The Testive Blog

The top 5 questions to know "How high can I score on the SAT?"

  

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One question that all test prep companies, teachers and tutors get from students is "How high can I score on the SAT?"

Acutally, this question usually comes from parents and can pretty much always be interpreted as "How high can my child score on the SAT if I pay your exhorbitant prices?"

No wait, that's not even really what they are asking. If you boil it down further the real question here is "How much do I have to pay to get my kid into Harvard?"

Now you know why every teacher starts hemming and hawwing at this question. You can't buy your way into Harvard. Or at least you can't buy your way in Harvard via SAT prep courses. To pull that one off you're talking new library money.

What most teachers respond with is an equally opaque series of qualifiers before they say something that translates as "Solid improvement is possible if the student works hard, but I can't be held responsible for failure."

Let us provide a bit of insight into the factors that dertermine your potential score increase.

1. How many times have you taken the test?

• The first secret of test prep is that most students tend to improve between the first and second time they take the test without any prep in between. Students get more familiar with the pacing, the flow of the day and the stress of a long high-stakes exam.

2. How much have you prepped so far?

• The semi-mythical ideal test preparation candidate is that smart, motivated, diligent student who hasn't done anything to prepare until now. You can imagine why prep companies love these students. They listen, they try, and, of course, they get better. That said, these are also the students for whom prep classes can be the most worthwhile. After all, they listen, they try and as a result they get better faster than they would without any guidance.

3. How much energy are you willing to put into this?

• We try our best to ask our students this in a tough and direct way, but there's no dancing around the fact that this question is a reminder that no matter how good the teacher, most learning happens with the student. 

  The more time and discipline the student puts in, the better the score. It's also a tacit acknowledgment that many students end up in SAT prep programs because they are not disciplined and their parents want to pay someone to bring the discipline. 

  On the other had, it's not uncommon to also see very self-aware students recognize that they benefit from some external deadlines and pressures. Preparation programs are great for these students because they are aware of the dynamics of why they are there (rather than just doing self-study).

4. Are you dumb?

• Okay, no one has ever actually asks this question, but you can be sure that it's on everyone's mind: often, tragically, the student's. We believe to the core of our being that everyone has the capacity to learn. We also believe that great teachers optimize that capacity within each student. 

  Still, different people have different capacities to learn different things at different speeds. Add up all those differents and you, as a teacher, become painfully aware that not every student has the time and focus in their life to learn enough to get to the big score jump. High scores on the SAT are possible for nearly every student, but for some it would mean studying nothing else for months on end to the point of failing all your other classes. That defeats the purpose.

5. Where are you starting from?

• Going from a 500 to a 600 is easier than going from a 600 to a 700 and closing that final gap between 700 and 800 is the difference between being merely great at something and being reliably perfect at it under unimaginably high stress conditions. 

  That is to say it's hard. 

  A big part of your potential score gain is related to your baseline. That's part of why all SAT prep classes start with an assessment. It's also part of why we create our rapid assessments at Testive. You can register for our 15 question SAT Math diagnostic at Testive.com. 

  It's not a substitute for taking a full length tests, but our adaptive algorithms will pound you with a bunch of questions at the edge of your ability level. So it's a pretty good indicator of where you're starting from.

But, how much can you increase your score? Well, in the end we have to give you the same answer as every SAT teacher ... it depends.

Photo Courtesy: Puuiki Beach