Late last fall, I got an advance copy of The Perfect Score Project, by Debbie Stier, in the mail. I don't get a ton of free time in this job, but I left the book on my desk to read during my free moments, and I just finished reading.
The premise of the book is that the author took a one year journey to take seven administrations of the SAT on a quest to earn a perfect 2400 (with a 12 on the essay). This experiment overlapped with her high school son's own college application journey. Her year of prep ended right as his real college admission testing cycle began.
I won't ruin the book's ending for you by revealing if she does or doesn't get the perfect score, but I will share my thoughts on the premise and information within these pages.
First, let me start by saying that it is probably clear to anyone who knows me that I'm not a fan of the SAT (or really any standardized tests). I understand why these tests exist and I'm not saying there is no place for them in the college admission landscape, but I am wholeheartedly against the concept that there is an entire industry that revolves around the exam and that students (or in the case of the author, adults) devote months and years of their lives to prepare to fill in a bunch of bubbles. The money that is exchanged, the anxiety that is produced, the false sense of accomplishment/failure that is created boggles my mind. With that said, the book is not just a story about test prep. It is also a story about parenting, college anxiety, and honestly some pretty fun trivia about the SAT (I might not like the SAT, but I do love trivia).
Second, let me go on by saying that I'm super excited that Debbie's son wasn't a student at ElRo. (Sorry Debbie if you are reading this, which you probably are because you seem like the kind of person who sets up Google alerts, so Hi!). I'm not trying to be mean, I only say this because the stress over this project was palpable in the book. The vision of a kitchen with SAT prep tips taped to the cabinets might as well be ripped out of the pages of Dante's Inferno. That doesn't mean that I didn't find Debbie to be an endearing narrator (I did) or that I don't think she grew a lot from the project (she did), but I'm happy to have read about it in a book and not lived it in person. I do happen to know the counselors at her son's school and let me say, with full sincerity: bless them. It was clear though, through the neuroses, that Debbie really does love her kids and really did genuinely find joy in the project.
I highlighted many things in my copy of the book, but some of the most important were:
-- The Blue Book (The College Board's test prep book) is the gold standard of test prep materials. All of the best prep will be rooted in actual College Board materials. This is great advice and falls in line with my own personal corollary which is: the secret to great test prep isn't about the company you pick to tutor you, it is about the level of commitment, focus, and drive of the pupil. Year after year some of our best test takers at ElRo didn't have a tutor or magic class, they are bright students who study on their own because they love studying, not because their parents want them to. So if the raw material (the student) is good at self-study, the Blue Book might be all you need.
-- "For most people, 'I'm not good at math' means 'I haven't practiced.'" (page 170). Take it from me, a person who was a year behind in math in 4th grade and never really learned her multiplication tables/long division who ended up taking AP Calculus BC in 11th grade and then the even more advanced 'Math Topics' class in 12th. Math CAN be unlocked for anyone who is committed to practicing.
-- Test score gains come from deliberate practice and loving the test. Case in point for that second part about loving the test is that we once had a senior at ElRo who went from a 27 to a 32 on the ACT in 60 days. I asked him what happened after I saw his score, his answer: "I really loved the passages on each of the sections on that particular test, they just all had topics that interested me-- I didn't even feel like I was taking a test."
So, should you read the book? For parents (or students) that want to get familiar with the ins and outs of the test and will keep both feet on the ground when reading, knock yourself out. Buy it, read it, chuckle at some of the extreme lengths her obsession brings her to, take note of some of the really great advice (like picking a test center that uses full size desks and not chairs with a mini fold-down desk attached to one side). But, if you are already prone to Testing Robot Syndrome, proceed with caution. If you think test scores are the key to your child's (or your) happiness/success in getting into college, make sure you don't skim over the parts about the strain the project put on Debbie's relationship with her kids and ex-husband. The four years of high school go fast, both for parents and for students. Fixating on Kumon worksheets, and vocab words, weekly practice tests, and reaching a certain score on a test are only going to result in bonding and fond memories for a very small percentage of people. For the rest, admission testing obsessions will plant seeds of anger and resentment. It is not worth it.
In closing, I do feel a little bit bad for Debbie because the timing of this book will make portions of it relevant for a limited time only. The College Board is revamping the SAT once again so the version of the tests that she took will be extinct starting with the students that are currently in the 9th grade (unless they push back the release date again). But the underlying themes of the quest for a perfect score, the commentary on parent/child relationships, and basic tenets of test performance are timeless.
The Perfect Score Project will be published February 25th. To learn more about the book, the project, and the author, go to http://perfectscoreproject.com/.
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