My daughter is a junior and she’s getting ready for college applications this coming Fall. She scored a 1380 on the PSAT and wants to take the SAT in March. Last Fall, 50% of the accepted applicants at her dream school scored between 1480 and 1550, 25% scored higher, and 25% scored lower. I think she should be shooting for 1500 or better. She has finished all the classes that cover the material on the tests, so she won’t be learning any new applicable material in school.

Given the above, how should she prepare? Buy the Princeton Review Book? Free online test prep, paid online test prep, tutoring? The prices run from free to a few thousand bucks.

I’d really like her to get a good score and be one and done. My oldest son had to take the test multiple times, the test dates conflicted with other activities (state championships, high school graduation, etc.), the process was dragged out, and I don’t want to do that again.

Remember all the other factors that go into play. There should be some local courses. If anything they teach strategy and help with confidence. Some kids do really well on these tests, others do not. Awhile back many of the colleges eliminated the ACT and SAT. Be sure and see what the average scores are for the college she wishes to attend. Eliminate those that have extremely high scores. These tests are huge moneymakers. Years ago you took the test once and that was it.

Let’s just say that other than not playing sports, everything else is good. I’ve looked at the scores and even posted them for her dream school. The school is test optional for 2024-25, but may not be next year and most applicants included their scores.

Just looking for the best way forward with the SAT.

Figure out how she learns and if she’ll do the work on her own and can figure out where she needs to improve on her own. The books using past tests are great but it can be difficult to figure out where you struggle and how to improve in those parts of the test. Then there’s the game part. It’s been decades but I recall there be being an optimal strategy on when to guess and when not to guess. A paid course will cover all of that and help her hone in on solving the test. It’s part knowledge and part knowing how to play the game. The in person classes are expensive. I suggest getting a book with old tests and having her take a test or two at home under test conditions. See where she’s at. Decide if self prep or a class is right for her.

Doesn't the Khan Academy have free SAT prep. courses?

I'm in New York state. Yep, too far away for your situation.
Colgate University (fairly local) is running a free PSAT/SAT preparation course.
It's being offered to any students that feel they need help.
My step daughter is a H/S junior also.
She's smarter (math & science) than any 16 year old deserves to be.
English... Not so spectacular.
Check with your daughters H/S guidance department.
If a similar opportunity is available locally, sign her up.
The advantage of having gifted H/S graduates teach the program is they have recent real world experience taking and preparing for the PSAT/SAT.

She's dual enrolled which means she's taking college classes while in high school and will have earned an AA degree when she graduates from high school. Her college does offer SAT/ACT prep courses for a reasonable price. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll ask her high school guidance consular about those.

Kahn Academy does offer free SAT prep which she has done, sort of. I think she needs something a little more structured.

I recommend she take the SAT & ACT and see which she does better on. She already took the PSAT, so why not take the ACT before the SAT?

Most students prefer one to the other. Could be the way the tests are structured. Could be that one is geared better to a student's strengths.

Test prep is a lot like working out or training for a sport. Some people do well &/or prefer exercising alone or perhaps w/ 1-2 friends. Others need a coach or personal trainer hovering over them.

As previously mentioned, get a book of old tests and practice taking them. You need to get used to how the the test sections are laid out, how they ask questions, how the answer choices are presented to confuse the test-taker, etc. Many people underperform on SATs, IQ tests, & similar, simply b/c they ask things in way that people don't encounter in everyday life.

After grading your exams, take time to figure out the questions you got wrong. It is way, way easier to do this now than in pre-internet days.

I am about 6 months ahead of you in a test prep sense. Meaning my daughter is a junior but we just finished grinding this out about 3 weeks ago. We were leaving the spring SAT tests as just in case if she needed to try to get a better score. Take what I'm saying as my best advise but may sound pompous, I'm not trying to do that, I'm trying to help you.

My daughter first took the PSAT as an 9th grader and got about 1400. She has pushed her math to multi variable calc right now. She will finish that in a week or two and start linear algebra. So math for her might be easier than it is for others.

Where is she in math class, she needs to be in pre-calc and doing well to score the highest. If not, maybe you need to concentrate on English to pick up the most points.

Her PSAT score was a 1520 (100%), her SAT is high 1500s.

Best key for math success is John Jung SAT cracker online. https://www.admissionhackers.com/sma-intro

She thinks his explanations were far and away the best.

For English you need to take tests and score them, and break them down into figuring out what you are missing and what you understand. Every test you have to score and evaluate the deficiency. Go through your wrong answers and figure out why. It's a process.

She worked for about 3 hours a day for 3 months. You have to grind it. As a family you have to mentally commit to doing the test as a team. Sleep cycle and food habits start 2 weeks out from test. If you're just sending her to her room to study, it's not good enough. You need to invest in the score as a family.

Work together and encourage it's a bitch!

Feel free to email me and I hope this information helps some people.

Thank you, that is helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:
I recommend she take the SAT & ACT and see which she does better on. She already took the PSAT, so why not take the ACT before the SAT?

She got a 28 on the ACT she took at the beginning of the month. She took a practice SAT the weekend before she took the PSAT and scored 720 on the math. On the actual PSAT, she score 660 math and 720 English. The SAT looks better at the moment for her. My oldest son did much better with the SAT as well.