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Maximize Your READING Score on the SAT With Mrs. Vocabulady (1-On-1)

The focus is finding the clues to the answers on the reading questions, discovering what keeps the individual student from answering correctly (e.g. SAT traps, unknown words, reading without focus), and applying strategies for answering.
Mrs. Koss, M.S.
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:
(15)
Class

What's included

Meets on Demand
schedule meetings as needed
55 mins
per session
Teacher support
Mastery Evaluation
2-4 hours per week. Homework will include College Board Test Bank questions and questions from The Critical Reader: Complete Guide to SAT Reading by Erica Meltzer. Assessment takes place via Bluebook practice test.
Assessment
Bluebook Practice Test scores will serve as the indicator of success.

Class Experience

US Grade 9 - 12
Beginner - Advanced Level
Please note that this information is for the READING questions only (Information and Ideas and Craft and Structure). GRAMMAR (Standard English Conventions and Expression of Ideas) is listed as a separate course with a different recommended book. 

For private tutoring, students should take a Bluebook practice test prior to the first session. It's important that it be a PRACTICE test because I'll be able to see which questions the student got wrong and get a sense of which topics need the most work. (Official tests provide very little useful information for planning a tutoring program.)

Instruction consists of teacher-made instructional material including slide presentations with original questions modeled after the College Board's questions. Additionally, I highly recommend that students purchase this book for homework practice: The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to SAT Reading by Erica L. Meltzer. It has a lot of practice for each question type. The student will also use the College Board Question Bank for practice. 

In order to see a score increase, it's essential that students not only attend sessions but also complete homework, take practice tests, and, if necessary, study vocabulary outside of sessions. I offer Vocabulady's SAT Vocab Game Night classes on Outschool to help with this. They're fun and effective. 

Because the sessions are one-on-one, we'll cover whichever reading questions the practice test identifies as priorities (taking into account how frequently the question type appears on the test): Words in Context, Text Structure and Purpose, Cross-Text Connections, Central Ideas and Details, Command of Textual and Data Evidence, and Inferences.

Learning Goals

Identify the clues that tell you what a word means in its context and apply strategies for selecting the correct answers.
Analyze the structure of different types of passages. Explain reasons authors include pieces of information in a passage. Analyze a particular sentence's purpose in relation to the rest of the paragraph.
learning goal

Other Details

Learning Needs
Students with accommodations for extended testing time will learn how to use the extra time to maximize their success.
Parental Guidance
The scary part is test day, but the best anxiety prevention is excellent preparation.
Pre-Requisites
Please complete a Bluebook Practice Test before the first session (Official Test is less helpful).
Supply List
I highly recommend purchasing The Critical Reader: the Complete Guide to SAT Reading for the practice activities. 

Notebook and something to write with are also helpful.
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Sources
College Board Question Bank, available on the College Board website. Bluebook must be installed on the student's device.
Joined October, 2024
5.0
15reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
Pennsylvania Teaching Certificate in Foreign Language
Master's Degree in Education from Misericordia University
Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Language from Marywood University
After teaching high school French and Spanish for 25 years, I semi-retired and began a second career as a test-prep and academic tutor. I specialize in the reading and writing section of the SAT and ACT. I have studied the Digital SAT reading and writing questions very carefully, and my strategies have helped many students raise their reading and writing scores by ~100 points from one test to the next. 

Reviews

Live 1-on-1 Lessons
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$99

per session
Meets on demand
55 min

Live video meetings
Ages: 14-18

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