Posted on 06/06/2017 6:23:46 AM PDT by taxcontrol
My son got his SAT pre-test results back and he has a little bit of work ahead of him. Did ok on English but needs to brush up on his math. Overall score was a 960, so I am looking for recommendations as to a course of study for the summer. He is going to be a senior next year, and currently is a 2.9 / 3.0 student. He will be taking his SAT in spring of 2018.
It’s not my intent to be rude, but is your son’s goal of entry to med school even realistic?
I once worked with a guy who had gone to med school for a year before parting company with it, and the application process included checking his grades back to elementary school.
“2.9 / 3.0 student”
He’s not going to be a doctor. A doctor needs to be a 4.0 student and 600 points higher on the SAT. He should focus on what he really wants to do.
Wants to be a doctor with a 3.0 grade point average.
He has a huge amount of work ahead of him that even a high SAT score well not help.
How is biology and chemistry skills.
Unless the reason he only has a 3.0 is that he finds this stuff so easy it is boring.
He is in for a very long hard road.
Nurses especially those that specialize tend to make a lot of money and it is a easier field to get into.
Join IXL math and have him work on skills
Algebra and geometry and word problems
He can assess his area of weakness and track his progress in mastering skills
IXL breaks it down grade by grade, state by state
So if he needs to go back to grade 6 and work forward, he can do it
https://www.ixl.com/math/
If you join Home School Buyers Co Op (free) you can get this program at a discount
Also Khan Academy (free) has video lectures and skill games
https://www.khanacademy.org/
But I would also have him take another test prep course late summer so he can be prepared for timing
Physical therapy, Occupational Therapy
Big job growth ahead
My daughter just tools the SAT last Saturday. We bought her an SAT prep book but only opened it on Friday night. She said the test was easy while her boyfriend that took the test with her said it was hard.
Anyway my daughter is a junior and straight A student who takes all honor class including calculus. So taking honor math classes from Freshman helped with math portion of the SAT. Best advice is buying him and SAT study book.
Pre-med is tough. My son’s college roommate (who’s now an oncologist) was pre-med. Competition is tough. Grading was on the curve ... get a 95% on an exam and that was often a C grade. The pressure was tremendous. On the other hand, I knew a woman who got into med school with a degree in psychology (I don’t know if she made it through).
Score is too low for self-study improvement. Get into a SAT prep class or a tutor.
Congratulations to your daughter for studying hard and doing good work.
I was pre-med for a while until the odds of getting accepted in the era of full-bore Affirmative Action sunk in.
The options suggested then were Dental school or Mortuary Science.
I did neither but gotta say, being an undertaker is a pretty sweet gig, once you get past the obvious. High earning potential, flexible hours (although not under your control), and predictablilty. When’s the last time you heard of a funeral home filing for bankruptcy?
Have him focus on taking the practice tests over and over. If he has the self discipline for this, a pricey tutor is less necessary.
study?
Others have already posted it and I’m piling on - his score matches up with his GPA. Likely his math section matches up with the GPA from the various math classes on the transcript. Further, why so late in the process? A strong SAT score should already be “in the can”, ready for the college application process in the fall. Latest to take the SAT should be fall of the senior year, not just before graduation in the spring.
You’ve already seen this advice so I’m going to repeat for emphasis: community college will save money while your student proves his worth/readiness for the university. I’m telling you this as a parent that wishes I’d had similar advice and the fortitude to follow it, twice. I’ll not bore you with details but especially for males you need to realize the gonads are in charge, not the gray matter.
Get with the high school counselor or community college admissions specialist to define the desired path. Find out the courses that will test your son’s aptitude for what he thinks he wants. No enrollment allowed in any course that doesn’t align to the path. The first/test semester should include: Biology for majors, General Chemistry, College Algebra, English Composition, American History. That’s two lab classes that will define whether he has the chops to live in the lab, a math to warm up for the fun stuff in the future, and two general education courses. Eighteen hours of gut check for student and parent alike.
With a sub 1000 score on a 1600 scale (most prep tests go on the old scale that max’es out at 1600) your kid isn’t college material... I read the “doctor” comment and he will get in to a med college if he crams and you are a doctor too... College is 100% indoctrination now and men are discriminated against ... maybe he would be better off becoming a plumber or a HVAC tech.
I would put him on a reading regimen ,, a book a week OR MORE,, you pick them ,, make him LIVE books so that he will instinctively know the answers to the comprehension and word definition trick questions... Just cramming with a tutor teaches nothing but how to pass..
He should do better on his SATs that next time he takes it simply by being familiar with the test. My son got into a decent school without any tutoring, but he is an excellent test-taker (note I didn’t say “excellent student!”)
I’m no expert but some of the suggestions you are getting about the medical field are spot-on. Nursing, Physician’s Assistants, Pharmacy, and medical fields like that pay very well AND do not require the same cost/level of education as doctors (although they are still academically rigorous).
Pre-med is also not the be-all, end-all, but getting the requisite courses in biology, chemistry, etc. is important.
He should probably talk to his H.S. guidance counselor. There might be paths to the medical field he hasn’t considered.
I’ll leave the snarky comments to others who are willing to waste your time and theirs. I don’t really understand why every topic around here always needs to have some sort of polemic reply. Whatever happened to “if you can’t say anything nice....”
Anyway.... /rant.
The only thing I’d add that I don’t see here is that depending upon what Colleges you may be looking at - check to see if they even WANT the SAT. Many schools are going away from that and instead prefer the ACT.
That may help as the ACT (I think) is more Math/Science driven than liberal arts. If he’s got Med School in mind, the Science aspect may strike an interest with him.
Good luck.
Ditto to the therapy fields, they will not be replaced by robots or assistants for a while - they pay well and the years of training are shorter.
But for pre-med if he is not “getting” the math, more books and self-study are not gonna help without a tutor, maybe even both a math tutor and a test tutor. Then if he still is lagging, maybe further reflection will be needed.
Some people are just poor at taking tests. On the practice tests, the time limit needs to be as rigorous or more so than the real exam.
Thanks for the solid advice, and will look into the ACT.
I have seven kids, four have been through the process.
I have a couple of thoughts, but remember nobody knows your kid better then you do, and nobody loves him like you do, so take all advice with a grain of salt.
First: SAT scores are really, really important. The college admission process is nothing like they make it out to be, it is, fundamentally, a quantitative phenomenon of SAT+GPA+high school reputation (which is a fudge factor). Does not apply to minorities, obviously.
Second: SAT prep really, really works. Depending on your goals, pay for professional help if you can get it nearby. A good SAT course of at least eight weeks duration, twice a week with homework, should raise a kid’s combo score by 250 points.
But, third: Your son’s (and everyone’s) “cold” SAT score is a highly accurate reflection of where a student is really at. The fact that you can turn a 960 into a 1200 DOES NOT MEAN that your son would be happy at a school with a median white SAT of 1200 (except for getting the letter, that makes everybody happy).
To summarize: You can definitely raise your SAT score with prep. Since “America’s Best High Schools™” all devote at least a year to test prep before the PSAT (that’s how they get to be “ABHS”), a higher score will neutralize coming from a “non-top” high school. But, going away to college and being in over your head is a really, really sh*tty way to spend your 18th year, and can lead to premature discontinuation of education. You should definitely be looking at schools with medians in the 950-1050 range, as well as schools with higher means.
My youngest son will be a sophomore in HS. When he was in middle school, I told him we have sufficient assets to cover the first 3 years at virtually any school he could want to go to. I'd love for him to follow me at Gonzaga (gasp! lol).
His grades have been ok, low A, high B. I've advised him that puts him on the fast track to the local community college. Starting out at a 4 year college is no longer a be-all, end-all to me. Judging by his older sister's experience, our high school doesn't prepare kids enough for college.
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