Many people argue that the SAT should not be coached. Can’t my child just buy a book and prepare on his or her own?
Your child can, in fact, prepare on his or her own. Many students have been very successful preparing for entrance exams on their own. Many of the highest achieving students, however, are also the individuals that have the most difficult time taking charge of their own test preparation. This is because they value achievements outside of school as much as they value academics, and rightfully so, because academics alone will not get a student into a competitive college. Planning a course involves diagnosing a student’s strengths and weaknesses, breaking down exactly how many hours should be spent on weaknesses and how many remaining hours should be spent on strengths, creating weekly and monthly plans for study and practice, committing to those plans, and charting progress. A student with few commitments might be able to pull this off, but a busy student will almost never motivate him or herself to prioritize studying for the SAT.
