The Perfect Score Project

The Perfect Score Project **is an indispensable guide to acing the SAT – as well as the affecting story of a single mom’s quest to light a fire under her teenage son.** It all began as an attempt by Debbie Stier to help her high-school age son, Ethan, who would shortly be studying for the SAT. Aware that Ethan was a typical teenager (i.e., completely uninterested in any test) and that a mind-boggling menu of test-prep options existed, she decided – on his behalf — to sample as many as she could to create the perfect SAT test-prep recipe. Debbie’s quest turned out to be an exercise in both hilarity and heartbreak as she took the SAT seven times in one year and in-between “went to school” on standardized testing. Here, she reveals why the SAT has become so important, the cottage industries it has spawned, what really *works* in preparing for the test and what is a waste of time. Both a toolbox of fresh tips and an amusing snapshot of parental love and wisdom colliding with teenage apathy, *The Perfect Score Project* rivets. In the book Debbie does it all: wrestles with Kaplan and Princeton Review, enrolls in Kumon, navigates khanacademy.org, meets regularly with a premier grammar coach, takes a battery of intelligence tests, and even cadges free lessons from the world’s most prestigious (and expensive) test prep company. Along the way she answers the questions that plague every test-prep rookie, including: “When do I start?”…”Do the brand-name test prep services really deliver?”…”Which should I go with: a tutor, an SAT class, or self study?”…”Does test location really matter?” …“How do I find the *right* tutor?”… *“* How *do* SAT scores affect merit aid?”… and “What’s the *one* thing I need to know?” ** * The Perfect Score Project’s* combination of charm, authority, and unexpected poignancy makes it one of the most compulsively readable guides to SAT test prep ever – *and* a book that will make you think hard about what really matters.