Given below are the parts of a very interesting post that was published in Huffington Post. The author Justin Snider goes to great lengths to emphasize the point that learning by rote is good for human mind and that the mediocrity that has crept into the academic system is not because of the entire SAT reasoning test but because of other reasons, which will be examined later. Read more…

Every year parents spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on private tuition and coaching centers that provide SAT preparation. Till before 2008, all was well. Parents did not really have a reason to complain about the high cost of SAT prep courses. The real estate sector was booming and the business on the Wall Street was soaring. Parents were anyway spending mightily on providing all kinds of luxuries to their kids and did not grudge the expenses on SAT prep courses if it meant an increase in the SAT scores.

The times changed and things took a turn for the worse. The worst recession in the past five decades destabilized international economy and many people lost their job and were devoured by loans. Amongst all this, the cost of SAT testing and preparation did not decline by much. This made it really difficult for the parents and guardians to provide expensive private tuitions to their wards. Not that they were grudging the expenses in the real sense of the term, because those who could afford it, did arrange it for their children. After all, high scores mean admission in the best colleges in the country, which would improve their children’s chances of higher studies and employment.

On an average, a SAT exam preparation costs anywhere between $600 and $4000. The cost increases with the increase in the reputation of the institution and the previous records of its candidates. As long as there is a marked increase in the SAT scores of their children, the parents have no issues spending thousands on the external preparation centers. However, the academicians and the test organizers are appalled at the sheer rate of commercialization of SAT training and preparation. The trend is not limited to US only, but can be witnessed in other countries as well, where students aspire to come to United States in pursuit of higher education.

One simple way to save money is to opt for online SAT testing and preparation. There are various courses and training options available online that provide the students with the best possible resources to prepare for SAT. At the end of the day, one should not forget that to get high scores in SAT, one has to work hard and persevere to deliver the best results.

How much of the college prep routine is just plain dysfunctional? SAT, a standardized test that reduces a human life to three or four hours at a desk with a pencil.( No regard for individualism, unique talents or abilities, socioeconomic differences, or extraneous matters that may influence test performance at any given time). The formulaic approach to college acceptance has now become the tendency to turn the student into what he (or she) perceives the colleges want him to be instead of what he wants to be himself. Students are put through mostly time-honored curricula in relatively closed environments while checking on their vital extracurriculars, whether it be sport, the arts, student government, community service and so forth.

Meanwhile, parents have gotten in on the act and are starting to act like they’re the ones applying to college instead of their children. If the parents can’t actually be the students, they can and will do everything within their power to see to it that their children are meeting their scripted objectives, obligations and appointments. It has become a vicariously shared experience that has arguably assumed its own set of problems.

Parents motivate and tutor academically behind the scenes (or hire someone else to do the same), drive the children everywhere (when a simple bike ride might be more than sufficient) and maintain every aspect of scheduling and micromanaging to the extent that children become at risk of not thinking for themselves.

Thankfully, universities like Wake Forest have started de-emphasizing SAT scores, if not ignoring them entirely. And it’s about time. Meanwhile, theories behind college preparation are evolving toward extracting the best of what each student has to offer from within, instead of without, while not undermining the importance of essential prerequisites. Read More on Post and Courier.com