How much does SAT tutoring cost?

I've taught 900+ students over 20 years. About nine in ten of the students I've tracked improved, and the average SAT gain is +74 points.

A few of the arcs behind that number. Real students:

• J.L. 950 to 1150, first practice test to official score.
• B.H. 1160 to 1340, practice to official.
• E.K. 1160 to 1250, mock to official retake.
• K.K. 1440 to 1550, one official sitting to the next.

But obviously, I can't tell you exactly how much your child will gain, and I won't guess at a number. The rest of my record is on the results page.

If your child's score already clears the schools on their list, more points don't do much for the application. Essays, grades, and the rest of the year are a better place for the time and the money.

I have, essentially, two groups of students. For the first group, we meet periodically, and the students study on their own in between.

The second group of students, however, does nearly all of their SAT practice with me, a couple hours a day. That's the shape the $6,000 plan was built for. It's a real amount of money, and plenty of families opt for smaller packages.

That's completely understandable! And I only take a few daily students at a time.

Just be aware that if the SAT work is only happening in our sessions, and that's an hour or two a week, the needle moves much less. That's simply a fact about preparing for a standardized test.

Some students score well on every practice test at the kitchen table and then come back from the real thing with a lower number. When I see that gap, material is usually not the problem.

What I do there is put more time into the conditions of the real test. More full-length mocks and timed sections, the same clock and the same breaks the real day has, until testing feels more comfortable. It's a bit different from teaching the material, but can be no less important.

Including me! Ask me these on the first call; I'd rather answer them up front than have you wondering later.

• Can I see before-and-after scores from your students?

  Official sittings where you have them. Mine are on my results page.

• How do you decide what to work on?

  I start every student with a full practice test. A plan built without a diagnostic is a guess.

• What happens between sessions?

  If there's no plan for the rest of the week, the hours won't hold.

• When do we stop?

  Good tutoring has an endpoint, a test date or a target score. Ask where it is.