SAT test preparation classes?
My daughter is a junior at El Cerrito High. Although she is extremely bright and is an eager learner, she is a horrible test-taker and her PSAT scores were less than great. We would like to enroll her in a SAT test preparation course (which she has agreed to attend) but don't really know where to begin.
Has anybody done this recently with their kids, and have any feedback? I'm interested in cost, location, length of course, etc.
I'll be thankful for any guidance or suggestions on this topic!
Feb 24, 2020
Parent Replies
Hi
She might do better with the ACT. As I understand it, ECHS students do better on the ACT than SAT. Have her take 1-2 practice tests and see how she feels. In the olden days, SAT was East of the Mississippi and ACT was West. No longer the case. Both are equal.
There is a growing body of research that is seeming to indicate that prep results in only modest gains. You can Google the research.
We used Khan Academy (online).
My husband was able to help with some test taking strategies and some concepts. Perhaps this is where the tutor can be of help.
The types of problems and structure of the test became more apparent and probably relaxed my child.
These are terrible tests that add no value to the education experience. We are starting to see schools not require them and speak about against them. They should! Hopefully it won't be long before they are gone!
Hope this helps.
Classroom Matters on Sacramento Street.
My kid hates school, studying, tests, all of it. But he needed to take the SSAT so we made him go to Classroom Matters once a week for 3 months as that was the only way he had a chance of doing okay on the test. He ended up with results in the 90%, which is crazy beyond anything we expected.
His teacher was very very good at teaching my son test -taking strategies, as well as a lot of actual material he had been behind on.
The administrators there here also made a great effort to match my son with a teacher who would be the right personality fit for him. I think this helped a lot in reducing his resistance to going since it was on a Saturday(!).
My daughter took a free group class at https://ptps.berkeley.edu/, and private tutoring at https://alphacollegeprep.com/. She enjoyed the class and the tutor very much, however after three times taking the SAT and once the ACT, her scores stayed the same (pretty average, not terrible and not great). That said, she has attended two test-optional colleges and is doing very well due to her fantastic organization skills and still pretty much does poorly on tests. Good Luck!
My son (junior) has been going to Alpha College Prep on Solano Avenue for the last few months. He has found it very practical, and his practice test scores improved by 100 points after just about 10 sessions.