Posted by ali on May 28, 2001 at 13:28:39:
In Reply to: Parents, please share your SAT experiences posted by Patricia on May 10, 2001 at 14:09:53:
My daughter has just finished her junior year.... I bought $150+++ dollars of books, and CD ROM to help her prepare ..... they sat on the desk gathering dust.
She wrote her first SAT in January and we used that as a baseline (reality SAT .... it's not like sitting at home and writing one) and she and I knew she could do better.
We talked and found that after a day of school ... she wasn't prepared to work out of another book and try to figure out the best way of attacking the questions.
Soooo.... I checked around and the best local prep course was Sylvan Learning Centers "IVY PREP" It's in the $700 range. (YIKES)
One Center had a class with 4 students twice a week. Another Center gave my daughter individual instruction twice a week for the 12 weeks plus a baseline, mid-time and final SAT exam inhouse. We took that one tho' it meant driving farther.
The results????? She took actual SAT's 3 times.
Once in Jan before the prep course
Once in March - midway through
The final in May - right at the end of the course. I didn't plan the timing but it worked out well.
The results ...Her verbal in Jan was 540. It went down to 510 midway thru the course and back up to 540 at the end. She does not like to read and this reflects that if you don't like doing something ... nothing will help.
Her math .... Went from 510 in January to 640 halfway thru the course ... then stayed there. She LOVED the math help and it gave her strategies of how to attach the problems.
My conclusion: The course was worth the 130 jump in math.
She wants to break 1200 and says she'll work on the verbal over the summer .. My opinion is that is wishful thinking on her part that she'll study in the summer and I'm taking the 1180 and making early college application with it!!! (The above is because I know my daughter ... I'm not saying NO child will study in the summer)
Good luck to you .... my second daughter has seen the above and wants to take a trial test to see where she stands and prepare earlier than her sister.
ali