A Student's View: Achieving a sincere SAT score

Editor’s note: Shulman is a Herald youth columnist from Kennedy High School, which has students from Bellmore and Merrick.

Most juniors will take the SAT for the first time this spring. Therefore, a common topic of discussion in the halls of Kennedy High School now is SAT preparation, and for a majority of students, the main method of preparation is a tutor. From a small survey that I conducted among my classmates, the median cost of their one-on-one SAT tutors was $95 per hour. The maximum cost was an exorbitant $300 per hour.

While critics of the SAT note numerous faults with the test itself, I think employing tutors makes the SAT a poor indicator of success. Every student (or his or her parents) feels the need to hire a tutor because every other junior seems to have one. If a student does not have a tutor, this student is at an apparent disadvantage. Those who cannot afford to “keep up with the Joneses” suffer this disadvantage across the country.

In an egalitarian world, no one would have a tutor, and thus no one else would need a tutor because a student’s scores would reflect his or her true academic abilities, not his or her parents’ ability to pay. I have no doubt that tutors will raise the scores of some students, but why does the wealthy student deserve a higher score than the less affluent student who cannot afford a tutor?

The College Board’s own data admits there is positive correlation between family income and SAT score. While partially due to better schools usually being located in areas of higher income, I think that the ability to spend excessive amounts of money on preparation also contributes to inflated scores.

Everyone, regardless of intelligence level, may score better with a tutor, but only without one does a student receive a score that he or she has truly earned. The SAT is a measure of knowledge one has gained in his or her school career –– things that one should already have learned and can review alone.

Encourage your children to go against the norm by preparing themselves, something that they are fully capable of doing but have disregarded because hiring a tutor just seems standard. The school also has free SAT electives. Do you want your children to say that their score and acceptance to an acclaimed college was a product of their hard work or your $2,000?