I just got off the phone with an overwhelmed parent.

As I’m writing this, it’s August 24. She signed up her son to take the ACT on September 11. She was calling back to cancel his lesson. He was so busy with other school work that he wouldn’t be able to see me until the weekend.

And he had just started with tutoring!

You can probably see what a mistake that is. It’s alwasy easier to see when it’s somebody else. But while this might be an extreme case, it’s an all too common situation.

The first semester of senior year, and the last couple weeks of the summer leading up to it, are an incredibly busy time. There’s sports practice, summer assigments, a heavier and more difficult course load, homework, tests, your last chance to take the SAT or ACT, campus visits, college applications, admissions essays, and often a job.

With so much to do, it’s no wonder that students and their parents often feel overwhelmed!

So what do you do about it? You prioritize.

We all do, all the time. Some things are more important, so we do them first. We’ll get to the other stuff later if we can.

So what’s the problem?

Most people don’t prioritize SAT prep. That’s a huge mistake!

I understand why people make it, though:

• There are no immediate consequences to not making SAT prep a higher priority.
• The SAT is still weeks away.
• Getting your score is even further away.
• Nobody will be angry with you if you don’t get a better SAT or ACT score, except you.
• There’s no absolute guarantee that a higher score will get you into the college of your choice.
• Many other things on the list are happening now, and you’ll immediately feel the negative consequences of dropping the ball.
• If you don’t do your homework, or don’t go to practice, or don’t hand in your homework, or fail your math test, someone else will be upset with you, you’ll have to deal with that right away, and you’d rather not have that unpleasantness.
• And finally, if you’re a parent reading this, you have to deal with your son or daughter complaining that they don’t have time for SAT prep!

It’s OK. I really do understand.

As human beings, we’re all designed to value things that will happen sooner more than those that happen later. And we’re all designed to value avoiding painful consequences more than the possiblity of making something good happen.

But when you put off SAT or ACT prep and assign it a lower priority than all of the other, more immediate things on your plate, it’s like having to be somewhere at 2 PM, knowing it takes an hour to get there, still being home at 1:30, and convincing yourself that, technically, you’re not late yet.

Guess what. If I’ve just described you, you’re going to be late.

Here are some reasons why you should make SAT or ACT prep your top priority:

• Getting a higher SAT or ACT score is the single most important thing you can do at this point in time to increase your chances of getting in to the college of your choice.
• Your SAT or ACT score, which most students take only twice, is as important to your chances of getting in to college as all of your high school grades combined.
• A score increase of even 100 points can make a HUGE difference in your chance of admission to the college of your choice.
• The combination of a motivated student and a skilled tutor can easily result in a 100 to 300 point SAT score increase (and a 2 to 6 point ACT score increase) in a short period of time.
• It gives you the biggest return on your investment of time and money.
• This means it’s FAR more important to do SAT or ACT prep than any single piece of homework.
• And far more important than your college applications, which can wait until you’ve taken these tests.
• I won’t even mention how much more important it is than any one sports practice.

Take a minute and convince yourself of the truth of what I’m sharing with you.

When you become certain of your priorities, suddenly everything else seems less overwhelming. And it becomes much easier to stand your ground with a teacher, a coach, a boss, or a college counselor who tells you otherwise.

I came across an article in USA Today that stated,

“…in the new study, 20% to 40% of officials at 130 colleges that consider the SAT in admissions said a 20-point math increase or a 10-point reading increase would ’significantly improve a student’s chances of admissions’ if all other factors in a student’s application were the same.”

That’s how competitive the college admissions game is today.

This information must be making it’s way around the blogosphere again, because the article is from last May,  and the study it cites is the one commissioned by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors that I cited in my first post, yet I was still stunned to read these facts.

If a 30 point increase can make the difference in some cases, imagine what a 150 or 300 point increase can do.

It can open the gates of admission to the college of your dreams. Imagine how good that would feel.

I can help you achieve it in 3 to 6 months of tutoring, and much less time in some cases.

Isn’t that worth spending a few hours a week for?

The most important skill a tutor must have is helping a student reach his or her full potential.

In “How to Choose an SAT Tutor – Part 3″, we looked at are some questions that can help you figure out how good at this a prospective tutor might be.

Now let’s take a look at how to determine if he knows how to help your son or daughter in the areas where it’s hardest to improve.

7) How do you eliminate careless mistakes in the Math section?

You can think of a careless mistake as one where you knew the right answer, but made some sort of mistake along the way. The issue isn’t carelessness, though, it’s a loss of focus.

When doing a math problem, a student has to do 3 things correctly.

He has to read the problem correctly, meaning he has to know what information the problem is giving him, and what specifically it’s asking him to solve for. Then he has to figure out how to solve it. Finally he has to do a calculation correctly. If he makes a mistake anywhere along the way, he gets the problem wrong.

An unskilled tutor will simply say that careless errors come from rushing and the solution is to slow down. Or he’ll say that nothing can be done about them.

A skilled tutor knows that the way to eliminate careless errors is for the student to take a few seconds after reading the problem and ask himself, “Did I read this correctly?”  Then after finishing the problem and before moving on to the next one, take a few seconds and ask, “Did I calculate this correctly?”

When mastered, that’s a silver bullet.

A skilled tutor knows that “careless” errors happen when a student loses focus. He might not describe the steps to correct them exactly as I have here, but should know they’re correctable and have a plan to do it.

8.) What’s the key for a student who wants to improve his score in Critical Reading?

Reading more and studying vocabulary are two important steps a student can take to get a better score on this section of the SAT, but if a tutor gives you this answer, you have to follow up, because it passes all the responsibility to the student.

There are two other keys to improvement that a tutor should know.

A skilled tutor knows that the most important thing to focus on in the reading passages is the main idea of the passage. When a student who’s a pretty good reader has trouble with this section, it’s often because he got stuck on the details and missed the main point.

A skilled tutor also knows that students who do really well on this section use the process of elimination to eliminate the answers that are clearly wrong, then pick the best remaining answer.  Unlike in math, where the right answer is clearly right, in the Critical Reading section a student has to look for the best possible answer among the choices given.

Give the tutor extra credit if he tells you that if a student is still unsure of the answer after eliminating those that are clearly wrong, he should pick the one that most closely reflects the main idea of the passage.

The Critical Reading section is the hardest one to improve on. If a tutor doesn’t give you one of these answers, he won’t be able to help your child on this section.

9) What material should you practice with, official College Board SAT material, or proprietary material designed by a test prep company?

A skilled tutor will only use official College Board material. A student has to know exactly what’s going to be on the test. Pattern recognition is extremely important. The only way to do that is to use official material.

It’s fine to use material produced by a third party to remediate a lack of knowledge. If a student is weak in algebra or geometry, is sorely lacking in grammar, or needs additional practice in reading comprehension, a skilled tutor might use additional material to teach and practice the concepts.

However, if a tutor doesn’t use the College Board’s own material for the bulk of his work with your son or daughter, look for a different tutor.

Final thoughts

Here’s what happens when a student takes his SAT score to the next level.

He learns that he can do things he didn’t know he could do before.

He sees the improvement in his homework and on his practice tests. He believes that his efforts are paying off and expects to do well. His confidence and self image as a student and a test taker grows, which motivates him to practice even harder. The process builds on itself.

A skilled tutor knows how it works. He knows it’s all about helping his students have an inner shift, the right frame of mind, and a positive attitude. Then the material covered on the test, the problem solving skills, and even the level of focus he needs to do really well become pretty easy to learn.

Use these questions as a guide. They’ll help you find the right tutor for you. When it comes to getting the highest SAT score possible, that makes all the difference.

The skill and experience of the tutor who’ll be working with your child is more important than the reputation of the company that the tutor works for, as we learned in “How to Choose an SAT Tutor – Part 2″.

Here are some questions that will allow you to gauge what level of skill the prospective tutor actually has in the most important area: How to help a student reach his or her full potential.

4) What are the most important factors in getting the best score possible?

The first is “focus.” Focus is the most important factor in getting the best score possible. When taking the SAT, if a student isn’t paying full attention at every moment, he’ll get questions wrong when he knows how to get them right.

Answers that seem right but are actually wrong are built into every section of the test. A skilled tutor knows this and is always helping his students sharpen their focus. It’s the absolute, number one key at all score levels.

The second factor is motivation or perseverance. As President Obama said in his back to school speech,

“People succeed because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time… If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying. No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work… You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.”1

Studying for the SAT can be frustrating. It can make a student feel stupid sometimes. The key is to keep working at it.

It sounds obvious, but sometimes that’s what eludes us. If a tutor doesn’t know that motivation and perseverance are the key to massive improvement, he either hasn’t worked with enough students, or he doesn’t know how to help his students address these challenges.

5) What are the 3 keys to keeping a student motivated?

The first is knowing why you want to get your results. When a student is motivated by a strong desire to get into a particular school, she’ll stay motivated to push ahead with studying for the SAT even when it gets tough.

The second key is expecting a positive outcome. If a student gets discouraged and feels like she won’t reach her goal, her motivation to keep studying will weaken. When a student expects to be successful, her motivation will stay strong.

The third key to staying motivated is enjoying the process. It really helps when the tutoring sessions are fun and engaging.

A skilled tutor will impact all of these areas. If a tutor says that motivation is purely the student’s responsibility, find a different tutor.

6) How do you accurately gauge a student’s strengths and weaknesses? How do you gauge her potential score?

A skilled tutor will interactively go through official College Board SAT material with a student and carefully watch how she works. When she struggles, he’ll ask her what she’s thinking and listen carefully to her response. He’ll offer suggestions and see how she responds. He’ll encourage her to ask questions of her own.  He’ll be patient and watch how she responds to instruction.

A skilled tutor eliminates the pressure of time and creates a relaxed atmosphere. He knows that going slow is the key to building a student’s confidence. It shows both the tutor and his student what the student really knows and what she doesn’t, what her real level is.

It’s often the case that someone who thinks she’s bad at math, for example, rushes the questions because she’s nervous or insecure. She’ll get more questions wrong this way, of course, and reinforce her belief that she’s bad at it. The same is true for someone who thinks she’s bad at reading.

In order to know a student’s true potential, the tutor has to create the conditions for it to come out.

A skilled tutor knows that every student is different. When a tutor works with a student this way, it takes no more than a few hours to see what her real issues are, identify her strengths and weaknesses, and formulate a plan to help her improve based who she is as an individual.

A tutor who works this way can not only assess his student’s potential score, he can also give her a taste of reaching it, and show her what she needs to get there.

If a tutor tells you the way to do it is with a diagnostic test, walk away. If the he tells you that he plans to give a diagnostic test that’s produced by a test prep company rather an official College Board SAT, run.

The results of a diagnostic test can only show what questions a student got wrong, not why, and it can’t show a student her potential, only her limitations.

A tutor who’s focused on limitations can’t get the most out of his students.

Now it’s time to ask about the two things that are hardest to improve. “How to Choose an SAT Tutor – Part 4″.

You need to find a tutor who understands his students, as we learned in “How to Choose an SAT Tutor – Part 1″.

It’s not sufficient for a tutor to know the SAT material and the test taking techniques. Tutors and coaches who consistently help the large majority of their students achieve huge score increases know how to help their students prepare mentally and emotionally, not just academically, for the SAT. A great tutor or coach understands, and can help his students learn, the inner game.

A tutor like that is not easy to find. Here are some questions to ask, and the answers to expect, to help you make the right choice.

1) Can I speak directly to the tutor you plan to assign to my child?

If you’re thinking of hiring a tutor from a company such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, Revolution, or any other company of that nature, ask them if you can speak to the tutor they plan to assign to your son or daughter before you make a commitment to hire them.

It’s not enough to know the company’s philosophy or the company’s track record. If they won’t allow you to speak with the tutor directly before you make a final decision, walk away.

Of course they train their tutors, and would never send a tutor who didn’t understand the algebra or know the grammar rules. It’s not enough that the tutor knows the material. You have to ask the specific tutor himself the questions that follow, and receive satisfactory answers, or you run a high risk of getting a tutor who can’t help your child.

2) Do you have testimonials or references?

Every tutor will have them. The important thing here is that if you’re considering a tutor from a test prep company, you have to get testimonials or references for that tutor himself. You can’t rely on those for the company in general.

3) How much experience do you have?

Experience doesn’t equal effectiveness. Someone with 7 years of experience won’t necessarily be better than someone with only three. However, a tutor with only a year or two of experience hasn’t worked with enough students.

Every student is different. They have different issues, different learning styles, different personalities, and different roadblocks that get in the way of doing their best. You can’t count on a tutor with only a couple of years of experience to handle the particular challenges that your son or daughter will face on her way to getting the score she deserves.

Once you know these basics, it’s time to ask more questions. “How to Choose an SAT Tutor – Part 3″.

Everybody is lying about SAT prep. Here are 5 of the biggest lies, and the people who tell them.

1) Gaston Caperton, the President of the College Board, which administers the SAT, is lying about SAT prep.

Yesterday in the NY Times, Mr. Caperton responded to this question from a reader, “How does the College Board feel about SAT test preparation?”

His response?

“Research shows that short-term prep can’t replace years of learning, and it won’t result in big score gains.”

He’s completely wrong. Everything is coachable.

Business, politics, sports, dieting, fitness, cooking, and acting are just some of the fields where skilled coaching can help a motivated “student” advance much faster than he or she would otherwise without the benefit of such help.

Why would anybody expect a high stakes test like the SAT to be any different?

I wonder if Mr. Caperton ever had a mentor at some point in his political or business career. Assuming that he did, I would bet that he probably performed better and rose faster because of having a mentor than other people who did not have access to such coaching.

The study he’s referring to states that, “average gains are more in the neighborhood of 30 points.”

What’s the problem? The term “average” is meaningless.

I don’t doubt that if you averaged together all of the students who did any kind of paid test preparation you might get an average increase of 30 points. If you average all the families in America, we have an average of 1.7 kids.

2) The large (and medium size) test prep companies are lying about SAT prep.

They run tons of students through their programs and trot out a couple of them who raised their score a few hundred points.

Then they say, “250 point score increase!”

It’s like a fad diet or a weight loss pill. “Amanda lost 180 pounds and went from a size 24 to size 8!”

Sure, some people do lose that weight, and some students will have huge score gains with competent instruction.

Most people won’t. Not with a generic, “one size fits all” approach.

3) People who say that the SAT only measures how well you take standardized tests, and therefore can be “gamed” with some sort of test taking tricks are lying about SAT prep.

Seriously? There’s a clear difference in academic ability between a student who scores, for example, a 2250 and an 1800. There’s a clear difference between one who scores a 1400 and an 1850.

To pretend otherwise is just insulting to all of the students who worked hard and applied themselves in school, or put in the time with a skilled tutor or good class, and did well on the test.

4) The people at FairTest, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing, are lying about SAT prep.

FairTest claims that because test preparation can help a student raise his score, that makes the SAT invalid for use in the college admissions process.

Again, seriously?

Of course there are many other factors, other than test scores, which contribute to how well a student will do in college.

Want to know the biggest one? Motivation to study hard.

What else does motivation to study hard produce? A better score on the SAT!

5) Some high school college counselors are lying about SAT prep.

I hate to say this one. And I want to be clear that I’m saying “some”, not “all”.

Some college counselors tell their students not to put too much effort into studying for the SAT. They tell their students that high school grades are more important.

That’s true, to a point. But remember this:

By the time most kids get ready to take the SAT, they’ve already completed 5 semesters of high school. Those grades are sealed, and they no longer have any control over them.

What do they have control over? Two semester’s worth of grades, and their SAT scores.

Students who don’t study for the SAT are greatly harming their chances for admission to the college of their choice.

So those are the lies. At least some of them.

Want to know the truth? Stop back soon.

What to look for in a tutor

Whether your son or daughter is shooting for a perfect SAT score, happy to break a 1700, or somewhere in between, you want to choose a tutor who can help her to break through to the next level and reach her potential.

A personalized stress-free approach

Since junior and senior year of high school are a busy time, you also want a tutor who can craft an approach that will be easiest for your particular child and most conducive to learning without stress. There’s work involved, of course, but the right SAT tutor should increase her confidence, calm her fears, inspire and motivate her, help her to focus, and take an approach to tutoring that’s tailored to her particular strengths and weakness and works best for her personally.

To get a good SAT score, it’s not just “what you know” that counts

A skilled tutor knows that taking the SAT is similar to activities like sports and theater; there are many factors that affect someone’s performance. It’s not always what a student knows or how talented he is that makes the difference. If you want your child to perform at his best in a super stressful, make or break test taking situation, you have to choose a tutor who can help him prepare mentally and emotionally, not just academically, for the test.

The right SAT tutor will help your child learn exactly what’s going to be on the test and how to approach it. As importantly, the right tutor will help him learn the mentality to have while taking the test and the mentality to have while studying. That’s the combination that results in a greatly improved score.

It’s relatively easy to find a tutor who understands the material that’s tested on the SAT and the problem solving methods. It’s hard to find a tutor who understands his students.

In “How to Choose an SAT Tutor – Part 2″ we’ll look at some key questions to ask, and some answers to look for, to help you make this very important decision.

Hiring an SAT tutor is not for everyone.

It’s a big investment of time and money.

Quite frankly, not every student will make the most of the opportunity. Not every student will put in the effort that it takes to succeed.

When you give a motivated student a highly skilled tutor or coach, you can produce extraordinary results. It’s important to remember, though, that the key word is “motivated.”

Before you decide to make that investment, ask yourself honestly in your heart of hearts, “Do I have a kid who says he wants something but doesn’t put in the effort to get it, who quits when things get hard, who’s always making excuses and never takes responsibility?

“Or, do I have a special kid who cares about his future, who wants to improve, and who’s willing to put in some effort to reach his goals?”

There’s no question that when a student does put in the effort, it can result in a huge increase in his SAT score. Let’s examine a few reasons why hiring the right tutor can make a big difference.

1. It’s hard to get into a good college today. The number of applicants to the most desired schools has gone up dramatically in recent years. The number of students being admitted has stayed fairly constant. Many of the top private and state schools are reporting record low admissions rates.

Are you considering a top public university? In the spring of 2009, UCLA admitted only 21% of its applicants, the lowest rate of any public university in the country. UC Berkeley wasn’t far behind with an admission rate of 23%.

Considering a top private school? Some Ivy League universities had admission rates of less than 10%. The top small private colleges had admission rates in the teens.

2. You’ll pay as much, if not more, at many mid-ranking private colleges and universities as you will at the most selective schools. In a recent study of the cost and quality of a college education, Malcom Gertz, a professor of economics at Vanderbilt, found that the price of tuition is not directly associated with the quality of education. In fact, the most selective colleges offer the most financial help.

3. Projected lifetime income for students at the most selective colleges and universities is significantly higher than it is for students at less selective universities. According to Caroline Hoxley, a Stanford based economist, the average difference in projected income is $1.2 million.

4. Higher SAT scores mean a greater likelihood of a getting a merit based grant or scholarship.

5. Perhaps most importantly, a significantly higher SAT score increases the likelihood that your child will get into the school of his dreams.

Choosing a college is an enormous decision. Better SAT scores mean more choices. Now more than ever, the stakes are high. Test preparation isn’t just another educational expense – it’s an investment in your child’s future.

Of course, when it comes to choosing a tutor for SAT prep, there are a lot of options. Here’s how to choose a tutor who can help your child get the SAT score he deserves.

Getting a better score on the SAT is mostly about attitude.

That’s according to my recent student Kayla. She raised her score 320 points, and if you watch the video, she tells you straight out.

Here’s her mom’s take on it.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty cool coming from a girl who’s not yet 17 years old. It didn’t surprise me that her mom talked about it in my interview with her, but I had no idea what Kayla would say, and I have to say it was a little unexpected.

Not because it isn’t true. It is. We all know that a positive mental attitude is essential for success. Most of us have been told many times that we have to improve our attitude. Not only have we heard it from our own parents and teachers and bosses, but there must also be hundreds of books and CD’s and seminars that tell people the same thing.

So if everybody knows this, why is a positive attitude so hard to come by? If we could just take a positive pill every morning and have a positive attitude all day, I think everybody would do it. Unfortunately there is no pill, so what do we do instead?

Here’s the key. Attitudes come from our expectations. If we we expect something bad to happen, we tend to have a negative attitude. If we expect something good, we tend to have a positive attitude.

So a student’s attitude toward the SAT, and therefore studying for it, is directly related to whether he expects his efforts to pay off.

That’s where I come in. My expectations of my students’ success is just as important as their expectations of themselves. In fact, I’m able to successfully transfer my expectations to them because I’m able to relate to them in such a way that they believe me when I tell them that they’re going to do well.

The key is to quickly determine a student’s potential and take him through a process where he can experience it for himself. Then it’s just a matter of working with him until he achieves it, which is easy when he has a positive attitude.

Have you thought about what it’s like to study for a super stressful, make or break test like the SAT from a student’s perspective?

Imagine that you had to do karaoke in front of a room full of strangers. If you’re like most people, it’s a pretty scary thought. Especially if you think you’re a bad singer.

Now what if you had to do it well? What if how well you sang a karaoke song was going to determine whether you got a promotion at work that you really wanted? What if you thought your husband or wife was going to love you less if you got up there on that stage and really stank?

To make matters worse, imagine that you’re pretty sure you’re going to stink. You just know you can’t sing, because you’ve tried it a few times in the past and you’ve been horrible.

That’s what it’s like for a lot of kids who have to take the SAT (and the ACT, and other tests to get into college). There’s a lot of pressure, and they think that they’re not going to get the score that they want or need.

Why do they think that? They believe they have evidence, and they become convinced. After years of being in school, they just “know” that they aren’t good at math, or they don’t understand what they read, or they’re bad at standardized tests, or whatever.

It’s the same way you’d “know” you won’t pass your karaoke test. Maybe someone laughed at you when you were a kid and you tried to sing. You’ve heard good singing, you know you don’t measure up, and you’re self conscious about it.

It’s really hard to learn that way. If you can’t break out of those bad feelings, it’s almost impossible to reach your potential and do your best.

If you had to do the karaoke test, you might try to practice a few times. Record yourself, listen to it. Compared to what you think you should sound like, it would be hard to recognize the small improvements you might make.

It would probably get harder and harder to make yourself practice for that performance. Even if you had a singing teacher, it’s still embarrassing to stink in front of him. Why try hard if you’re not going to succeed anyway. It’ll hurt less that way.

Then you begin to convince yourself that it’s stupid to make you sing karaoke in the first place. You might convince yourself that you don’t really want the promotion anyway, or that the love of your husband or wife wasn’t really that important. Before you know it, the day has almost arrived and you’ve hardly done anything or gotten anywhere.

For a lot of kids, that’s the experience of studying for the SAT.

That’s why, if you want a really big increase in your SAT score, you need to find a tutor or coach who can help you with more than just what’s on the test.