sometimes it's easier to be further from your goal (lyn)

Preparing for the SAT is nothing like it was when I was taking them.  I grew up in Brockton Massachusetts, and went to a high school that was on double session. Translated that means I went to a bad school. School hours, my junior year, were from 12:30 to 5pm, and I usually missed a day each week.  A state-of-the art new school was being built, but unfortunately that would not benefit me.  There were 1,000 kids in my graduating class, and I’d guess that only half (if that) went to a four-year college.

I took the SAT’s once.  I remember sitting at our kitchen table until late at night doing problems from a practice SAT book.  I liked doing the math problems, so I pretty much just did those.  It didn’t matter that I needed to focus more on the reading.  I had no guidance, either from the school or my parents.  And no one I knew got tutored. 

At my son’s school, everyone goes to a four-year college and takes the SAT (and maybe the ACT) twice or more.  In addition, most students take two to three SAT Subject tests, and, the SAT now has three sections (Math, Critical Reading and Writing) versus just two sections until a couple of years ago.

I don’t know anyone who isn’t getting tutored, and the cost is astronomical.  Private tutoring runs (at a minimum) $240/session.  My son attends a highly demanding high school (one of the best in the country) and we live in a highly competitive city, but even so.  Getting a good SAT score should not involve so much money, time, pressure, or anxiety.  I would have thought that going to a good school and doing well would be enough.  It isn’t.

Many juniors take a practice SAT test given by a number of different companies, and use that as a basis for determining how much, or how little, tutoring is needed.  A perfect score would be an 800, and at my son’s school, the aim seems to be to achieve a score somewhere in the 700’s.  Not an easy feat.

A friend of mine recently interviewed a prospective tutor who told her that with tutoring, scores can be raised.  But he cautioned her that going from mid 600’s to 700’s is a whole lot easier than going from low 700’s to mid 700’s. Not unlike Weight Watchers, I thought.

For me, losing the first 15 pounds has been relatively easy.  But now it’s getting harder, and I’m getting lazier.  Because I look reasonably okay, and appear to be “back to normal” (even though the scale says otherwise), I have less incentive to under eat.

I still stay within my points.  I still count everything that goes in my mouth.  I still give my WW scale a good workout.  But this week I’ve borrowed more than usual from the 35 extra points I’m allowed.  I have exercised less.  And, I don’t feel lighter.

It's time to get re-motivated.  I'll take another look at the unworn Prada coat I bought three years ago and still haven't worn because it was too tight and is now just too snug.   I need it do be just right.