Donna Cox
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QUESTION: Should a middleschooler prep for SATs?
Many parents have started asking about the best way to prepare their middle-school children for SATs. Hold on, Mom and Dad! The SAT is a test that's meant for high school Juniors, so there is much in the SAT that your child hasn't even been taught yet, and much in it that his/her developing mind and brain are just not yet equipped to handle. So, please, do not buy your middleschooler a SAT prep book; it will only discourage him/her and make the SAT an object of dread and fear. There's enough test anxiety that occurs naturally in all of us - no sense guaranteeing that it will hit your child with the strength of a gale-force wind. If you want to help your child get ready for the SAT in a much more enjoyable way, encourage him/her to read. It doesn't matter what your kids read as long as they read something. For pleasure. "The Hunger Games". "Sports Illustrated" magazine. Whatever appeals to them. I also highly recommend doing Math for fun. Make sure your kids don't lose that ability to think through a Math problem using logic and problem-solving skills. Get them "Math Olympiad Contest Problems for Elementary and Middle Schools" by George Lenchner and work through the problems with them. Middle school is the time that Math phobia develops in a lot of kids, so doing Math at home with Mom and Dad - and having fun at it - could go a long way to making sure that doesn't happen! |
