High school can be a tiresome period in any parent-child relationship. The teen years bring new responsibility, independence, and often has the tendency to push their boundaries and establish a new sense of self. Parents of the kids often wonder how much they should continue to be involved in their teen’s daily routine lives and responsibilities as they stretch their wings and try to fly.
This can be true with the college application process and standardized tests such as SAT. While your kid might want freedom to tackle such challenges on their own, there’s still plenty of room for the parental guidance. In this article, we will now discuss how you can help your kids to achieve their SAT goals, without stepping on his or her feet.
The first way in which you can help your teen as they prepare for the SAT is to learn about the SAT yourself. Even if you take the test as a kid, it has now changed significantly in recent years and bears a little resemblance to what it was 20 years ago. The College Board website is a great place to start when preparing for the SAT test. You will find the information about the SAT test format, content and scoring. Your input would then be helpful to your teen and better able to provide realistic advice if you understand the test.
You can help them to meet their goals by working together to create a practice schedule ahead of time. To get started, ask your kid to take a practice test first and see how your kid scores. This is an important step because it establishes a baseline and identifies the areas that require improvement. From this score, you can help your teen by establishing a target score and outline the areas to work on in order to achieve that score. Get your child a blank calendar and work with them to fill in the school deadlines, existing requirements, and other commitments. Work around these areas to create a realistic study schedule that won’t overwhelm your kid, yet allow plenty of time to improve. Post the schedule someplace prominently in the house, where both of you can see it frequently.
There are tons of study material available for the SAT test preparation, from tutors, online tutorials, study groups and prep books. The best SAT test preparation is a well-balanced combination of all the above study materials. Make these resources available to your kid if you want to support their efforts. Also, if by chance the budget is a concern, then there’s no need to worry. Tons of free study materials are available online to help the students prepare well.
Another great, free resource come from TeamStrategize. Here your kid can access dozens of free video tutorials and lengthy explanations of common strategies and mistakes as given by the US educators. There are communities also that provide free study opportunities in the form of study groups to the students. You can access these study materials at the school or at the library. You can also reach out to your kid’s educator to find out about the opportunities in your area nearby. If you have the budget, a tutor is a wonderful way for your kid to maximize their scoring potential. Tutors provide insight of the SAT test that is refined over years and years of experience. In addition to this, they have first-hand knowledge of which study techniques and strategies work best for which student. If you can swing it, a SAT tutor is an invaluable resource.
Studying must be done by your kid and your kid himself. After all, as much as you might want to sneak into their room at night and subliminally transfer all of your algebra and vocabulary knowledge, that is just not possible. Instead, your kid needs to take the responsibility here. If you want to help your child you can help them with the review. Once your kid has compiled a list of new vocabulary words or worked upon a tricky algebra problem, you can help them in reviewing it. The review process is important because this is when the knowledge is truly internalized. Also, make sure that your kid knows you’re always available to help them with review. Your kid might be reluctant at first to accept your help, but if you just retell that you’re available whenever he or she would like a second pair of ears of eyes before the test day.
It is important yet hard to remember that the person who is most concerned about your child’s SAT score is your child himself. Never try to turn up the pressure on an already stressful situation. At the same time, though, you know what is best for your child than others. If your kid tends to put things off until the last minute or sometimes overlooks the bigger picture, you might need to remind them often about the importance of the SAT test. Try to be supportive and constructive rather than critical. Remember that your kid needs to know that this is just a test. While it might seem like the most important thing in the world on the morning of SAT test day. The SAT score isn’t an indication of your likeliness to succeed and it’s definitely not a measure of your kid’s worth. Instead, it’s simply a high-stake standardized test that will play a significant role in the college admissions.
