1. I typically recommend that students who are good self learners start with free resources like YouTube videos, free online guides, and the free College Board question bank before hiring a tutor. I have plenty of recommended resources - reach out and I’ll point you in the right direction! 2. I think the biggest thing tutors can offer is a fast diagnosis of the gaps in a student's knowledge. A student can notice that they struggle with Geometry problems, but it may be a very particular kind of problem or a particular SAT trap that they continuously fall into. I am trained and experienced in diagnosing gaps and inefficiencies in students’ processes, which is something that won’t typically self-correct from more passive or general learning approaches.

I try to teach at least 2 - 3 approaches for solving a problem. There is almost always 1 approach that stands out as the most direct, but having many tools in your belt is always good when going into a high-pressure exam.

This is surprisingly common on the SAT. Most answers will make sense once you know it’s the right answer. This realization actually hinders many students and makes them think they don’t need as much improvement as they actually do! The SAT designs questions that are tricky, and most of the wrong answers are praying on students that fall for one of the traps. Learning to identify the traps and read questions carefully will quickly eliminate these so-called “careless mistakes”, but they absolutely should not be ignored.

I would say it’s not 100% necessary, but it IS very helpful. In theory, we all want a 1600. Where a realistic goal is helpful, is determining how SAT studying fits into the busy college preparation process. Do you need to study more, or would your time be better spent doing another extra curricular? Additionally, when it comes to tutoring, I can determine which questions we don’t need to focus on as they will create undo hardship and stress on the student and they are not necessary to achieve the goal score.

I think a goal score should be based on a combination of what universities you want to apply to and the amount of time you have to reach your goal score. I think most students can increase their scores by 100-300 points with focused practice. Of course, the lower your starting point, the easier it is to improve, which is why statistics about “average score increase” are not particularly useful unless you control for the starting score. Finally, the more time you have, the more ambitious you should be.