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SAT Online Prep? Most importantly Math, but Verbal would also be nice.


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I apologize if this subject is already covered elsewhere (and I'm sure it must be--I promise I looked; I think I'm just bad at searching).

Can anyone suggest a good online SAT tutor, especially for math? (Verbal would be nice to get, but math is mandatory for us). I know a good math tutor, but I'm looking for someone who specializes in SAT Math.

Also, can anyone suggest any online programs that don't have a tutor?

My daughter is a sophomore. She's doing OK but would like to go higher. She's been reviewing. She's taken it once. She finished all the problems on-time and only ran into a handful that she didn't know how to begin. She scored a 580 on math. We plan to keep working with her before spending on a tutor (She's gone through Kaplan's SAT Math, and we plan on having her do each practice test and then look at the corrections both in the Official Guide and in the SAT Prep Black Book). But, I'd like to start searching now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Kevin

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My son used Prep Scholar and saw a significant bump in his ACT score (they offer both SAT and ACT prep). I thought the cost was well worth it, considering the higher score netted a much larger scholarship. We only had the basic plan ($400), but they also have more expensive plans that include tutoring and I think they also offer online tutoring à la cart.

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2 hours ago, High School Homeschool Dad said:

I apologize if this subject is already covered elsewhere (and I'm sure it must be--I promise I looked; I think I'm just bad at searching).

Can anyone suggest a good online SAT tutor, especially for math? (Verbal would be nice to get, but math is mandatory for us). I know a good math tutor, but I'm looking for someone who specializes in SAT Math.

Also, can anyone suggest any online programs that don't have a tutor?

My daughter is a sophomore. She's doing OK but would like to go higher. She's been reviewing. She's taken it once. She finished all the problems on-time and only ran into a handful that she didn't know how to begin. She scored a 580 on math. We plan to keep working with her before spending on a tutor (She's gone through Kaplan's SAT Math, and we plan on having her do each practice test and then look at the corrections both in the Official Guide and in the SAT Prep Black Book). But, I'd like to start searching now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Kevin

 

Hi Kevin, 

Has she finished Alg 2 and pre-calculus?  There's a little bit of pre-calc on the SAT, so she will be likely to gain a few points when she finishes pre-calc, but especially Alg 2.

We are happy with the Khan Academy practice because it's specifically based on my dd's practice test.  It's the maximum amount of efficiency possible.  Even the practice is efficient because it only requires the student to do the tutorial when the practice is incorrect.  I can't say if it gets big results yet because we haven't taken the test a second time yet, but my daughter definitely feels like it's helping her. She really expects to score higher in the reading section. But since she hasn't done Algebra 2 yet, she doesn't expect a big jump in math.

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48 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

My son used Prep Scholar and saw a significant bump in his ACT score (they offer both SAT and ACT prep). I thought the cost was well worth it, considering the higher score netted a much larger scholarship. We only had the basic plan ($400), but they also have more expensive plans that include tutoring and I think they also offer online tutoring à la cart.

 

Mid it mostly good for math or also for English?

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Welcome Kevin!     I suggest using KhanAcademy, which is Free.  My DD used that to prepare for the PSAT/NMSQT and also for the SAT.  KhanAcademy has an official tie-in with the College Board and your DD should have an account on College Board, before starting with KhanAcademy, so they can keep track of her progress and her strengths and weaknesses.   Also, your DD is a Sophomore now. During October of her Junior year, she should take the PSAT/NMSQT.  If she qualifies as a Hispanic student, that exam is also used by the National Hispanic Recognition Program, which is an Academic Honor.  "National Hispanic Scholar"

Additionally, you and your DD should also contemplate her taking the ACT in addition to the SAT.  They are very different exams, in what they cover and in test strategy. Some students do much better on one than on the other.

For the ACT, my DD had access, for about one month, to the Kaplan Online Preparation, which I believe is $100 for 6 weeks and less per week, if you pay for a longer term. They have a tie-in with ACT for that.  As I recall (that was last year) there were quite a few Online Videos that my DD watched, but, also, there were (several?) online-live sessions with an Instructor, where the students could ask questions and get answers.   I believe that my DD felt the Kaplan preparation was somewhat more helpful than the Free KhanAcademy.

Note: The search on this web site is hard to use. Best to Google, limiting your search to this web site.

Note #2:  Your Dd should sign up for a special email account that will only be used for those web sites and university applications. She should check that she IS interested in receiving information from the schools.   99% will be discarded, but there is an occasional Diamond.  Read carefully, before deleting.  

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OP if your DD decides to take the ACT exam (which I strongly suggest that she does) in the link below, I believe the one on the far right is the one that my DD had access to last year. However, the price is much lower now, so I am not positive it is the same thing.  This is $99 for 6 months.  When my DD did it last year it was $100 for 6 weeks...

http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation/act-rapid-review.html

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On 2/10/2019 at 8:16 AM, Calming Tea said:

What does prep scholar do?  Does it have the student take a practice test and then tailor it to the student?  How does it work? 🙂

I asked DS, and he says he took a diagnostic exam and then he was given lessons at the correct level for each specific subtopic. Each subject (English, Reading, Math, Science) is broken down into subtopics/types of questions, with lessons followed by practice problems (which DS says were usually timed). Then he would go over the answers for each section to see what he got wrong and why.  (I know that the SAT version of PrepScholar includes some video explanations, but he doesn't remember if there were videos for the ACT prep.) Once you are consistently getting a high percentage of questions correct in a given subtopic, it bumps you up to another level with harder questions. You get lots of email reminders tracking how much time you've spent, what improvements you've made, what your study plan should be for the next week, etc. When he had questions, they responded promptly. I think at the beginning he had to enter the date of the test he was planning to take (or at least how many weeks away it was), and then they suggested how many hours/wk he should study. IIRC they recommend ~60 hours for best results; I think DS spent around 100 hrs, most of which was over the summer. It's a flat fee for a full year of access, and they have a huge bank of questions, so the earlier you start, the more benefit you'll get.

In hindsight, I wish I'd enrolled him sooner, so he could have spread out the prep a bit more, but it worked out fine in the end anyway. DS felt that the lessons were very helpful and the practice questions were very good — similar to the real test. I also think it was REALLY helpful for him to have a specific schedule, with specific lessons assigned, to keep him on track. He has executive function issues, and having the tasks broken down into small, specific chunks was much more effective (and seemed far less overwhelming) than just handing him a stack of prep books and telling him to study on his own.

ETA: You can get a rough idea of how it works here, and they also offer a 5 day free trial.

Edited by Corraleno
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