she thinks an admissions officer of that school would view her score. You could ask her if she thinks her score will make her high school record look less impressive (since she's obviously working hard there.) Have her look at the lists of what factors each college considers important in their admissions criteria. Test scores are usually listed.

 

Anything you can do to have her get the rude wakeup call sooner rather than later would be good. It may help her to see what she needs to do, and then you can be there (on her side instead of in opposition) to support and help her do it. I know when there was friction with my kids (not over test prep, but in other areas), they were better motivated by outside, impartial, immovable "reality" :) than they ever were by my nagging. Figuring out how to set this up is not easy, though.

[regentrude]

I can't seem to get the importance of studying through to her and I am through nagging her. I told her there was always community college (she ignored this suggestion).

She does not need scholarship money so that is not a motivation.

 

 

Is it hard to get into the school she wants to attend? Do they have a high ACT/SAT score that is necessary for admissions?

If that is the case, this should be a sufficient motivation if she really wants to go to that school.

 

If, OTOH, admission is pretty much guaranteed even with a mediocre score, and scholarship money is not the issue, I would be hard pressed to come up with a reason why one should spend valuable time on test prep.

 

How have you imparted the importance of studying for the SAT/ACT to your child?

 

 

My DD was motivated because she wants to apply for selective universities where a high test score is necessary for admission. I did not have to pressure her, since it was obvious that she needed to put time in if she wants to have a shot at those schools.

[shanvan]

Would watching the videos from this post help?

[gingersmom]

Is it hard to get into the school she wants to attend? Do they have a high ACT/SAT score that is necessary for admissions?

If that is the case, this should be a sufficient motivation if she really wants to go to that school.

 

 

 

Motivation has not met reality yet. I am afraid she is going to have to be rejected before she realizes her mistake.

[regentrude]

Motivation has not met reality yet. I am afraid she is going to have to be rejected before she realizes her mistake.

 

 

So do I take this to mean that her scores are not good enough to get in?

Then show her the stats of the admitted students. Show her that she is below the cut and won't be admitted.

 

Short of that, there is nothing you can do. I would take this as a clear sign that the student is not mature enough to go to a fur year school, and that community college may be the appropriate way for this student. If she does not want this, she needs to put in more of an effort.

 

If she is not motivated to work hard to get in, she will not be motivated to work even harder to succeed once she is there.

Even if you force and push and coax her now, you will not be able to do so once she is away at school. So I would not even attempt to.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

Can you send her to an actual test prep course? Then she is prepping via the course, and you aren't nagging her about it. I've seen several families with teens do this instead.

[Muttichen]

If all else fails, try money! My husband told our less-than-motivated but very bright son he'd give him $2400 if he got 2400. It was all or nothing... He got 2380!

[Lori D.]

Sounds like she is actually quite mature here, with a career goal AND a back-up plan! Perhaps consider taking yourself out of this equation:

 

1. let it go and let the consequences be on her head

(I know, I know, YOU suffer, too, but some students only learn the hard way...) And she may sail through the testing in another 1-2 years beautifully! Students mature a lot between 9th/10th grades and high school graduation.

 

2. sign her up for an evening SAT prep course

You are not the nag or the teacher that way -- and often students work much better for outside teachers than for parents. Usually these classes only last for the 4-5 weeks just prior to taking the test. And, if nothing else, it will give her intensive practice and testing tips just prior to taking the test. Find an option near you: Princeton Review, Kaplan

 

Esp. if her school is offering some sort of prep, or a local class in which a number of her classmates will be there would make it more enticing...

 

3. Finally, perhaps have her go to the College of Nursing and speak with the admissions officer directly to have someone other than mom stress what she needs to do to be prepared and be accepted. Sometimes DC can "hear" it from someone NOT mom/dad. So if the head nurse of the local nursing program stresses SAT scores and study skills in general, DD may be more interested...

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[Jen in NY]

Sometimes DC can "hear" it from someone NOT mom/dad. So if the head nurse of the local nursing program stresses SAT scores and study skills in general, DD may be more interested...

 

 

 

I agree with the above! One other way to have outside input is to visit a website like www.collegedata.com and view some of the schools she is interested in. You can see graphics of accepted/waitlisted/denied students' scores and lots of other info about the applicants (anonymous, of course). It was good for my dd to see that lots of kids with higher stats than hers were denied to some of "her" schools.

 

Also, we love Cal Newport's books How to Become a Straight-A Student etc. and his website Studyhacks http://calnewport.com/blog/. His stuff is not really about standardized test scores, but about taking responsibility for yourself and your future while in high school. Great stuff.

[GinaPagnato]

If all else fails, try money! My husband told our less-than-motivated but very bright son he'd give him $2400 if he got 2400. It was all or nothing... He got 2380!

 

 

What an awesome score! So did your dh pay up, or do I take this to mean he would only pay if the score was 2400?

[Muttichen]

He said he would only pay if the score was 2400. It was funny, because I forgot all about the offer, and when I checked the score, I said, "YOU GOT 2380!!!!!" and ds said "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" LOL

 

My dh did give him a nice consolation prize, but not $2380.

 

The amazing thing was that on the PSAT in October, his CR score was 68. On the SAT, one month later, it was 790. He brought it up mainly by cramming on vocabulary. There's nothing like motivation....

[speedmom4]

My dd has a lot of friends that sound a bit like your dd. Many of them didn't get into their first choice schools (they were mostly state schools). Dd's best friend got into her second choice university but didn't get into the nursing program and is struggling to figure out what she will do. It looks like she will have to go to community college for a year and reapply.

 

Elise in NC

[jhschool]

It's hard to get motivated. I know if someone told me

"Go practice for the SAT/ACT" I would be like "Do I have to?"

:ack2:

"Can't I just read my book?"

 

It's hard even for hard working kids that know they want to go to

college and are motivated. I would say the child that studies on their

own for standardized tests willingly is a rare child.

 

Here is what I am going to do this year: I am going to schedule test prep

times with him and his friends. We will do it once a month, at someone's

house, in the morning :ack2: (to have that "early morning" feeling that they'll have

at the real exam :ack2: ), and the kids will do a whole test under real (as close as

we can) test conditions.

 

Doing it with friends will (1) get it done (we can't chicken out and do fun math instead) because

we are scheduling it with someone else; (2) be more fun; (3) they'll realize they are in it together,

which is a nice feeling for teens.

 

Maybe have your child do it with friends? Just a thought.

[jhschool]

He said he would only pay if the score was 2400. It was funny, because I forgot all about the offer, and when I checked the score, I said, "YOU GOT 2380!!!!!" and ds said "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" LOL

 

My dh did give him a nice consolation prize, but not $2380.

 

The amazing thing was that on the PSAT in October, his CR score was 68. On the SAT, one month later, it was 790. He brought it up mainly by cramming on vocabulary. There's nothing like motivation....

 

This is awesome--your husband is funny, but cool too! I love that story.

Good for your kid on such a great score!!!

 

And good for bringing up the PSAT with vocabulary--this is cool.

 

(I am actually realizing

we need a lot more vocabulary. DC reads a lot, so I thought he would be all set on

vocab--but then I checked, and there are words like "lachrymose" that I thought he

would know that he actually didn't. Then there were words like "bilk" that I didn't

even know!)

 

Off to find vocabulary...

[Nscribe]

My dh did give him a nice consolation prize, but not $2380.

 

 

I was hoping you would post a bit more. While I am generally a "live with the terms of the deal" sort, a 20pt miss for a teen seemed like such a hard break. Fair enough, but hard. Glad to hear he got something in addition to the can do it experience.

[Lori D.]

It's hard to get motivated. I know if someone told me "Go practice for the SAT/ACT" I would be like "Do I have to?" :ack2: "Can't I just read my book?" It's hard even for hard working kids that know they want to go to college and are motivated. I would say the child that studies on their own for standardized tests willingly is a rare child.

 

... Doing it with friends will (1) get it done (we can't chicken out and do fun math instead) because

we are scheduling it with someone else; (2) be more fun; (3) they'll realize they are in it together,

which is a nice feeling for teens.

 

 

Agreeing. I know it is much easier when you homeschool to just put it on the schedule. That's how I did it with DSs -- for the 8 weeks before the test, they were going through the "tips" video, and doing practice, for about 15-20 minutes each day 4-5x/week. The last week, instead of some regular work, we did longer test sessions from the College Board book with actual tests.

 

HOWEVER, that would be hard to do with a student who is at a school. I like the quoted poster's idea of doing it with several friends who will also be doing it. Or, just pay and have her go to a scheduled evening class nearby. It would only be for the evenings for a few weeks before the test...

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[Faithr]

I haven't read through this whole thread but our community college has a very respected nursing degree. If doing well there, you can transfer to a state school to finish up a 4 year degree. Around here you don't even need to take the SAT to become a nurse. So with that in mind, I'd try to find a way around it. If she's good student but just doesn't test well on standardized tests, then I'd try an alternate route that bypasses that particular problem.

[Vida Winter]

Go on college visits? Those motivated my dd a great deal.

[Brenda in MA]

Finally, perhaps have her go to the College of Nursing and speak with the admissions officer directly to have someone other than mom stress what she needs to do to be prepared and be accepted. Sometimes DC can "hear" it from someone NOT mom/dad. So if the head nurse of the local nursing program stresses SAT scores and study skills in general, DD may be more interested...

 

This. I was going to suggest the same thing. If you have one of her target universities close by, it would be worth the time to take a tour of campus and speak with an admissions officer so she can hear from the horse's mouth what test scores and work ethic will be required to succeed at that school.

 

Best wishes,

Brenda

[JanetC]

Have you considered seeing if she might do better on the ACT?

 

This website has a link to a free test (Princeton Review) that will help her see which test is worth her time.

 

http://www.wiselikeus.com/collegewise/standardized_testing/

 

Maybe if she could see that she's closer to a decent score on ACT than on SAT, she might be incented to study for the other one? I'm sure Princeton Review's free test comes with a pitch for their classes and such. Maybe they can sell her on it?

 

Good luck!