The Perfect Score Project: Uncovering the Secrets of the SAT Author: Debbie Stier | Language: English | ISBN:
B009MYAQ0O | Format: EPUB
The Perfect Score Project: Uncovering the Secrets of the SAT Description
The Perfect Score Project is an indispensable guide to acing the SAT – as well as the affecting story of a single mom’s quest to light a fire under her teenage son.
It all began as an attempt by Debbie Stier to help her high-school age son, Ethan, who would shortly be studying for the SAT. Aware that Ethan was a typical teenager (i.e., completely uninterested in any test) and that a mind-boggling menu of test-prep options existed, she decided – on his behalf -- to sample as many as she could to create the perfect SAT test-prep recipe.
Debbie’s quest turned out to be an exercise in both hilarity and heartbreak as she took the SAT seven times in one year and in-between “went to school” on standardized testing. Here, she reveals why the SAT has become so important, the cottage industries it has spawned, what really works in preparing for the test and what is a waste of time.
Both a toolbox of fresh tips and an amusing snapshot of parental love and wisdom colliding with teenage apathy, The Perfect Score Project rivets. In the book Debbie does it all: wrestles with Kaplan and Princeton Review, enrolls in Kumon, navigates khanacademy.org, meets regularly with a premier grammar coach, takes a battery of intelligence tests, and even cadges free lessons from the world’s most prestigious (and expensive) test prep company.
Along the way she answers the questions that plague every test-prep rookie, including: “When do I start?”...”Do the brand-name test prep services really deliver?”...”Which should I go with: a tutor, an SAT class, or self study?”...”Does test location really matter?” …“How do I find the right tutor?”… “How do SAT scores affect merit aid?”... and “What’s the one thing I need to know?”
The Perfect Score Project’s combination of charm, authority, and unexpected poignancy makes it one of the most compulsively readable guides to SAT test prep ever – and a book that will make you think hard about what really matters.
From the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 1458 KB
- Print Length: 306 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: B009NKTFDG
- Publisher: Harmony (February 25, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B009MYAQ0O
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,110 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Education > By Level > College - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Education > By Level > High School - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > High School
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Education > By Level > College - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Education > By Level > High School - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > High School
Debbie Stier took the dreaded SAT as an adult. Not once, not twice -- but seven times! Debbie's teens were hurtling toward their date with this fearsome test when she embarked on a quest to uncover the most effective ways to study for the test. What better way than to be your own guinea pig!
Debbie's enthusiasm will have you rooting for her and her kids all the way. She's a cheerful test taker and a creative student. At one point, she makes her kitchen into a "wall sheet" of SAT scribbles, actually writing in a rainbow of brightly colored markers on her cabinet doors. One of her chapters is titled, "An Absolutely Fabulous Month of Math." I've never seen anyone put the words "fabulous" and "math" together without a snicker.
The author makes a great guide for those of us in her shoes. She dives into the SAT test prep industry, sampling everything from homemade flash cards to an elite (and expensive) Advantage Testing tutor. She tells us which books and methods to ditch, and which to sink our money into. I used an entire pad of sticky notes marking pages with advice I intend to follow!
How does all of Debbie's hard work pay off? Read the book to find out. Regardless of the actual outcome, Debbie was delighted to discover that studying together with her children, her son Ethan in particular, brought them closer together as a family. "In the end, what the project brought to my life was... happy bonding with my children," she says. (Although, lest you think her endeavor was continually blessed with big, yellow smiley faces, she admits her children weren't always as enthused as she was.)
Having just read Malcolm Gladwell's
This book was a complete and exceedingly entertaining surprise! My own experience with the SAT was scarring and traumatic. I definitely had reservations about reading a book that would take me back to that disappointing experience. But from the beginning I was easily swept up by the author’s determination to dispel the mysticism that adds to the test’s enormous intimidation. Debbie approached the goal of getting a perfect score with the belief that consistent and methodical hard work can make it happen. The over-achieving nerd in me, who always believed the same despite abysmal SAT scores, was hooked!
Debbie’s journey as a student was the most engaging aspect of her story. I hadn’t realized how many unresloved bad feelings I still had for the standardized testing process until I rediscovered them witnessing Debbie take test after test after test. It is a profoundly inhumane process. For myself, I found witnessing her varied tutoring/study approaches and testing experiences fascinating and emotionally healing. I know there are many other teenagers and adults who identify as smart, ambitious and nonplussed by the disparity between a shining high school track record and terrible SAT scores. The abundance of tips Debbie learns and SHARES in the book had me thinking, “Had I known that!” Those tips made me better understand where I had gone wrong and even had me thinking I might try a test just for myself again one day. The fact that I was feeling inspired to try the damnable SAT again was shocking and a testament to the book’s valuable information.
I actually wanted to try again, so as to reclaim my experience and do away with having felt S-T-U-P-I-D. Debbie’s book is an invaluable guide that every teenager, parent, guidance counselor and educator should read!!!
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