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THE PROBLEMS WITH
THOSE OTHER PLACES: Most tutors &
instructors don't know what they are doing and there are many The
unfortunate reality is that most of the tutoring and test prep out there is
so awful, you are actually better off buying a book and doing self-study and
saving your money, or doing the free A) Inexperienced tutors /
instructors who can not teach confusing
explanations, WRONG & INCORRECT solutions and explanations B) PART-TIME TUTORS It is
IMPOSSIBLE for any person, no matter how smart or brilliant ( even someone
scoring 2400 or 36 in one try without studying), to have the time to prepare
and review what is required to properly teach the SAT or ACT just by working
part-time 5 – 10 hours a week. C) TUTORS WHO NEVER EVEN TOOK THE
SAT or ACT It is
IMPOSSIBLE for any person, no matter how smart or brilliant, to teach a test
THEY THEMSELVES NEVER TOOK D) TUTORS WHO CAN’T SOLVE THE
PROBLEMS E)
Random tutors or tutors who quit You
thought you were getting one tutor, but you ended up with another tutor.
Classic bait and switch. Secondly, when there are multiple tutors working
with the same student, it becomes a disorganized mess where the next tutor
has no idea what has already been done and what still needs to be done. Part-time
seasonal tutors are just that: They work during Summer Break or Winter Break.
They quit when they want, or go on vacation, or go off to college or graduate
school. Your kid still has several weeks to go, but suddenly your tutor is
gone. F) No Teaching? Yes – That happens -
“Tutors” just read off answers ( A B C D E ) from the answer key and read
from the instructor’s manual. \ - Self-study: you read explanations and
solutions in their handouts which are ACTUALLY OFTEN INCORRECT explanations.
It still amazes me that parents are willing to pay for tutoring to have their
kids are studying on their own. That’s the easiest
tutoring job in the world – they don’t have to teach anything! - Class
time is only spent on self-study or taking test after test, again more wasted
time that you could have done on your own. -
Instructor is little more than a room monitor G) Wasted lesson time that you
paid for Other tutors
and test prep companies waste valuable lesson time by going over material you
already know, reading over questions and thinking of explanations before
teaching the students ( because they haven’t seen
those questions before ), talking very slowly, taking breaks, starting
lessons late and ending early, and having you sit there taking a test while
the tutor looks at his or her phone. Because
it’s impossible to predict how quickly or slowly a class will move, every
tutoring company pads leftover time with filler busy-work where no teaching
happens. Worse
yet, if there are rotating tutors, the new tutor doesn’t know what you have
already gone over, so time is wasted figuring that out, and more time wasted
repeating what was already done. Suddenly
that cheap tutoring wasn’t so cheap anymore. And that expensive tutoring just
got a lot more expensive.
“Test-taking
strategies” "Proven methods" that are WRONG don't work and actually
TAKE DOWN scores - Wrong
information about SAT & ACT question types and concepts tested Many SAT
& ACT courses just don’t know what they are talking about. “Don’t
waste time reading the passages. Skim and only read the parts they ask
about.” “For
English Grammar questions, choose the answer that sounds right” “For the
essay, always write five paragraphs, and start with a “hook” or “catch” “The
Earth is flat.”
This is
the best strategy I have ever heard “Listen for what SOUNDS WRONG... don’t
worry about why it’s wrong” That’s some
great advice.
Fake / simulated SAT
or ACT exams Fake
tests may look the similar but test different concepts and have a different
thinking and logic. The real
SAT and ACT questions test students with a very specific thinking, logic, and
problem-solving ability. So? The fake
tests cover different material, are a different level of difficulty, OFTEN
HAVE ERRORS ( even real tests which are proofread & reviewed on several
levels have errors ), and DO NOT HAVE ACCURATE SCORING because they have NOT
BEEN TAKEN BY THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS for a scoring curve The
following are actual fake tests
Reviewing Irrelevant & Unnecessary Material A waste
of time reviewing stuff NOT TESTED ON THE SAT OR ACT. You might
as well review some Calculus AB and US History while you are at it
Reviewing only part
of what tested on the SAT or ACT Unless
you have taken, analyzed and reviewed more than 10 actual SATs or ACTs, there is no way to know the scope and range of
tested material 60% - 70%
coverage of what is tested.
Reviewing material
based on a computerized diagnostic If those
computerized diagnostics were right, then just reviewing those topics would
make the score go up, right? WRONG. Getting
the wrong answer isn’t just because a student doesn’t know that concept. It
goes to a deeper level: critical thinking and problem solving skills. Ever
wonder why your kid has good grades and yet bad test scores? Useless!
Useless
computerized diagnostic
Useless
computerized diagnostic
Useless
computerized diagnostic 100 Hour courses:
Quantity is more important than Quality it seems So you
think just having your kid take 10 practice tests will increase their score? How
about 20 practice tests? If it was that simple and that worked, you could
just buy a book of practice tests. The
fact is taking test after test without going through the questions is
useless. First, you actually need to go through ALL the questions on the
test, not just the ones missed. Secondly, research has shown a person can
only meaningfully learn about 2 to 4 new complex concepts a day, which means
that any additional material being forced into a person’s head simply won’t
stay there. 50 to 80
hour courses just taking test after test ( each test
is 4 hours long ) without learning anything. (You can do that for FREE,
instead of paying those places $1000). Merely taking tests without going
through them is useless. 10 hours
of bad / wrong tutoring can’t equal 1 hour of good tutoring. Splitting classes up
by topic, with separate tutors & instructors Many
places will have separate Read, Writing, Math, and Essay classes, and a
different instructor for each. Don’t
believe it’s because they have a This is
actually so no one instructor knows the entire course and steals clients. Also, as
a part-time instructor, it’s easier just to “teach” a small portion of the
material and go back to your regular life. What
really happens is you end up with a chaotic, disorganized, incoherent course, where students have to sit
through material they already know. This
created a problem my students never deal with: Do I need 3 math lessons, 2
English lessons, 1 Essay or 2 Math, 3 English, 2 Reading? The one-size fits all LARGE CLASS where students have to sit for
hours each day and listen to stuff they already
know. Group Tutoring ( 2 to 5 students ) a logistical disorganized mess designed to
rake in profits It's impossible
to properly teach anything when you have 2 - 5 kids all working on different
tests, at different parts of the course. This is even WORSE than a class
because at least in a class everyone is doing with same stuff and going
through the same questions Outrageous,
unconscionable prices $250 per
hour? Yes, that’s how much Kaplan and No one
likes to see their money wasted. When you go to those other tutoring centers,
your money pays for the nice looking office, new tables and chairs, the copy
machine and microwave and mini refrigerator, the front office staff who look
at social media and shopping sites all day, and other expenses. Not here.
Everything goes straight into the tutoring.
$1000
per hour? $1500 per hour?
(C)
Solutions SAT ACT Tutoring www.solutionsbayarea.com info@solutionsbayarea.com |
