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OT: SAT prep

UMRU

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Sep 19, 2006
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I can't believe my little girl already has to start worrying about college - man, does it go fast.

Anyone have experience with SAT prep classes in the Somerset county area?

Thanks.
 
I can't believe my little girl already has to start worrying about college - man, does it go fast.

Anyone have experience with SAT prep classes in the Somerset county area?

Thanks.
We used private tutors. Daughter went from an initial 20 on ACT to 24 to 26 and finally 29. Part of this is learning how to take the test to maximize chance of success.
 
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Can you provide the name of the tutor, and did it make as big of a difference as it did for @rubaseball78 ' s daughter?

Well, it's been about 7 years since we last used him but I'll ask the wife if she still has some sort of record.

As per results, we don't have an ACT comparison but the before / after SAT results were about +250.
 
We used a private tutor for both of our girls, rather than a class. Same guy, both times around. It really does make a difference.
That is awesome Private tutors for SAT prep. Imagine if everyone from every background can afford this advantage you are giving you kids they would probably find a way to get rid of the test altogether. I plan on doing the same thing as you for my boy when it is his turn but Based on that it is not a fair test. Great example of the difference between the have and have nots on a smaller scale. I could only imagine how much better I could have scored back in 1993 with a private SAT tutor. Probably a lot better than 1150 based on a 1600 top possible score. I’m curious what does something like that cost? Thanks
 
That is awesome Private tutors for SAT prep. Imagine if everyone from every background can afford this advantage you are gave you kids they would probably find a way to get rid of the test altogether. I plan on doing the same thing as you for my boy when it is his turn but the rest is not a fair test. I could only imagine how much better I could have scored back in 1993 with a private SAT tutor. Probably a lot better than 1150 based on a 1600 top possible score. I’m curious what does something like that cost? Thanks

Ha.

I took the SAT once, in 1979. I forgot about it until my mother woke me up on the Saturday morning of the test. I had worked until midnight the night before and had gone out partying, after. Smoked a joint in the car on the way to the school. Got a 1360. And I suck at math.

Standardized tests are in a lot of ways stupid. The challenge, of course, is there really isn't any other way to do a comparative analysis across a broad population.
 
Ha.

I took the SAT once, in 1979. I forgot about it until my mother woke me up on the Saturday morning of the test. I had worked until midnight the night before and had gone out partying, after. Smoked a joint in the car on the way to the school. Got a 1360. And I suck at math.

Standardized tests are in a lot of ways stupid. The challenge, of course, is there really isn't any other way to do a comparative analysis across a broad population.

Imagine what you would have scored if you didn't smoke that joint. Most likely now you would be on the Seton Hall board instead of the RU board. (after only scoring 900 on the test and not getting in to RU)
 
Imagine what you would have scored if you didn't smoke that joint. Most likely now you would be on the Seton Hall board instead of the RU board. (after only scoring 900 on the test and not getting in to RU)

Actually, RU came later. I initially applied - and was accepted to - UF, but then decided to go to rehab instead. So I did 4 years in the USAF and went to RU after that.
 
Have a private tutor for my kid who is a junior - $125 per hour - we did some research and that is about what other tutors in my area are charging. Classes taught by tutoring companies charge a bit less if you calculate the cost per each session.
 
That is awesome Private tutors for SAT prep. Imagine if everyone from every background can afford this advantage you are giving you kids they would probably find a way to get rid of the test altogether. I plan on doing the same thing as you for my boy when it is his turn but Based on that it is not a fair test. Great example of the difference between the have and have nots on a smaller scale. I could only imagine how much better I could have scored back in 1993 with a private SAT tutor. Probably a lot better than 1150 based on a 1600 top possible score. I’m curious what does something like that cost? Thanks

Cost is substantial now. My son took a prep class in Middlesex County (like 4 days a week half days in August). Close to $6,000. He did get a huge jump (from PSAT and a pre-course diagnostic test) - like 270 points. His brother took a similar course at same place 5 years ago and it was a little over $1,500. Supply and demand I guess.
 
Cost is substantial now. My son took a prep class in Middlesex County (like 4 days a week half days in August). Close to $6,000. He did get a huge jump (from PSAT and a pre-course diagnostic test) - like 270 points. His brother took a similar course at same place 5 years ago and it was a little over $1,500. Supply and demand I guess.

Wow, that is crazy. I had no idea.
 
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Imagine what you would have scored if you didn't smoke that joint. Most likely now you would be on the Seton Hall board instead of the RU board. (after only scoring 900 on the test and not getting in to RU)
tenor.gif


I will say this, though: The first time took my SAT, my score was down 20 points from my PSAT. The second time I took them, I went down another ten points. That was it for me. They were already low enough to get into Seton Hall, so why keep at it?
 
Cost is substantial now. My son took a prep class in Middlesex County (like 4 days a week half days in August). Close to $6,000. He did get a huge jump (from PSAT and a pre-course diagnostic test) - like 270 points. His brother took a similar course at same place 5 years ago and it was a little over $1,500. Supply and demand I guess.
It’s a big shame that this is the norm and this will continue to be the norm. When my 8 year old is ready for all of this it’s gonna be even worse. So competitive now in everything and it all costs $$$$. Keeping up with the jones all leading to chasing that job or career.
 
It’s a big shame that this is the norm and this will continue to be the norm. When my 8 year old is ready for all of this it’s gonna be even worse. So competitive now in everything and it all costs $$$$. Keeping up with the jones all leading to chasing that job or career.
Maybe not. My son is a sophomore. My understand from an article I read is that the number of high school seniors going to college will start to decline in another year or two. Supply/demand may be on your side.
 
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I can't believe my little girl already has to start worrying about college - man, does it go fast.

Anyone have experience with SAT prep classes in the Somerset county area?

Thanks.
Hey UMRU,
This is one of the areas I've worked on as an area of research for a number of years. (I'm a professor with a degree in measurement, evaluation, and statistical analysis.) Also, have tutored a number of friends' kids.

Here's the deal. The SATs are a set of questions to be solved. There are a number of underlying formats for those questions (reading comp, sentence completion, etc.). In recent iterations of the test, ETS has moved toward making them more closely related to school subjects. When I took them (1967!), they were basically an IQ test based on your reading comp, vocabulary, and ability to solve math puzzles only marginally related to school subjects.

With regard to the verbal questions, it is important that your daughter is super familiar with the format of these questions and has a well-practiced "attack strategy" for approaching them. She wants to learn how to address these from someone who knows what they are talking about. She then needs to really rehearse those formats. Other than that, on the verbal questions, studying things like vocabulary is not really super helpful as the chances that something she studies will actually be on the test is pretty small (too many words in the English language!). But, getting her approach to taking the test down pat is key.

On the math side, it is a bit of a different story. Here, practice is key. The math questions come in several different varieties, but the superficial format looks the same. But there will be straightforward algebra questions, geometry questions, etc. Then there will be math puzzle type questions. This is where the rubber meets the road on getting a good score. A good tutor will show her how to "unlock" a number of these types of questions, and then, and this is key, she has to practice. It's like working on your jump shot. The more you do it, the better you will get, and (and this is key, too), the faster you will get at them. If you can knock off the easy ones faster, it gives you more time for the others, and also will cause you to panic over time less. You basically want to knock the rust off of your skills, and pick up some new ones.

If I lived closer than 10,000 miles away, I'd be happy to do an hour session with your daughter and check out her test-taking skills. Most kids are "OK" at test-taking, but could use some sharpening up. Some kids have awful test-taking skills, and I can pick those out fairly quickly.

One final thing. If she is going to take practice items, have her do it from real SAT items, not the ones that the companies who sell books make up. They are often crap at making up those items. They look superficially like SAT items, but they don't really measure the same skills. Also, don't listen to their claims of improvement. A lot of what you see in improvement is called "regression to the mean" due to measurement error. I could explain it, but it would take another post as long as this one!

Best of luck to your daughter, and if you have any questions, feel free to send me a personal message on the board.
 
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Ha.

I took the SAT once, in 1979. I forgot about it until my mother woke me up on the Saturday morning of the test. I had worked until midnight the night before and had gone out partying, after. Smoked a joint in the car on the way to the school. Got a 1360. And I suck at math.

Standardized tests are in a lot of ways stupid. The challenge, of course, is there really isn't any other way to do a comparative analysis across a broad population.
LOL. They forgot to turn on the heat in the gym the Saturday I took the test. Had a parka and gloves on. Could not have been above 50 degrees inside.
 
I can't believe my little girl already has to start worrying about college - man, does it go fast.

Anyone have experience with SAT prep classes in the Somerset county area?

Thanks.

My wife does math SAT tutoring and I see
What she does for their scores ..

Get a good tutor if it’s in the budget ...
 
That is awesome Private tutors for SAT prep. Imagine if everyone from every background can afford this advantage you are giving you kids they would probably find a way to get rid of the test altogether. I plan on doing the same thing as you for my boy when it is his turn but Based on that it is not a fair test. Great example of the difference between the have and have nots on a smaller scale. I could only imagine how much better I could have scored back in 1993 with a private SAT tutor. Probably a lot better than 1150 based on a 1600 top possible score. I’m curious what does something like that cost? Thanks
Imagine how awesome my life would be with a 14 inch cock. Unfortunately neither life nor nature is fair.
 
That is awesome Private tutors for SAT prep. Imagine if everyone from every background can afford this advantage you are giving you kids they would probably find a way to get rid of the test altogether. I plan on doing the same thing as you for my boy when it is his turn but Based on that it is not a fair test. Great example of the difference between the have and have nots on a smaller scale. I could only imagine how much better I could have scored back in 1993 with a private SAT tutor. Probably a lot better than 1150 based on a 1600 top possible score. I’m curious what does something like that cost? Thanks
I charge $50 per hour with 1 and 1/2 hours min. for English prep. One on one at a local library.
 
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Imagine how awesome my life would be with a 14 inch cock. Unfortunately neither life nor nature is fair.
I don’t need to win the big Powerball or MegaMillions.

A regular total would be fine. Or like half of that.
 
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Hey UMRU,
This is one of the areas I've worked on as an area of research for a number of years. (I'm a professor with a degree in measurement, evaluation, and statistical analysis.) Also, have tutored a number of friends' kids.

Here's the deal. The SATs are a set of questions to be solved. There are about a number of underlying formats for those questions (reading comp, sentence completion, etc.). In recent iterations of the test, ETS has moved toward making them more closely related to school subjects. When I took them (1967!), they were basically an IQ test based on your reading comp, vocabulary, and ability to solve math puzzles only marginally related to school subjects.

With regard to the verbal questions, it is important that your daughter is super familiar with the format of these questions and has a well-practiced "attack strategy" for approaching them. She wants to learn how to address these from someone who knows what they are talking about. She then needs to really rehearse those formats. Other than that, on the verbal questions, studying things like vocabulary is not really super helpful as the chances that something she studies will actually be on the test is pretty small (too many words in the English language!). But, getting her approach to taking the test down pat is key.

On the math side, it is a bit of a different story. Here, practice is key. The math questions come in several different varieties, but the superficial format looks the same. But there will be straightforward algebra questions, geometry questions, etc. Then there will be math puzzle type questions. This is where the rubber meets the road on getting a good score. A good tutor will show her how to "unlock" a number of these types of questions, and then, and this is key, she has to practice. It's like working on your jump shot. The more you do it, the better you will get, and (and this is key, too), the faster you will get at them. If you can knock off the easy ones faster, it gives you more time for the others, and also will cause you to panic over time less. You basically want to knock the rust off of your skills, and pick up some new ones.

If I lived closer than 10,000 miles away, I'd be happy to do an hour session with your daughter and check out her test-taking skills. Most kids are "OK" at test-taking, but could use some sharpening up. Some kids have awful test-taking skills, and I can pick those out fairly quickly.

One final thing. If she is going to take practice items, have her do it from real SAT items, not the ones that the companies who sell books make up. They are often crap at making up those items. They look superficially like SAT items, but they don't really measure the same skills. Also, don't listen to their claims of improvement. A lot of what you see in improvement is called "regression to the mean" due to measurement error. I could explain it, but it would take another post as long as this one!

Best of luck to your daughter, and if you have any questions, feel free to send me a personal message on the board.
I’m in India, if my wife and I ever have a kid, I’ll take up your offer of if I was closer than 10k miles away!
 
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Or you could just let your kid take the test as is, save thousands, and send her to an appropriate college. It really won't matter one bit in the grand scheme of life.
 
This is crazy. Because people can afford a tutor their kids get in to better schools.

Being born in the hood means staying in the hood huh?
Not at all. Some kids want to get into certain colleges and need a boost. Plenty of kids go to state schools and succeed in life. I think that has happened to Rutgers grads several times.
 
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