Just a quick snip and you won't miss those Saturdays a bit...

I need to make a confession. I’m an SAT tutor. And I enjoy it.

I never thought this is who I’d grow up to be – how I’d pay my bills. But here we are. I took a daylong SAT prep course back in high school and I remember thinking the tutor was kind of a loser. He kept telling us how to “accrue” points. Finally, at the end of the day we admitted that we didn’t know what the word meant. This seemed to make him sad.

But SAT tutoring IS fun. I get to be the person who commiserates with the kid – the one who shepherds them through this awful process. Just last week, I was talking to my favorite junior about my plan to help her prepare for the SAT.

“So you’ll take the test for the first time this spring.” I said. “Then you’ll take it again next fall, during your senior year.”

“What!” She looked stunned. “I HAVE to take it twice? But the one this spring, isn’t that the PSAT or something?”

“No… you’ll take the PSAT this fall. And yeah, most students take it twice. That way they pick and choose their best scores.”

“But what if you do really well the first time…?” I shook my head. She sighed. “But the tests aren’t that bad, right?”

“No. They’re horrible. They start at 9am on a Saturday morning and take FOUR hours. This spring, when you take them, you’ll most likely be in the middle of your final exams. But everyone has to take them. And by this time next year, they’ll be over with. Well, at least until you want to go to graduate school.” She just looked at me in stunned silence. “You’ll hate them, just like everyone else. But I promise you this. The more practice tests you take, the better you’ll do.”

“Practice tests. You mean the one in the spring?”

“No, I mean the three or four you’re going to do on your own, at home, before this spring.” The conversation deteriorated into wails and gnashing of teeth at this point…

But seriously, being an SAT tutor is like being an ambassador from the Land of Adult Annoyances. For a lot of kids, it’s the first time they’ve been asked to do something this painful with such intangible results. But if I can put a friendly face on the process, commiserate with them and offer proof that yes, reasonable people can survive this process, then the whole thing takes on the feel of a ritual or rite of passage

Like an academic circumcision of sorts?

I was reading the Times this evening and I stumbled onto a trove of SAT related articles. Note: you may need to register at the NYTimes site to read these:

>Their Own X (Equals Y) Man To the Rescue

Harvard or Bust

The Long (and Sometimes Expensive) Road to the SAT

Show Them the Money

Skip the Test, Betray the Cause