Early in their junior year, most students start thinking seriously about college for the first time. For most, the first step is taking the PSAT, a test which is a good predictor on how students will score on the SAT. Unfortunately for many, PSAT scores are a wake up call - an unpleasant signal of the long road ahead to score well on the SAT. Parents and students should both heed these warnings.
Shockingly, many students navigate their school years receiving good or very good grades, only to have the SAT or ACT test reveal a dirty little secret: they don’t read as well as they should. Too often, many parents students dismiss low scores with the simple explanation of “She just doesn’t test well.” To be sure, many test takers suffer from test anxiety, and while this certainly can contribute to low scores, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Detailed SAT score reports can show, empirically, reading skill deficiencies.
In our experience, any student who scores below 500 on the reading section of the SAT is probably not reading at grade level. Regrettably, anxiety-ridden parent and students think only in the short term: “I’ve got to get these scores up so that I can get into xxxxx College.” And while raising score is important, parents and students should also understand that getting into college is just the next step; succeeding in college, where the difficulty and volume of required reading increases exponentially, will be the big challenge over the next four years.
What’s a Parent To Do?
If your child scores below 500 on the reading section of the SAT, you should be mindful of the thousands of dollars you are about to invest in your child’s education -- and start thinking about protecting that investment now. Hiring a reading tutor, or enrolling in a reading program may just be the smartest investment you can make, one that can not only get those SAT scores up, put also pave the way for success in college.
Think Tutoring Has a High School Reading Program that considers both short and long-term goals, combining strategies for improved comprehension, vocabulary as well as excercises for increasing a student's reading rate. For more information, call us at 973-593-0050.