SAT tips and advice

[kadrachb]

During my highschool years (I'm now studying for the GRE) our 10th and 11th grade English classes actually had sections built into the curriculum for the SAT. They even offered a practice SAT.

Kaplan has great study materials also. I never used them for the SAT, but I am using them for the GRE.

 

[csmommy]

Here is my 2 cents on this. If you can, invest in a SAT/ACT tutor, it should pay off in the end. Sadly, these tests play heavy into Merit Aid award, & also into the admissions game. For each of our 2 kids we paid $850 for a tutor to come to our home for 10 weeks & tutor a small group (3-4) kids (each child paid the same price). Every week the kids took a test, scored it & then come together in a tutor session to work on the questions they missed. DS overall GPA was an 86, but b/c of his high SAT scores he receives well over $15K per year in Merit Aid from a private university in DC. DD scored even better, & has a higher GPA. She is a senior this year, & took the PSAT's for the 1st time in 10th grade just to get her feet wet. Because of her very high ACT score there are very nice schools courting her & lower ranked ones offering her nice Merit Awards. We shall see what her exact gain will be this year. I know it is a lot of money to pay upfront, but for us it has really paid off.

 

[Iowajes]

I highly recommend Khan Academy. It is free, and it is approved by College Board.

 

[rigs32]

I used to teach for one of the well known test prep companies. If you plan to enroll your child in one, it will be a waste of your money if they don't do the homework and practice. I saw so many students think that mere attendance in the class meant their scores would go up. And that's never going to happen without study and practice. The classes can give you tools and strategies, but you have to learn to apply them.

 

[3boymthr]

The College Board offers a free question of the day on their website that your DD can use to help practice, plus free sample tests. There used to be an app that you could download for the cell phone that was offered by the College Board that would have the question pop up every morning. I don't know if they still offer this but Oldest DS used this to help prep. He liked it because it was right in his face every morning and made it really to not forget to study.